Acts 2:46
ESV - 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts.
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During the early church, the group that called themselves Christians, or Christ Followers, practiced hospitality, and sharing together. They were actually going from house to house, eating together. Perhaps one day at John's another day at Peter's and the next at Thomas'. So their fellowship time was around the "breaking of bread'. This was the communion time, their fellowship time. Jesus said to them, when you do this, remember me. So they were talking about the Lord, having fellowship with other believers and eating together and using hospitality as a spiritual gift. Many of the Christians were Jews, and so they were still going to Synagogue and then sharing time with other believers in their homes.Those who were gentiles would not be going to synagogue, so they were taught and spent time of fellowship in homes. Today, when we have our "communion" of the Lord's table, and it takes on different forms in different denominations The emblems symbolize the Lord's death, burial and ressurrection, and we remember Him in this symbolic act, and we fellowship around the teaching of the word, and sometimes eating together during social times. It has just taken on a different custom over the centuries, but we are still doing basically what the Lord was referring to.
Justin Martyr, writing in the year 155 AD, tells of the weekly gathering done on the Sunday, when they pray and break bread. He said, "This food is called among us Eucharist. No one is allowed to partake unless he believes on the teachings, has been baptized, and living a Christ-like life. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these, but as we have been taught, that it is the flesh and blood of Jesus."
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