What Is Communion or the Lord’s Supper?
THE QUESTION
What is Communion, also called the Lord’s Supper? Jesus established this observance on the night before His crucifixion. Christians eat bread and drink from the cup to remember His body given for them, proclaim His sacrificial death, share fellowship as one body, and look forward to His return.
SHORT ANSWER
Communion is a church observance instituted by Jesus Christ. The bread represents His body, and the cup points to the new testament in His blood. By eating and drinking together, believers remember the Lord’s death, proclaim the gospel, examine their relationship with the church body, and anticipate Christ’s return. Communion does not repeat Christ’s sacrifice; His offering for sin was completed once for all.
WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS
Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper
During His final Passover meal with the disciples, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them. Luke 22:19 records His words: “This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.” He then gave them the cup and said, “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you” (verse 20).
The meal pointed directly to the cross. Jesus would give His body and shed His blood for sinners. The disciples did not yet understand everything that would happen, but Christ gave them an enduring act of remembrance centered upon His sacrifice.
The bread and cup proclaim Christ’s death
Paul received and delivered the Lord’s instructions to the church at Corinth. First Corinthians 11:26 says, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” Communion visibly announces the gospel. Christ died, His blood established the new covenant, and He will come again.
The Lord’s Supper therefore looks in several directions. Believers look backward to the cross, inward with sober examination, around at the church body, and forward to Christ’s return. The observance should never become an empty habit detached from these truths.
Communion expresses fellowship with Christ
First Corinthians 10:16 calls the cup “the communion of the blood of Christ” and the bread “the communion of the body of Christ.” The word communion speaks of participation, sharing, and fellowship. Believers do not approach the table as spectators. They confess their common dependence upon Jesus Christ and His sacrifice.
This fellowship does not mean that people add anything to the atonement. It means that all Christians share in the benefits of Christ’s death through faith and publicly identify with Him at His table.
Communion expresses the unity of the church
Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 10:17, “For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.” The Lord’s Supper has a corporate meaning. Many believers gather as one body under one Lord and depend upon one saving sacrifice.
The Corinthians contradicted that meaning through division, selfishness, and humiliation of the poor. Some ate excessively while others went hungry. Paul told them that such behavior did not truly display the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:20–22). A divided and selfish church denies the fellowship that the shared bread declares.
The Lord’s Supper calls for reverence
Communion concerns the body and blood of the Lord, so Christians should not treat it casually. Paul warned the Corinthians against eating and drinking “unworthily” and told each person to examine himself (1 Corinthians 11:27–28). His warning addresses the manner in which they participated, not a requirement that a Christian first become sinlessly worthy.
The meaning of taking Communion unworthily deserves its own careful study. For the present question, Scripture makes the main point plain: believers should approach the Lord’s table with faith, gratitude, love for one another, and serious remembrance of Christ.
Christ’s sacrifice does not need repetition
Communion repeatedly remembers the cross, but the cross itself does not recur. Hebrews 10:10 says that believers are sanctified “through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Verse 14 adds, “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”
No minister can offer Christ again, and no ceremony can improve His completed payment for sin. The bread and cup direct faith to the sacrifice already accomplished. Communion proclaims that finished work until the risen Lord returns.
KEY SCRIPTURES—KJV
Luke 22:19–20: “And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.”
1 Corinthians 10:16–17: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.”
1 Corinthians 11:23–26: “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake 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 ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.”
Hebrews 10:12, 14: “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.” “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”
BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES
Christ stands at the center
The Lord’s Supper is not mainly about denominational identity, ritual performance, or personal emotion. It centers attention upon Jesus Christ, His body given for us, His blood shed for us, and His promised return.
Remembrance should involve understanding
Jesus commanded, “This do in remembrance of me.” Participants should understand the gospel meaning of the bread and cup rather than perform a motion without thought. The church should explain the observance clearly.
Communion is proclamation
The Lord’s Supper preaches visually. Every observance declares that salvation depends upon the death of Jesus Christ. The table points away from human merit and toward His sacrifice.
The table belongs to the gathered body
Paul addressed a local church whose conduct contradicted its unity. Communion calls believers to recognize that they share one Lord, one gospel, and one body. Pride, contempt, and selfishness have no place at the table.
The observance includes hope
Christians show the Lord’s death “till he come.” Communion is solemn, but it is not hopeless. The crucified Lord rose again and will return. The church remembers His suffering while waiting for His appearing.
The elements cannot replace personal faith
Eating bread and drinking from the cup cannot save an unbeliever. Christ saves those who trust Him. The observance has meaning because it points to Him; it must never become a substitute for Him.
WHERE CHRISTIANS DIFFER
Christians agree that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper with bread and the cup, but they differ about how Christ is present in the observance. Roman Catholic teaching describes the bread and wine as becoming Christ’s body and blood. Eastern Orthodox churches affirm a real mystery without defining it in exactly the same philosophical terms. Lutheran theology teaches a real sacramental presence, while Reformed traditions often emphasize a real spiritual participation. Many Baptists and other evangelicals understand the elements primarily as memorial symbols.
Christians also differ about using wine or grape juice, how often the church should observe Communion, who should administer it, and whether participation should be limited to members of the same church or denomination.
Scripture clearly requires remembrance, proclamation, fellowship, reverence, and hope. It also teaches that Christ offered one sufficient sacrifice for sins. Christians should not pretend that every later theological explanation appears explicitly in the text. They should honor what Scripture says and avoid turning the Lord’s table into a cause of pride or hostility.
THE CONCLUSION
Communion is the church’s shared remembrance and proclamation of Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death. The bread points to His body given for us, and the cup points to the new testament in His blood. The observance expresses fellowship with Christ, unity among believers, sober self-examination, and hope in His return.
The Lord’s Supper does not repeat the cross or add to Christ’s finished work. It directs believers back to the one sacrifice that saves and forward to the coming Lord whom the church loves.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
- Listen carefully when the church explains the meaning of the bread and cup.
- Remember the body and blood of Jesus Christ rather than treating Communion as routine.
- Thank Christ for His complete and sufficient sacrifice.
- Examine your conduct, especially your treatment of other believers.
- Seek reconciliation instead of bringing pride, contempt, or division to the table.
- Look forward with hope, because the Lord who died and rose again will return.
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