Why did the first church eat together?
Luke gives a short list of what the first believers in Jerusalem devoted themselves to, day after day. One of the four things on it was a meal.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.Acts 2:42
Breaking bread meant the Lord’s Supper, and it also meant an ordinary dinner in someone’s home. In those first years they were often the same table.
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,Acts 2:46
The temple and the house
They didn’t choose between the big gathering and the small one. They went to the temple courts together, and then they went home and ate together. The large meeting gave them one voice. The table is where they learned each other’s names, children, worries and stories.
A home for the solitary
Long before the church, a psalm described what God does with people who are alone.
God settles the solitary in a home;Psalm 68:6
A room of chairs can hold a lot of people for an hour without any of them being known. A table makes that much harder. A great deal of the New Testament happens around one.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.