August 16 - Living out the Lord’s Supper

The two rituals we observe in most of our churches are not there for us to do periodically but have far deeper significance for our Christian lives. Water baptism is not just a one-time event as we come into the family of God, it is a reminder that we have died with Christ and risen with Him. Daily we put to death our mortal bodies and live out the life of the resurrection every day. The rite of baptism cannot be divorced from our lives just like how the Lord’s Supper should impact our lives on a daily basis.

The twin elements of cup and bread, signifying the blood and body of Christ, are there to declare our participation with Christ. The cup of blessing that we bless is a participation in the blood of Christ and the bread that we bread is a participation in the body of Christ. We do not participate in Christ only when we are taking the Lord’s Supper but this participation should become a major part of our lives. When we take in the elements, we are reminded that we are part of Christ. We are not our own but we belong to Christ. If we are part of Him, we cannot be a part of any other.

It is so easy for us to fall into idolatry, i.e. participating in the altar of another. All worship, if it is not directed towards God, is worshiping demons and not God. One cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons at the same time. Partaking in Christ but partaking of the cup and table of demons would arouse jealousy from the Lord. We are not stronger than He is, so we must stop testing God. Very few Christians know that they are actually worshiping idols in their daily lives.

Idolatry is the act of participating in the idols so as to gain personal benefits. Every idol gives the promise of help in a certain area and the end of all idolatry is greed and self-centeredness. In other words, to seek our own good is a dangerous position to be in for it may lead to idolatry and the participation in the demonic. Christians are free to do all things but as Paul says, not all things are helpful and can build up others. When we measure our freedom with the good of others, we may want to stop many of our self-serving pursuits.

The key to not serving idols is not to do things for our own good but do them for the good of others. When our lives are not self-serving, we can then be cleared of all the dangers of participating in the demonic. The demonic would often feed our flesh and drag us into sin. We do not need to physically go to a temple in order to worship demons for we can do it in our every day lives, like going to the meat market in the first century as mentioned here by Paul.

Do everything for the good of others and to the glory of God.