Breaking Bread Builds Beautiful Bonds

A new language is revealed in the Gospel.
It is the language of love and life for the living.
It brings those dead to life while also sealing death for the others.
Gospel words can mean different things than their typical definitions.

There is something other-worldly about eating together.

A certain intimacy when breaking bread with another / others.

We tend to let our guard down.

We may be apt to share personal thoughts and personal stories.

Table manners are revealed.

The experience goes beyond knowing which utensils to use and when to use them.

You can get to know someone when eating a meal with them.

Being invited to a meal is a way to get closer.

Not being invited, or avoiding a meal with others, shows the opposite.

Is this dynamic something that has developed by chance?

Is the social aspect of food's communal consumption something measurable, or viable, or actual?

What comes of families or relationships that don't eat together, or have little to no time together as a meal together could provide?

Here is an insightful article from The Atlantic about the subject.

There is something that bonds those who eat together... and disperses those who do not.

Beyond the typical there is the sacred.

There is something sacred about breaking bread in His Name.

Where some only see a religious ritual without significance, we realize the human bond of a meal magnified into the spiritual realms.

This bond goes beyond the human, the physical, the temporal.

Things of God are brought into communion with things of men.

Beyond the obvious demand for a human being having to eat in order to stay alive (according to the flesh).

The communion I speak of is essential for believers to stay alive according to the Spirit... and not fall asleep in the different ways that phrase means.

When previously only similar classes of people would be invited, or tolerated, at a meal, a new way was opened through the Church.

The Church (the members of His body) brings people of various backgrounds together like no social organization before it, or since, has / does.

Where people were previously divided according to tribal heritage, or political ideology, or prejudice in any way, God's communion showed them how they are truly brothers and sisters.

He has brought together near and far into one family, one kingdom, one body, one hope, one faith, one love.

This is realized when sitting at the Lord's Supper Table.

Realize the Lord's Supper is much more than mere ritual, or those few minutes during a 'church service'.

The periodic commemoration and communion between Spirit and temple has built a kingdom that man cannot fully fathom... let alone fully explain.

The completion of the prior Testament, and now the continued growth of the New Testament (what God started through ancient Israel now realized the world-over in His body, His living temple, His kingdom on earth) is beyond amazing.

It is glorious in His eyes.

If trouble and disruption can come about when the Church comes together to break bread (as mentioned in the following excerpt), consider what trouble can arise among those who do not acknowledge the Lord's death and resurrection.

If men only feed their appetites or their favored social circles, how hopeless they truly are!

In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good.  

In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it.  

No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.  

So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. 

As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk.  

Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? 

Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? 

What shall I say to you? 

Shall I praise you? 

Certainly not in this matter! 

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: 

The Lord Yeshua, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”  

In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the New Covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”  

For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. 

So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.  

Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.  

For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.  

That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.  

But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment.  

Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world. 

So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together.  

Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment. 

And when I come I will give further directions. 

- 1 Corinthians 11: 17-34

How do you break bread?

Alone when you could be eating with friends, relatives, loved ones, a new friend, the body of Christ?

Watching television and allowing distractions take center-stage instead of one another and the thoughts of your hearts?

What is discussed?

The world's entertainment and things mundane or ridiculous?

Or things more meaningful and personal and real?

Consider the gift that God has given you in the breaking of His body for your sake.

Consider the 'menu' He has provided (image).