1 Corinthians 11

Notes

Ver. 1. Carefully therefore follow my directions, and imitate my example, in condescension to the weaknesses and prejudices of others for their good; and in everything else which I copy after the perfect pattern of our great Lord and Master Jesus Christ. 2. And indeed, my dear brethren, I cannot but commend you, that, notwithstanding all that your false teachers have done to corrupt you, the better part of you still discover the most dutiful regard to my apostolic authority, reputation, and comfort, and to the most important doctrines which I preached to you, and observe most of the rules relative to worship which I taught you. 3. Many irregularities, however, have been introduced into your church. Some of your women, under the pretext of praying or prophesying by immediate inspiration, appear in your public assemblies unvailed, and thus assume an undue authority over the men, or imitate the heathen priestesses. I beg you would seriously consider, that by divine appointment, suited to the nature of things, the Son of God, who created all things, is made head over his church, and over all men for her benefit; and husbands, according to the superiority of their sex, are the head of government to their wives; and God the Father, who has put all things under Christ, has, in that view, an authority over him as man and mediator. 4. Now the vailing of the head being a badge of modesty and subjection, and uncovering of it a token of superiority, in your country and many others, every man, who, by an extraordinary influence of the Spirit, leads your public worship in praying or preaching with a vail on his head or face, dishonours Jesus Christ, from whom he received his authority. 5. But every woman, who, people, with her head unvailed, shows a disrespect to her husband and his whole sex; for that is all one in signification as if she wore her hair short in the manner of a man. 6. If therefore women will throw off their vails, those badges of modesty and subjection, let them cut their hair short as men do: and if, as every one must, they think that immodest and contrary to custom, let them keep on their vails. 7. For men, being the honourable representations of God's supreme and glorious dominion over all, ought to mark their head with no token of subjection; but women's subjection to men being their distinguished honour, they ought, in all public assemblies, to mark their heads with the tokens of it. 8. For, in the original creation of mankind, Adam was not created out of the substance of Eve, but she was formed of one of his ribs: 9. Nor was Adam originally created for the sake of Eve, who then had no existence: but she was created to be a helpmeet for and comfort to him; plainly intimating that the woman, who was last formed, and out of the man, for his use, ought to live in all reasonable subjection to him. 10. Therefore, especially in acts of public worship, women, in deference to the superiority of those messengers whom Christ hath sent to preach the gospel, as well as in reference to holy angels present—and that evil angels may have no occasion given them to suggest anything proud or immodest—ought always to have their heads vailed, as a token of men's superiority and power over them. 11. Nevertheless, no man must look on himself as an absolute lord over a woman, to command and rule her in a harsh and tyrannical manner, according to his will and pleasure; as now a man can no more be independent of the woman than she of him, both being equally necessary and useful to one another, and mutually obliged to study and promote each other's comfort and advantage; and both, without any alteration of their natural or relative duties, being equally the subjects of Christ's spiritual kingdom, and Adam are conceived and born by women, the two sexes being thus the reciprocal means of each other's being and happiness. And it is God who makes each of the sexes what they are to one another, that they may discharge their mutual duties in the most affectionate manner. 13. I appeal then to your own unbiassed judgment, whether any inspiration from God can ever render it decent for a woman to invert the natural order of her appointment, and publicly mark herself as if equal in authority to a man. 14. Does not even nature itself, which has prompted all civilized nations to preserve an apparent distinction of the sexes, teach you, that, according to the custom of your country, it would be reckoned effeminate in a man to wear his hair in the length and form of a woman's? 15. And that, on the other hand, it is an honour for a woman to distinguish herself from the superior sex by the length and form of her hair, as it was given her by God for this very end.—It therefore follows, that vails, or any mode of dress which betokens modesty or subjection, ought always to be worn by your women in your religious assemblies. 16. But if, after all that I have said, any of your new teachers will contend for such a preposterous practice, know that no such thing is allowed by any apostle of Christ, or used in any New Testament church, whether of Jewish or Gentile converts.—17. Meanwhile, notwithstanding my having justly commended you for following my instructions and pattern, I must with regret reprove your disorderly behaviour in your religious meetings, which makes them turn out to the dishonour of Christ and your spiritual hurt: 18, For I am informed, and I fear too justly, that when ye meet together for the celebration of Christ's ordinances, to the breach of order, peace, and brotherly love, ye fall into parties and unchristian divisions; 19. For, considering the depravity of human nature, and how busy Satan and his instruments are to promote everything dishonourable to God and destructive men, there cannot fail to be offences, factions, schisms, and great corruptions of doctrine and worship in the church, which God, by his providence, overrules for the trial and honourable manifestation of sincere believers, and the detection of hypocritical professors. 