How often should the Lord's Supper / Communion be observed?

In Acts 20 we learn the definitive usage, which the Spirit sanctions and records for us, of the Lord's day, or the first day of the week, as the fitting time for the breaking of bread. So we find it among the Gentiles in Acts 20:7. I am aware that there are those who seem to think there is no liberty to break bread on any other day. I cannot but differ from such a conclusion. There appears to me full liberty to break bread any day provided that some adequate or just reason call for it: Acts 2 is, to my mind, conclusive authority for this. At the same time, while there is liberty to break bread, wherever there arises a sufficient ground for it in the judgment of the spiritual on any day of the week, it is obligatory, if we may use such a term on such a theme, on all saints walking with the Lord to break bread on the Lord's day, remembering always that the obligation flows from the grace of Christ, and is perfectly consistent with the most thorough sense of liberty before the Lord. In short, then, the regularly sanctioned day for breaking bread among the Gentiles is the first day of the week (not of the month, or quarter, or year); but under special circumstances the early disciples used to break bread every day. This appears to be the true answer to questions raised on this point.

From both instances it is ours to profit. At the institution of the Supper, the Lord Himself made no restrictions. "This do in remembrance of Me" was His own word to the apostles of the circumcision; but nothing did He lay down as to the frequency of participation. Neither when making a special revelation to the apostle of the Gentiles, did the Lord define the interval that should separate the observances of the feast of remembrance. From His silence on this point therefore it may surely be gathered with the utmost certainty that He has left it to the love and fidelity of our hearts to respond to His own expressed desire by eating bread and drinking wine as often as circumstances will allow. And this we have seen was the practice in early days. In Jerusalem at the first the saints were able to break bread at home daily. In Troas the custom was to gather for that purpose on the first of the week. Considering both examples, we conclude that they were under neither the incitement nor the restriction of any rigid rule, but that they met together as often as was possible.

I hope no believer present is searching for a legitimate excuse not to remember the Lord in His death at all, or to remember Him only once a quarter, or once a year. The Lord does not lay upon us any rigid commandment, enforcing obedience under the penalty of losing our eternal life. He does not even tell us that we are to do it every week. We are shown in the word of God that the early disciples broke bread at Troas every week, while earlier still, in Jerusalem after Pentecost they did so every day, while they were specially together there. What are we to gather from the absence of any prescribed interval, and from the record of actual practice? That we are to show the Lord's death as often as we can. If we stay away when we might be present, there is One Whom we ought to satisfy that there is a real, a reasonable excuse for our absence.

The early disciples came together not once a year, nor once a quarter, nor once a month, but the first day of the week to break bread. It is no new theory, no notion of moderns or ancients, but what God has written in Acts 20:7. Does it not concern you as much as me? It is Christ's feast for His own — what in a special way concerns you, children of God, though Christ and His glory even more.

We have seen that the original Assembly at Jerusalem "continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42). Thus, besides fellowship, which would apply to all meetings and the whole life of the believers, we have here three special features which marked the church life of these saints: Teaching, Breaking of Bread, and Prayer. At first all their meetings were probably so characterized, but as the Church emerged from Judaism, we find regular meetings for special purposes. From Acts 20:6, 7 we learn that a regular meeting was held on the first day of the week for the purpose of breaking bread. There we hear of a company, Paul and his companions, arriving at Troas and abiding there seven days. "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them." Here at a specified time (the first day of the week, the Lord's day), at a specified place, the disciples came together for a specified purpose (to break bread). From the form of expression used here we are given to understand that this was their regular weekly custom. They did not come together to meet the apostle or to hear him preach, but to break bread on the first day of the week-the resurrection day, the day which spoke of His rising power. This was their habit and Paul and his company waited at Troas seven days so that they might enjoy the great privilege of breaking bread with the disciples. Being thus assembled for this purpose, Paul used the opportunity and followed with an address to the saints, for he was leaving on the morrow. But the first object of their meeting was to remember the Lord in His death; it was the center of their worship and a regular thing among them each Lord's day, the first day of the week. Thus we learn from Acts 2 and 20 that one of the principal meetings of the apostolic Churches was the meeting for the breaking of bread and worship in response to their Lord's request on the night of His betrayal. Further we learn that at first they met together every day at Jerusalem to remember the Lord in the breaking of bread and that later it seems to have been the custom in the Assemblies which were formed elsewhere to come together every first day of the week to celebrate the Lord's Supper. The Lord had said through Paul: "as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come" (I Cor. 11: 26), so they did it often. These early Christians, in the bloom and freshness of their first love, were in the constant habit of breaking bread in affectionate remembrance of their Lord. They were so filled with the Holy Ghost, that Christ was ever before their hearts and they delighted to celebrate that precious feast which was, according to His own express word, the effecting memorial of Himself in His death.

