Question 175. What is the duty of Christians after they have received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper?

 

Question 175. What is the duty of Christians after they have received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper? 

Answer. It is the duty of Christians, after they have received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to seriously consider how they have behaved themselves in the ordinance, and what benefits they have received. If they have received any quickening and comfort, let them praise God, and pray for the continuation of this grace, and be careful not to backslide, and to perform their vows, and to endeavor to come to this ordinance often. But if they have no present benefit, let them examine more closely their preparation and bearing for the ordinance. If they can accept themselves before God and their own consciences in both, let them wait for the fruit in due time. But if they see that they have failed in either, let them humble themselves, and come to the ordinance of the Lord's Supper with more preparation.

The Bible does not say anything about the duties of Christians after receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist. However, there are several exhortations for the life of saved saints. As saved saints, we participate in the Eucharist with a grateful heart and remember the covenant Jesus made.

1 Timothy 1:3-7 "For I urged you when I went into Macedonia to stay at Ephesus so that you might charge some not to teach false doctrines or devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote controversies rather than God's work which is by faith. From these some have strayed and have turned aside to empty words, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither the things they say nor the things they affirm."

Making believers obligate is nothing more than legalism and a vain teaching. Paul is advising Timothy to be equipped for ministry, and to act according to the will of God through the gender of men and women. He talks about what to be careful of when giving positions in the church community, and in 1 Timothy 4:12-13, he says, "Let no one despise your youth. Instead, be an example to the believers in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of the scriptures, to exhortation, to teaching."

This is not a duty, but a lesson. Even if you are a believer, there are many times when you cannot act perfectly because you have a body when you act. The Holy Spirit knows the weakness of the believer, so He groans and prays for you. The Apostle Paul also says that he dies daily. 1 Corinthians 15:31 “I affirm, brothers, by the boasting I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.”

God also uses Satan's thorns against the saints. When the saints are proud of being God's people, he pricks them with thorns. 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 "And to keep me from becoming conceited because of the abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Most gladly therefore will I rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

The thorn of Satan that Paul suffered from was the Jewish legalism. Paul, as a fellow Jew, acted in the same way as them, but the Jews of that time continued to gnaw at Paul's legalistic behavior. Especially, even within families, there was animosity between parents and siblings for religious reasons, and those with blood ties would poke at the fleshly behavior of the saints. Then, the saints eventually realized that there was no other way than to say, "I die every day."

Romans 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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