1 Corinthians 11 Finally Makes Sense

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:03]Everyone, this is Tim with LifeCenter Ministries in Benell, Florida. Today, we're going to be in this video, we're going to be breaking down First Corinthians chapter 11. This is a difficult chapter, especially if you're somebody who's new to reading the Bible or new to Christ. I encourage you to get a commentary, watch a video like this in totality. I couldn't imagine trying to read something like this uh without some help or without some knowledge of scripture. it would be uh you could you you could be very confused and I'll post a QR code briefly here. Scan that will take you to our website if you're interested learning more about Life Center Ministries. And it's not actually cold. I live in Florida. I just keep my office like an ice box. Helps me stay alert. So in this chapter, Paul is dealing really with two major issues in Corinth. And it's kind of divided almost in half. The first 16 verses, Paul is dealing with order, honor, and gender expression in worship. In the second half, 17-34, the Lord's supper was being abused by selfishness, division, and class pride.

[00:01:06]And Paul is dealing with that. And Paul is not just giving random rules here.

[00:01:10]He's dealing with a church that uh worship had become messy, selfish, status driven, and culturally confused.

[00:01:18]And the major theme is really when the church gathers, our freedom must be governed by love, by honor, by humility, and by reverence. And Paul is essentially asking, are you worshiping God or are you using worship to express ego, rebellion, status, or selfishness?

[00:01:37]Verse one, and you should imitate me just as I imitate Christ. I'm going to stop right here before we move any further. And and traditionally this verse is the start of chapter 11. Some translations however put this verse at the end of chapter 10 where it seems to fit better. And but Paul is saying follow my pattern but only because my pattern follows Christ.

[00:02:03]This is not ego. It's more like disciplehip. And Paul is saying don't just listen to what I teach. Watch how I live. Copy the Jesus you see in me. And I've heard many people say things like, "Well, don't look at me, look at Jesus."

[00:02:17]And there's definitely some truth to that. But Paul goes even further. Paul is saying, "You should see enough Jesus in me that my life gives you a path to follow." I think a good question to ask ourselves, if someone was to look at my life as an example of how to follow Christ, would they be on the right path?

[00:02:37]Verse two, instructions for public worship. I'm so glad that you always keep me in your thoughts and that you are following the teachings I passed on to you. But there is one thing I want you to know. The head of every man is Christ. The head of woman is man and the head of Christ is God. A man dishonors his head if he covers his head while praying or prophesying. But a woman dishonors her head if she prays or prophesies without a covering on her head. For this is the same as shaving her head. Yes, if she refuses to wear a head covering, she should cut off all her hair. But since it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, she should wear a covering. So Paul praises them for what they're doing right here before he brings correction as Paul often does in his letters. And he's saying, "I love you and I see growth, but now let's deal with this area."

[00:03:30]Verse three is a heavily debated verse mainly because the Greek word for head can mean a few different things. It can mean the physical head. It can mean authority. It can mean source. It can mean origin or it can mean representative depending on the context.

[00:03:44]And Paul lays out an order here. God, Christ, man, woman. But this does not mean women are inferior. Paul says the head of Christ is God. Yet Jesus is not inferior in divine nature. The son submits to the father's role and the father's mission, but he is equal in divine worth. So Paul is talking about ordered relationship here, not lesser value. And this is important because our culture often confuses submission with inferiority. It confuses authority with abuse. And biblical authority is not domination. Biblical authority is responsibility under God. And Jesus knows and and shows us what leadership looks like. It looks like sacrifice. It looks like service. It looks like protection. It looks like humility. And it looks like love. A man who uses this verse or verses like this to control or belittle or silence or dominate a woman is not following Paul and is betraying Christ. Verse four is when we have to start looking at the context here in in Corinth at the time, the culture uh where head coverings communicated certain things socially and religiously.

[00:04:59]For men, covering the head in worship resembled pagan Roman religious practices where priests covered their head during sacrifice. What Paul is saying is that Christian worship worship shouldn't be copying pagan status symbols or religious customs. And the key word here is dishonors, which means to shame or to to our worship of Christ.

