Daily Devotional for Thursday, July 24

The Pattern for the Lord’s Supper

“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.

Skill and wisdom are needed when driving a standard vehicle. It takes skill and wisdom for a person to properly drive a manual transmission vehicle. When training one of my children, I took her out on a long, vacant straight stretch and made her start and stop over and over. She needed to be able to feel the effect of the clutch, the power of the accelerator and how they worked together. She also needed wisdom. A vehicle with a clutch, especially when it has a powerful engine, can do things that an automatic cannot do (burnouts and such). Skill and wisdom keep the car safely on the road.

Likewise, skill and wisdom are needed in properly partaking in the Lord’s Supper. There is a certain amount of skill or basic knowledge of understanding the elements, understanding the proper participants, and knowing the proper functioning of the Supper. But there is also wisdom in knowing why we are eating the Supper. We do this in remembrance of Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross. When we make it into something more or something less, even if we have the other mechanical parts correct, we run the risk of making a costly mistake (verse 29).

Most things in life and following Jesus are like this. There is skill and there is wisdom. God calls us to skill and knowledge, but just as important He calls us to wisely use that skill and knowledge. What we do with what we know and why we do it are the heart of our obedience to Jesus.

REFLECTION

Right skill rightly used with right intentions equals right living before God.

Jason Rutherford