This week, Bec Isaacson continued on with our 1 Corinthians series with Chapter 11.
In this Chapter Paul tackles two very distinct issues, head coverings and the Lord's Supper.
The thread that ties both of these two very different topics together is order in the church. Paul was ultimately for order and unity, and against distraction and disrespect.
Commentators routinely recognize that the first 16 verses of this passage are some of the most difficult in the New Testament for modern readers to understand as there are many layers of cultural context at play, as well as different interpretations of the word ‘head’. ‘Head’ could either mean authority, or source which drastically changes the meaning of the text.
Regardless, within these verses Paul lays out his belief that women and men should be adorned in opposite ways. For women this meant having their heads covered, and for men this meant having their heads uncovered. At the end of the day, Paul was asking both genders to worship in a way that brought glory, honor and respect to their “head;” literally and metaphorically.
Paul was asking the Corinthians to come to church dressed in a respectful manner and he urged both genders to show respect for God and one another by adorning themselves in ways that were culturally and gender appropriate. They were to lay down their individual rights and desires to bring others glory and not shame. They were to think and live beyond themselves.
Paul definitely wanted the genders to be differentiated but he then also called for their unity and interdependence as well, as individualism is not Biblical and we need one another.
The second topic that Paul covers in this passage is the Lords Supper, or communion. The Corinthian church were doing a terrible job at practicing the Lord Supper, as they were using it as an opportunity to get drunk, binge eat, humiliate the poor and segregate themselves from those who were different from them.
Paul reminds them that the purpose of communion is to remember Jesus. The red of the wine is to remind us of His blood, the bread is to remind us of His body, and the fact that we all tear from the one loaf is to remind us of our unity as the body of Christ.
In explaining communion, Paul was trying to lead the Corinthians in a practical lesson about how they can achieve the unity Christ was calling them to; a two-step process that involves us all understanding that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and that we have a point of rally in Jesus. This unity we have in Him is to surpass the normal social and cultural barriers that exist within our cultures, and we are instead to love one another sacrificially as the body of Christ.
