Some have questioned whether a Christian who is completely alone may partake of the Lord’s supper by himself.
Christians are “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). Christ made us “priests to His God and Father” (Revelation 1:6); “priests to our God” (Revelation 5:10). In the Bible, a priest is someone who has been appointed by God to perform acts of worship.
Jesus said: “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). Some have claimed that this requires that at least two be present to partake of the Lord’s supper. The Lord’s supper is not mentioned, however, nor does Jesus say that He is not with us when we are alone!
Relative to the Lord’s supper, Jesus commands: “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19).
If I am alone because of something beyond my control, as a priest of God I will bless the bread and the cup in obedience to Christ’s command and partake of the Lord’s supper. When there is a direct command it is not necessary to find an example in the New Testament for every possible situation in which that command might be obeyed.
Some people mistakenly think that the communion refers only to Christians communing with one another in a local congregation, but according to 1 Corinthians 10:16 the cup is a communion with the blood of Christ and the loaf is a communion with the body of Christ.
In verse 17 then, it says there is one loaf and that we who are many are one body because we all partake of the one loaf! Thus when we commune with the body and blood of Christ, we are communing with all Christians in the whole world! If someone, because of circumstances, is alone when he partakes of the loaf, he is communing with the one body of Christ, His church. Thus, he is not really alone!
2020-04-25 at 5:35 pm
Thank you for your thoughts. Keep up the good work. jg
2020-04-25 at 9:21 pm
Roy,
Your thoughts here are very appropriate for times like these.
Tomorrow I have invited several brothers and sisters to meet me in the Garden of Prayer at 11 a.m. for celebrating the Lord’s death, His broken body and His shed blood. I have wondered what I should do if no one joins with me. Then your timely message appeared this Saturday evening at 9 pm. If God wills, some will be there with me, maybe only one or two. Perhaps no one. And the congregation has not had public meetings for the past four weeks. I have been meeting in my home and in the homes of other members of the body, enabling me to maintain my grateful
memory of never having been alone for the breaking of bread since my obedience to the gospel at age eleven. When being ill on one occasion, the communion was brought to me at my bedside.
No doubt brothers and sisters have found themselves alone on the Lord’s Day at some point in their lives. I think of cases where some like Eldred Echols when he crossed the Atlantic many years ago on an ocean going vessel that probably was in the middle of the ocean on a Lord’s day before he was joined with other disciples at his destination in Africa. You may have had similar experiences in your missions overseas.
If I am blessed to be joined with another disciple or two this Lord’s Day, I will share with them your timely thoughts. If no one comes and I am alone, your message will comfort me.
I suppose you have never heard about or seen the Garden of Prayer “where Jesus is waiting.” I worked in developing and doing maintenance there for over 20 years. It is located across the street from where I used to attend (Richland Hills Church of Christ) until they changed their worship to include mechanical music (2002). I left there but Ellen remained, as did also three of my children and their families. That was the beginning of my being alienated from Ellen and the rest of my family. You are familiar with these sad events. In the last 6 years while Ellen has been away, I have not been able to communicate with her, but four months ago she was moved out from my son James’ house and into a home for the elderly. Her health has failed considerable with back and heart problems, but at least I have been able to visit with her by going there — that is, until the corona virus epidemic. At least, now I can talk with her on the phone from time to time. — Forgive me for burdening you with my struggles. No doubt you have enough of your own.
You are in my prayers, Roy. — Alvin
2020-04-25 at 9:35 pm
Thank you so much for this. We who teach through WEI convert Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Atheists and sometimes they are the only Christian in their entire city, county, state/province, and even country. To deny them the privilege of the Lord’s Supper would doom many of them (especially if they will be killed for their Christianity) to never having experienced it. I think people who say this are not mean spirited, but they live in their own little world and forget there’s a whole wide world out there full of isolated Christians who are their brothers and sisters.
2020-04-27 at 1:49 pm
I am grateful to Roy for his well worded and biblically backed article. I wholeheartedly agree with his short treatise. In 1963 when my wife and our five children traveled by ocean-liner from Hoboken, NJ to Rotterdam it took eleven day. Obviously that many days included a Lord’s day. I requested permission to hold a worship service on that day and it was granted that we could meet in the nursery. We then made it known and welcomed guests. As I recall a couple dozen serious believers assembled with us and we provided the Lord’s Supper for those who wanted to participate. I was also allowed to proclaim a message from God’s Word. It was a blessing under unusual circumstances. The wintry weather was so stormy crossing the Atlantic in January that there was one day the ship was able to make almost no headway. My wife was very concerned we might never reach Rotterdam alive. Our boys (9 and 6 years old) found very thrilling when the Maasdam dove through the enormous swells and wave that would go over the top of the ship and the screw would come out of the water and then shake the ship violently when would again submerge into a “hill” of water. When we finally arrived in The Netherlands the ship canal and Rotterdam harbor had to be broken open by an icebreaker for the ship to reach the dock. It was indeed a harrowing experience, one we hoped never to repeat. Everyone of our transatlantic crossings since then has been done by airplanes (once in a prop motorized plane) and the many other flights by jetplanes.
Jim and Ruth Krumrei