Exactly What Part Of ‘in remembrance of me’ Don’t We Understand?

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.

— 1 Corinthians 11:24-25(KJV)

“…this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me”

You’d think there it is, in black and white, clear as crystal and simple as abc, yet for some reason that just leaves the mind in a bizarre twist, a large portion of the church still manages to get it altogether backward — in remembrance of ourselves.

How is that?

What part of “…in remembrance of me” don’t we understand?

He clearly and emphatically commanded that the ONLY reason for our gathering to partake of “the lord’s supper” is to REMEMBER HIM!

To remember HIM who gave himself to be sacrificed for us.

To remember HIM who loved us so much that whilst we were yet sinners, died for us.

To remember HIM whose body was bruised and broken for us.

To remember HIM whose blood was shed for us.

To remember HIM who is coming back again for us.

TO REMEMBER HIM!

Not ourselves — but him! Him ONLY

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Oh! But what do we do instead?

As oft as we take the lord’s supper, we choose to do it in remembrance of our problems, our ambitions(spiritual or physical), our security(temporal or eternal), our plans(temporal or eternal), our businesses(profit or non-profit), our families(earthy or heavenly) — in short, everything in the bag labeled: “me, myself, and mine”.

Don’t we understand the meaning of the phrase “as often as ye drink it”? If by some magic we did not, here — it means every time we drink it.

EVERY SINGLE TIME we do, it MUST be done to remember our SAVIOUR Jesus Christ ALONE — his death and his returning for his bride.

Yes! His returning for his bride and our eternal fellowship with him

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For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

— 1 Corinthians 11:26

But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

— Matthew 26:29

Apparently, embedded in the commandment to remember him is the hope of his return for us.

So why did the Lord leave us with this important souvenir — this commemoration of his death and the promise of his return for us?

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Because

• If we do not remember him, we will forget him.
• If we forget him, we will not love him.
• If we don’t love him we will love the world.
• If we love the world, we will be his enemies and will not want him to return.

But, we have forgotten the God of our Salvation — and boy have we forgotten!

Because we have forgotten how he so loved us and gave himself for us.

Did not his apostle write:

We love him BECAUSE he first loved us?

Did not the apostle Paul write:

For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died;

And he died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again.

Both apostles of the Lord rooted our value and passion for our saviour in our perception of his love and sacrifice for us.

Our passion for Jesus Christ is nourished and sustained by our continued consumption of his love and consequent sacrifice for us.

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If loving Christ is the fire, remembering his love and sacrifice for us is the gas. If loving Christ is life, remembering his love and sacrifice for us is food.

If for any reason, you cut off the gas, the fire dies. And if for any reason, you cut off the food, the life withers and dies.

So, whenever we gather to take the bread and wine and the leader goes: “as we take this wine, all your sicknesses are over,” or “all your [whatever we believe is not good for us] are over and all your [whatever we think is good for us] are hereby activated”, then we know for sure that we have either forgotten or are about to forget the God of our salvation.

When self takes center stage in an event handed to us for the sole purpose of remembering the impossible sacrifice of the Lamb of God for his bride, then make no bones about it folks, WE HAVE BEEN SCAMMED BIG TIME!

And boy have we been scammed!

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How best to hurt the Lord than to attack his relationship with his beloved bride?

How best to attack his relationship with her than to undermine her love for him?

How best to undermine her love for him than to make her forget him?

How best to make her forget him than to make her undermine his value for her?

How best to make her undermine his value for her than to make her forget his sacrifice for her?

How best to achieve this than to have her either cast way the only souvenir he left for her or more subtly, but worse still, cause her to keep it while corrupting its meaning such that instead of it being a token of remembrance given to her to insure she keeps the memories he associates with it — His bloody sacrifice for her, she considers it an opportunity to extract as much personal profit from what he did, making her needs the point of focus rather than Him?

Hello! There is a bride in us and she is starved

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Just like any woman, her response to her man thrives on her current assurance of his love for her. She wants to know that she means everything to him, EVERYTHING.

She is starved when she has no way of knowing and has to simply continue with the relationship on the basis of dry commitment instead of a living passion.

