Grace Party: Escape to Reality Greatest Hits, Volume 3 (6 page)

There are more than 31,000 verses
in the Bible. If these verses were to enter a popularity contest, which one
would win? Well, you can probably guess. But which verse would come second or
third?

Below is
a list of the seven most popular verses in the Bible. How did I compile this
list? I did it by using the amazing power of technology!

Here’s what
I did. I downloaded a Bible onto Kindle to discover which verses had been
highlighted most often by readers. You may not know this, but whenever you
highlight a piece of text on a Kindle book, the Internet tells someone in the
Amazon what you did — or something like that. Read any book on Kindle and you
can find out what other people have highlighted in that same book with the
click of a button.

To learn
which verses are most often highlighted, I chose the English Standard Version
provided by Crossway Bibles since it’s the only free Bible available on Kindle.
If you have 95 cents, you can repeat my experiment using the King James Version
or, if have a spare six bucks, you can do it with the New International Version.

With my
free Bible installed on Kindle, I clicked on the Popular Highlights button and
hey presto! Here are the seven most highlighted passages in the Bible:

(1)
& (2) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send
his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might
be saved through him. (John 3:16–17, ESV; 1377 and 1379 highlighters
respectively)

No surprises here. Not only is
this the best news in the world it’s a perennial favorite with sports-fans.

(3) I
can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13, ESV; 812
highlighters)

This is another popular verse in
the sporting world. (I’ve seen Fijian rugby players wearing this one on their
jerseys.) This is surely one of the most practical scriptures in the Bible. At
difficult times in my life I have put this verse in my pocket to remind me that
I am not alone.

(4)
& (5) But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
(Matthew 6:33–34; 702 and 648 highlighters respectively)

In 2000 years, no one has come up
with a better remedy for anxiety and worry than this couplet from Jesus. To
seek the kingdom is to seek the King, and when you are resting in Jesus and his
righteousness, the worries of life aren’t so worrisome.

(6) “For
I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and
not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11; 568
highlighters)

Apparently this is the number one
verse in the Old Testament, and from time to time it is rated as the number one
verse in the whole Bible. Last year, for instance, Jeremiah 29:11 was the top
scripture accessed on Biblegateway.com. And why not? It’s a gem. It is God
declaring his good intentions for us. In a world of bad news, this is good news
from heaven.

(7) And
we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for
those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28, ESV; 555
highlighters)

Romans 8 is a stunner of a
chapter. If you were sent to jail in Siberia and permitted just one chapter
from the Bible, this would be the one to take. And if you could only take one
verse from that chapter, you’d take verse 31 (“If God is for us, who can be
against us?”) or perhaps verses 38 and 39 (“Nothing can separate us from the
love of God,” etc.). But if you were allowed an extra verse, then verse 28
would be an excellent choice.

A word after

I wrote this article several years
ago so I thought it might be fun to return to Kindle and see if the list had
changed. I found that every verse above still rates high in the popularity
stakes, but a new verse is now ranked at number five: “Trust in the Lord with
all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). In a
list of popular scriptures this is a most fitting inclusion, because it is the
number one takeaway of the gospel. It’s the key to abundant life.

And what
is missing from this list of popular scriptures? Some might say that there is
too much emphasis on the goodness of God and not enough emphasis on sin and
wrath. I understand this concern, but I don’t agree with it for the simple
reason that sin is a feature of the old covenant and we live under the new.
Under the old it makes sense to highlight your sin, but under the new I would
rather highlight Jesus.

Communion ought to be a time of
celebrating Christ’s finished work on the cross. It ought to be a time when we
proclaim his victory over sin and sickness. Yet for many, communion is a time
of navel-gazing self-examination. It’s a time of asking, “Am I good enough for
God? Am I worthy?”

Jesus
said “take this cup in remembrance of me,” not in remembrance of you. Communion
isn’t about you but him. Communion is a time for receiving what Jesus paid for.

Yet many
churches have unwritten rules stipulating who can and cannot take communion. In
some churches, visitors are asked to abstain from partaking. The message they
hear is, “Communion is not for you.” From whence comes this ungracious
exclusion? It comes from here:

Wherefore
whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily,
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that
eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not
discerning the Lord’s body. (1 Corinthians 11:27–29, KJV)

These are heavy-duty verses, but
Paul is not saying, “If you do communion wrong, God will smite you with
sickness and death.” When Paul tells the Corinthians, “your meetings do more
harm than good” (1 Corinthians 11:17), he is saying your meetings are a
disgrace:

You’re
competing with each other (v.18), playing silly games of one-upmanship (v.19),
and being incredibly selfish (v.21). Some of you are even getting drunk while
others are missing out completely (v.21). By acting this way you are despising
the church and humiliating those who have nothing (v.22). (My paraphrase).

There’s no question the
Corinthians were doing communion badly. But neither is there any hint that God
was going to smite them for it and make them sick as a result.

So how
do we account for these three judgmental verses above? What does Paul mean when
he says those who participate in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body
and blood of the Lord?

Taking communion in an unworthy
manner

In these three verses Paul is
speaking in general terms. Note the word whosoever as in “Whosoever shall eat
this bread…” Paul is not saying
you guys
are drinking unworthily and
you
guys
are guilty. He is saying
whosoever
drinks unworthily will be
guilty. He is making a general claim of the kind, “
Whosoever
believeth
on him shall not be ashamed” or “
Whosoever
shall call upon the name of
the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:11,13).