[00:05:22]A man dishonors his head, his head being Christ. When worship when when our worship communicates the wrong thing, we dishonor who we represent. Verse five is important because Paul assumes here that women are praying and prophesying in the gathered worship setting. This means that women were not just decorations in the church. They were active participants. In Corinth, a a woman's uncovered head may have communicated a few things. sexual availability, rebellion against marriage, rejection of modesty, or even social dishonor. And so Paul's point is clear here. Worship is not the place to push societal norms on modesty and humility and honor. And then in verse 6, Paul uses some strong rhetoric here. He says, "If a woman is going to reject the cultural sign of honor by not wearing a head covering, then she may as well go all the way and cut off her hair." Something that would have been considered very shameful in first century Corinth. And so Paul here is not randomly attacking hairstyles or uh he's saying that if you are rejecting the symbol, you need to understand what that symbol means in your culture. In modern culture, in modern western culture, symbols still matter. Wedding rings are symbols. Police uniforms are symbols. National flags are symbols.

[00:06:48]Business logos can be symbols. The cross is a symbol. The rainbow is a signal.

[00:06:54]There's a lot of uh symbols. There's a lot of symbols in society. We should know what they mean before we we wear them or identify ourselves with them.

[00:07:03]What does the culture think this means?

[00:07:05]So Paul's point is here, don't pretend that symbols are meaningless when everyone around you knows what they mean. We need to be careful what we represent and what we communicate to our current culture that we live in. Verse 10, I'm sorry, verse 7. A man should not wear anything on his head when worshiping, for man is ma made in God's image and reflects God's glory, and woman reflects man's glory. For the first man didn't come from woman, but the first woman came from man. A man was not made for woman, but woman was made for man. For this reason, and because the angels are watching, a woman should wear a covering on her head to show she is under authority. So, this is one of those sections that can sound rough to modern readers, but Paul references Genesis 1:27 here. And Paul is not denying that both men and women are made in the image of God. And his focus here seems to be on creation order from Genesis 2 where woman is created from man and brought to man. And glory here means visible honor or reflection or splendor. So man reflects God's glory in creation and woman reflects man reflects man's glory in the sense that she was created as his counterpart, his companion and his helper. And again to be careful here uh helper does not mean like an assistant or inferior. The Hebrew word used in Genesis applies the woman is is not some kind of weak sidekick but she is a powerful corresponding partner. This section is about creation order again not value. We need to be honest here though. This passage has been abused. Many people have used this to make women seem secondary or less important. But that is not faithful to the whole of scripture.

[00:09:01]In Genesis, Adam is incomplete without Eve. So think about this. This this is important. The very first thing in all of creation that is called not good.

[00:09:14]It's not sin. It's isolation. God said it is not good for man to be alone. So woman is not created because man is superior. woman is created because man is incomplete. That's important. Verse 10 is one of the strangest verses really in this chapter and arguably in scripture. Paul says, "Because the angels are watching," he says, "Well, so what does that even mean?" There's a few possibilities and it could be the truth is it could be all of these. Uh that here's a few possibilities scholars point out. Angels, number one, angels are present in worship and care about divine order. Number two, Paul is referencing could be referencing spiritual beings who observe the church, angelic beings. Number three, he may be connecting Jew Jewish tradition about angels and modesty. And there's some info out there on that if you want to look into that. Number four, it may mean worship has cosmic significance, you could say, so to speak, that that local, not just local church significance, but uh significance in the heavenly realms.

[00:10:23]And this verse could also be translated as a woman ought to have authority over her head, meaning the covering on her head may be a sign of her own dignity and authorized participation in the worship. So what Paul may be saying is when she wears the culturally appropriate covering on her head, she is visibly authorized to participate in worship without bringing shame.

[00:10:52]Verse 11, but among the Lord's people, women are not independent of men, and men are not independent of women. For although the first woman came from man, every other man was born from a woman and everything comes from God.

