Love Feasts
Joe R. Price
Brethren who
advocate church-provided social events believe they have found scriptural
support for their practice in Jude 12, where Jude mentions “love feasts”
(“feasts of charity,” KJV). There is nothing in the text or context of Jude
12 that leads one to the inescapable conclusion that these “love feasts”
were meals for the stomach. Furthermore, these “love feasts” are
nowhere called “fellowship meals” in the Scriptures. Why then, you might
ask, do brethren use Jude 12 as an endorsement of the modern practice of
“fellowship meals” offered by local churches to their members?
First, those who
make such an appeal know they must have scriptural authority for their
practice, so they have satisfied themselves with Jude’s “love feasts.”
As we have already noted, however, Jude makes no argument for
church-promoted and church-provided social meals in this verse. Silence and
assumption do not make for scriptural proof.
Secondly, the
pronouncements of history are received as authoritative. What I mean is
this: History records a second century practice of church feasts that were
held in connection with their assemblies. Brethren who wish to justify their
church feasts today appeal to the historians as proof for the practice. What
they fail to remember is that the “mystery of lawlessness” was
already working in the days of the apostles (2 Ths. 2:7), not to mention
during the second century. These brethren are using the historical accounts
of an apostate church to support their current practice. They have elevated
history to authoritative status in the absence of clear Biblical statements
that “love feasts” were “fellowship meals.”
Thirdly, attempts
are made to give Scriptural evidence that “love feasts” were indeed
church-sponsored meals. It is said that Acts 2:46, Acts 20:11 and 1 Cor.
11:17-34 refer to this practice. Examination of these passages, however,
makes it clear that the modern-day practice of “fellowship meals” is not
under consideration.
Acts 2:46 plainly
separates common meals from the assembly. While the early Christians were
meeting daily in the temple (no doubt to learn the apostles’ doctrine, v.
42), they took their food “at home.”
In Acts 20:11, the
issue is not that a meal was eaten at the same place where the church had
worshiped. The text says Paul ate a meal that revived his strength after
several hours of preaching. This is a far cry from saying that the church
provided a “fellowship meal” (or a “love feast”) as many
churches do today.
In 1 Corinthians
11:17-34, the apostle rebukes and corrects an abuse of the Lord’s Supper
that had turned it into a gluttonous feast. Paul’s solution (inspired by
the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. 2:10-13) was to separate common meals from their
assemblies. They had “houses to eat and drink in” (v. 22), so if they
were hungry, they were to “eat at home” (v. 34). This divine
separation of common meals from the assembled work of the church should
forever answer the question of whether the love feasts of Jude 12 were
“fellowship meals” as some claim today. To make the love feasts of Jude 12
meals to feed the stomach sets Jude against Paul. We must never set
Scripture against Scripture as we study to understand its true meaning (2
Tim. 2:15).
In the absence of
scriptural support that “love feasts” were some sort of pot-luck
meal, what were they? At least two explanations satisfy the context of Jude
without doing injustice to the rest of the New Testament. Jude’s “love
feasts” could refer to the continual life of the Christian as he lives
in the love of God and divine truth. This seems to be Paul’s use of the term
“feast” in 1 Corinthians 5:8: “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with
old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Jude could be warning
Christians of the apostates who pretended to love God, His truth and the
brethren, but who were in fact harmful “rocks” among them.
Or, Jude could be
referring to the Lord’s Supper. It is a feast the church has been commanded
to observe (Matt. 26:26-29; 1 Cor. 11:17-34). We partake of “the Lord’s
table” (1 Cor. 10:21) to remember his death for our sins (Acts 20:7; 1
Cor. 11:26). Under this explanation, Jude is warning of false brethren who
“crept in unnoticed” (v. 4). Although they ate the Lord’s Supper
with the saints, their error was in fact endangering the spiritual
well-being of the innocent.
We must be careful not to
force our own, uninspired practices into the text of inspired Scripture.
Human wisdom and divine wisdom are not the same (1 Cor. 1:18-25; Isa. 55:8).
We must be content with what God has said – and what he as not said – about
“love feasts.”
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You can find the
complete outline of this sermon at
BIBLE ANSWERS
Pray Without Ceasing
Scripture Reading:
Psalm 66:16-20
1. Prayer is conversing with God.
2. God wants his children to pray to Him; He wants to answer our prayers,
Matt. 7:7-11.
3. The righteous pray & are heard, 1 Pet. 3:10-12.
I. THE PRIORITY OF PRAYER IN OUR LIVES.
A. Prayer must have Precedence in our
Daily Lives, Mk. 1:35; Lk. 5:16; 6:12; 9:28-29; Psa. 32:3-5; 1 Tim. 2:1.
