{"id":9532,"date":"2007-04-22T21:42:06","date_gmt":"2007-04-23T02:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=9532"},"modified":"2019-09-12T22:06:45","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T03:06:45","slug":"when-are-examples-binding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-are-examples-binding\/","title":{"rendered":"When are examples binding?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

“The only other ordinance taught by Christ was for them to celebrate the Lord’s Supper each first day of the week, generally in the evening twilight.” [The Story of the Churches of Christ in Central Europe<\/a>].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There have been disagreements over practices through the years based on which apostolic examples are binding. How can we judge (discern), or what standard should we use, to determine which examples in the New Testament are binding and which are not?<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

There is a sermon “When are Biblical Examples Binding?<\/a>” which covers most of your question. The only thing I would add to it is that when an example is given, thought must be given as to whether the information is incidental or critical to the example. In the case of the church meeting on the first day of the week we read, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight<\/em>” (Acts 20:7). The day of the week is critical to this example because we are told that it was the time the disciples came together to partake of the Lord’s Supper. But notice it doesn’t say when they came together during the day. We only know that they stayed past midnight. So is assembling all night important for each church to do in their worship of God? The question is why was the time mentioned? It was mentioned to help us understand that Paul was leaving and the brethren wanted to take advantage of all the time they had available to be with Paul. It was also mentioned to explain why a man fell asleep and fell out of a window a bit later. In other words, the time of day was critical to the events in the story, but not to the example of when Christians gathered for worship.<\/p>\n

In other words, we can properly and absolutely infer that Christians had a habit of meeting for worship on the first day of the week, but this event does not allow us to necessarily infer that they always met late in the evening or always stayed until passed midnight when worshiping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: “The only other ordinance taught by Christ was for them to celebrate the Lord’s Supper each first day of the week, generally in the evening twilight.” [The Story of the Churches of Christ in Central Europe]. There have been disagreements over practices through the years based on which apostolic examples are binding. How can…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[78,1570],"class_list":["post-9532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-authority","tag-examples"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35470,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/approved-examples\/","url_meta":{"origin":9532,"position":0},"title":"Approved Examples","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mike Johnson What should be our attitude toward the concept of \"example\" as an acceptable form of Bible authority? There are three possible attitudes one might have. First, a person might say that all examples are binding. However, this attitude is unlikely, and, as we will see later, this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17972,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-justify-using-acts-207-as-binding-the-day-but-not-the-place\/","url_meta":{"origin":9532,"position":1},"title":"How do you justify using Acts 20:7 as binding the day but not the place?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"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.\u00a0 You used Acts 20:7 as your \"example\" for when we should meet together but you don't use Acts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52944,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-apostles-and-hermeneutics\/","url_meta":{"origin":9532,"position":2},"title":"The Apostles and Hermeneutics","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Frank Jamerson Some of the articles that I have read lately have confused ridicule with reasoning. They seem to think that if they ridicule commands, examples, and necessary inferences as the basis of authority, they have given a scholarly refutation of pattern authority. One such article concluded: \"It seems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20165,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/since-they-met-at-night-in-acts-207ff-does-that-mean-christians-today-should-only-meet-at-night\/","url_meta":{"origin":9532,"position":3},"title":"Since they met at night in Acts 20:7ff, does that mean Christians today should only meet at night?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In your article, \"When Are Biblical Examples Binding?\" you mentioned that there is no specific command as to when to partake of the Lord's Supper, but that Acts 20:7 becomes a binding example because it is the only example. If this is true which I feel it is true,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38540,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-examples-authoritative\/","url_meta":{"origin":9532,"position":4},"title":"Are Examples Authoritative?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant There is a school of thought among us that Biblical examples are good and instructive, but that an example is not authoritative, i.e., that we cannot bind examples today. I have seen that argument made concerning the Lord's Supper. While one writer, a young preacher I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8432,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-must-the-lords-supper-be-taken-every-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":9532,"position":5},"title":"Why must the Lord’s Supper be taken every week?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why is it necessary to celebrate the Lord\u2019s Table every week and not, say, once a month or whenever we feel like it? Answer: \"For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}