[00:11:09]So Paul is is balancing the whole argument here. He's saying don't twist what I just said into uh male superiority, which maybe he already had an idea that that people would. He say he says woman came from man in creation.

[00:11:25]Yes. But every single man after Adam came from a woman and everything comes from God. The truth is men and women both need each other and the church needs both. The family needs both and the mission needs both. Verse 16.

[00:11:44]Judge for yourselves. Is it right for a woman to pray to God in public without covering her head? Isn't it obvious that it's disgraceful for a man to have long hair? And isn't long hair a woman's pride and joy? For it has been given to her as a covering. But if anyone wants to argue about this, I simply say that we have no other custom than this. And neither do God's other churches. So Paul is asking them to think culturally here and spiritually. He's not giving them some giving them some random rule that's detached from their culture. He expects them to understand what would be honorable and dishonorable in their society. And we have to understand that some commands in scripture are timeless principles but with cultural expressions. In this case, the principle is that worship should reflect honor, modesty, order, and love. And the cultural expression in Corinth is the head covering. And and today the exact symbols may differ depending on where you live. This video goes out to the the whole world. People from all over the world tune in and watch these things.

[00:12:52]But in in some churches, wearing a hat may be seen as disrespectful or a head covering. But in other places, nobody cares. In some cultures, women still wear head coverings for reverence. In other cultures, that symbol no longer communicates the same thing. So the question is not do we copy Corinth. The question is, how do we embody the same principle faithfully in my current culture? And then we come to another heavily debated section in verses 14 and 15. Paul appeals to nature here when he says, "Isn't it obvious?" And many other translations here say, "Doesn't nature tell us?" Rather than, "Isn't it obvious?" It translates, "Doesn't nature tell us?" referring to men having long hair. We need to understand how ancient writers use that kind of language. It it seems that he means what is commonly recognized as fitting, proper or culturally obvious is what he's saying.

[00:13:51]So we know that some uh some men did have long hair under especially under special vows like the Nazarite vow. Uh Samson is also another obvious example of long hair. And he is saying that in their cultural context certain gender distinctions mattered and they communicated honor or dishonor.

[00:14:11]In our modern culture, modern western culture where I live, uh seems to have its own confusion around identity and authority and gender and self-expression. And and Paul would likely ask the modern church something like this. Are you expressing yourself in a way that honors God, that builds up the church and respects created order, or are you just trying to make a statement and worried about yourself?

[00:14:36]And Paul ends this section by essentially saying, don't turn worship, the worship setting into a debate club.

[00:14:43]Paul is saying that this is the common practice among the churches at this time. Some people in Corinth apparently wanted to fight about this and Paul is saying it's just not worth the controversy or the chaos. The truth is not every issue needs to be debated.

[00:15:00]Verse 17, this is where the chapter takes a turn about the Lord's supper.

[00:15:06]order at the Lord's supper, but in the following instructions, I cannot praise you. For it sounds as if far more harm than is being done when you than when you meet I'm sorry. For it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together. First, I hear that there are divisions among you when you meet as a church. And to some extent, I believe it. But of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God's approval will be recognized. And so again, the chapter takes a turn here and he starts with a brutal sentence essentially saying your church gatherings are making things worse, not better. Now imagine that the church is meeting, the church is singing, eating, maybe praying, sharing the Lord's supper. And Paul says the result is spiritual damage. The truth is not every religious gathering is automatically healthy. A church can gather and still reinforce pride. A church can sing songs and still ignore the poor. A church can take communion and still be divided. A church can preach some truth and still lack love or reject the outsider or the misfit or the addicted. Then Paul addressed divisions here within the church and which he's done a lot in the book of first Corinthians. In verse 19, he's not saying that divisions are good.

[00:16:26]He is saying that divisions reveal what is real. In other words, conflict exposes character. When everything is peaceful, let's face it, everybody can look spiritual, but when the pressure hits, maybe offense shows up, the real maturity level shows up, too. You find out who's really humble when they don't get their way or when they get corrected. And Paul hits hard here.

