Articles
Bible Authority - Part 3
Bible Authority - Part 3
By Derek Long
We have been examining the need to use the Bible as
our standard of authority. We have seen how everything we do needs to have positive divine authority behind it. We have discussed how God’s silence does not grant us authority to act. We need to understand the method by which we establish Bible authority for a certain practice we might engage in. Bible authority can be established in one of three different ways: 1. Direct statements or commands. 2. Approved Examples. 3. Necessary Inferences.
The Lord’s Supper
The Lord’s Supper serves as a good way to illustrate how we use commands, examples, and necessary inferences to know what God authorizes.
1. We have direct commands telling us we must partake of the
Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Jesus. Jesus Himself commands in Luke 22:19, “do this in remembrance of Me.” Paul recounts the instructions he had received from the Lord as containing statements like “do this in remembrance of Me” and “this do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). We understand the need to partake of the Lord’s Supper through direct commands such as these. 2. We have approved examples to tell us the elements to be used in partaking of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper consists of bread and fruit of the vine because Jesus used these two elements in instituting it (Matthew 26:26-29). We are authorized to use these two elements but no other elements are authorized.
3. We have an approved example for the day on which we, as disciples, should partake of the Lord’s Supper. Paul and the disciples at Troas gathered together on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7). We find no other day recorded in the New Testament when disciples came together to partake of the Lord’s Supper. Sunday is authorized and no other day is authorized. We may notice Paul was hurrying to be in Jerusalem by Pentecost (Acts 20:16). However, he remains in Troas seven days to have the opportunity to assemble with these Christians in Troas and partake of the Lord’s Supper with them (Acts 20:6).
4. We have a necessary inference we must draw when it comes to the frequency with which we observe the Lord’s Supper. Acts 20:7 says, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.” We have recorded for us here the actions of the disciples “on the first day of the week.” Which week did they engage in these practices? When a group says they are going to meet here Tuesday at 7:00, we understand they mean every Tuesday at 7:00. When God commanded Israel to remember the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8), He meant every Sabbath. When disciples come together to break bread on the first day of the week, we draw the necessary conclusion it is every first day of the week. If
God had intended to set up a monthly or yearly observance, He could have. God framed the language in such a way as to indicate the Lord’s Supper is to be a weekly observance.
5. We have a necessary inference we must draw when it comes to the type of bread we are to use. Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper during a period of time known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Matthew 26:17). During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, all leaven was to be removed from the houses of the Jews. As a result, Jesus, as a faithful Jew, would not have eaten leavened bread during this time. Therefore, we use unleavened bread in our observance of the Lord’s Supper as a result of a necessary inference.
Other facts about the Lord’s Supper can be learned in a similar manner but these show how commands, examples, and necessary inferences are used to authorize the things we do in life.
Commands, examples, and necessary inferences are the rules we use to interpret all communication and not simply the Bible. In seeking to understand a certain law, we look at the law itself, past precedent, and draw the necessary conclusions. Let’s make sure all we do can be authorized by a command, example, or necessary inference.
- Bulletin_-_4_22_18.pdf (58.63 kB)