B. Put Prayer into Practice, Lk. 11:1; Matt. 26:41.
1. Public prayer, 1 Cor. 14:15-16.
2. Private prayer, Matt. 6:5-8 (Acts 10:9).
3. Prayer may be planned (Dan. 6:10), special (Neh. 1:4) & spontaneous
(Neh. 2:4).
II. THE POWER OF PRAYER IN OUR LIVES,
Jas. 5:15-18.
A. Almighty God Listens to You; Prov.
15:29; 28:9; Neh. 1:11 (cf. Heb. 5:7); Jer. 11:14 (Isa. 1:10-15).
B. Almighty God Responds to You, Psa. 66:16-20; Prov. 15:8-9.
C. Almighty God Cares for You, Phil. 4:6-7 (Matt. 7:11).
III. THE PERSISTENCE OF PRAYER IN OUR
LIVES, Lk. 11:5-8; 18:1-8 (Acts
10:2); Eph. 6:18; 1 Ths. 5:17.
A. Trust in God, not yourself (Mt.
21:20-22)
1. Faith, dependency on God, Jas. 1:5-8.
2. Humility, not selfish pleasures, Jas. 4:3.
B. Be Committed to & Guided by God’s Will, 1 Jno. 3:22; 5:14.
C. God Answers in His Time, His Purposes, & our Best Interests, 2 Cor.
12:7-10; Lk. 22:40-46 (Matt. 7:11).
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You can find the
complete outline of this sermon at
BIBLE ANSWERS
Change Agents
Scripture Reading:
Acts 3:18-26
1. “Preach Christ, not baptism or the church”
is the cry and feeling of those who are self-designated as “change agents”
in the church.
2. Implications of this false rationale (Acts 8:35-36).
3. Minimize Christ when you minimize baptism & the church, Gal. 1:13; Acts
9:4.
-The call
for change and Bible answers.
#1: “It
has been a mistake to emphasize ‘the old paths’ because we need to be open
to change. The church has got to change.”
1. The “old
paths” are established by God, Jer. 6:16-17.
2. To forsake “ancient paths” is to forget God; scattered, Jer. 18:15-17.
3. Gal. 1:6-9: What will you change…
a. How to enter the church? (Acts
2:47)
b. How to behave in the church? (1 Tim. 3:15)
c. The worship of the church? (Jno. 4:23-24)
d. The work/organization of the local church? (Acts 14:22-23)
#2: “It is
a ‘mistaken assumption’ that we should ‘restore the church of the 1st
century.’ The model we are to pattern after is Christ, not the New
Testament church.”
1. Quote:
Which church do you want to restore?
2. Restoration is a Bible concept, Jer. 30:17 (1-3), 9; Isa. 49:5-6; Acts
3:21; Heb. 9:10.
3. “Pattern of sound words,” 2 Tim. 1:13 (2 Ths. 2:15; 2 Tim. 3:14); Titus
1:5.
#3: “The
pictures of the church recorded in the NT are ‘only flawed attempts’ to
follow Christ.”
1. Our task
is to learn & follow God’s pattern, 2 Tim. 3:16-17 (2 Tim. 2:15).
2. Flawed attempts & worthy examples, Rev. 3:1-3, 7-11.
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NOTEWORTHY NEWS
(Current events in the
light of Scripture)
The Gospel of Judas?
Joe R. Price
On Thursday the National Geographic Society
presented to the world the Gospel of Judas, an apocryphal (of unknown
origin) document probably written about AD 300. It “purports to record
conversations between Jesus and Judas in the last week of their lives --
conversations in which Jesus shared religious secrets not known by the other
disciples” (“Rediscovered gospel offers radically new look at Judas,” Thomas
H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times).
Historically, the
Gospel of Judas was never received as authoritative due to its obvious and
late disagreement with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Now, as then, people
will be excited at the prospect of telling or hearing some new thing (cf.
Acts 17:21). But, the facts are clear: Judas betrayed Jesus and killed
himself. The Gospel of Judas is of human origin.
It offers a
distorted and false picture of Judas, who is
“the good guy in this portrayal,” said Bart
Ehrman, a religion professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. “He’s the only apostle who understands Jesus.”
“In a key passage, Jesus compares Judas to
the other disciples, saying: ‘You will exceed all of them. For you will
sacrifice the man that clothes me.’ By helping Jesus get rid of his flesh,
Judas will help liberate the divine being within.” (Ibid.)
--The Bible says…
● Jesus
understood Judas; not the other way around (Jno. 6:64, 70-71).
●
The devil put it into Judas’ heart to
betray Jesus; it was not Jesus who did so (Jno. 13:2).
●
Judas was a thief and betrayer who
killed himself (Jno. 12:6; 18:5). Jesus did not give him special apostolic
status.
Gospel means “good
news,” but there is no good news in the life of Judas; only betrayal, sin,
death and judgment (Matt. 26:24-25).
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