Jesus instituted a memorial meal in remembrance of Him (Luke 22:14-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26), but we have no record that He told His disciples when to observe the meal.
Since the 1820s, the universal practice of the churches of Christ is to partake of the Lord's Supper every Sunday and only on Sunday. Some people are now questioning this practice and partaking of communion during special events on other days. Although it is true that there is no specific command to partake of communion on the first day of the week, the practice is substantiated by important biblical, historical and doctrinal considerations that cannot be ignored. People devoted to the restoration of New Testament Christianity its doctrine, its ordinances, its fruits will want to follow apostolic precedence and the singular practice of the church for the first 200 years of its existence.
During his third missionary journey, Paul was in such a hurry to get to Jerusalem by Pentecost that he did not have time to make a trip inland to Ephesus (Acts 20:16). However, he waited seven days in Troas for a first-day-of-the-week meeting when the disciples met "to break bread" (Acts 20:6-7).
Because a loaf of bread was served at each Jewish meal after the thanksgiving to God (Luke 24:30, 35), the action of breaking bread was the first act of any meal. This action was performed by Jesus during the Last Supper when He instituted the memorial bread and cup (Matthew 26:26-30).
The expression "to break bread" refers to eating a meal in Acts 2:46 and 27:35 because of the mention of food and hunger in context and the participation by unbelievers in the latter passage. "To break bread" became a specially coined expression to refer to the memorial bread and cup because the breaking of the bread was the opening action of the communion. This appears to be the meaning in Acts 2:42 where the breaking of bread is connected with three other aspects of Christian worship: teaching the apostles' doctrine, prayers and fellowship. This is probably the meaning in Acts 20:7 where the communion supper was the focus of the Christian assembly.
Because the first day of the week is specified, and every week has only one first day, then it appears that the first day of every week was the regular meeting time for these disciples. The church was scattered throughout the region, and without means of modern communication, with work and other obligations of the members, it was not possible to gather the congregation together for an unscheduled assembly. Because the next meeting would be the first time that Paul could visit with the church, he waited seven days for their next assembly.
When the first day of the week arrived, the congregation did not come together to hear Paul preach. They had planned to come together on that day regardless of Paul's presence. If 2,000 years from now, people found a piece of archaeological evidence that said, "And on the Fourth of July when the Americans came together to celebrate independence, the president spoke to them," they would understand that the Fourth of July had special significance to Americans and on that particular Fourth of July the president spoke. Similarly, we understand that the disciples were coming together on the first day of the week, and on this particular one, Paul addressed them.
Specifying the first day of the week implies a weekly meeting. If the brethren met at other times, the text might have read as follows: And at evening when we met to break bread signifying daily meetings; And on the 15th day of the month when we met to break bread monthly; and on the first day of the quarter when we met to break bread quarterly; and on the 14th day of the seventh month when the disciples met together to break bread annually; or and when we decided to meet, we broke bread together an irregular meeting.
Jewish believers were in the established habit of meeting on the weekly Sabbath festival. It would be natural for them to celebrate the Resurrection, the greatest event in the Christian faith, by remembering it weekly in an assembly in honor of Jesus Christ.
Adolph Deissman encourages Christians to be careful not to infer too much from Acts 20:7. He wrote, "The passage furnishes no conclusive proof that the first day of the week was the regular day for celebrating the Lord's Supper, or that a universal Christian custom is here referred to. We may venture to conclude, however, with a fair measure of probability, that the first day of the week was, at the time, the day on which the Lord's Supper was observed at Troas." He added, "This passage being from the pen of an eyewitness, we are justified in regarding it as affording the first faint, yet unmistakable trace of a setting apart of the first day of the week for purposes of public worship by Christians" ("Lord's Day," Encyclopedia Biblica, pp. 2813-14).
This text is the only one that specifically ties together the first day of the week and disciples coming together to break bread. The disciples did not meet on the Sabbath as had been the custom of the Jews for hundreds of years. Why did they meet on the first day of the week? The only significance given to the first day of the week in the New Testament is as the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
No organization, including the church, can exist if it does not meet. The church is a family, and like a family, it needs time for communication, sharing ideas, teaching, helping one another, and celebrating events and traditions. All these occurred in the assembly when the church gathered (1 Corinthians 14:5, 12, 26). In these assemblies, letters from the apostles might be read (Colossians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:27) and church discipline practiced (1 Corinthians 5). During the assembly, when the Christians came together, the church partook of the bread and cup in remembrance of Jesus (1 Corinthians 11:17-18, 20, 33-34). Christians are commanded not to miss the assembly (Hebrews 10:25).