[00:16:53]Uh let's let's actually verse 20. Verse 20 is when you meet together, you are not really interested in the Lord's supper. For some of you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others. As a result, some go hungry while others get drunk. What? You don't have your own homes for eating and drinking? Or do you really want to disgrace God's church and shame the poor? What am I supposed to say? Do you want me to praise you? Well, I certainly will not praise you for this. So Paul again, he hits hard here in verse 20.

[00:17:26]They thought they were taking communion, but Paul says, "No, you're not. You may be eating bread. You may be drinking wine, but your heart is nowhere near what the Lord's supper actually means."

[00:17:37]Communion is not magic. It it is it's not some magic ritual, but it it's also not just a ritual either. It's a sacred remembrance and proclamation of Christ's sacrifice. And then in verse 21, he gives us some context on what's happening here. And you can read some more into this in in church history, but essentially I'm trying to sum it up. In the early church, the Lord's supper often happened as a large shared meal.

[00:18:05]It was sometimes called a love feast.

[00:18:07]And what was happening here was the wealthier believers would arrive earlier and bring the food because they had more flexible schedules and potentially in money. And the poor lower class would arrive later, possibly on time. It doesn't mean that they were late, but by the time they got there, the others had eaten most of the food and drank the wine. And the text says that some were even drunk. The meal was supposed to announce Jesus's self-giving love, but it had turned into a place where wealthy people showed off and the poor people were humiliated. And Paul is furious because Jesus gave his body for others.

[00:18:44]And in Corenth at this time, the rich were using this time to indulge themselves. Jesus poured himself out and they're pouring wine and getting and they're and text says they're getting drunk while neglecting the poor. So Paul is saying you are humiliating the very people that Jesus died for. And the truth is the millionaire and the minimum wage worker come to Christ the same way, empty-handed and in need of God's mercy.

[00:19:13]In verse 23, Paul says, "He received this sacred tradition from the Lord and passed it on."

[00:19:20]Let's I haven't read 23 yet. Let's get to 23. Four.

[00:19:25]I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it to pieces and said, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant between God and his people, in agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it. For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again."

[00:19:58]So again, in in verse 23, Paul says he received this sacred trai tradition from the Lord and he passed it on. Paul is not inventing communion. He was he is passing down what came from Christ. And first Corinthians scholars tell us it's also the first documented instructions here on the eukarist or on the Lord's supper on on communion.

[00:20:20]This book was written before the gospels were written. So this is the first documented kind of script of how to take communion I guess you could say. And verse 24 uh Paul says gave thanks here.

[00:20:34]And the Greek word for gave thanks is eukaristeo which is where we get the word eukarist as it's commonly communion is commonly or often called especially in Catholicism. And Jesus gave thanks over bread that symbolized his soontobe broken body. And this is powerful. Think about this. He is not thanking God because his suffering feels good. He's thanking God because redemption is coming through surrender. And the Greek word here for remembrance also is strong. It does not mean a a casual memory like remember your your remember to lock your doors or remember your wallet. It's it's more like a deep covenantal remembering that brings the reality of the past event into the present moment.

[00:21:21]Verse 25, uh Jesus calls the cup the new covenant here. And this points back to the prophecy in Jeremiah 31:31-34 where God promised a new covenant a a new covenant where his law would be written on the hearts and sins would be forgiven. The old covenant was sealed with animal blood. The new covenant was sealed with Jesus's blood. The new covenant began the moment Jesus blood was poured out on the cross. At that moment, everything changed. And to clarify, I've heard some people say that the new covenant begins at the start of the New Testament or the new covenant began when Christ was born or the new covenant began when he was baptized.

[00:22:07]Jesus himself says that the new covenant begins the moment his blood was poured out on the cross. That is the moment everything changed. That is the moment that the curtain in the temple was torn, the veil was torn. At that moment everything changed. And then to finish up here he says communion looks backward and forward. It looks at Jesus death and it also anticipates the future return.

[00:22:35]Now verse 27.

