1 CORINTHIANS 16



1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the ecclesias of Galatia, even so do ye.

2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.

...the disciples in the apostolic age, by apostolic precept and example, established the practice of "assembling themselves together" on "the first day of the week" for "the breaking of bread in remembrance of the Lord" (Luke 22: 19-20; Acts 20:7; 1Cor. 11: 17, 23-28; 16:2; Heb. 10:25), probably out of historic harmony with the fact that on that day the Lord first showed himself alive to the disciples after his resurrection, and ate and drank with them (Luke 24).

This practice being established during the life-time of the apostles would naturally become the practice of believers in whatever part of the world ecclesias were formed. As a matter of fact, it is testified by several of the ecclesiastical writers of the second and third centuries that such was the practice everywhere. This accounts for the transmission of the first day of the week to Constantine's time as the day of Christian assembly.

Law of Moses Ch 6



The Breaking of Bread as a Duty

There is no command on record expressly enjoining a weekly observance of the breaking of bread, but there is evidence that this is the will of Christ concerning his followers; and this is sufficient for those who "desire to do his will."

The evidence is brief and strong. In the first place, we have Christ's personal command,

"Do this in remembrance of me:"

a command to which he intended so much importance to be attached, that he communicated it to Paul, on making choice of him as the apostle of the Gentiles. Paul says,

"I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, &c."

And he proceeds to detail the institution of the supper. Next we have the fact that the early believers, receiving their directions immediately from the apostles,

"continued steadfastly" in "the breaking of bread."-(Acts 2:42).

As to the question "How often?" we have the fact that

"the disciples of Troas came together to break bread" on "the first day of the week, " (Acts 20:7),

and the weekly periodicity of this custom is shown in the following incidental allusion.

"Upon the first day of the week let everyone of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come."-(1 Cor. 16:2.)

Now, how came the disciples, who were instructed of Paul, to meet on the first day of the week for the breaking of bread? Did they do it of their own accord, or did Paul direct them to do it? There is only one reasonable answer. Paul informs us above that he "delivered unto them" the ordinance of the breaking of bread.

Did he tell them to break bread, and omit to say how often? No reasonable person can believe such a thing. The conclusion is, they broke bread every first day of the week, because Paul told them to do so; and what Paul told them is law to us.

"He that heareth you," says Jesus, "heareth me."

The words of Paul are equal to the commandments of Christ, for he himself says,

"If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord."-(1 Cor. 14:37.)

It follows that the weekly breaking of bread is an institution of the household of Christ, the negligence of which is disobedience. We are commanded to

"Forsake not the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is."-(Heb. 10:25.)

The Christadelphian, Oct 1870


22 If any man love (phileo) not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema (accursed) Maranatha. (Aramaic origin -The Lord is at hand)

The apostles left nothing for "successors" to do under the commission given to them. They preached the gospel of the kingdom to "every creature" of the Roman nations; if not in the Gentile sense of "every creature," at least in the sense of the phrase as used by the Lord Jesus.

I feel strong upon this point, sustained as I am by the direct testimony of Scripture which is worth all the theories and all the logic of the schools en masse. The apostle, in speaking of the "one hope of the calling" (Eph. 4:4) contained "in the word of the truth of the gospel," tells the Colossian believers Col. 1:5,6) that "it had come to all the world" in the sense of "every creature," as appears in another verse (V.23) of the same chapter.

In this place he says "the hope of the gospel was preached to every creature which is under the heaven." This was the result of some thirty years apostolic labour; for the epistle in which he makes the statement is assigned to A.D. 62, which was about eight years before the desolating abomination appeared before the walls of Jerusalem, as "the sign" of the end of the age.

The gospel of the kingdom, so efficiently preached by the apostles, was soon after perverted by "men of corrupt minds" (2 Tim. 3:1-8;4:3,4; Tit. 1:10-14), whom Paul, who was very severe, but not too much so, upon this class of professors, styles "seducing spirits, speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having their conscience seared as with a hot iron" (1 Tim. 4:1-3). Let the reader consult the references given above. These characters were the "successors" from whom modern apostles, and ambassadors of Christ, have originated.

When the Hebrew commonwealth was broken up by the Romans, they claimed to be successors to the priests and Levites of the law, as well as to the apostles. Thus they united a worldly priesthood (for all Christ's disciples are kings and priests, elected for the purposes of the approaching kingdom) with eldership; and became a distinct order unrecognized by the Scriptures, by which they are repudiated as "reprobate concerning the faith." This order of men, as I have already stated elsewhere, had the presumption to style themselves, God's heritage, or "clergy," as though He had a delight in them above all other professors!

But with all their praying and preaching, and profession, neither they nor their successors love the Lord, for they do not obey Him: and He has made obedience the test of love, as it is written, "love is the fulfilling of the law." They corrupted and perpetuate the perversions of the faith from age to age; therefore, says the Scripture, "let them be accursed when the Lord comes" (1 Cor. 16:22; Gal. 1:8, 9; Matt. 7:23-31).

By the ministerial influence of this order of men, multitudes departed from the faith, and by their accession to municipal and state authority they were enabled to give political existence to the apostasy they had consummated. It is unnecessary to narrate the history of their evil deeds from the beginning to the present time. I would require volumes to do justice to their ignorance, hypocrisy and crime.

As ecclesiastical policemen they have kept the world in order for the advantage and behoof of the oppressors and destroyers of the earth, and have used the people for their own profit, under pretence of "curing their souls."

Elpis Israel 2.1.