20, 21. And this factious spirit has introduced such profane disorder amongst you in the celebration of the Lord's supper, as hath transformed it into a kind of tumultuous revel, and a feast for your bodies, rather than a solemn ordinance of Christ, appointed for an affectionate and brotherly fellowship with and commemoration of him. They who come first, bringing their provisions with them, fill their bellies without waiting for their brethren: they who bring much with them, like heathens at their idolatrous revels, eat and drink to the full, if not to excess; while the poor, who bring nothing with them, get nothing to eat or drink. 22. Think how absurd and scandalous this conduct is! If ye intend merely to satisfy your animal appetites, have ye not your own houses to eat and drink in? Or do ye aim at pouring contempt upon Christ's ordinances and church, and exposing and discouraging his poor members? 23. Ye cannot but know that it is contrary to the appointment of the Lord Jesus Christ; for, as taught by his own immediate revelation, I declared and recommended to you, that he, as sole King and Head of his church, having a right to institute ordinances, or demand obedience to them, and power to bless them for our spiritual edification, did,—for the sealing of his testament, the confirmation of our faith, and that he might show his constant affection to and great care of his people, and his infinite willingness and steadfast resolution to suffer for them, and that he might the more effectually engage our love to him and regard to this ordinance,—on the very night before his death, in which Judas betrayed him, take a part of the bread which they had left at the paschal supper; 24. And having prayed over it for a blessing on it, with thanksgiving to God for the riches of his love and grace, and so set it apart for the intended holy use, he brake it, and gave each of his disciples a small piece of it, requiring them to take and eat it as a token and mean of their receiving by faith, and feeding on, his person God-man, which was quickly to suffer and die that he might save them;—and to do all in a believing, humble, joyful, thankful, and obediential remembrance of his person, dying love, extreme sufferings, the blessings thereby secured, and of their obligations to love and duty thereby constituted. 25. In the same manner, after the passover supper, he took a cup with some wine in it, and, setting it apart to a holy use by solemn prayer and thanksgiving, he intimated that this consecrated liquor was to be a standing symbol and mean of applying his blood, or complete sacrifice, by which the conditions of pardon was fulfilled, its blessings secured, and promises confirmed; and required them all to drink it in a humble, affectionate, penitential, grateful, and self-dedicating remembrance of his bleeding love, and tremendous sufferings for their redemption. 26. For as often as ye eat and drink these consecrated elements, ye publicly avow to God, to your consciences, and to the world, that ye glory in your crucified Redeemer, believe and rest upon his death as the only ground of your pardon and reconciliation with God, and of all your hopes of eternal life,—and that in the firm faith of his appearance to judge the world. 27. Whoever therefore shall, contrary to the nature and design of this solemn ordinance, partake of it in an ignorant, irreverent, factious, uncharitable, carnal, and sensual manner, he shall be held guilty of profaning and pouring contempt upon the person and righteousness of the Lord Jesus, and, as it were, crucifying him afresh. 28. In order therefore to a safe and proper partaking of this ordinance, every person ought necessarily to examine his own state before God, his knowledge of the nature, use, and ends of the ordinance,—and his faith, repentance, love, and new obedience; and to discern the Lord's body;—and with these serious inquiries, and in the exercise of these graces, to partake of the consecrated bread and wine in obedience to Christ's appointment, and as his instituted means of fellowship with himself. 29. For he who, neglecting such preparation, eats and drinks this supper of the Lord Jesus Christ from carnal principles and views, with an unfriendly and contentious spirit, or in a hypocritical or irreverent manner, does thereby deserve, and expose himself to, the just judgments of God in this life and that which is to come, as he does not spiritually discern the person and righteousness of Christ, God-man, represented in these elements, but considers and uses them as common food. 30. And it is on account of your shameful disorders in temper and practice, in the partaking of this solemn ordinance, that God has rendered many of you Corinthian professors weak and sickly, and has cut off others by death. 31. Did we indeed seriously and conscientiously search our own hearts and behaviour, and condemn and repent of whatever we found amiss, we should escape God's severe chastisements. 32. And if any of us believers be terribly afflicted on earth, we are therein wisely and mercifully chastised by the Lord Jesus Christ as our Father, that we may be thereby restrained from such sinning as would be inconsistent with a gracious state, and that our future condemnation with the wicked world may be prevented. 33. Wherefore, my dearly beloved brethren in Christ, study for the future to avoid all profanation of this solemn ordinance; and when ye assemble to partake of it, wait for one another, that ye may all communicate together at the same table in truly Christian fellowship with Christ, and with one another as his children and brethren. 34. And if any of you be hungry, satisfy your craving appetites at home, never at the Lord's table, which was appointed not for satiating natural appetites, but for the spiritual refreshment of souls;— that so ye may no more meet to hurt and endanger yourselves by an uncharitable, carnal, and factious profanation of that holy supper.—Some lesser disorders I expect to rectify when I pay you another visit.

