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About Jesus Steve Sweetman I Cor. Chapters 11 Previous Section - Chapters 10 Next Section - Chapters 12 and 13
Propriety
In Worship (ch.11:2 - 16) By
now one might have the feeling that the Corinthians have strayed a long
way from what Paul might have originally taught them, but not so.
Paul commends them “for holding to the teachings” that he
“had passed on to them”. The
church appeared to be doing many things right, yet at the same time they
were in need of some exhortation and correction. Paul
continues on by talking to them about headship.
In verse 3 he states that the head of every man is Christ and the
head of every woman is man, and that the head of Christ is God Himself.
This is relatively easy for us to understand in light of creation.
First there was God, who created man.
Then from man, God created woman.
You can therefore understand Paul’s thinking on headship. The
next couple of sentences are harder to understand and have been
interpreted differently over the years.
Paul says that men should not cover their heads when they pray.
If they do, they “dishonour their head”, meaning Jesus.
Yet with women it is just the opposite.
They should have their heads covered when they pray or else they
dishonour their head, meaning their husband.
In some churches today this tradition carries on.
The word “tradition” brings up one interpretation of these
verses. Some suggest that this
was the early churches tradition and does not necessarily apply to us.
This may be true, but the difficulty with such thinking is that who
determines what part of Paul’s letters are tradition and what part is
God’s will for us today. The
intent of head coverings is to show honour to the person who is our head,
or over us in the Lord. In
reality we should be showing honour to these people in all we do.
Men should show honour to Jesus in all they do.
Women should show that they honour their husbands by the way they
live. Covering ones head if
you are a woman when you pray just may well be a tradition of the times,
yet Paul felt it was important enough to teach.
Paul
says that if a woman doesn’t wear something on her head when she prays
it is like having no hair at all to cover her head.
In those days it was common practice for prostitutes to have short
hair. It would appear that
Paul does not want Christian women looking like prostitutes.
To
answer the question, “do these things apply to us today”,
as yet I have no answer. I suppose I live as though these issues
are tradition. Paul also
speaks to men not having their heads covered, and also later in the
chapter saying that they should not have long hair.
In my life, I have had long hair in the past, or at least hair that
I would call long. Long hair
may depend on ones definition of what is actually long. In
verse 7 Paul says that a man should not cover his head because “he is
the image and glory of God”. God
made man from His spoken word. God
then made woman from man and therefore Paul says, “the woman is the
glory of the man”. Once
again, the bottom line is that men should have respect for God and women
should have respect for their husbands, based on creation.
In
verse 9 Paul makes a statement that is far from political correctness in
our day. He says, that “man
was not made for woman, but woman for man”.
This is clearly seen in the creation story. God thought that it was
important that the man he made was not alone.
He therefore made from man a woman for him.
Some modern people today might suggest that Paul's words here are
more tradition than God's will, but I don't think so.
Paul isn't talking about wearing hats or having long hair.
He's talking about relational things that have been in existence
since creation, and a creation made by God Himself.
Our modern world has pretty well lost all concept of what Paul is
talking about here, and part of the reason for this loss is the way men
have treated women in the past. On
the other hand, humanistic tendencies themselves have caused this loss. In
verse 10 Paul says “for this reason”,
that is because of creation, “the women ought to have a sign of
authority on her head”. Paul
gives another reason why women should have a sign of authority on their
head and that is “because of the angels”.
What that means is anyone’s guess.
There has been much speculation over the years to what Paul is
saying here, but we simply don’t know for sure.
Yet once again, the head covering is “a sign”, or a symbol.
It represents the fact that the woman is under the authority of the
man, and in particular her husband, and to me, that seems to be the
important issue here. Now
after saying this, in verses 10 and 11 Paul adds a balancing thought that
should help the women feel a little better after what he has just said.
He says, “ in the Lord” women are not independent of man and
neither is man independent of woman. Even
though woman was originally made for man, as Christians we depend on, and
need each other. There is an
element of working together, relating to each other on the same level.
Why? Although woman was
made from man, man is born of woman, so these two thoughts complement the
other. And to sum it up he
says that in the long run “everything comes from God” anyway. In
verse 13 Paul asks, “judge for yourself, is it proper for a woman to
pray to God with her head uncovered”?
Personally, I do not follow Paul’s reasoning.
Maybe it is because I am so far removed from his society.
He goes on to say that even nature tells us that it is a disgrace
for a man to have long hair. Once
again, I do not follow Paul’s reasoning.
I don’t know how nature tells us this. Continuing
on with the thought of long hair, in verse 15 Paul says that a woman’s
long hair is her glory. It is
a beautiful thing for a woman. Paul
concludes this section by saying, “if anyone wants to be contentious
about this, we have no other
practice – nor do the churches of God”.