[00:22:38]So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God's judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. This portion of scripture scares a lot of people. Uh the word unworthy here, this is important. The word unworthy, it doesn't mean you must be personally worthy or nobody would qualify. None of us would be able to take the Lord's supper. But it means to take communion in an unworthy manner, which could be a variety of things.

[00:23:24]Carelessly, selfishly, irreverently, without forgiveness, without repentance, without love, without understanding of what you're doing. And Paul is not saying, he's definitely not saying don't take communion if you're struggling.

[00:23:39]He's saying don't take communion if you're holding on to bitterness or resentment or unrepentant sin. In the verse 28, Paul says to examine yourself before taking communion. The Greek word here for examine is dokimizo, which means to test or to evaluate or to inspect yourself before you partake.

[00:24:00]He's essentially saying take your own inventory. And before communion, ask.

[00:24:06]And I have some questions here. ju just uh you could ask yourself at a time like this or the truth is you don't even have to wait for communion to ask yourself these kind of things but number one am I holding bitterness number two am I refusing to forgive number three am I humiliating or ignoring someone am I living in hidden rebellion am I treating Jesus casually am I divided from the body while pretending everything is fine am I coming with humility or entitlement and then verse 29 the body physical body of Jesus given at the cross and it also means the church the fellowship of believers as the body of Christ and communion the truth is is vertical and it's horizontal we look up to God and we look next to us at our brothers and sisters in Christ and verse 30 can be seen as a warning but we have to be careful here because scripture clearly tells us that not every sickness is because of personal sin but we do have to take this seriously. Some were weak, as the text says, some were sick, and some had even died for taking communion in an unworthy manner. In verse 31, uh let's pick up in verse 31.

[00:25:21]But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way.

[00:25:26]Yet, when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

[00:25:33]So in verse 31 Paul again he gives us the solution which is to examine yourself. You can avoid this if you exam if you examine yourself. Selfjudgment pre prevents divine judgment. The mature believer says Lord search me. Correct me. Show me where I need to change. Or like David said in the Psalms, God search my heart. Search my heart. Show me where there's anything that that offends you in there. Show me the pride that I can't see. reveal to me what I'm not able to see.

[00:26:05]Verse 32, 33, I'm sorry. So, my dear brothers and sisters, when you gather for the Lord's supper, wait for each other. If you are really hungry, eat at home so you won't bring judgment upon yourselves when you meet together. I'll give you instructions about the other matters after I arrive. So, this verse is is actually full of mercy as we talk about this. God's discipline is not the same as condemnation. The Greek word here for discipline, this is important.

[00:26:34]The Greek word here for discipline means to train or to correct or to educate.

[00:26:39]It's like a parent training a child.

[00:26:41]Paul says that God disciplines his people so that they will not be condemned with unbelievers. Now, discipline can sometimes be painful, but the truth is it's God's mercy and we should be grateful for it. A father who never corrects his child is not a good father. In verse 33, Paul is telling them to slow down, to honor each other.

[00:27:05]Don't serve yourself first. Don't ignore the poor. The truth is sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is to notice and take time for the one that feels left out or has been left out. And Paul ends this chapter here by essentially saying, if you just want to fill your stomach, eat at home. The church gathering is not for selfish indulgence. It's for worship. It's for fellowship. It's for unity. And it's for remembrance of Christ. And then he says he will bring more instructions when he comes. And that's the end of the chapter. Some key takeaways real quick.

[00:27:38]We have number one, Christian freedom must bow to honor. Number two, worship is not a time for self self-expression.

[00:27:47]Number three, men and women are different but mutually dependent. Number four, communion is serious and sacred.

[00:27:55]And number five, you cannot love Jesus and ignore his people. That's all the time we have for 1 Corinthians 11.

[00:28:02]Thanks so much for watching the video.

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[00:28:06]Subscribe button over here. Please like, subscribe, share, interact with this video in some way. We would really appreciate it. I'll post a QR code briefly as the video ends. Thank you so much for watching. God bless.