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LORD'S SUPPER

What is the Lord's Supper?

"The Lord's supper" is the name Paul gives to the memorial meal of bread and fruit of the vine that Christians eat in remembrance of Christ's death. The expression appears only once in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 11:20).

The word rendered "Lord's" (kuriakos) means "belonging to the Lord." It appears in only one other passage, where John speaks of "the Lord's day" (Revelation 1:10). The supper is his: he instituted it on the night of his betrayal (Matthew 26:26-29; Luke 22:19-20), and he determines how it is to be observed.

Paul used the term while rebuking the church at Corinth. Their divisions and selfish conduct had corrupted the assembly so much that what they were eating could no longer be called the Lord's supper (1 Corinthians 11:17-22). He then restated what he had received from the Lord and called on each Christian to examine himself and partake in a worthy manner, for in this meal we "proclaim the Lord's death till he come" (1 Corinthians 11:23-29).

The same observance is described elsewhere as "the breaking of bread" (Acts 2:42; 20:7), "the table of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 10:21), and a "communion" of Christ's body and blood (1 Corinthians 10:16).

See COMMUNION.

Adapted from the book "Bible Words and Theological Terms Made Easy" by Wayne Jackson