Communion

Communion in scripture names a relation, not a rite — the shared life between Yahweh and the people he calls his own, and, on the horizontal axis, the shared life of those people with each other. The vocabulary runs along three lines: God walks among, dwells with, and abides in; the saints walk before him, draw near to him, and have one another in counsel and comfort; the line between belonging and estrangement is drawn by whether one stays within the relation. The eucharistic sense, where the same Greek word for fellowship/communion attaches to the cup and the bread (1Co 10:16-17), belongs to the Lord's Supper and is treated under that umbrella; here the page tracks communion as relation.

The Divine Presence

The keynote of communion with God in this canon is a presence-formula attached to the divine Speech. Yahweh tells Jacob fleeing Esau, "look, [my Speech is] with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land" (Ge 28:15), and the formula returns when Jacob is sent home: "Return to the land of your fathers, and to your kindred; and [my Speech] will be with you" (Ge 31:3). It authorizes Moses at the bush — "Certainly [my Speech] will be with you; and this will be the token to you, that I have sent you" (Ex 3:12) — and stays with him after Sinai: "My presence will go [with you], and I will give you rest" (Ex 33:14). It is recited as covenant ratification: "I will stay among the sons of Israel, and [my Speech] will be their God" (Ex 29:45); "[my Speech] will walk among you⁺, and [my Speech] will be your⁺ God, and you⁺ will be my people" (Le 26:12). It is the warrant for crossing into the land — "[the Speech of] Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go" (Jos 1:9) — and for facing armed empires: "Yahweh your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt" (De 20:1). Isaiah carries it through deep water and fire: "When you pass through the waters, [my Speech] will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned" (Is 43:2). Zechariah pushes it forward as eschatological promise — "I come, and I will stay in the midst of you, says Yahweh" (Zec 2:10) — and Revelation closes the canon with the same line: "Look, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them" (Re 21:3). Communion with God, in this strand, is not what humans achieve toward God but what God's Speech maintains toward them.

Walking with God

A second strand names the human side of the relation as walking. Two antediluvian figures set the pattern: "Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for [the Speech of] God took him" (Ge 5:24, with the duration noted in Ge 5:22-23), and "Noah was a righteous man, [and] perfect in his generations: Noah walked with God" (Ge 6:9). The Abrahamic call sharpens the term into command: "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be perfect" (Ge 17:1). It becomes covenantal: Josiah "made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all [his] heart, and all [his] soul" (2Ki 23:3). Micah turns it into the corporate confession of the remnant — "we will walk in the name of Yahweh our God forever and ever" (Mi 4:5) — and Malachi makes it the stamp of the ideal Levite: "he walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity" (Mal 2:6). Revelation gathers the same language into the eschatological reward: "they will walk with me in white; for they are worthy" (Re 3:4).

Drawing Near

The ritual correlate of walking is drawing near. The verb groups together prayer, presence at the sanctuary, and access to God by faith. The psalmist makes it personal — "it is good for me to draw near to God: I have made the Sovereign Yahweh my refuge" (Ps 73:28) — and lists the conditions of nearness: "Yahweh is near to those who are of a broken heart" (Ps 34:18); "Yahweh is near to all those who call on him, To all who call on him in truth" (Ps 145:18); "You are near, O Yahweh; And all your commandments are truth" (Ps 119:151). Hebrews makes drawing near the function of the better hope — "a bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw near to God" (He 7:19) — and turns it into pastoral command: "let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed in pure water" (He 10:22). James reciprocates the verb: "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you⁺. Cleanse your⁺ hands, you⁺ sinners; and purify your⁺ hearts, you⁺ double-minded" (Jas 4:8). The setting of drawing near is not always the temple — Saul's priest asks the question in the field at the edge of battle, "Let us draw near here to [the Speech of] God" (1Sa 14:36) — but the concentration of the verb in prayer, oracle, and approach to the mercy-seat is consistent. So Yahweh is "a God at hand…and not a God far off" (Je 23:23), and "He is near who justifies me" (Is 50:8). The psalmist sets the same posture as a daily discipline: "I have set Yahweh always before me: Because he is at my right hand, I will not be moved" (Ps 16:8).

Patriarchs and Prophets in Conference

Communion with God shows up biographically as conference: God speaks, the human listens and answers. Moses' communion goes furthest. At the mountain "Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was" (Ex 20:21); "Moses alone will come near to Yahweh; but they will not come near; neither will the people go up with him" (Ex 24:2); "the pillar of cloud descended, and stood at the door of the Tent: and [the Speech of Yahweh] spoke with Moses" (Ex 33:9). At the Tent "Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his companion" (Ex 33:11). At the mercy-seat the form of the conference is itself supplied: "And there [my Speech] will meet with you, and I will commune with you from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony" (Ex 25:22). And Moses is graded above other prophets: "with him I will speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the form of Yahweh he will see" (Nu 12:8). At Sinai the Speech "called Moses to the top of the mount" (Ex 19:20); from the tent of meeting "Yahweh called to Moses, and [the Speech of Yahweh] spoke to him out of the tent of meeting" (Le 1:1). The same mode of speech-from-the-presence opens the Levitical legislation: "And Yahweh said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers, and to your kindred; and [my Speech] will be with you" (Ge 31:3). The conferring presence then transfers across leaders — Moses to Joshua to king and prophet — but the form remains the same: the Speech goes with the people in the person of its addressed representative.

