9.4.2026 - Lisa Liou

Friday, September 4, 2026

1 Corinthians 10:16-17

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

Today’s passage comes in the context of Paul exhorting Corinthian believers to consider one another in their expressions of faith rather than giving in to pride and self-righteousness.

Some ran the risk of believing they were more sophisticated than other believers because they didn’t mind eating food sacrificed to idols. Meanwhile, other believers are struggling with it. Paul actually encourages the believers who aren’t struggling to limit their Christian freedoms in order to consider these brothers and sisters who are struggling.

This is a hard lesson in our current social landscape. Christians disagree so vehemently about various issues. Daily, I see public speakers on the internet dictating what qualifies people as believers and what excludes them, and it goes way beyond the traditional confession of Christian faith.

We have a tendency to think that the issues of our time and place are so pressing it’s necessary to cut off other believers or create camps. In reality, because Christians are all human, there has been a temptation in every generation to set our beliefs and practices against one another, claiming one group is better or right.

Every verse that we have looked at about communion this week cuts right through our sinful tendencies of creating in-groups with a sharp knife. Look at Paul’s words: The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?

How can we take a cup of blessing, participate in the perfect blood of Christ, and then curse one another? Paul makes a point to say the loaf is ONE. We are one body of Christ and so we eat from the one loaf.

This week, it may seem like we are reiterating the same point over and over again. And we are. Communion is meant to be a repetition of the same truth, as simple as a children’s object lesson and profound enough to cause theologians to study it forever.

One loaf=one Christ=one family of believers at one table.

You simply cannot take a piece and then claim that someone taking a piece next to you is not your sibling in Christ, or to depict yourself as superior over them. If anything, your role is to submit yourselves to one another (Eph 5:21) and to consider them better than yourself (Phil 2:3).

This is especially complicated in the United States of America where we celebrate our individual freedoms. While our individual freedoms are a precious gift of a democracy, our faith expressions and our government freedoms are not one and the same.

Our faith expressions require us to ask if any of our siblings will be hurt by our actions.

This is why we examine our hearts before communion.

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you examine your heart in preparation for whenever you will

next take communion.

Whenever we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he

comes again. Amen