Who is
Paul referring to?
Who
are the whosoever? Paul is not referring to
everyone in general but everyone who drinks unworthily. He is referring to
unbelievers who partake of communion while inwardly dismissing what Christ has
done for them.

But what
does Paul mean when he says that such a person is guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord?

Guilty of the body and blood

An unbeliever who takes communion
can no longer claim ignorance of the gospel. They can’t say, “I didn’t know
Jesus died for me” because they are eating and drinking in commemoration of
that very death.

Someone
who has never heard the gospel is ignorant and therefore capable of receiving
mercy and grace. But one who has heard the gospel and scorned it is “guilty of
the blood and body of Jesus.” Although Judgment Day awaits them, such a person
has essentially brought judgment on themselves ahead of schedule. This is what
Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 11:29.

It’s not
that God is reaching down from heaven and smiting the scornful with the
damnation stamp, but they are damning themselves. They’re actually in a worse
place than when they were ignorant because now they know. They have heard the
good news of God’s grace and have hardened their hearts to it.

I hope
you can see that Paul is not referring to Christians in these three verses. A
Christian can no more eat and drink judgment on their heads than they can
blaspheme the Holy Spirit. In this passage Paul is not describing those who
have received God’s grace, but those who have tasted the goodness of God and
rejected it. They’ve heard the gospel and dismissed it.

Being
“guilty of the blood and body of Jesus” in 1 Corinthians 11 is analogous to
“trampling the Son of God underfoot” in Hebrews 10:29. Who does this? Think of
the Pharisees. Think of Judas. They tasted the goodness of God and concluded “this
is not for me”. By hardening their hearts to God’s love, they placed themselves
beyond the reach of his grace and mercy. Not a good place to be!

And this
brings me back to the question I asked at the beginning.

Can unbelievers take communion?

Many churches say, “No, it’s
inappropriate. Since unbelievers don’t value the cross, they shouldn’t be
allowed to drink judgment on themselves by taking communion.” But don’t you
find it interesting that Paul never says this. He never says,

When you
do communion, make sure you don’t give any to the unbelievers among you. But be
nice about it. Say something like, “If you’re visiting with us today, let the
cup and plate go past. Communion is for Christians only.”

Paul never says this because it’s
a bizarre thing to say! It is not our job to play the Holy Spirit. Our part is
to proclaim the finished work of the cross and one way we do that is through
communion. Denying communion to unbelievers is like denying them the gospel.
It’s like saying: “I am going to proclaim the good news, but if you’re visiting
with us today, have the freedom to jam your fingers in your ears. The good news
is for Christians only.”

Can you
see how absurd this is?

Communion
is a symbol of God’s grace. It represents the awesome price God paid to redeem
you from the prison of sin. An appropriate response is to say, “Thank you,
Jesus, for your death on the cross!” An inappropriate response is to dismiss it
as irrelevant. “This is not for me.” But no one will respond unless they are
given the opportunity to respond.

Paul
never says, “Don’t let unbelievers take communion.” Instead, he says, “Everyone
ought to examine themselves first.” And what is the proper way to examine
ourselves? Answer: In light of the cross. “Jesus died for me! The world says
I’m nobody special and I know I am a miserable sinner, but if Jesus died for
me, then he must really love me. Thank you Jesus!”

Coming to
the communion table in an unworthy manner is surely a big deal, but it’s no
worse than rejecting the gospel. If we are indiscriminate with the gospel, we
should be equally generous with the table.

So the
next time you do communion, don’t worry about who’s saved and who’s not. That’s
not your concern. Instead, proclaim and celebrate the good news of God’s love
and grace and let each one respond as the Holy Spirit leads them. Communion is
a time for celebrating Jesus’ death. It is a time for proclaiming the
awesomeness of his grace. It is not a time for playing judge and jury.

A word after

Communion is not complicated. In
two words, it’s simply “remembering Jesus.” But judging by the feedback I
received on this article, for some people communion remains a bit of a mystery.

I have
been asked many questions about communion. Most of these questions can be
easily answered if we replace the word communion with the word gospel.

“Can
unbelievers receive communion?” Can unbelievers receive the gospel? Of course
they can.

“Who
would you ban from taking communion?” Who would you ban from hearing the
gospel?

“Who can
preside over communion?” Who can preach the gospel? The answer to one is the
answer to the other, which is to say any believer can.

Do you
see? Religion likes to make things complicated but the gospel, including
communion, is simple. Religion likes to judge and draw lines. “You’re in,
you’re out. You’re clean, you’re unclean. You can take communion, you can’t
take communion.” But grace is inclusive. Jesus ate with anyone who would eat
with him. He even broke bread with Judas.

“But
what about children taking communion?” Some churches make it a habit to keep
small children from the table because they “don’t understand.” I don’t think
this is a wise practice for it’s motivated by fear rather than love. It sends
the message that all are not welcome and God is scary. This is not a message
for our children, or anyone, to hear.

In our
house we take communion with our young children nearly every Sunday. For us
it’s an opportunity to remember Jesus, and we partake with joy and
thanksgiving. Our only requirement for the children is that they need to be old
enough to eat the crackers!