Should we use only one cup for the Lord’s Supper?
Categories: Bible Questions and Answers Tags: Bible Lessons on Antiism, Bible Lessons on One Cup, Bible Lessons on the Lord's SupperI have a question. As members of the Church of Christ, the Bible is our only standard of authority. But, by what authority do you use multiple cups for communion, when the Bible plainly shows that Jesus used one cup in communion? Paul reiterated this in 1 Cor 11. The cup is representative of the New Testament. How many New Testaments do we have? One. How many cups are we authorized to use for communion? One. Do you have a response to this?
Yes, my response to this is that I do drink the one cup. The cup is the contents, not the container. When Jesus told the disciples to drink the cup, he didn’t mean for them to drink the vessel, but the contents (Matthew 26:27). The fruit of the vine is the object of unity, not the container of that element. If someone were trying to get us to drink fruit of the vine, iced tea, Dr. Pepper, and other beverages, then I certainly would oppose that because there is no authority for it. However, the idea that the container itself is the cup which Jesus tells us to drink, simply is not true. We drink the contents, not the container; there is our object of unity. Just as the “plate” for the bread serves no function other than to have a convenient way of serving the bread, so also the container for the fruit of the vine serves no function other than convenience.