How do you justify using Acts 20:7 as binding the day but not the place?
Question:
I just read your article, "When are examples binding?" and I must say the very idea that an example somehow becomes a command is a, well, stretch if you ask me. You used Acts 20:7 as your "example" for when we should meet together but you don't use Acts 2:46 which tells us that they broke bread and ate together in their homes. We also see from the same text that they met daily in the temple courts. Just to use your own argument you will never find a single example of them partaking the Lord's Supper in any place but a home. How do you justify using the example as binding the day but not the place?
Answer:
Typically when answering a question, I address the topic at hand. Since Acts 2:46 wasn't raised in that particular question, it wasn't addressed in the answer. But it doesn't mean I've ignored the passage.
For instance, in "Is Acts 20:7 talking of a common meal?" I do address the mistake of referring to the common meals mentioned in Acts 2:46 for the Lord's Supper, mentioned in Acts 2:42. It was also addressed in "How did the early church know what to do and how are we to determine what we are to follow?" Your point about meeting daily in the temple court was addressed in "Is Sunday the only day of worship or can we worship God any day?"
Your point about the Lord's Supper only being taken in homes is countered by Paul's statements in I Corinthians 11. Scolding them for turning the Lord's Supper into a common meal, Paul says, "What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you" (I Corinthians 11:22). Since Paul tells them to have their meals at home, the implication is that their gathering was not at a home. "Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come" (I Corinthians 11:33-34).
The emphasis in I Corinthians 11 is that the Lord's Supper was to be taken when the church gathered together in one place (I Corinthians 11:18, 20, 33). Since we know the church gathered in a variety of facilities, then we conclude that the upper room in a home in Acts 20:7 was an incidental and not a critical part of partaking of the Lord's Supper. We have examples of Christians meeting in the temple (Acts 2:46), in synagogues (Acts 13:5), outside by a river (Acts 16:13), in upper rooms (Acts 20:8), and in people's houses (Romans 16:5).
