Outline:
V. Liberty in the Church (8:1-11:1)
VI. Worship in the Church (11:2-14:40)
A. Roles of Men and Women in the Church (11:2-16)
B. The Lord’s Supper (11:17-34)
Section 1: All to the Glory of God (v. 1)
There is only one more verse about liberty in the church, according to the outline in the John MacArthur Study Bible. It is verse one, which reads:
Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
This verse is very similar to 4:16, which I commented on in my post on 1 Corinthians 4. To refresh your memory, this is what I wrote:
Paul asks the Corinthians to imitate him. Doesn’t that seem wrong? Aren’t we supposed to imitate Christ? Yes, we are. However, if we live lives that imitate Christ, then others have an example of godly living that they can look at and imitate. We might not be able to fully imitate Christ, but we have the ability and obligation to at least imitate Him as best we can. Doing so, we set an example of Christlikeness that others can follow.
Section 2: Head Coverings (vv. 2-16)
Verses such as these are ones that frustrate me so much. I find it so hard to accept that men carry authority over women and that women cannot teach in the church, but can only teach other women and children. I do not feel any less qualified to be a pastor than a man. However, God’s Word clearly lays out these gender roles, and I have to learn to accept that. I might view them as injust, but God is just and righteous, so I have no right to think such a thing. I pray that I learn to accept this and find my role as a woman in the church.
While verses 3-10 annoyed this questioning side of me a bit as they presented that the head of woman is man and that woman comes from man, but man from God, verses 11 and 12 made me feel a bit better about all this. They read:
11 Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. 12 For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God.
In response to these verses, John MacArthur writes, “All believers, male and female, are equal in the Lord and complementary in the Lord’s work. Their roles are different in function and relationships, not in spirituality and importance” (John MacArthur Study Bible).
That is how I have to learn to see this issue. I am not inferior as a woman, but my role is simply different.
Section 3: Conduct at the Lord’s Supper (vv. 17-22)
I am going to quote Matthew Henry’s Commentary on these verses:
The apostle rebukes the disorders in their partaking of the Lord’s supper. The ordinances of Christ, if they do not make us better, will be apt to make us worse. If the use of them does not mend, it will harden. Upon coming together, they fell into divisions, schisms. Christians may separate from each other’s communion, yet be charitable one towards another; they may continue in the same communion, yet be uncharitable. This last is schism, rather than the former. There is a careless and irregular eating of the Lord’s supper, which adds to guilt. Many rich Corinthians seem to have acted very wrong at the Lord’s table, or at the love-feasts, which took place at the same time as the supper. The rich despised the poor, and ate and drank up the provisions they brought, before the poor were allowed to partake; thus some wanted, while others had more than enough. What should have been a bond of mutual love and affection, was made an instrument of discord and disunion. We should be careful that nothing in our behaviour at the Lord’s table, appears to make light of that sacred institution. The Lord’s supper is not now made an occasion for gluttony or revelling, but is it not often made the support of self-righteous pride, or a cloak for hypocrisy? Let us never rest in the outward forms of worship; but look to our hearts.
Section 4: Institution of the Lord’s Supper (vv. 23-26)
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. (vv. 23-26)
It is difficult for me to write about these verses, as I have never experienced the Lord’s Supper, as it is truly supposed to be. I grew up Catholic, and though I am no longer Catholic, my parents make me go to a Catholic church with them and do not allow me to go to a church of my own. Catholics believe in transubstantiation, that the bread and wine actually become Christ’s body and blood. That is dangerous heresy, as it suggests that Christ’s sacrifice is not sufficient, that it needs to be repeated again and again. Rather, the Lord’s Supper is meant to be a rememberance of Christ’s one-time sacrifice. John Piper says the following:
Remember me, Jesus says, sitting with you in fellowship. Remember me being betrayed – and knowing all along. Remember me giving thanks to the God who ordained it all. Remember me breaking the bread just as I willingly gave my own body to be broken. Remember me shedding my blood for you so that you might live because I died. Remember me suffering to obtain for you all the blessings of the new covenant. Remember me promising that I would drink this fruit of the vine new in the kingdom (Mark 14:25). Let the memories of me, in all the fullness of my love and power, flood your soul at this table. (“Why We Eat the Lord’s Supper, Part 1″)
That is what the Lord’s Supper is truly about. We are to remember what Christ did for us on the cross and thank and praise Him for it.
Section 5: Examine Yourself (vv. 27-34)
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. (v. 27)
What does this mean? John MacArthur explains this verse in this way:
To come to the Lord’s Table clinging to one’s sin does not only dishonors the ceremony, but it also dishonors His body and blood, treating lightly the gracious sacrifice of Christ for us. It is necessary to set all sin before the Lord (v. 28), then partake, so as not to mock the sacrifice for sin, by holding on to it.
We see, then, that the Lord’s Supper is not something to take lightly. We should examine ourselves before we partake in it, lest we mock Christ’s sacrifice for sin by continuing to do the very things He died for.
Proper celebration of the Lord’s Supper is so serious that God actually put some offenders to death (v. 30). That was actually mercy on God’s part, as they were killed before they had a chance to fall away and incur eternal judgment (v. 32).
God forbid that we take the Lord’s Supper lightly, as “when believers do not properly judge the holiness of the celebration of Communion, they treat with indifference the Lord Himself—His life, suffering, and death” (John MacArthur Study Bible).
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