"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body." (1 Cor. 10. 16‑17).

In these burning words Paul has laid bare for us the fundamental principle of our fellowship. Throughout his busy life he strove consistently for one supreme object, the union of the Body of Christ, the welding together of all who named the Name into a unity of the Spirit that would defy all attempts to break. He succeeded only partially; the visible Church of Christ has never measured up in full to the spirit of our Lord's last prayer "that they may be one, even as we are" (John 17. 22). The human element has often failed the inspiration of the Spirit. But the prayer of Jesus has not gone unanswered. In every generation from Pentecost to the present there have been some who have entered so fully into the spirit of Christ's message that they have over - ridden the bonds and bars fashioned by men and found themselves at one with others of like understanding. True Christians may recognise each other wherever found and there is a unity of the Spirit which transcends and ignores all denominational barriers.

An outward expression of that unity is to be found in the Memorial of the Last Supper and the coming together from time to time in regular assembly for the simple sharing of bread and wine - a symbolic feast that at one and the same time expresses our one - ness with each other and our one - ness with the Lord. Whether that celebration be as often as once a week or as seldom as once a year it always symbolises, not only our acknowledgment of the saving power of our Lord's death, our acceptance to ourselves of his shed blood and sacrificed life, our association with him in the offering of life to the world; not only all this, but also that kinship, that brotherhood, that oneness with each other as brethren in Christ, without which none of the other significance can be really appreciated by us or true of us. He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, asks James, how can he love God Whom he hath not seen? So the one that has not entered truly into living relationship with his brethren may by no means be in living relationship with Christ. His acceptance by and standing with Christ may be, and is, the result of an individual decision and based upon his personal justification by faith, but he can effectively maintain that acceptance and standing only by becoming one of "the brethren", a fellow - member of the Body. He must enter and accept the communion of saints.

Paul chose a wonderful word to express this relationship, and he used it in a variety of connections in order to show how intimately this "common - union" enters into every aspect of our Christian walk in the flesh, and extends beyond this life into the future glory. And this text in 1 Cor.10 is a fitting commencing point for a sober consideration of all that the word implies, just as the ceremony itself is the centre and basis of our Christian life and fellowship.

"Communion"! What does it mean? What is there in the word to stamp it as particularly and peculiarly expressive of all that is deepest and most precious in our dealings and intercourse the one with the other? "Communion" in the Greek means the act of using a thing in common, or as we would say, sharing together in the use of a thing. It has its origin in the word which is translated "common" in Acts 2.44, "all that believed were together and had all things common" and Acts 4.32, "they had all things common". Now this is a good pointer to the principle behind the word, for it is beyond doubt that the primitive Church of the days immediately following Pentecost, when they sold possessions and parted to every man as each had need, grasped this thought of the family relationship perhaps more clearly than did the Church at any other time. Here, it seems, is the basis for the Apostle's expression "the communion - common sharing - of the body of Christ". The same word is used in Titus 1 4 "the common faith" and Jude 3 "the common salvation" where the meaning, that of something to be held and shared together, is obvious.

But this word "communion" is also sometimes translated "fellowship", sometimes "communicate", sometimes "partaker". Each of these aspects of our Christian life is an aspect of the communion of the saints and as such is intimately associated with our understanding of the act of celebration. The early Church, we are told, "continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship" - communion (Acts 2.42). James, and John, and Peter, extended to Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship - communion (Gal.2.9). Paul exhorted that he who is taught in the word should communicate - share with - him that teacheth (Gal.6.6). These few instances are enough to show that in the minds of the Apostles the fellowship of the brethren was the same thing as the "communion of the Body of Christ". We sometimes tend to think and speak of our "fellowship" as of a mere social contact and the enjoyment of a pleasant time together. The New Testament writers knew of no such thing. To them the fellowship of the brethren was a deep - rooted and vital association together in Christ - common - sharing in all the obligations, all the endurance, and all the joys of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus.

And as though testifying to their realisation of the practical implications of this association with all that Jesus stood for, which they had entered, the Apostles made it clear that we are sharers together in a communion of good works, a mutual care the one for the other, extending out of the realm of spiritual things into that of material things. "Distributing to the necessity of saints" says Paul in Rom.12.13, where distributing is the same word as "communion". "To do good and to communicate - to share with others - forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased" (Heb.13.16). An account is given in Rom.15.26 of some in Macedonia and Achaia who were pleased "to make a certain contribution (communion) for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem". How tender and eloquent a way of expressing their material help so freely rendered; not a "gift", not "charity", but a "common - sharing". And that these Macedonian and Achaian believers had the right understanding of the matter as well as the right spirit is beyond all doubt. Their "common - sharing" of material things followed logically from their position in the "communion of saints". Had there been no common - sharing they would have been outside the communion, no matter how extensive their knowledge of the Truth, how eloquent their discourses, or profound their studies.

