READING IN 1 CORINTHIANS 11
READING IN 1 CORINTHIANS 11
The thought of headship is designedly brought in before the Lord’s supper. The order that God has ordained in creation is seen first. We should observe that it is not husband and wife here; but simply man and woman. The teaching in this passage should work out in the assembly. It is not simply that one is head of his wife. Headship is in the man, and this is a denial of the modern theory of women’s equality.
Every woman has a head in this sense. In principle she has a head in the man, whoever he may be. There is a difference between this teaching and that in Ephesians 5 where the truth of Christ and the assembly comes out. “I speak concerning Christ and the church”. Here in 1 Corinthians 11, the assembly is not specially referred to, although the truth stated is really not seen elsewhere. It is the order that God has prescribed in the creation. “The head of every man is Christ; and the head of Christ is God”. Public order is in view here, whereas in Ephesians it is more a question of affection and the subjection that goes with it. “Doth not even nature itself teach you?” would hardly fit Ephesians.
If a man does not avail himself of his Head he is disregardful of the order that God has set in creation. The injunction as to women having a covering on the head is very much neglected. What we have to deal with first of all is far more serious than that; it is the assumption that women are on an equality in every sense with men. It is, I believe, a feature [p. 52] of the final apostasy. If this great principle that God has set up in creation is denied in the world generally, it should be seen in the Lord’s people. Indeed, it is among them only that we can hope to see it, but it will become manifest in the habitable world to come, because Christ will then be seen in that position, and the relative position of man in regard of woman shall be manifested. It is to be seen now in the way of testimony in the assembly of God, for this epistle insists on the order that is suitable to the house of God.
It is very important, that in the matter of prayer, which indicates dependence on God, this order should be recognised. So a man’s head is to be uncovered and a woman’s covered in praying, “because of the angels”. “Praying or prophesying”; speaking to God or for God. “For man is not of woman, but woman of man. For also man was not created for the sake of the woman, but woman for the sake of the man. Therefore ought the woman to have authority on her head, on account of the angels”. Then it says, “Does not even nature itself teach you?” You have the words created and nature, showing that it is a question of the order God has established for the working out of divine wisdom. When Christ was born the angels celebrated it saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”. (Luke 2: 14) That was what they saw in view. This order here is bound up in the good pleasure, which must, necessarily, call for the order that God has prescribed.
The woman, being in the transgression failed to observe her head. If she had recognised Adam’s headship she would have been saved. The enemy knew where to attack; he did not attack Adam directly, and we may say that at that time God was Adam’s Head; he should have turned to God. He reversed the order involved in his position in [p. 53] listening to the woman. Although you would rather see the things itself without the sign; that is, the covering on the head, than the sign without the thing, yet, the sign is important. This epistle is full of details as to the order that God requires. He says, “Now I praise you, that in all things ye are mindful of me; and that as I have directed you, ye keep the directions”. He makes that a matter of praise on their behalf, so that nothing is unimportant in that way.
I think Proverbs 8 suggests the primary thought. Wisdom was there at the beginning and her delights were with the sons of men. Even so Christ’s administrative service would have in view the bringing about of such an order of things. The kingdom is to that end. That is what the angels had before them. They did not celebrate the kingdom, but that God would be glorified and have good pleasure in men, and the kingdom is to that end. Headship is a principle that shall remain, but lordship ceases, we may say, when Christ gives up the kingdom to the Father.
When Paul comes to speak of the assembly in verse 17, he begins with the Lord’s supper. Love is to be the great ruling principle in the assembly, but, as formally together, the men have their heads uncovered and the women have theirs covered. The apostle is now entering on the great truth of the outward order of the assembly, and he shows the Corinthians at the outset that when ... ... they came together into one place, it was “not to eat the Lord’s supper”. It was a serious matter he was to bring up. He says, “I do not praise, namely, that ye come together, not for the better, but for the worse”. This was a serious thing, so he would correct it. In the Lord’s supper we are committed to fidelity to Christ. We should be intelligent as to what we are bound up with, for every time we eat the bread and drink the cup we commit [p. 54] ourselves to what it involves. On the other side it is most blessed, for it represents love; it is the great expression of Christ’s love.
On our side the loaf involves a “brotherly covenant”. Amos says, referring to Tyrus, that he “remembered not the brotherly covenant”. (Amos 1: 9) 1 Corinthians 10 is on that principle; “We being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf” (verse 17): but chapter 11 is what Christ is toward us. We are to be in accord with this, but as being one body we must be true to one another also. Chapter 10 refers to our walk outside; chapter 11 to our behaviour inside.. “So that whosoever shall eat the bread, or drink the cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty in respect of the body and of the blood of the Lord”. Nothing can be more serious than sin in respect of that, as it says, “guilty in respect of the body and of the blood of the Lord”. The body and the blood of Christ refer to the greatest possible evidence of His love to us, His death. Failure here brings in the direct discipline of the Lord. “Unworthily” refers to conduct when we are gathered to eat the Lord’s supper. At Corinth the rich and poor ate separately, it was in an “unworthy manner” as the outcome of a bad state of soul. He says, “For each one in eating takes his own supper before others, and one is hungry and another drinks to excess”.
“But let a man examine himself and so let him eat”. This implies that we are to discern the state of our souls as we partake of the Lord’s supper. “Let a man prove himself” refers to self-judgment before God. These chapters come home in increasing force to the saints in the closing days. Sin is becoming accentuated and is coming in in many varied forms; and Satan would overwhelm the saints through it. The Lord’s supper is, in that way, a bulwark for us, for in it we are brought back to what is suitable to [p. 55] God, the death of Christ being the testimony to this.
In chapter 10 we have what refers to our public walk and associations, and in chapter 11 our state before God and the manner of our behaviour when we come together. We should judge ourselves at all times, but in a peculiar way as we partake of the Lord’s supper. The Lord has His eye on every one of us, in a special way, I believe, as we are at the Supper. “On this account many among you are weak and infirm, and a good many are fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, so were we not judged. But being judged, we are disciplined of the Lord”. That is not assembly discipline. It is what the Lord Himself does.
The Corinthians should have been able to adjust one another. We ought to know what is suitable, and if a brother is not taking part suitably when we come together, there ought to be grace to tell him so, things should not be allowed to pass. The Lord may act in discipline today, on the principle spoken of here, for if sin is not judged by us, the Lord will come in. Did He not act thus our state would be such that He could not go on with us. From 2 Corinthians 12: 21 we learn that there was wickedness at Corinth that had not been judged even through the light ministered in the first epistle, but what they failed to do, the Lord was already doing, nothing is overlooked. If the apostle visited the Corinthians he would judge and bewail what they overlooked.
The great feature in the Lord’s supper, as seen in this chapter, is the calling of the Lord to mind, it is a memorial to Christ for the affections of the saints. “Not distinguishing the body” refers to the body of Christ. If one does not see that it is His body in view, they are looking at the mere material things. The body of Christ is that in which the will of God was perfectly carried out. It is very [p. 56] serious to slight His body. Christian intelligence is supposed in this epistle. “I speak as to intelligent persons; do ye judge what I say?” Understanding is a great feature of Christianity. In the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, the seed which fell by the wayside did, in a measure, get into the man’s heart, but he was not understanding it, so Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in his heart. The understanding grips the truth, and so it finds a fixed place in the heart; thus the enemy cannot take it away.