Ver. 2. All things—with the exception of the neglect and error specified, ver. 17.—Ordinances—directions, injunctions, deliverances, whether written or oral (2 Th. 2. 15), or traditions, as in the margin: but this affords no countenance to the Romish doctrine of tradition, for these apostolic traditions regard merely external order; but the Romish traditions relate to doctrines, many of which are represented as kept, as it were, in private reserve for centuries, until a time come for their public revelation. C.

Ver. 3. The head of every man is Christ—believers (the brethren spoken of, ver. 2) being united to him by one Spirit and one human nature.—The head of the woman is the man—she being united to him by one covenant and one common nature; and the head of Christ is God, that is, the Father, Mat. 16. 20; they being united by one spirit and one divine nature. C.

Ver. 4. Covered (that is, with a vail), dishonoureth his head. Some think, his head literally, which he dishonours by dressing as a woman. It seems better to understand it of Christ, whose superiority, in his absence, he thus emblematically assumes. C.

Ver. 5. But every woman . . . with her head uncovered (by a vail) dishonoureth her head. Some think, her head literally, which she thus immodestly exposes—others, her husband, whose superiority, in his presence, she thus emblematically denies. C.

Ver. 18. These 'divisions' (σχίσματα) are not separations from the church, but parties in it—not formed by differences of faith, but by the neglect of apostolic order, the adoption of human devices and self-will in the observance of ordinances, and the absence of brotherly-kindness between the rich and the poor. C.

Ver. 24. This is my body. That is, in the same sense as 'that Rock was Christ,' see ch. 10. 4; or, as the original literally has it, 'that Rock was the Christ;' unquestionably meaning a type, emblem, or figure of him; and even so was bread broken an emblem of Christ's body and memorial of his death. C.

Ver. 27. Unworthily. A messenger or letter may be treated 'unworthily' by neglect, contempt, or injury. The bread and wine being the representatives of Christ's body and blood are treated 'unworthily,' when the end of the ordinance—remembrance of a crucified Redeemer, and self-examination—are neglected. C.

Ver. 29. As in the heavens the natural eye 'discerns' nothing but sun, moon, and stars, while yet the intellectual eye 'discerns' the glory of God, Ps. 19.1; so in the communion the natural eye 'discerns' nothing but bread and wine, while faith in the representative 'discerns' the body and blood of the Lord.—Note. There are two sins peculiar to an unholy communicant and to the unholy neglecter of the communion: (1) Self-unexamined; (2) Christ's body undiscerned. C.

Reflections.—In Christ alone we find example without defect, and authority without restriction. But whatever is good in his servants or people ought to be carefully imitated; and his ordinances should be conscientiously received from the hand of his ministers. With exact care ought all to observe the natural order of things, and to study a modest decency of dress, especially in worshipping assemblies. And it is hurtful to the interests of religion when church-members fall into a contentious and uncharitable temper and conduct towards one another. Great is the mercy that God overrules this, as well as the heresies, the doctrines, which Satan and his instruments introduce into the church, for the improvement of true believers and the detection of hypocrites. In great kindness hath Jesus appointed his sacramental supper for the spiritual refreshment and mutual fellowship of his people on earth. And it ought to be observed in a simple, but judicious, obediential, believing, and devoutly solemn manner, and for the most important ends. Serious examination of our state, nature, and practice, and of our condition, frame, and ends, should always precede our approaches to it; and in a distinct discernment of Jesus Christ as God-man and the Lord our righteousness, and in delightful but reverential views of his second coming, ought we to receive it.—Heinous is the sin and fearful the danger of unworthily communicating. And often God severely chastises his own people for their misbehaviour in this ordinance. But how Heaven-daring is it when multitudes who have no appearance of real godliness are readily admitted to it! And highly improper when it is used only as a test of civil loyalty.