Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from 1 Co 11:1, 2 and following. Indeed, few portions of the Bible have been challenged as much as the teachings in these chapters (1 Co 11:16). Why does the apostle ( or rather the Holy Spirit) deal with seemingly small issues as a woman wearing long hair or covering her head on certain occasions? We must first remember that our Christianity does not consist of a few remarkable actions performed from time to time, but is made up of a set of details that weave our daily lives (Luke 16:10-13).
On the other hand, that God is sovereign and is not required to give us the reason for everything He asks of us in His Word. Obeying without discussion is the only true obedience. So these instructions are a kind of test for every Christian woman or girl. It is as if the Lord is asking him: Will you do this for me? Will you be keen to show by this external sign your dependence and submission, or will you put the requirements of fashion or convenience first? Finally, let us not forget this solemn fact: the invisible world of angels observes how believers respond to God’s thought (1 Co 11:10). What show do we give them? There were parties in Corinth. Even the meetings were affected. The rich shamed the poor and aroused their jealousy. Even more seriously, the Last Supper, confused with the agape (the meal in common) was taken indignantly by many.
This is an opportunity for the Apostle to recall what the Lord has especially revealed to him. The Last Supper is the holy memory of a Christ who gave himself up for us. A memory that certainly speaks to the heart of each participant, but also that universally proclaims this crucial fact: He who is the Lord must have died. And, until His return, we are invited to announce this death of the Lord in the great and simple language that has been taught to us. Finally this memorial speaks to the conscience of the believer. For the death of Christ means the condemnation of sin. Taking the Last Supper without first judging oneself thus exposes (for the earth) to the effects of this condemnation. This was explained by the weakness of many Corinthians—and perhaps among us—sickness, even death, who had struck some (1 Corinthians 11:30). Nevertheless, fear must not keep us away (1 Co 11:28). It can and must agree with a fervent response to the One who said, “Do this in memory of me” (1 Co 11:24, 25).
Then the apostle addresses a question that, at first glance, seems secondary and that the Corinthians had provoked: Should a woman pray with her head covered or uncovered? This is a small detail, but to which God attaches great importance. No doubt, he needed to be known among the Corinthians, for the apostle said, “I want you to know.” We may ask ourselves why this detail is given to us in this place? The answer is that when it comes to the glory of Christ, nothing is unimportant in God’s eyes. Whether a woman prays with her head covered or uncovered, God inquires. This touches, in type, on the relationship of Christ with the Assembly, of the Bridegroom with the Bride. Here we find, in another character, the relationship spoken of in Eph 3:10: “That the wisdom so diverse of God may now be given to know to the principalities and authorities in the heavenly places, by the assembly”; and here: “The woman, because of the angels, must have on her head a mark of the authority to which she is subject” (1 Co 11:10). Thus, when angels have their eyes on the woman submissive to her husband, they see and come to know the diverse wisdom of God. God wanted to give them, in the spectacle of the woman with her head covered, an example of the submission of the Bride to her Bridegroom, of the Church to Christ. That is why this question is presented to us here, although in this case it is a particular detail of the conduct of women in assemblies.
The apostle gives three reasons for the woman to remain covered. He finds the first in creation: “Man does not proceed from woman, but from man; for also man was not created because of woman, but woman because of man” (1 Co 11:8:9). The second in nature: “Doesn’t nature itself teach you that, if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? etc.” Nature is called as a witness, that the woman must have on her head the sign of submission to her husband. As this is not in line with today’s feminist ideas. We will always find women ready to discuss, because they always like less to be put in a place of dependence. The apostle gives them, to close their mouths, a third reason, custom: “If anyone seems to want to contest… we have no such custom, nor do we have the assemblies of God.” A certain order, a certain decency, depending on habit, must be observed in the assemblies of God. This is not only about the place given to women in creation and according to nature, but it is about order in the Church, about what suits the Assembly vis-à-vis Christ.
There is therefore an order to be observed in the relations between spouses, so that the One who is lord of all may be glorified in the Assembly. When we are gathered in assembly (you find here the body), how does it have to behave? This issue is of paramount importance to us. No doubt we are no longer like the corinthian congregation that met together in one place, but while we would only be two or three gathered in the name of the Lord, we have to manifest the order that suits the body of Christ here on earth. Entering into this subject, we find in the first place what the assembly meeting is: “For first, when you meet in assembly…” There is, therefore, in this world, such a thing as a “meeting of the assembly”, of the body of Christ.
Consulting the Word, we find that every “assembly meeting” has a common trait: the Lord is personally and spiritually in its midst, and this gives this meeting a character of blessing that Christians gathered for evangelization or preaching of the Word will never experience. In addition to this general character, the assembly meeting has particular ones. We find in the first place, the assembly meeting for worship, of which the Last Supper, memorial of the death of the Lord, is the center. Secondly, the assembly meeting, for prayer, which is not mentioned here, but in Mt 18; and, in this passage, we learn that assembly meeting is possible even with two or three gathered around Jesus as their center. Thirdly, the assembly meeting for edification.
When Christians, gathered in assembly, were able to manifest their union with each other and with Christ in this way, did they dare to be divided and form sects? Their divisions, as took place later, had not yet materially separated them from one another, but, while remaining united externally, the christians gathered no longer got along. The apostle does not praise them for this disorder, quite the contrary; but there were and still are today, thank God, in the Assembly of Christ, men who, instead of approving them, rise with force against sects, and God says of these men: “That those who are approved may be manifest among you.”
