In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul compares the church to the body of Christ. “Is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?” he asks. “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).
The communion bread should remind us that in participating with Christ, we are also participating with one another, because we are all one in him. Although we are different in many respects, we are all nevertheless members of one another (Romans 12:5), for we all partake of Christ, the Bread of Life. Our unity is in him, and this unity is not just a figure of speech—it affects the way we treat one another.