Understanding Communion

Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars

Click to get our FREE MOBILE APP and stay connected

UNDERSTANDING COMMUNION – Ray E Horton

A brief message on Communion: The Catholics have communion once a week, and for them it is a law to participate. For most Protestants, it is a monthly observance of an ordinance of remembrance.

Both Ways of Understanding Are Lacking

In the breaking of the bread, I see the Word implying both our vertical and horizontal relationships

I believe both are lacking. We read in Acts 2:46: “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.” Not that we must each be meeting and breaking bread daily, it was simply happening daily. But it seems to me, it should be regular.

In the breaking of the bread, I see the Word implying both our vertical and horizontal relationships. We recognize the broken body of Jesus, what He did for us, but also the Body of Christ and our unity in Him. In communion, we are recognizing the presence of Jesus in our lives, remembering the Blood that set us free, and in one another. I also believe that communion, the sharing of a meal together in His name, is undervalued.

See Jesus in One Another

Our eyes can be opened to richer revelation of Jesus in one another as we come together to share in His name: “As He sat at supper with them, He took the bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him. And He vanished out of their sight.” (Luke 24:30-31). He physically vanished. He is no longer with us bodily. And they were left with each other in whom to see Jesus.