Communion with Christ

In the gospels and epistles communion shifts onto a christological axis. The farewell discourse tightens it almost to identity: "In that day you⁺ will know that I am in my Father, and you⁺ in me, and I in you⁺" (Jn 14:20). The same speech promises a reciprocal indwelling contingent on love and obedience — "If a man loves me, he will keep my speech: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make a place to stay with him" (Jn 14:23) — and another Supporter, the Spirit, who "stays with you⁺, and will be in you⁺" (Jn 14:17). Paul names the relation in summary: "God is faithful, through whom you⁺ were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord" (1Co 1:9). John reissues it pastorally: "that which we have seen and heard we declare to you⁺ also, that you⁺ also may have fellowship with us: yes, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1Jn 1:3). The image of the open door distills it: "Look, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Re 3:20).

Abiding

The vine discourse is the longest sustained scriptural treatment of communion with Christ. The image is mutual indwelling and bearing of fruit: "I am the vine, you⁺ are the branches: He who stays in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit: for apart from me you⁺ can do nothing" (Jn 15:5). The verb is reciprocal — "Stay in me, and I in you⁺. As the branch can't bear fruit of itself, except it stays in the vine; so neither can you⁺, except you⁺ stay in me" (Jn 15:4) — and conditional on word and love: "If you⁺ stay in me, and my words stay in you⁺, ask whatever you⁺ will, and it will be done to you⁺" (Jn 15:7); "Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you⁺: stay⁺ in my love" (Jn 15:9); "If you⁺ keep my commandments, you⁺ will stay in my love" (Jn 15:10). The relation is renamed friendship: "No longer do I call you⁺ slaves; for the slave doesn't know what his lord does: but I have called you⁺ friends; for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known to you⁺" (Jn 15:15). The negative pole is part of the same logic: "If a man does not stay in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned" (Jn 15:6). John's epistles continue the verb: "he who says he stays in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked" (1Jn 2:6); "stay in him; that, when he is manifested, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming" (1Jn 2:28); "Whoever stays in him doesn't sin: whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him" (1Jn 3:6); "Whoever goes onward and doesn't stay in the teaching of Christ, doesn't have God: he who stays in the teaching, the same has both the Father and the Son" (2Jn 1:9).

Communion of the Spirit

A third sub-relation in the New Testament names the Holy Spirit explicitly as a partner in the communion. The benediction at the close of 2 Corinthians sets the three persons in parallel: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you⁺" (2Co 13:13). Paul presupposes the same shared life as the ground of unity: "If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, make my joy full, that you⁺ are of the same mind" (Php 2:1-2). The Spirit's communion is internal and filial: "And because you⁺ are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Ga 4:6). It is the body's constitution: "For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit" (1Co 12:12-13). And it is the corporate temple-language of indwelling: "we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people" (2Co 6:16).

Communion of the Saints

The horizontal communion runs on the same vocabulary as the vertical. The keynote question is Amos's: "Will two walk together, except they have agreed?" (Am 3:3). The Songs of Ascents distill it: "Look, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity!" (Ps 133:1). Malachi gives a prose form of the same: "those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for those who feared Yahweh, and who thought on his name" (Mal 3:16). John binds the two axes together: "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1Jn 1:7). The eucharistic sentence provides the strongest short statement: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ? seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body: for we all partake of the one bread" (1Co 10:16-17).

The Practice of Communion among the Saints

The epistles work the relation out as practice. Paul lists the actions that hold the body together. Mutual feeling: "Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep" (Ro 12:15). Mutual unity: "forbearing one another in love" (Eph 4:2); "being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph 4:3). Mutual instruction: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you⁺ richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms [and] hymns [and] spiritual songs" (Col 3:16). Mutual comfort: "Therefore comfort one another with these words" (1Th 4:18). Mutual building: "Therefore exhort one another, and build each other up" (1Th 5:11). Mutual vigilance against sin's slow corrosion: "exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called Today; lest any one of you⁺ be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb 3:13). Mutual provocation to good: "let us consider one another to provoke to love and good works; not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting [one another]; and so much the more, as you⁺ see the day drawing near" (Heb 10:24-25). Mutual confession and prayer: "Confess therefore your⁺ sins one to another, and pray one for another, that you⁺ may be healed" (Jas 5:16).