Paul does not designate the day of the assembly in 1 Corinthians 10:17-18; 11:17-34. The only frequency reference is in verse 26: "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes" (NKJV). How often was this? The best indication we have is where Paul teaches, "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I gave order to the churches of Galatia, so also do ye. Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by him and store, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come" (16:1-2 asv). Some people think that these collections may have been in the assembly, but the words "each one of you lay by him and store" may indicate that each person collected the money at his own home. Whether the words refer to one common treasury or to individual, home treasuries, the day specified is the important point.
Wilfred Stott comments, "While the laying aside was at home, the day's connection with Christian worship would make it easy to remember this duty. This suggests that the first day was the regular day of worship" (The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, 3:412). Werner Foerster suggests this same possibility, "Perhaps Paul takes the day when the congregation was assembling and when its thought would thus be occupied with church affairs" (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 3:1096).
The indications are present that the church did assemble every Lord's Day. Why else would Paul name "the first day of every week," Greek kata specifying "every"? The first day of the week had no religious meaning to Jews other than the fact that it was the first day of the Creation.
Among the Gentiles, "there is no evidence of a Sunday celebration in paganism" (Everett Ferguson, "Sunday," Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, p. 873). The conjecture that the first day of the week was the weekly payday for the poor is unlikely. Gentile astrologers began the week with Saturday, not Sunday. The fact that Paul referred to the day by the number first and not by its pagan name Sunday indicates that Paul was following Jewish time. Facts that would make the first day of the week significant were the Resurrection of Jesus on that day and the establishment of the church on the first day.
This first day of the week offering was much larger in Corinth. Paul had directed the Galatian churches to do the same (16:1). This day already had special significance to Christians because of Jesus' resurrection, so it was a convenient and appropriate time to remember help for the poor.
There is a basis, rooted in the gospel, for the choice of the first day. All the Gospels emphasize that the first day of the week is the day Christ rose from the dead (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1-2, 9; Luke 24:1-2; John 20:1-2). Jesus also appeared to His disciples on the first day of the week. All the post-resurrection appearances of Christ, except the Ascension, could have been on the first day of the week because that is the only time reference given (John 20:19, 26). For it to be mentioned again and again in the resurrection narratives indicates that the day is doctrinally important in the Christian faith because the Old Testament is silent about any significance of the first day of the week, and the Jews attached no significance to that day. (NOT! Penecost came upon the “First day of the week”! pdc)
Stott comments, "The strong emphasis on the first day of the week, as the day on which Christ rose from the dead in all four Gospels, suggests that the theological reason for the change from the seventh to the first day was the resurrection of our Lord" (The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, 3:412).
Pentecost, which means 50, was always 50 days after the Sabbath after Passover (Leviticus 23:15-16). Jesus was crucified during Passover week and in the tomb on the Passover Sabbath. The day following the seventh Sabbath, later the Feast of Weeks, was called Pentecost in the New Testament. In the first century, the Sadducees controlled the temple calendar, and Pentecost was always celebrated on the first day of the week (F. F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of Acts. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Erdmans, 1984; p. 53, n.3). This is the day the Holy Spirit was poured out, the gospel was preached as historical fact, and 3,000 people were baptized (Acts 2:1-41). On this day, which Peter later referred to as "the beginning" (Acts 11:15), the four expressions of worship began: "the apostles' teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers" (2:42)
The expression, the "Lord's Day," is when John says he was in the Spirit (Revelation 1:10). We presume that the seven churches of Asia and probably many other churches must have clearly understood to what day John was referring.
The adjective "Lord's," kuriaka, appears only one other time in Scripture in the expression "Lord's supper" (1 Corinthians 11:20). This unique, possessive adjective means, "of, or relating to, the Lord." It is a different form from the biblical, genitival expression "day of the Lord" (2 Thessalonians 2:2). In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the "day of the Lord" is always translated as a genitive, never as the unique adjective found in the New Testament relating to the day and the Supper.
