1 Cor 11 – Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 1 Cor 11:1-10

 1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

2 I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you. 3 But I want you to realise that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonours his head. 5 But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head – it is the same as having her head shaved. 6 For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head. 7 A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; 9 neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels.

A. Find Out:

1. What was the order Paul spoke about? v.3
2. So how did this affect praying? v.4,5
3. What logic does he apply next in respect of women? v.6
4. What does he then say about me? v.7
5. What does he say about men and women? v.8,9
6. How does he summarise it? v.10

B. Think:

1. What PRINCIPLES does Paul consider in verses 3,7-10?
2. What PRACTICE does he speak about in verses 4-6?
3. What is the POINT he is making in this passage?

C. Comment:

Here is a passage that has caused much confusion over the years and we need to distinguish principle from practice. A principle was a rule based upon truth. A practice was something done to express something else. The key issue that Paul speaks about here is the order of authority.

The chain of authority that Paul spells out is God – Jesus – man – woman, and the lower is responsible to the higher. In the age in which we live this is contrary to world thinking, but God has decreed His chain of responsibility, His chain of authority. Paul bases his thinking on the creation story: man was formed first, then woman from man, with woman being created for man, not the other way round. We cannot escape that order, and it is for the blessing of both in relationship to God. Where that relationship is missing neither this order nor the reverse order will be a blessing.

It is from this that Paul talks about the practice that was common in Jewish and, subsequently, early church life. The woman covered her hair as a sign of the divine order, and the man didn’t, for the same reason. However we express the reality of the principle is not important, it is the reality of it in us which is important.

D. Application:

1. God has decreed His order, and that for blessing.
2. Man (& woman) seeks to reverse that order. That is rebellion.

Passage: 1 Cor 11:11-16

11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. 12 For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.

13 Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, 15 but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. 16 If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice – nor do the churches of God.

A. Find Out:

1. What does Paul say about men & women’s independence? v.11
2. Why? v.12
3. What did he ask them? v.13
4. How did he justify that? v.14,15
5. What did he say it was? v.16

B. Think:

1. What was the PRACTICE in the early church that Paul referred to?
2. What was the PRINCIPLE we referred to previously?
3. What did we say was the difference between principle and practice?

C. Comment:

This is a continuation from yesterday’s passage. The point that Paul was making was to do with order and authority. The man was the God-given authority. He was the one with whom the buck stops! That was just the way God had ordered it from the beginning. That was the spiritual principle that Paul was speaking about.

Now, again, we must distinguish between principle and practice. The principle was the God-established rule. The practice was the man-ordained cultural way that that principle was shown. For that time and in that part of the world the accepted practice was for women to have long hair and men short hair. In a society where the God-given roles are quite clear and distinct, it seems that that is very often how it is. It seems that in a society where those roles are blurred hair lengths become much the same between the sexes (simply an observation!).

The key issue is not so much the hair length (or who wears trousers and who skirts), but a recognition of the differing God-given roles to man and woman and the way they operate in the church context. Again (simply an observation) it seems that in revival situations, the role distinctions become clear and distinct again. It seems (observation again!) that it is only in times of low spiritual health that the gender roles become blurred. Ponder on these things.

D. Application:

1. God has made male and female different.
2. He has decreed differing roles – but they need each other (v.11)

Passage: 1 Cor 11:17-22

17 In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 18 In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. 19 No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. 20 So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, 21 for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. 22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!

A. Find Out:

1. What does he say about their meetings? v.17
2. What has he heard? v.18
3. What meeting had he particularly in mind? v.20
4. What had been happening then? v.21
5. Where did he say they should do those things? v.22a
6. What were they doing to some? v.22b

B. Think:

1. What was Paul’s first complaint against them?
2. What was his second complaint?
3. What do you think these two things showed about them?

C. Comment:

We now come to another of Paul’s serious rebukes. Previously he has been giving advice and counsel. Now he deals with a serious issue that involved their coming together, particularly to take communion together.

His first complaint was that they were coming together in a divided manner. It seems as if there was a snobbery that divided people. Verse 19 is more like a cynical comment than a statement of truth. We say this in the light of what follows. When they came together and they were eating and drinking to remember the Lord, they did it in a chaotic and uncaring fashion. Some of them just pushed on with it without caring for their poorer brothers and ate lots, leaving the poorer ones among them to have little. Some of them were even getting drunk on the wine.

Paul is incensed about this. This is just despising what the whole thing is about, and not caring for others round about you. Look, says Paul, if you are hungry or thirsty, you’ve got homes to go where you can satisfy your hunger, that’s not what communion is about. It’s about remembering the Lord’s death for us and for acknowledging the wonder of the body that we make up. The way they were going about it did neither of those two things.

D. Application:

1. Communion is a remembrance of what Jesus has done.
2. Communion also appreciates being part of one body.

Passage: 1 Cor 11:23-34

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. 30 That is why many among you are weak and ill, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. 32 Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.

33 So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. 34 Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.

And when I come I will give further instructions.

A. Find Out:

1. What does Paul remind us happened? v.23-25
2. What do we do when we take communion? v.26
3. What do we do if we take it casually? v.27,29
4. What should we do to avoid that happening? v.28,31
5. What had actually happened? v.30,32
6. So what counsel did Paul give them? v.33,34

B. Think:

1. In what ways can we take communion in an “unworthy manner”?
2. What does Paul say happens then?
3. How are we to avoid that?

C. Comment:

“Breaking of bread”, “Communion”, “the “Lord’s Supper” or “the Eucharist”, whatever the language we use, the meaning is the same. It is, as Paul says, a time when we remember that the Lord Jesus did. He, at the Last Supper, symbolically acted out something that portrayed the deep meaning of what he was about to do. He was about to give his body as a sacrifice, that it would be broken, and as a result of his death on the Cross, he would save many who would form a new body (12:27). His blood that would be shed would be like the blood of an Old Testament sacrifice under the old covenant, but would initiate a new covenant with God whereby we could be forgiven and cleansed of our sins. At Communion we proclaim these truths afresh.

Now, in the Corinthian church, the taking of bread and wine had been done in a casual, even greedy manner, which Paul has already spoken against. Don’t you realise what you are doing, says Paul, and why some of you are sick and dying? This is serious stuff! You are deriding the work of Christ and ignoring the body he has now produced, and God is judging you in discipline to bring you to your senses. Wake up, check yourselves out when you take it, realise what you are doing, be concerned for one another!

D. Application:

1. Communion is a serious proclaiming of what Christ has done.
2. God does not treat it casually. Neither should we!