Observe, it was not on the first Lord's day of the month or of the quarter of the year, but on the first day of the week that they gathered together for this holy purpose in obedience to their Lord and Savior's request. It was not occasionally that they broke bread, as is the custom of most Christians in our day, but regularly every Lord's day. So we should do, also, if we would follow the divine pattern given us in the Scriptures. These early Christians loved their Lord too well to neglect the precious memorial of His love which He had instituted on the night of His betrayal. From observing them, we may say that, just in proportion as saints love Christ, love His Word, and are filled with the Holy Ghost, do they delight to go to His table and remember Him, shewing forth His death until He come. He Himself has said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15).

But when, and how often they were thus to remember Him the Lord does not specify in His word. We gather however from it when they met for that purpose; viz., on the first day of the week. (Acts 20:7.) At first it may have been that each day they broke bread together. Afterwards it certainly was done on the first day of the week, and for that special purpose did they at Troas assemble together. Prayer, preaching, teaching, are all useful and needful, but they do not supersede the necessity of meeting to break bread. When thus met there may be room for teaching. The Lord, after the breaking of bread, spoke what we have in John 14, if not also what is stated in John 15 and 16. And Paul at Troas discoursed for a long time when the company were assembled for the breaking of bread. Yet the purpose for which they came together was not to hear Paul, but to show the Lord's death. Bearing this in mind, we shall not go to the Lord's table to hear some gifted teacher, but to break bread in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Gift or no gift will make no difference as to the motive which will take us to that meeting. We shall go to remember Him who once entered into death to save us. Edification by gift all should be thankful for, but the absence of it will keep none away from the table who know for what reason we are to assemble.

And how often can we thus meet? No limit is placed to this; and a word of the Lord, only preserved by Paul, makes this clear: "This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me." At what period of the day should we break bread? some may ask. This too is left an open question. The supper was instituted in the evening. They met on that occasion at Troas at night. Probably the Corinthians too came together when the day had declined (1 Cor. 11:21); for the term deipnon, translated there supper, is not used in the New Testament of a morning meal. In Luke 14:12 it is clearly used of the meal which succeeded dinner. But no rule is laid down as to the hour when we are to break bread, though the first day of the week is marked out as the one specially suited for that, on grounds which all can readily understand. But, how often besides, Christians may break bread, is left to the Lord's people to decide as they may be guided.

Other questions that are occasionally asked in this connection are: must we do so every Sunday? Is once a month not sufficient? Or: can we not do so every day like the early Christians? Let us repeat: the Bible gives us no clear indication. It depends on our spiritual well-being. Let us however consider this: doing so more frequently is not unscriptural, but would it really correspond to our devotion to Christ and our spiritual state? Would we not run the danger of turning it into a mere formal act? Is our attachment to our Lord so fresh in our hearts that we could support breaking bread daily? But now consider the converse: can we imagine a Sunday when we fail to think of the Lord’s suffering and His victory at the cross? Do we not think that Sunday by Sunday the Lord waits for us to bring Him something?

The Lord, then, before His death did not say how often, but intimated freedom to eat the Supper as frequently as the disciples could have communion in spirit with Himself.

Again, the leading of the Spirit would not be haphazard as to the time of breaking bread. Luke 22:14 tells us, "When the hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him." We are not told it should be at a certain hour of the day, but whatever the hour, it should be known beforehand, and of course the purpose explicit for which the saints come together. An expression in Acts 20:14 is to be considered here: "Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread." No mere law is to be made of this, for scripture says, "As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do announce the Lord's death until He come" (1 Cor. 11:26). If the assembly is in such a state as to desire to break bread every day, there is no prohibition of this, though evidently the first day of the week became the most convenient time for this service. However, whenever it is done, the time should be previously known, and the purpose.

Lastly, we find the special vessel of the Church's testimony — I mean the Apostle Paul — in the midst with the disciples, who "came together to break bread" upon the first day of the week (Acts 20:7). I conclude, therefore, that the proper time for celebrating the Lord's Supper is every first day of the week — not once a month nor once a year, but once a week, and that on the Lord's-day. I should like to add a remark or two in this place.