"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: for we are all partakers of that one bread."
I have referred back to these two verses from yesterday's quote in order to further clarify what I believe was Paul's intent when he made the reference to eating the body and drinking the blood of Jesus Christ. We must make note that Paul made that statement in the context of condemning the idolatrous practice of eating meat that was sacrificed to idols.
There are many who, when they read those two verses standing alone, accept what Paul said as confirmation that the practice of "The Lord's Supper", or "communion", was, and is still, required of the Churches to be an ongoing, oft celebrated, ritual.
In my opinion, that assertion is misleading and wrong. Paul was clearly not referring to the literal body and blood of Christ when he made that statement. He used the body and blood of Jesus as a metaphor for the sanctifying factor, the glue, that binds the lost to God through faith in that same Jesus Christ, crucified.
The partaking of the body and blood of Jesus Christ represents an immersion into His sacrifice, it is our baptismal (immersion into by faith) a union with His death, burial, and resurrection. The event is not something that I can confirm is to be, or even can be, practiced over and over again.~
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