Without a means of knowing she is loved, she starts to grow passive as the days roll by.

Brethren, as we starve our love of the nourishment of his sacrifice for us, she slowly dies.

Our love and value for the Lamb of God slowly but surely begins grow cold, weak and lukewarm.

And as we all know, if the light goes out, the darkness swoops in. If life goes out, death creeps in. There is no vacuum in spiritual reality. If our love for the Lord grows cold, our love for self is growing warmer, and we gradually but surely fall in love with the world.

When the love of Christ gradually loses His hold on us, we fade into self love

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For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

— 2 Corinthians 5:14–15

So it’s true— we love Him because He first loved us.

His Love has a hold ONLY on the one who “thus judged” that he died for them.

And when he takes hold of their hearts, what happens? They henceforth live no longer unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.

And when due to proper nourishment, as they feed their souls with his love for them through the commemoration of his sacrifice — the souvenir he left with them, he maintains his loving grip on their hearts, what happens? They continue to not live unto themselves, but with growing passion, live unto him which died for them and rose again.

But…

…when due a steadfast abuse of his souvenir, his hold on their love weakens, what happens?

The above passage gets flipped on its head:

“They which live will no longer live unto him which died for them, and rose again, but unto themselves”

Love for him gets starved to death as love for self is nourished to life. Then with self-love comes self-preservation, and with self-preservation comes anxiety, which, according to the Lord Jesus, causes us to love Mammon.

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life,….”

— Matthew 6:24–25

And in the love of mammon, is covetousness or the lust of the eye

No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.

— Luke 16:13–14

See where it all ends in?

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It starts with one little disobedience — the introduction of self into what was meant to be for him ONLY, and then over time, ends with us being enemies of God. For friendship with the world, brothers and sister, is EMNITY WITH GOD.

Is that what we want?

When Israel forgot the God of their salvation, they turned to idols. And it did not start in a day. It was a slow fade.

When we forget our SAVIOUR or misconstrue the essence of his souvenir, what do you think we will happen to us? What direction do you think we have taken? If we don’t turn around but keep going in that direction, where do we think we will end up in?

Our passion for Jesus Christ is nourished and sustained by our continued consumption of his Love and consequent sacrifice for us.

He is coming for a Bride who is earnestly looking for his return

—

Not one who having forgotten him, has gone after this world.

And oh! Do not think for a second that this can’t be you. As a matter of fact, you are more likely already there or well en route to idolatry than you can imagine.

“Take heed ye that thinketh ye stand….”

And if by any chance you have nudged yourself into the center of his commemoration and sought to take the bread and wine for the purpose of what you can get from doing so, regardless of what it is you seek, spiritual or not, you have taken the most important step away from him and towards the world.

You have met the most important criteria required to turn you from a lover of Christ into an enemy of God.

And folks, you can take that to the bank.

When self takes center stage in an event instituted for the sole purpose of remembering the impossible sacrifice of the Lamb of God for his bride, then make no bones about it folks, WE HAVE BEEN SCAMMED BIG TIME!

Give to Christ what belongs to Christ!

The bread and wine was not intended to be an alter where you offer your petitions for whatever it is that bothers you — yes, whatever it is that bothers you!

Neither did the Saviour intended for his souvenir to be some elixir of sort which when taken has the potential of fixing problems — physical or spiritual — or bestowing some sort of natural or super natural advantages.

Nope!

The lord’s supper was given to his bride as a means to secure and keep alive the memory of his great sacrifice for her, to keep him in her remembrance till he comes, even as she looks forward to eating and drinking it with him anew in his Father’s kingdom when he returns for her.

So please can we just desist from desecrating his memory by making it about ourselves when it was CLEARLY intended by him to be SOLEY about remembering him — him ONLY!

He did not just hand a ceremony to us and then leave the interpretation of its meaning to our boundless discretion. Not at all!

He specifically told us where our thoughts and focus should be while observing it, as often as we observe it: “IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME”.

And his apostle further explains that this is to glorify his death till he returns to partake of the ceremony with us.

So can we just keep it that way?

“…in remembrance of Me”

Not so difficult right?