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When Jesus sat with his disciples and spoke about the bread and the cup at the Last Supper, he said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). But he didn’t say how often. In present-day practices at local churches, believers don’t have the same frequency of taking the Lord’s Supper.
Should believers do it once a year? Once a quarter? Once a month? Once a week? Think about how often your church does communion. Do you know the frequency?
I’ve heard people say things like, “Your church can choose whatever timetable that seems prudent to them, because the New Testament doesn’t tell us how often to take the Lord’s Supper.”
Well, what if there were some clues? Would you want to know? Of course you would. Let’s take a look at some verses.
The clues in the New Testament about the frequency of communion combine to make a cumulative case. We’ll look at some verses in 1 Corinthians and in the book of Acts.
1 Corinthians
In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul addresses the Lord’s Supper and the divisions the Corinthians are creating at it. He says, “For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk” (1 Cor. 11:18–21).
The language “when you come together” is about frequency. How often did the believers gather together? They came together as a church on the Lord’s Day—the first day of the week. Later in 1 Corinthians, Paul says, “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come” (1 Cor. 16:2). The Corinthians were to do this on the first day of the week, because that was the day of worship. It was the Lord’s Day.
Paul’s critique in 1 Corinthians 11 is that “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat” (1 Cor. 11:20). Their gathering consists of factions! But the divisive behavior among them doesn’t seem to be present annually, monthly, or quarterly. Doesn’t the language suggest an even greater frequency? Their factions are evident regularly, even weekly.
Acts
Let’s move from 1 Corinthians to Acts for a moment. In Acts 2:42, Luke says, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” This “breaking of bread” is probably more than sharing a regular meal together. It’s likely a reference to the Lord’s Supper. If the Lord’s Supper is in view, it was observed according to the same frequency as the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, and prayer. The frequency would be regularly—weekly.
Later in Acts, Luke says, “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight” (Acts 20:7). This “first day of the week” was the weekly gathering for worship on the Lord’s Day. And part of that gathering involved breaking bread—perhaps more than a regular meal. Are they taking communion together on the first day of the week? What we saw in 1 Corinthians 11 suggested the regular partaking of the Lord’s Supper.
While there isn’t a New Testament author who says, “Thou shalt take communion weekly,” we may have enough clues to discern the regular practice of the early disciples. The language in Acts and 1 Corinthians doesn’t suggest irregular communion. It suggests a weekly partaking of the elements.
The Didache and First Apology
Now let’s look outside the New Testament. In the late first century, or perhaps early second century, there was a document called the Didache that spoke about the regular worship practices of believers. It gives these instructions: “On the Lord’s own day gather together and break bread, and give thanks, having first confessed your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one who has a quarrel with a companion join you until they have been reconciled, so that your sacrifice may not be defiled” (Didache 14:1–2).
According to the Didache, coming together on the Lord’s Day included breaking bread and giving thanks, after confessing sins. Consider the pairing of giving thanks and breaking bread at the Last Supper and in the Lord’s Supper (see 1 Cor. 11:23–25). The Didache indicates that their regular corporate worship included taking communion.
In the second century AD, Justin Martyr wrote his First Apology, where he spoke about weekly and typical worship practices. In First Apology 67 he says, “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons.”
Michael Haykin explains the importance of Justin Martyr’s words: “Justin’s statements about the Lord’s Supper are very significant, for he is the earliest witness outside of the NT to the words of the Supper’s institution, and, according to Andrew Brian McGowan, his discussion of the Lord’s Supper in the First Apology is ‘perhaps the single most important witness to the ritual form of a eucharistic meal for fifty years on either side’” (“ ‘A Glorious Inebriation’: Eucharistic Thought and Piety in the Patristic Era,” in The Lord’s Supper, p. 106).
If you’ve not given much thought before to the frequency of taking the Lord’s Supper as a church, I hope you’ll consider the preceding pieces of biblical and historical evidence. The worship practice of the early church seems to include weekly communion.
I have often thought about frequency. I’m grateful to belong to a church that celebrates the Lord’s supper weekly. Scriptural evidence is the most important. I have also requested more frequent communion (at another church where we celebrated monthly) for the benefit of mothers of young children. If you have several children, especially during the winter you could miss so much, possibly several months, with one sick child after another.