THE UNCLEAN ONES
Besides these five parties, there is still another party, the cut-off ones. “But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people” (Lev. 7:20). The unclean ones are cut off. The fulfillment of this type is seen in 1 Corinthians 5:9-11: “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one, no, not to eat.”
The unclean ones must be cut off from the church fellowship, and that is the meaning of the term “excommunication.” The unclean members of the church must be excommunicated from the church fellowship. So we see that it is a serious thing to come to the fellowship of the Lord’s table. It is a joyful feast on the one hand, but on the other hand the Lord’s table is a most holy thing. Whenever we come to participate in the fellowship of the Lord’s table, we must realize that this is a holy matter. We are not only fellowshipping with others, but also with God. It is not simply man that is enjoying this table, but also God. God is feasting together with us; hence, how can a person that is unclean participate in the peace offering? That is a kind of insult to the Lord. Therefore, the unclean persons must be cut off until they become clean again.
THE NEED OF DAILY EXPERIENCES
We have seen from the peace offering the real meaning of the Lord’s table. It is a feast set before God and before the saints in the church, with Christ as our peace offering for the enjoyment of all the parties involved. But there is one matter that we must stress. The peace offering that we bring to the church meetings to present to God depends upon our daily experiences of Christ as our burnt offering and meal offering. For the Lord’s table meeting, we need more and more proper and adequate experiences of Christ in these two aspects, especially in the humanity of Jesus. This is why we spent so much time to consider the meal offering. The humanity of Jesus is very basic in our experience in order for us to bring the peace offering to the Lord’s table.
(Christ as the Reality, Chapter 18, by Witness Lee)