From this reproach, the apostle passes to another: When they gathered together, it was not eating the Sunday Last Supper. In those days, they would have the Last Supper before or after the agape, and sometimes everyone would bring their own meal, instead of placing it on the table for everyone to enjoy. If we find the table only where unity is brought to light, the same is not true of the Last Supper. It is known and maintained, very imperfectly and partially, it is true, in Christendom. The bread and the cup are proclaimed as a memorial to the death of Christ, and we can give thanks to God that this is so. It is true that in the ordinary systems of Christendom there is no intention to celebrate the Last Supper in common; for, in order to excuse if possible the mixture of Christians with the world that crucified the Savior, it is affirmed that it is an individual act. We have just seen that the Last Supper is, in the first place, the memorial of the Lord’s death; secondly, the memorial of his work. Third, we find this: “Every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you announce the death of the Lord.” The Last Supper is therefore a proclamation in the midst of the world of the Lord’s death. There is now such a thing as the Assembly of Christ gathered to proclaim this great fact and to make it known. She does not need to raise her voice; the very fact that Christians take the Last Supper together announces to the world, whether it is careful or not, the infinite value of the cross of Christ.
Fourth, in the Last Supper, we find something that we cannot distract from: “Until he comes.” We await His coming. The proclamation of His death will last for the entire period of His absence, and will cease as soon as He comes. Then the world, left to its own end, will be forever deprived of what it has despised; but then also, those who have announced this death so weakly, who have understood it so incompletely, will celebrate it together in heavenly glory, with infinite praise, around the Lamb slain!
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
- Example of Christ
Mt 11:29 Take my yoke upon you and receive my instructions, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your souls. Mt 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples: If anyone wants to come after me, let him renounce himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Jn 13:15 for I have given you an example, that you may do as I have done to you. Heb 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly vocation, consider the apostle and the high priest of the faith that we profess; He 12:2 looking at Jesus, the leader and consumer of faith, who, in view of the joy reserved for him, suffered the cross, despised ignominy, and sat at the right hand of the throne of God. 1 P 2:21 And this is what you have been called to, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you might follow in his footsteps,
- Paul’s example
Acts 20:35 I have shown you in every way that it is by working in this way that one must sustain the weak, and remember the words of the Lord, who himself said: There is more happiness in giving than in receiving. 1 Co 4:16 I beseech you, therefore, be my imitators. 1Co7:7 I would like all men to be like me; but each one holds a special gift from God, one in one way, the other in another. 1 Co 11:1 Be my imitators, as I myself am of Christ. Phil 3:17 Be all my imitators, brethren, and look upon those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. Phil 4.9 What you have learned, received, and heard from me, and what you have seen in me, practice. And the God of peace will be with you. 2 Thess 3:7 You yourselves know how to imitate us, for we have not lived among you in disorder. 2 Tim 1:13 Remember in the faith and charity that is in Jesus Christ the model of the kind words you have received from me.
- Submission of the Woman
Gen 3:16 He said to the woman, “I will increase the suffering of your pregnancies, you will give birth with pain, and your desires will be with your husband, but he will dominate over you. 1 Co 11:3 I want you to know, however, that Christ is the head of every man, that man is the head of woman, and that God is the head of Christ. 1 Co 14:34 that women should be silent in assemblies, for they are not allowed to speak there; but that they should be submissive, as the law also says. Eph 5:22 Women, be submissive to your husbands, as to the Lord; 1 Tim 2:11 Let the woman listen to the instruction silently, with complete submission. 1 P 3:1,5 Women, be equally submissive to your husbands, that if some do not obey the word, they may be won without words by the conduct of their wives, 5 Thus once adorned the holy women who hoped in God, submissive to their husbands,
- Modesty, Quality of the woman:
Gen 24:66 The servant told Isaac all the things he had done. 1 Tim 2:9-10 I also want women, dressed in a decent manner, with modesty and modesty, not to adorn themselves with braids, gold, pearls, or sumptuous clothes, 10 but to adorn themselves with good works, as besuitable for women who make a profession of serving God. 1 Pet 3:1-2 Women, be equally submissive to your husbands, that if some do not obey the word, they may be won over without words by the conduct of their wives, 2 by seeing your chaste and reserved way of life.
From all of the above, we note thatabout the Last Supper, serious things were happening among the Corinthians. Many took it indignantly. It is necessary to understand the seriousness of such an act and, if we share in a Christ who died for our sins, not to eat and drink without distinguishing the body, otherwise we drink and eat a judgment against ourselves. How serious this is. This unworthy way of taking the Lord’s Supper, not distinguishing it from an ordinary meal, was to bring a judgment on these children of God to Corinth, a judgment that reached them in this world, since they were no longer exposed to eternal judgment. Thus, among them were many weak and sick, and a fairly large number had been cut off by death. This sin was for many “a sin of death”, for which one could not pray. It is also a solemn thing for us that we must be careful about. We must never forget the judgment of ourselves when we take the Last Supper, so that the Lord is not obliged to judge us for our lack of piety and seriousness, when we perform the symbolic act to which He has invited us. Our prayers support you all in your efforts in piety.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may be shining in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby watering point to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow on “spiritual gifts in their diversity and in the unity of the Spirit.”
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.