July 24, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the next 16 days we will be reading through the book of 1 Corinthians together. The church in Corinth was an absolute mess! They were plagued by serious issues of arrogance, division, sexual immorality, and confusion concerning doctrine as well as the particulars of their moral living under the gospel. This church needed a wake-up call, a call to repentance and purity, to renewed devotion to Christ, to love and unity, and to zeal for the gospel. The church has changed little over the last 2,000 years, but praise God that there is abundant grace for the mess! Each of us needs this same call to humility faithfulness, unity, and fervor today as much as they needed it then. Let\u2019s heed this call which God gave the church at Corinth through the apostle Paul and let it shape the way we live as Christ\u2019s body!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the next section of his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul applies the truths he has been discussing about putting others in the church before ourselves to the ways we participate in corporate worship. He lays out the principle we are to follow in this regard in verse 1, that we are to \u201cBe imitators of [Paul], as [he is] of Christ.\u201d In this chapter he applies this principle to two aspects of corporate worship: head coverings worn by women and partaking of the Lord\u2019s Supper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul\u2019s first instructions about corporate worship concern the wearing of head coverings by women in the church. The wearing of a head covering by a woman in first century Roman society was a symbol that she was married and under the authority of her husband; to remove her head covering would bring shame on her husband, and Paul therefore instructs that they should not remove it even when praying or prophesying in the church. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though we may initially gawk at what Paul seems to be saying here, it is vitally important to note that Paul is not in any way demeaning women, their role in the church, or their worth in relation to men. Paul actually goes on to affirm the mutual interdependence of men and women and to say that the church should be a place where the differences between men and women, their distinct but equally valuable and necessary roles in family, church, and society, should be celebrated rather than diminished or demeaned (v.11-16). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The principle at play here is the same as it was in chapters 8-10: the wife should, out of respect for her husband, lay aside what she believes to be her right for the spiritual good of others! While the cultural form varies (we, thankfully, do not expect married women to wear head coverings now), the principle remains the same, and wives are to honor their husbands even as husbands are to love their wives sacrificially and provide for all their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs (Ephesians 5:22-33)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul\u2019s next set of instructions for corporate worship involve abuse and social snobbery taking place during the Lord\u2019s Supper. The Corinthians, in their characteristic arrogance and disregard for others, had been partaking of the Lord\u2019s Supper in a way which excluded the poor and needy and allowed the rich to go first and over-indulge themselves. Paul says that what they are doing falls so short of what the Lord\u2019s Supper is and represents that they cannot even truly call what they are doing the Lord\u2019s Supper at all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul sternly warns them that having such a casual, selfish approach to the Lord\u2019s Supper leads to judgment and discipline from the Lord. Instead, those who have much ought to leave more of the bread for those who have less, thereby following in the selfless and sacrificially loving example which Christ left for us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The way in which we relate to one another in the church as we gather for corporate worship is of huge significance. We cannot treat it casually, and when we gather we had better make sure that the way we treat one another resembles the way that Jesus treated us! If we don\u2019t, we could find ourselves under God\u2019s discipline!<\/p>\n\n\n\n