Could the word “practice” suggest a church tradition here, a
cultural tradition that was part of the early church, possibly based on
their Jewish past? Some might
think so. Paul was clearly
Jewish, even though his Jewishness has gone through a major change.
Still, he is still a Jew, with Jewish roots and Jewishness built
into who he is. The
Lord’s Supper (ch. 11:17 - 33) Paul
is not very happy with the Corinthians in regards to the way they gather
for their meetings which includes the Lord’s Supper.
He goes as far to say in verse 17 that he “has no praise for you,
for your meetings do more harm than good”.
Now that doesn’t sound too encouraging.
I wonder what Paul might say about some of our meetings today. The
first problem that Paul has with these people concerning their meetings is
the divisions that they have when they get together.
In trying to think of some kind of positive aspect to this problem,
he says that the differences “would show who has God’s approval”.
(ch. 11:19) Those who are in
the right should be clearly evident. The
next problem is concerning the Lord’s Supper itself and how they are
participating in it. It would
appear by what Paul says that when these people get together for the
Lord’s Supper that there is a meal involved.
Some start eating before everyone gets there.
By the time everyone is there most of the food is gone and some go
hungry. And then on top of
that, some actually get drunk by drinking too much wine.
Remember, this is in a church gathering. You
might want to note that these people drank wine, both when they met as the
church and when they were alone in their homes.
Paul does not have any problem with the consumption of wine.
He says nothing about that here.
Paul
says “don’t you have homes to eat and drink in”.
By this he is implying that getting together for the Lord’s
Supper is not really about eating and drinking.
It is about fellowship with one another and with the Lord.
In verse 22 Paul says that “you despise the Beyond
despising the church Paul says that you “humiliate those who have
nothing”. These people
humiliate the poor amongst them, and Paul will not praise them for such
actions. What's
going on in the Corinthian church here is simply selfishness.
We just have a hard time putting self in its place.
From
verse 23 onward Paul tells them just how they should act when they get
together for the Lord’s Supper. Paul
says that he “received this from the Lord” and had passed it on to
them. Now he has to pass it on
again. Paul
does not say how he received these instructions from the Lord.
It's possible that others told him.
Yet, it is also possible that Jesus Himself told Paul in the many
visions he had. Paul
says that on the very night that Jesus was betrayed He sat down with the
disciples and broke a loaf of bread and told them that “this is my body
that is for you”. To me it
is clear that the bread was a symbol of Jesus’ body.
It was not His real body. He
tells the disciples to eat the bread “in remembrance of me”.
Therefore when we eat the bread, while we eat, we are to remember
Jesus and how He gave his body on the cross for us. Then
after the supper, that same night, Jesus took a cup of wine and said,
“this cup is the new covenant in my blood”.
Jesus also said that when you drink, remember me.
We remember the historical event when Jesus shed his blood for us.
The cup of wine represents the blood of Jesus which is the “new
covenant”. The old covenant
with the sacrifices of animals has been laid aside.
There is now a new covenant that is based completely on the blood
of Jesus. No other sacrifice
is needed. In
verse 26 Paul says that “whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup,
you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes”.
This clearly states the reason why we share in the Lord’s Supper.
The Lord’s Supper is a proclamation of the death of Jesus, and we
should proclaim His death in the Lord’s Supper until Jesus returns. In
verse 27 Paul says that when we eat of the Lord’s Supper in the wrong
way, as these people had been doing, they were “sinning against the body
and blood of the Lord”. Before
we eat the Lord’s Supper Paul tells us that we should “examine
ourselves” to see if we have the right motives in mind.
If we eat with the wrong motives we “bring judgment” on
ourselves. Paul, in verse 30
goes as far to say that the reason why many of the Corinthians are weak
and sick and even have died, is because they are abusing the Lord’s
Supper. They are making a
mockery out of something that is very serious.
The
reason why Paul says that we should judge ourselves is because it is
better for us to judge ourselves and change on our own than to have the
Lord judge us, which is a form of discipline.
Then the reason why the Lord disciplines His children is so that we
“will not be condemned with the world”. (ch. 11:32) Paul
closes this section by saying that when they come together they should
wait for one another and if you are really hungry, eat at home.
He wants these people to gather together in the proper way so that
they will not bring God’s judgment on themselves.
I would dare say that many churches and denominations over the
years have fallen into God's judgment due to such sins as we see in the
Corinthian church. This is
most likely why some churches are in decline and have actually fallen from
existence. This
is all Paul was prepared to say about this.
He closes by saying, “when I come I will give further
instructions”. I wonder what
else Paul could have said on this subject.
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