The Second Serving of the Lord’s Supper

Most churches of Christ eat the Lord’s supper together during the Sunday morning assembly and then offer it the second time at the Sunday evening assembly. Is this “second serving” scriptural?

For any practice to be scriptural, the Bible must teach it, i.e., give authority for it (Colossians 3:17). Where does the Bible authorize this second serving? It is certainly not necessarily implied in Acts 20:7. Neither is there an example of it there. Notice that when the disciples came together upon the first day of the week to break bread, Paul preached unto them “until midnight.” If they had a second serving, it would have had to have been after Paul finished his speech, on the second day of the week. That would have been contrary to what those disciples came together to do, to partake on the first day of the week.

Notice both Acts 20:7 and I Cor 11 teach the church comes together for the purpose of eating the Lord’s supper, not just one member as happens many times during the Sunday evening assembly today. Acts 20:7 says “the disciples came together to break bread.” I Corinthians 11:20 says, “When ye (the whole church, verse 18 and I Corinthians 14:23) come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper” (it should have been).

In the Bible the disciples waited for one another; they all ate the Lord’s supper at the same time. Today’s practice (for some) is for the disciples to eat the supper at different times (most in morning, some in evening), not to wait and eat together, but to go ahead and eat, designating another time for others to eat. The Corinthians were condemned for this same practice of eating at different times. I Corinthians 11:21a reads, “For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper ….” The Corinthians were told to wait on one another to eat, not to designate another time for others to eat. I Corinthians 11:33 reads, “Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.”

No, the second serving of the Lord’s supper is not scriptural, and no number of hypotheticals can change that fact. There is no evidence anywhere in the Bible of a second serving. The second serving is a way of providing for the eating of the Lord’s supper by a congregation at different times. The Bible teaches a congregation is to purpose to eat the Lord’s supper together at the same time (I Corinthians 11:20-21, 33).

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