It is out of this practical brotherliness that effective fellowship in service is born. There is a communion in the Gospel which is the inspiring force behind all powerful proclamation of the Kingdom message. In writing to the Philippians Paul speaks of this "fellowship - communion - of the gospel" (Phil. 1.5) and the "fellowship" - communion - of the Spirit" (Phil. 2.1). To the Corinthians (2 Cor.8.4) he refers to the "fellowship - communion - of the ministering to the saints" where the allusion is to service in material, and not in spiritual things. In this really marvellous Scripture we have the Macedonians who provided the gift, Paul who carried the gift, and the Jerusalem Christians who received the gift, all joined together in the communion - sharing together - of the ministration. Could there be any greater depth of Christian unity than is implied by this relationship where the donor, the messenger and the recipient are all considered as one, sharing together in the privilege of the ministration? Herein lay the secret of the power of that early Church; they were welded together as one family, one Body, and the welfare of each was the concern of all. Thus their outward witness was powerful and effective, because it had behind it the driving power of a solidly compact body of people who maintained their essential unity in Christ and with each other.

This in turn led to a realistic understanding of their common participation in the sufferings of Christ. There was no beclouding or confusing the plain issue by theological definitions of doubtful value and full of incipient sources of argument and misunderstanding. To these earnest, enthusiastic souls, participation in the sufferings of Christ was a sharing the life that He lived and enduring the same trials and distresses that came upon him in consequence of that way of life; and this participation was a very real thing to them. The history of early Christian persecution and martyrdom shows that. The ordeal of fire which so many of them went through and endured until death released them from their sufferings is too terrible to recount - historians have already described it in sufficient detail. Let it be realised that nothing but the one - ness of the Church in which all members suffered with one, and so the strength of all was given to one in the hour of need, could have enabled them thus to endure. Many in later times have wondered how those stoical souls withstood the fiendish cruelty of their pagan persecutors. The answer is that their strength was not of themselves, it was of the Body, and from him Who is the Head of that Body. And without the true unity of the Spirit the strength would not have been theirs. Paul knew this when he desired that he "might know . . . the fellowship - communion - of his (Christ's) sufferings" (Phil.3.10). He knew that in that common - sharing there resided a source of strength such as his own self - resolution could never give him. To the Corinthians he says "as ye are partakers - common - sharers - of the sufferings (both of Christ and of his disciples) so shall ye also be of the consolation" (2 Cor.1.7). That word "consolation" is full of significance here. It means the arrival of help at a time when it is needed (paraklesis - a being alongside to help). That is the effect of conscious sharing in the sufferings of one another and of our Master - it gives strength to withstand all that makes our Christian way difficult and arduous.

There is then a "being alongside to help". What wonder, then, that Peter, in the calm maturity of his old age, bids his suffering brethren to "rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers - common - sharers - of Christ's sufferings, that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy" (1 Pet.4.13). And it is Peter who takes us to the highest level of this communion of saints, for in two eloquent Scriptures he relates it to the consummation of our glorious hope. In 2 Pet.1.4 he tells us that we shall be "partakers - common - sharers - of the divine nature" and in 1 Pet. 5.1 that we shall be "partakers - common - sharers - of the glory that shall be revealed". The communion of saints is not only one of suffering, it is also one of glory. The fellowship that is begun here below in conditions of "weakness and much trembling" is to be continued forever in that eternal kingdom where it will be expanded into the glorious fellowship of the general assembly of the Church of the First - Born, whose names are written in heaven.

Seeing then that we know these things, how ignoble and petty become those specious arguments which limit and restrict the unity which can exist between all who name the Name. We who have a glorious hope for mankind, a clear perception of the Divine Plan, and a noble tradition going back to Apostolic days, should we be one whit behind those who in those same early times took their Lord at his word, and because He bade them "share together", brought that spirit of sharing into every phase and aspect of their fellowship, and in that joyful union found a strength and a power that in its outworking shook the pagan world until that world tottered and fell? If we in our day could by any means achieve a unity such as that, what man could foretell the magnitude of the blessing that would flow out from the "communion of saints"?