In the second and third centuries, church fathers unanimously used the expression "the Lord's day" to refer to the first day of the week. It was not used to refer to any ambiguous time or to the Sabbath day. Stott comments, "While it has been claimed that it refers to the last day, or even to Easter, it seems certain that the expression is the name which had come to be given to the first day of the week. From Ignatius (Mag. 9:1) onwards this is its meaning in patristic writers" (The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, 3:412).
Why would John, in A.D. 95, use the expression in reference to a day that had first been used by Paul 40 years earlier in 1 Corinthians in reference to a supper? It appears the only connection between the two is: 1. The first day of the week became uniquely Jesus' day because it was the day of His resurrection; and 2. It was the day that was uniquely tied to the observance of the Lord's Supper. It appears that the two are linked together so that there should be no Lord's Day without the Lord's Supper and no Lord's Supper without the Lord's Day.
Even today, the common designation of Sunday as the Lord's Day is the name that continues in Greek and the romance languages of southern Europe. The church in the centuries immediately following the apostolic age unanimously partook of the Lord's Supper on the first day of each week. It would be logical that this post-apostolic practice originated in apostolic times because it is so close to the times of the apostles.
About A.D. 112, Governor Pliny of Asia Minor wrote to the emperor Trajan about the Christians in his district. He said their practice was to meet "on a fixed day" for worship (Epistle X.96.7). He does not name the day, but Sunday is "certainly probable" (Deissman, "Lord's Day," Encyclopedia Biblica, 2814).
The Didache or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, thought to date back to Syria about 115, says, "On the Lord's Day assemble and break bread and give thanks, having first confessed your sins, that your sacrifice may be pure" (14:1).
The anonymous document known as the Epistle of Barnabas, usually dated 132-135, speaks about Christians worshiping on Sunday: "Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in which also Jesus rose from the dead, and having been manifested ascended into the heavens" (15:8). Sunday was referred to as "the eighth day" because it followed the seventh day, the Sabbath, and, as the day of the Resurrection, was the beginning of a new era.
Everett Ferguson quotes patristic sources that associate the number eight with immortality and the world to come ("Sunday," Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, p. 873). The expression may go back to the description of the second Sunday of Jesus' resurrection as "eight days later" (kjv) or translated as "a week later" (nrsv, niv) in John 20:26.
By the early second century, the Lord's Day had become a technical term for Sunday. Toward the end of the reign of Trajan (c. 98-117), Ignatius of Antioch, en route to Rome for martyrdom, wrote seven letters. In the epistle to the church at Magnesia, he spoke about the Lord's Day: "Those, then, who lived by ancient practices arrived at a new hope. They ceased to keep the Sabbath and lived by the Lord's Day, on which our life as well as theirs shone forth, thanks to him and his death." (9:1).
According to Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History (c. 325), Dionysius of Corinth (c. 170) wrote eight letters. The letters are no longer extant, but Eusebius quotes Dionysius' letter to Rome: "Today we have passed the Lord's holy Day, in which we have read your epistle" (3:23). Eusebius also refers to Melito of Sardis (the last third of the second century) who he says wrote a discourse titled On the Lord's Day (3.26).
Justin Martyr of Rome (c. 150-165) wrote, "And on the day which is called the day of the sun there is an assembly of all who live in the towns or in the country. ... We hold our common assembly on the day of the sun, because it is the first day, on which God put to flight darkness and chaos and made the world, and on the same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead" (Apology I.67). In this same context, Justin describes the congregation's assembly on this day and their partaking of the memorial bread and wine in remembrance of Jesus.
Clement of Alexandria (160-215) applied Psalm 118:24, "This is the day the Lord has made," to the first day of the week (Stromata 6.16).
Many other church fathers testify to similar usage. No church father says anything different until Origen (c. 185-251) began to argue that "every day is the Lord's Day" and Cyprian (c. 200-258) approved the celebration of the Eucharist daily. In the third century, some observed the Eucharist on the anniversary of the death of the saints and on other special occasions. However, even then, "these extra occasions did not take away from the central importance of the weekly Sunday assembly in the life of the church" (Everett Ferguson, "Sunday," Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, p. 874). Eventually, the daily Eucharist developed in the church, but it was at least 300 years after New Testament times. *
Calvin Warpula is the minister of the Johnson Street Church of Christ, 2200 Johnson St., San Angelo, TX 76904-5499.
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