Examine Yourself Before Communion (1 Cor.

[@AndreRoseBuenoTravel]

Excellent explanation ❤

[@chloeandmon]

Thank you, and may God continue to bless you and this channel. Please keep on making this series.

[@Terrybrowninsurance]

So good and timely in our culture of division.

[@muhlho]

Love the way you make me really think about things! I get in my Bible afterward, and it seems as if I'm seeing it with new eyes!

[@wils19741]

So good, I love this, in my Irish culture, we are very often told to examine ourselves and if there is any sin between us and God or even our fellow believers in church, we should pass the cup on and not eat or drink unworthily, that more or less rules everyone out from participating as we all have sin and fall short throughout our Christian walk, this makes the Lords supper about us! We need to be mindful that it is Christ’s wonderful sacrifice on the cross that enables any of to sit there at his table and participate in his supper, the focus should be on him who died for our sin and everyone is included, examining oneself is something we should be doing daily and keeping short accounts of sins and transgressions know he has already forgiven and cleansed us from sin and shame! Love when scripture is taken in it’s proper context! 🙌🏻

[@dustycutter4397]

Just became aware of this opportunity, to Walk the Text. Totally compelling, information, and appreciated. Thanks so much!

[@seaniemc828]

Excellent brother ❤

[@AndreRoseBuenoTravel]

God bless you, amazingly explained and very powerful message for the days we live. May God continue to bless you and giving the wisdom and inspiration. This serie is fantastic congrats.❤

[@WalkingTheText]

Thanks for your encouragement!

[@davidjenkins2429]

❤

[@wesfin]

6:29 social hierarchy is baked into the world 8:30, 9:29 still prevalent in our modern world’s culture 10:04, 10:21 the way of Jesus is for the exalted to be humble and the humble to be exalted. For the rejected/outcasts to be accepted and given inherit value by Christ. He sought after those who no one would associate with or even touch. 10:53 it’s about bringing up the lowly/poor/humble/meek to whom the kingdom belongs. 11:03 in this Banquet of Christ they are invited by the King and have been given His clean clothes to wear and are gifted respect. Here in the banquet they can eat and even speak. They discover through Christ that they have gifts, voices, purpose, and value. Their contribution is seen by Christ as important/necessary/valuable. 11:36 in the kingdom of God the banquet is not a place where you acquire/flex status, it’s a place where you assign/share status to those who lack it in the world’s hierarchy. It’s about bringing others up by bringing yourself down, humbling yourself. 13:41, 14:40 Paul addresses here that they missed all of this above in the way that they gathered to eat. 15:13 They had kept the social hierarchy of the world and dismissed the heart of Christ’s social order. They missed it by only caring about themselves, not putting others before themselves, not being humble. In the same vain they get drunk and please themselves and their desires in God’s house which is meant for service of God through service of others. 14:11, 14:40 this is the unworthy manner that Paul is addressing. The body of Christ, Christ Himself, gave Himself in humility and self-sacrifice/denial to serve the poor/lowly. Yet they drink and eat the blood and flesh of Christ with a heart of self-service/pleasure and with a heart that neglects/rejects the poor/lowly. 14:30 this is the worthy manner to eat together in mirroring Christ. This reflects the unity of God’s Kingdom and rejects the hierarchal division of the world. Conclusion: 15:35 there’s nothing wrong about pausing before communion to inspect our hearts and make sure it is repentant. 16:14 But the point Paul was making here was to make sure instead that you (and your church) have a heart of the body of Christ who gave Himself in humility and self-sacrifice/denial to serve and bring up the poor/lowly. So it is still a message to inspect your heart before communion, but the point is to make sure your heart aligns with the heart of Christ “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death- even death on a cross!“ ‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2‬:‭6‬-‭8‬ ‭

[@bernardware3190]

But...we moderns don't participate in a meal or a table when we eat a wafer, take a sip of juice, while in pew seats...

[@WalkingTheText]

We don't participate in a full meal. And yet we are still called to look to the Text to discern the principles for what it means to be the gathered body of Christ, today, in the ways that we gather in modern times. And, very often, our gathered communities more readily reflect the divisions of our society rather than the unity of Christ's kingdom.

[@bernardware3190]

@@WalkingTheText I understand that completely! And I do thank you for all of your great teaching! I have learned so very much from you all! I should have been more thoughtful before I posted my earlier reply! Please forgive me!

[@WalkingTheText]

​@@bernardware3190 There is nothing to forgive, friend! Your thoughts and response are always welcome. We love engaging with folks who are listening, especially when they're listening as closely as you so clearly are. Also, thank you for modeling such kindness and humility in your reply. Comment threads aren't typically the place you'd find such graciousness. What a gift. One of the items we didn't have time to cover in this episode was that the banquet style meal was still being practiced in Carthage (according to Tertullian) around 200 AD. However, while some in Carthage were still practicing the meal around 250 AD, the church by then had grown so much that, according to Cyprian: "When we dine we cannot call all the people together to share in our meal." So, some began to "tokenize" the meal during their morning gatherings, and that's the norm we follow today. Alan Kreider's book The Patient Ferment of the Early Church is a gem not just for the cultural context of communion but for the Early Church in general.

[@bernardware3190]

@@WalkingTheText Thank you! By the way, I just read Kreider's Introduction. Looks like I'm about to invest in yet another book! 😆😆😆