III

After the words of institution, it is necessary to consider the teaching of St. Paul.

1. Two passages in St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians treat directly of the Eucharist.

(a) In the first of these passages St. Paul is dealing with the question of the duty of Christians in regard to the eating of food sacrificed to idols. This leads him on to write on the possibility of those who possess spiritual privileges failing to be benefited by them, and to illustrate this truth from the history of Israel. Returning to his subject of the relation of Christians to idols, he writes, “Flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not fellowship in the blood of Christ (κοινωνία τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ χριστοῦ)? The bread which we break, is it not fellowship in the body of Christ (κοινωνία τοῦ σώματος τοῦ χριστοῦ)? seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body: for we all partake of (μετέχομεν) the one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh: have not they which eat the sacrifices fellowship in the altar (κοινωνοὶ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου)? What say I then? that a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with the demons (κοινωνοὺς τῶν δαιμονίων). Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons: ye cannot partake of (μετέχειν) the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons.” In this passage it is to be observed that St. Paul (i.) treats the Eucharist as having in the Christian religion a position in some respects parallel to the sacrifices to demons in the heathen rites; (ii.) regards the Eucharist as a means of fellowship (κοινωνία) in the body and the blood of Christ; (iii.) describes the partaking of it as a ground of the unity in which Christians are one body; (iv.) refers to two crucial moments in the rite, namely, the breaking of the bread and blessing of the cup, and the reception of these by the communicants.

(b) The second passage is that already referred to in connection with the institution of the Sacrament. As in the first passage, the reference to the Eucharist is incidentally introduced in relation to a practical question. The existence of factions at Corinth leads St. Paul to the subject of disorders in connection with the Agape and the Eucharist. In the course of his rebuke of these disorders he refers to his own reception from the Lord of the description of the institution of the Sacrament which he had delivered to the Corinthians. After recounting the institution, he goes on, in words which are more likely to be his own comment than part of what our Lord had said, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim (καταγγέλλετε) the Lord’s death till He come”; and adds further, “Wherefore whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the body. For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.” Here, as in the tenth chapter, the idea of the Eucharist as a means of fellowship in the body of Christ is found. It is this idea which gives force to the warning that whosoever eats or drinks unworthily is guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord, and that one who receives the Eucharist without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment to himself. St. Paul speaks also of the reception of the Eucharist as a proclamation of the death of the Lord. The primary meaning appears to be that the memorial instituted in the Eucharist is a memento set up in the Church as a reminder to Christians. But in view of what has been said already about the words covenant, do, memorial, poured out, and the general sacrificial setting of the institution and the parallel to heathen sacrifices, it is difficult to exclude the further idea of a proclamation before God in the sense of a sacrificial memorial and presentation. It is to be noticed that St. Paul does not say that the proclamation is simply of the Lord, but that it is of His death; that is, of the many aspects of our Lord’s life which must be remembered and presented in any memorial of Him, that which is selected for special mention is the point of His death.

2. St. Paul’s representation of the Eucharist as a means of fellowship in the body of Christ must be considered in relation to his teaching that Christians are, by virtue of their baptism, members of Christ and His body. At no great distance from the explicit references to the Eucharist in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, he writes, “As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit.… Ye are the body of Christ, and members each in his part.” His teaching about the Eucharist is not isolated. It has place in a whole aspect of Christian life and the supernatural and sacramental relation of the Christian to Christ.

3. With any indications in St. Paul’s writings of the sacrificial character of the Eucharist must be connected his view of the whole of Christian life and worship as having a sacrificial aspect. He besought Christians “to present” (παραστῆσαι) their “bodies”—the bodies of those who, being “many, are one body in Christ,” and the members of the body of Christ—“a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God” as their “spiritual (λογικήν) service”. He described the alms collected by the Philippians and brought to him by Epaphroditus as “an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God”. In reference to his own work he wrote, “The grace that was given me of God, that I should be the priest (λειτουργόν) of Christ Jesus unto the Gentiles, doing the work of a priest (ἱερουργοῦντα) in respect of the Gospel of God, that the oblation (προσφορά) of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost”. Because of this aspect of what Christians are and do, the Eucharist is not regarded as anything isolated, but in harmony with, and taking its place in, Christian life as a whole.