Mt 26:26 ‘While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, “Take, eat, this is my body.”’
Mk 14:22 ‘While they were eating, he took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take it. This is my body.”’
Lk 22:19 ‘Then he took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you.…
11:27 Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 11:28 A person should examine himself first, and in this way let him eat the bread and drink of the cup. 11:29 For the one who eats and drinks without careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment against himself.
What is meant by eating and drinking ‘without careful regard for the body’?…
The Orthodox doctrine of the Eucharist differs somewhat from the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Mass, and even more from the Protestant doctrine of the Lord’s Supper/Eucharist/Holy Communion.
The Orthodox Study Bible outlines three interpretations of Christ’s Eucharistic words as they have been understood by the church down the ages:
(a) ‘For the first thousand years of Christian history, when the Church was visibly one and undivided, the holy gifts of the Body and Blood of Christ were received as just that: His Body and Blood.…
Heb 13:10-11 We have an altar that those who serve in the tabernacle have no right to eat from. For the bodies of those animals whose blood the high priest brings into the sanctuary as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp.
The main contours of the author’s argument are clear enough: the readers are not to get ‘carried away’ by ‘strange teachings’, such as those involving ritual meals. We are nourished spiritually by God’s grace, not by the foods we eat or abstain from. …
John 3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
1. Some think that the expression refers to water baptism and spiritual regeneration by the Spirit
Such interpreters might represent baptism (either John’s baptism or Christian baptism) as a means of regeneration, and the Spirit as the primary cause of regeneration. Note that John’s baptism with water and Jesus’ baptism with the Spirit are connected in Jn 1:33, and Christian baptism with water is connected with the reception of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:38.…
The term ‘union with Christ’ sums up the relationship between Christ and his people.
The church has understood this in various ways.
1. Incarnational union. This view, which was held my many of the early Fathers and continues to be held in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, is that in incarnation God in Christ became one with us in order to make us one with him. He took on our human nature in so that we might partake in his divine nature. …
What will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they baptized for them?
As Thiselton (Shorter Commentary) says, Paul’s main point is clear enough:
…“baptism for the dead” (whatever this means in detail) would be pointless and senseless if there were no resurrection. But since, evidently, they have themselves baptized for the sake of the dead, either some people tacitly assume the truth of the resurrection or else their action is self-contradictory.
A summary of ch. 21 of John Flavel’s The Fountain of Life.
“The Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do you, as oft as you drink [it], in remembrance of me.”…
In the interest of complete disclosure, I ought to say that I was raised within Methodism, a Christian tradition that tends to support total abstinence.
I am acutely aware of the devastating effects of alcoholism: a relative came close to destroying both himself and his family because of his addiction to drink. (He was enabled to give up alcohol completely – apart from a couple of temporary lapses – after he exercised saving faith in Jesus Christ.)…
Exodus 14
The crossing of the Red Sea is used throughout Scripture as a picture of what it means to become a follower of Jesus Christ.
1 Cor 10:2 – ‘They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.’
1. Behind them was a place of slavery
v5 – ‘We have lost their services’(!)
Jn 8:34, “Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”
“Sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom.…
