A Church of Christ brother inquires, “I was taught to partake of the Lord’s Supper only on Sundays, and only in the morning service, unless I was absent that morning. Are there biblical reasons not to partake of Communion on any day other than Sunday, or limiting it to Sunday morning?”
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Although Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper on Thursday night before Easter, some today insist that Sunday is the only day on which it may be appropriately observed by Christians. Jesus did not specify either a certain day or a frequency for us to eat the bread and drink the wine, but simply said that “as often as” we do it, we should do it in remembrance of him (1 Cor. 11:25). The Apostle adds that “as often as” we partake of the Lord’s Supper we also proclaim the Lord’s death (1 Cor. 11:26).
The earliest believers “broke bread” daily, according to Acts 2:42, 46, and it is impossible to say whether that refers to the Communion or to a common meal. There is evidence by the second century of a weekly Eucharist on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. Some also infer that from Acts 20:7, though we cannot know with certainty whether the “breaking bread” in that verse refers to the Lord’s Supper or to a common meal.
Weekly Communion certainly has the stamp of ancient practice, although not the mandate of Scripture, and I heartily recommend it as “the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord’s Day” (to borrow words from the Book of Common Prayer). I can personally testify, after many decades of such practice, that it has lost none of its meaning through frequent observance. One may anticipate weekly Communion today with Churches of Christ, Christian Churches and Disciples of Christ, in Plymouth Brethren assemblies, many independent charismatic churches, some Reformed Baptists, and most Episcopalians. Roman Catholic Mass is also offered every Sunday, although Catholic understanding of its meaning differs considerably from that of Protestants regarding Communion or Eucharist.
The notion of limiting Communion to Sundays only, results from a non-biblical assumption held by some (but consistently followed by none) that any detail not specifically authorized in the New Testament is automatically forbidden. We need not focus on the differences among Christians on this subject, however, but on what believers share in common. That is the core of the matter and what, after all, surely matters most in the end.