_Attendance at Idolatrous Feasts, 1 Corinthians 10:14_ to 1 Corinthians 11:1 When the first love of the converts began to cool, and, as a natural consequence, they drew closer to their heathen acquaintances and fellow-citizens, invitations would be given them, in the first instance, to the private... [ Continue Reading ]
It was impossible for Christians in almost any Greek or Roman colony, and least of all at Corinth, to avoid coming frequently in contact with idolatrous practices in various and ensnaring forms. In writing, therefore, for instruction and direction on various practical points, we can hardly suppose t... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:1. BE YE IMITATORS OF ME, AS I ALSO AM OF CHRIST. This verse manifestly belongs to the former chapter, from which it has been unhappily severed. Having just told them how he himself acted in cases of the kind referred to, the apostle here simply bids them follow his example, as in s... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:2. NOW I PRAISE YOU [1] THAT YE REMEMBER ME IN ALL THINGS all the instructions I gave you, AND HOLD FAST THE TRADITIONS. The word means ‘things delivered' in any way, whether orally or in writing, as is plain from what follows. [1] Though the word “brethren” occurs at the opening o... [ Continue Reading ]
After the severe censures with which the preceding chapter closes, the apostle seems glad to resume here that quiet tone in which he is most at home with his spiritual children. In fact, on the present subject it was not censure but direction that was wanted, as some difficulty might reasonably be f... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:3. But (since on this point you may need further direction) I WOULD HAVE YOU KNOW THAT THE HEAD OF EVERY MAN (‘male') IS CHRIST. Though this is true universally for “He hath given Him power over all flesh, “and to be” Head over all things to the Church,” it is of Christians that the... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:4. EVERY MAN (‘male' person) PRAYING OR PROPHESYING that IS, ‘SPEAKING by Divine Inspiration,' either _to_ God in public prayer, or _from_ God in preaching, HAVING HIS HEAD COVERED, DISHONOURETH HIS HEAD covering what God made to be exposed.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:5. BUT EVERY WOMAN PRAYING OR PROPHESYING WITH HER HEAD UNVEILED DISHONOURETH HER HEAD. A number of critics take the word “head” in these two verses figuratively, as if the meaning were: The man dishonoured Christ as _his_ head, and the woman her husband as _her_ head (Calvin, De We... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 6. FOR IF A WOMAN IS NOT YELLED, LET HER ALSO BE SHORN.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:7. For, etc. This whole view of the relation of the sexes is founded on a combination of Genesis 1:2. As the first chapter gives the creation of man as man, both sexes are included (1 Corinthians 11:27); the woman, as an essential portion of humanity, created in Adam, being as truly... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:11. HOWBEIT NEITHER IS THE WOMAN WITHOUT THE MAN, NOR THE MAN WITHOUT THE WOMAN, IN THE LORD. [1] Each sex is dependent on the other, and made to be so. And when it is added “in the Lord,” the apostle would intimate that Christianity, so far from changing the original plan of Humani... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:12. FOR AS THE WOMAN IS OF (‘out of') THE MAN, SO ALSO IS THE MAN BY (‘through') THE WOMAN in his birth; BUT ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:13. JUDGE YE IN YOURSELVES: IS IT SEEMLY THAT A WOMAN PRAY UNTO GOD (in public) UNVEILED?... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:14. DOTH NOT EVEN NATURE ITSELF TEACH YOU, THAT, IF A MAN HAVE LONG HAIR, IT IS A DISHONOUR TO HIM? The Roman satirist lashes the effeminacy of some men in his day who wore their hair long (Juv., _Sat._ ii. 96).... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:15. BUT IF A WOMAN HAVE long hair, IT IS A GLORY TO HER: for, etc. After laying down the _principle_ that should guide each sex in such matters, he now appeals to their own sense of decency and propriety (compare 1 Corinthians 10:15).... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:16. BUT IF ANY MAN SEEMETH TO BE CONTENTIONS, WE HAVE NO SUCH CUSTOM, NEITHER THE CHURCHES OF GOD: ‘If in the spirit of contradiction A MAN will not yield to such considerations, let him know at least that he is setting himself against the universal practice, and disturbing the peac... [ Continue Reading ]
