1 Corinthians 11

The way of life that we are to imitate involves personal contact within a community of faith governed by the Scriptures. Some of the topics dealt with in the New Testament are not always easy for us to understand because we were not there. The Corinthian church knew the situation that Paul was writing about with every topic that he addressed. This togetherness is important for our growth in Christ, since it is through living examples experienced within a community of faith that we are able to imitate others as they follow Jesus Christ.

When we encounter a difficult matter, whether that of idol worship in Corinth in chapters 8-10, or head covering and the Lord’s Supper in chapter 11, it may help us to take the clues that we have in the Scriptures in order to see what the Lord has given us to help us to understand the matter of controversy and the word of correction given by the Apostle.

Consider this verse from the Old Testament from Song of Solomon 4:1: “Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful! Your eyes are doves behind your veil.” What is probably referred to as something covering the head of a woman in 1 Corinthians is some cloth that covered not only a small part of her hair or the skin on the top of her head, but something that somewhat shielded her eyes from too direct a view by someone who was not her husband. There are many passages in the Bible that speak of this kind of veil as a matter of modesty. While the extent of that covering is very debatable, it does seem reasonable that it may have had something to do with the eyes, since it is the meeting of the eyes of a man and a woman that can be a step towards inappropriate communion between them. These coverings were apparently worn in public appropriate to the customs of any culture as a matter of public decorum. Women who did not wear that kind of appropriate dress might have reasonably been thought to be immoral.

What appears to be the issue in the Corinthian church? Some women seem to have taken off these coverings in church in connection with worship as their own new expression of their freedom in Christ. This was creating a scandalous situation. Paul grounds some part of his instruction here in creation. There is a difference between a man and a woman, and there is a difference in the role of a husband and a wife in marriage. These timeless principles may be expressed in different ways in different cultures, but it is not for Christians in any era to think that when we come into worship we are permitted to throw off the reasonable standards of cultural propriety as some misunderstood liberty in Christ.

The symbols of authority that we have may vary, a wedding ring, a particular style of dress or covering, length of hair, but the order of God is not to be despised. We are not to be rebelling against divine structure, as some angels did, and opening the door to trouble in our lives and in the church, trouble that may be beyond what we understand. The way even for Christ, who is equal to the Father, was a way of willing submission. The church needs to submit to Him, and wives need to submit to the loving leadership of their husbands, and to dress appropriately, showing the mutual dependence of man and woman, and a willing order within that larger reality of family communion.

What about the problem of the Lord’s Supper? The sacramental habits of the Corinthian church seem to display no real sense of their true oneness with Christ. Their eating and drinking are a reflection of what people can afford. Some have a full meal, others have nothing at all. This is a horrible offense against the body of believers, and thus against Christ. The essence of the Lord’s Supper is not in the extent of the meal. This supper is more than food, and it is not a private family celebration, but something for the church as a whole throughout the world. There is a way of outward form that so obscures the spiritual reality that it can be offensive to the Lord.

Whether the issue is what people wear or how they eat and drink at the Lord’s Table, when we gather together in worship, nothing can be allowed to distract us from the most important reality that unites us. Christ gave His body and blood for us. He is the sin offering, the peace offering, and the whole burnt offering. He is the Passover lamb. We are remembering and proclaiming His death, since it is by that death that we have died to this fading world, and it is by His resurrection that we are alive to heaven, and thus have been made more useful to those who suffer all around us, both inside and outside the church.

To worship in ways that obscure these truths is not only offensive to God, it is also dangerous for our own bodies. Paul says that some eat and drink judgment upon themselves by their profaning of the body and blood of the Lord in what is to be a sacramental meal. We are to examine ourselves, and find again the only ground for our acceptance by God in the obedience and death of our Savior. On the strength of that good news we are to be respectable, orderly, reasonable, and generous in the midst of the culture where the Lord has placed us at the present moment. We are people of the New Covenant. We are all over the world, and we seek to leave peacefully and fruitfully wherever we are as we wait for the coming of the new heavens and the new earth. Our confidence comes not from our wealth or our power, but from knowing Him who died for us the death that only He could have died in order to bring us salvation and life. This is our joy and our greatest possession in the midst of a world that is condemned and fading away.