11
📚Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. 11:1 See 1 Cor 4:16; Phil 3:17; 1 Thess 1:6. Paul gives here the reason why it is good to follow his example – God had enabled him to live as Christ had lived. In fact, it was Christ in him doing the living (Gal 2:20). And that is the only way they or anyone would have the power to follow Paul’s example.⚜
2 📚Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things, and obey the instructions 📖 just as I gave them to you.
Public worship
3 📚But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head 📖 of Christ is God. 4 📚Every man praying or prophesying with his head covered dishonours his head.
11:4 Some think the second use of “head” in this verse refers to Christ (v 3). This would mean that Paul used the word in two different senses in this verse. This seems unlikely. To dishonor his head probably means to dishonor himself.⚜
5 📚But every woman who prays or prophesies with uncovered head dishonours her head, for that is just like having her head shaved. 6 📚For if the woman’s head is not covered, let her hair be cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or shaved, let her head be covered.
11:5-6 Is it fitting for women to pray or prophesy in public meetings when both men and women are present? Paul does not take up that question here. In 1 Cor 14:34 he says “women should remain silent in the churches”. The subject there is prophesying, not praying. He never says specifically that a woman should not pray aloud in public meetings for worship. In the New Testament we see that some women also had the gift of prophesying – Acts 2:18; 21:9. It seems that Paul taught they should not use this gift in public meetings of both men and women, but that they might do so at other times (1 Cor 14:34-35; 1 Tim 2:11-12).
Here in v 5 Paul seems to be saying that if a woman prays (in public, when men are present) or prophesies (at any other time) she should cover her head. A shaven head for a woman was a mark of dishonor. So is praying or prophesying without covering her head, Paul says. He does not say that covering the head is necessary even when not praying aloud or prophesying.
Some people may say that coverings for the head (or long or short hair – vs 14,15) are only symbols and not important. It is true that they are symbols, but symbols God has appointed have their importance, and those who are ready to get rid of the symbols may be showing also their readiness to get rid of that which the symbols signify. But, someone may say, isn’t all this a comparatively small matter? What if it is? Believers are not to please themselves even in those things they think are small matters (1 Cor 10:29, 33; 1 Cor 11:1). But don’t Christians have freedom? They have freedom, but they should use their freedom to do what is fitting, and not to act contrary to what is fitting.⚜
7 📚For a man indeed should not cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man.
11:7 Here is the reason a man should not cover his head in public worship. An uncovered head is a sign of authority and God gave to man authority over all other created things on earth, including woman. In this way a man reflects the glory of God who is the supreme Ruler over all. Women should cover their heads, Paul says, because it is a sign of submission to the God-given authority men have over them. By submitting to man’s authority a woman is reflecting man’s glory.⚜
8 📚For man is not from woman, but woman from man. 9 📚Nor was man created for woman, but woman for man.
11:8-9 See Gen 2:20-23. He is saying that God put man first in creation to show woman’s subordination (woman was “for man”, not the reverse of this).⚜
10 📚For this reason a woman should have a symbol of man’s authority on her head, because of the angels.
11:4-10 Paul is speaking of public worship. At such times all things should be done “properly and in order”. Paul makes a distinction between what is proper for men and what is proper for women. He based this distinction not on the customs of the times, but on the basic relationship between men and women which God Himself has revealed (vs 3,7-9).⚜
11:10 Here is another reason why women should cover their heads when praying or prophesying, and this reason too had nothing to do with customs at Corinth. Angels are watching the gatherings of believers and they know what is fitting and what is not fitting. Christian women should not behave in a way which is offensive to these messengers whom God has sent forth to serve believers (Heb 1:14).⚜
11:7-10 He does not base his views of what is honorable or dishonorable on local customs, but on God’s purpose in creating men and women. He is speaking of the creation of the first man and woman (Genesis chapters 1 and 2).⚜
11 📚Nevertheless, in the Lord, man is not independent of woman, and woman is not independent of man. 12 📚For as woman is from man, even so man is through woman; but all things are from God.
11:11-12 Paul did not want his readers to think he is exalting men and putting women far below them in everything. In the matter of authority man is the head, but in everything else there is a mutual dependence. God has appointed it that a man and his wife form a unit.⚜
13 📚Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?
11:13 Paul thinks the matter is so plain that believers should be able to see the truth without any instruction from him.⚜
14 Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him? 15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her. For her hair is given to her as a covering.
11:14-15 Paul says long hair is a disgrace to a man but a glory to a woman, and that they should know this without him saying it. What would he say in these days when many women (especially in western countries) cut off their “glory”, and many men seem proud of their “disgrace”? Paul does not define “long”, but plainly means that women should have longer hair than men. “Covering” in v 15 is not the same covering he speaks of in vs 5,6.⚜
16 📚But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do the churches of God.