Table Fellowship

The communion of the saints lands at the shared table. The household at Bethany supplies the picture: "So they made him a supper there: and Martha served; but Lazarus was one of those who sat to eat with him" (Jn 12:2). The setting is itself a sign — a man raised from the dead reclining with his raiser, served by his sister. Table fellowship has its etiquette. The chief seat is refused in advance: "When you are invited of any man to a marriage feast, don't sit down in the chief seat; lest perhaps a more honorable man than you be invited of him" (Lu 14:8). The guest list is widened past the reciprocal circle: "When you make a dinner or a supper, do not call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbors; lest perhaps they also bid you again, and a recompense be made you" (Lu 14:12). The shared sound of the gathering is part of its evidence: "as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing" (Lu 15:25). Paul keeps the table open across belief-lines: "If someone who does not believe bids you⁺ [to a feast], and you⁺ are disposed to go; whatever is set before you⁺, eat, asking no question for the sake of conscience" (1Co 10:27). The sage gates the company on the righteous side: "Share your bread with righteous men; And let your glory be in the fear of God" (Sir 9:16). And the same wisdom literature gates the speech that preserves fellowship at the cup: "At a banquet of wine do not rebuke a friend, And do not grieve him in his merriment. Do not speak to him a reproachful word, And do not quarrel with him before others" (Sir 31:31). The early Christian apology to Diognetus distills the limit-shape of this communion in a single line: "They eat together, but do not sleep together" (Gr 5:7). Fellowship is real and bounded — common at the table, not common at the bed.

Limits of the Relation

The same vocabulary is used to mark off communion's outer edge. The saints are not to share the relation with what cannot enter it. Paul: "Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what communion has light with darkness?" (2Co 6:14); "And what agreement has a temple of God with idols? For we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people" (2Co 6:16). The remedy is not withdrawal from the world but separation in it: "Therefore Come⁺ out from among them, and be⁺ separate, says the Lord, And touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you⁺" (2Co 6:17). Ephesians applies the same line to conduct: "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, and even better, reprove them as well" (Eph 5:11).

Estrangement

The communion-vocabulary has its negative shadow. People are "alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (Eph 2:12), "alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart" (Eph 4:18). The estrangement runs deep: "The wicked are estranged from the womb: They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies" (Ps 58:3); "I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols" (Eze 14:5); the Levites who "went far from me, when Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their idols, they will bear their iniquity" (Eze 44:10). Jeremiah names the same drift: "What unrighteousness have your⁺ fathers found in [my Speech], that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?" (Je 2:5). The companion image is the wanderer: "All of us like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way" (Is 53:6); "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your slave; For I do not forget your commandments" (Ps 119:176); "you⁺ were like sheep that go astray; but have now been returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your⁺ souls" (1Pe 2:25). Proverbs reads the same shape as a verdict: "[The] man who wanders out of the way of understanding Will rest in the assembly of the spirits of the dead" (Pr 21:16); "As a bird that wanders from her nest, So is a man who wanders from his place" (Pr 27:8). The pastoral application makes wandering culpable for the shepherds as well as the sheep: "My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray" (Je 50:6); "My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill: yes, my sheep were scattered on all the face of the earth; and there was none who searched or sought [after them]" (Eze 34:6). At the New Testament edge the wanderer is still in view: those who have "swerved" and "turned aside to vain talking" (1Ti 1:6); those who, "having forsaken the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam" (2Pe 2:15); "Wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever" (Jud 1:13). Even the apostle owns the same liability: "I buffet my body, and bring it into slavery: lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disapproved" (1Co 9:27).

God's Face Hidden

Estrangement has a divine side too. The covenant warning is that the communion-presence becomes a withheld presence: "I [by my Speech] will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which they will have wrought, in that they have turned to other gods" (De 31:18). The psalmist's complaint is the inversion of the presence-formula: "Why do you hide your face, And forget our affliction and our oppression?" (Ps 44:24). Isaiah names the moral cause: "but your⁺ iniquities have separated between you⁺ and your⁺ God, and your⁺ sins have hid his face from you⁺, so that he will not hear" (Is 59:2); "And there is none who calls on your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of you; for you have hid your face from us, and have consumed us by means of our iniquities" (Is 64:7). Spread hands and many prayers do not penetrate the same blockage: "And when you⁺ spread forth your⁺ hands, I will hide my eyes from you⁺; yes, when you⁺ make many prayers, I will not hear: your⁺ hands are full of blood" (Is 1:15). Ezekiel reads the exile through the same lens: "I hid my face from them: so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they fell all of them by the sword" (Eze 39:23). Micah does the same with the day of judgment: "Then they will cry to Yahweh, but he will not answer them; yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, according to as they have wrought evil in their doings" (Mi 3:4). The hidden face is not the opposite of the communion-presence but its dark obverse — the same Yahweh, withholding the same face, on grounds the prophets keep naming.