11:16 Paul was aware that some will want to dispute what he says. He will not argue. It is enough that he has presented the truth – truth followed by all the churches in his day.⚜
The Lord’s supper
17 📚In what I have to tell you now I do not praise you: your meeting together does not produce the better, but the worse.
11:17 Verses 22,34.⚜
18 📚First of all, I hear that when you meet together as a church, that there are divisions among you; and in part I believe it.
11:18 See 1 Cor 1:10-12; 3:3-4. It seems they did not keep their divisions and quarrels private but brought them to church with them.⚜
19 📚For there must also be dissensions 📖 among you, so that those who are approved 📖 by God may be revealed among you.
20 Therefore, when you meet together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s supper, 21 📚for in eating, everyone begins his own supper ahead of others, and someone is hungry, and another is drunk. 22 📚What? Do you not have houses in which to eat, and drink? Or do you despise the church of God, and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? I will not praise you.
11:20-22 They said they were observing the Lord’s Supper. But they abused the occasion so badly that Paul says it should not even be considered the Lord’s Supper. Some churches in those times had a common meal in connection with the Lord’s Supper. Because the object of it was to show their love for one another it was called a “love-feast” (Jude 12). But at Corinth it could not rightly be called that, for the Christians there were not thinking of one another but only of themselves or their factions. Their behavior in the church was as if they despised the church (v 22). They forgot that the Lord’s Supper spoke of union with Christ and with one another (1 Cor 10:16-17).⚜
23 📚For I have received from the Lord that which I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread,
11:23 He now begins to reveal again what the Lord’s Supper means and how it should be observed. He had once passed this truth on to them but they had gotten away from it. What he had passed on he had received from the Lord Jesus. It agrees with the accounts given in the Gospels. See Matt 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-22.⚜
24 📚and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “Take, eat. This is my body 📖 which is broken for you. 📖 Do this 📖 in remembrance 📖 of me”. 25 📚In the same manner also he took the cup after he had eaten, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me”.
11:25 The cup contained wine which, according to Matt 26:28, was a symbol of Christ’s blood. It was shed to establish the new covenant (see notes there). Notice the wording here: “this cup is the new covenant”. It is obvious that the cup was not literally the new covenant. The cup was simply a cup, but it was a symbol of the new covenant in Christ’s blood. We should understand in the same way v 24 which speaks of the bread being Christ’s body. It is not His literal body, but a symbol of it. Observe that Paul is teaching them to drink from the cup as well as eat the bread. A proper observance of the Lord’s Supper requires both.⚜
26 📚For as often 📖 as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you proclaim 📖 the Lord’s death, until he comes.
27 📚Therefore whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
11:27 To whom is Paul giving this very serious warning? What is meant by “an unworthy manner”? It is not to think oneself unworthy of participating. It is not partaking with a sense of sinfulness or even a knowledge that one has sinned (if that sin has been confessed and forsaken before partaking of the Supper). Verses 18-22 reveal one unworthy manner. Taking part in the Lord’s Supper carelessly, without reverence, without remembering its meaning and applying it to oneself, is to partake in an unworthy manner.
Participating while living in sin, of course, is also in an unworthy manner. And participating in an unworthy manner is to sin (be guilty) concerning the body and blood of Christ. That is, it shows disrespect for the symbols of His body and blood, and this is all the same as showing disrespect for His body and blood. And this is no small sin.⚜
28 📚But a man should examine himself, and then eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
11:28 Taking part in a worthy manner requires preparation of heart and mind. So believers should look at their outward lives and their inner condition before partaking. All sin, all irreverence, all thoughtlessness should be renounced and forsaken. And each one should make sure he or she understands the meaning of the Lord’s Supper and the reason for taking part in it.⚜
29 📚For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, not discerning the Lord’s body 📖, eats and drinks judgment 📖 on himself. 30 📚For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many have fallen asleep 📖.
11:30 This is the judgment they were bringing on themselves. This is some of the harm their meetings were causing (v 17). God requires that His people behave in a fitting and orderly way (1 Cor 14:40). If they do not, what God intended to be a blessing to them will result in judgment and punishment.⚜
31 📚For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.
11:31 Verse 28. We must examine ourselves, judge what is wrong in us or in our behavior and turn from it. Then God will bless us instead of punishing us.⚜
32 📚But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord, so that we will not be condemned with the world.
11:32 Heb 12:5-13. We should welcome anything God does to keep us from being condemned with the fallen, sinful world. Notes on world at John 15:18-19; Rom 12:2; Jam 4:4; 1 John 2:16.⚜
33 Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34 📚And if anyone is hungry let him eat at home, so that your meetings together do not lead to judgment. And when I come I will set the remaining matters in order.
11:33-34 These verses help us to understand what Paul meant in v 29. There must be a proper recognition of the purpose of the Lord’s Supper and the unity of the Church.⚜