The immediate object of this section is to denounce certain gross disorders in the celebration of this ordinance which had crept into the Corinthian church; but this gives occasion to so comprehensive and remarkable an account of the original institution and design of that ordinance, that it is fitt... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:17. BUT IN GIVING YOU THIS CHARGE, I PRAISE you NOT, [1] THAT YE COME TOGETHER NOT FOR THE BETTER, BUT FOR THE WORSE. The “charge” or “command” is not what went before (as most modern interpreters understand it), but as will appear on careful study, we think the whole directory here... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:18. FOR FIRST OF ALL, WHEN YE COME TOGETHER IN THE CHURCH _Gr._ ‘in church,' (‘to meeting,' as we might say), for there is next to no authority for the Greek article before “church,” I HEAR THAT DIVISIONS EXIST AMONG YOU; AND I PARTLY BELIEVE IT a delicate way of saying what was unp... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:19. FOR THERE MOST BE ALSO HERESIES AMONG YOU. The word signifies, first, a ‘taking' or ‘choice;' then, the thing chosen, and (in matters of judgment) an ‘opinion' or set of opinions: here it is used in a bad sense, as in Galatians 5:20, for opinions tending to rend the Church. TH... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:20. WHEN THEREFORE YE ASSEMBLE YOURSELVES TOGETHER, IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO EAT THE LORD'S SUPPER.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:21. FOR IN YOUR EATING, EACH ONE TAKETH BEFORE _OTHER _ HIS OWN SUPPER: AND ONE IS HUNGRY, AND ANOTHER DRINKETH FREELY. To understand how such a state of things could exist, we must bear in mind the way in which the Lord's Supper was then observed. In apostolic times it was never ob... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:22. HAVE YE NOT HOUSES TO EAT AND TO DRINK IN? OR DESPISE YE THE CHURCH OF GOD? emphatically so named here, as in 1 Corinthians 11:16, to express the affront put upon God Himself, regarded as present in their assemblies. AND PUT THEM TO SHAME THAT HAVE NOT namely, the poor, by exp... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:23. FOR I RECEIVED OF [1] THE LORD THE LORD JESUS, AS THE NEXT CLAUSE SHOWS. THAT WHICH ALSO I DELIVERED UNTO YOU, HOW THAT THE LORD JESUS IN THE NIGHT IN WHICH HE WAS BETRAYED TOOK BREAD: AND WHEN HE HAD GIVEN THANKS, HE BRAKE IT, AND SAID, [2] THIS IS MY BODY, WHICH IS _GIVEN_ [3]... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:25. IN LIKE MANNER ALSO THE CUP, AFTER SUPPER, SAYING, THIS CUP IS THE NEW COVENANT [1] IN MY BLOOD: THIS DO YE, AS OFT AS YE DRINK _IT, _ IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME. Here the memorial design of the Lord's Supper is reiterated, as if to teach that, if this was not its sole design, yet any... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:26. FOR AS OFTEN AS YE EAT THIS BREAD, AND DRINK THE CUP, [1] YE PROCLAIM THE LORD'S DEATH HOLD IT FORTH AS, TO YOU, A CERTAIN FACT TILL HE COME. [2] This clearly shows not only that the observance of this ordinance was designed to continue from the very time of its first institutio... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:27. WHEREFORE WHOSOEVER SHALL EAT THE BREAD [1] OR [2] DRINK THE CUP OF THE LORD UNWORTHILY ‘unsuitably;' out of keeping in mind and heart with the design of this ordinance, not “as it becometh the Gospel” (Philippians 1:27), not “walking worthily of the Lord” (Colossians 1:10), not... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:28. BUT LET A MAN EXAMINE HIMSELF since on himself will rest the ultimate responsibility, whoever else may examine him. AND SO (supposing the result satisfactory) LET HIM EAT OF THE BREAD AND DRINK OF THE CUP.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:29. FOR HE THAT EATETH OR DRINKETH, EATETH AND DRINKETH JUDGMENT UNTO HIMSELF, IF HE DISCERN NOT THE BODY. (The evidence for the omission of “unworthily” and “Lord's” before “body” is, we think, conclusive; but the sense is the same.) “Discerning the body” sounds very abrupt to us w... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:30. FOR THIS CAUSE MANY AMONG YOU ARE WEAK AND SICKLY, AND NOT A FEW FALL ASLEEP. Physical weakness, sickness, and death are undoubtedly meant here. Possibly some marked calamitous visitations of that church may be in view, the nature of which, however, it were in vain to conjecture... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:31. BUT [1] IF WE DISCERNED OURSELVES, WE SHOULD NOT BE JUDGED. ‘If we did but take the case of our spiritual condition faithfully into our own hands, we should thus take it (so to speak) out of God's hands, and so avert the tokens of His Fatherly displeasure.' [1] “For” is not cor... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:32. BUT WHEN WE ARE JUDGED, WE ARE CHASTENED OF THE LORD, THAT WE MAY NOT BE CONDEMNED WITH THE WORLD. It is to prevent our being condemned with the unbelieving world that our Father lovingly chastens when we need it... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:33. WHEREFORE, WHEN YE COME TOGETHER TO EAT, WAIT FOR ONE ANOTHER instead of your unseemly practice of “each one eating before other his own supper,”... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 11:34. IF ANY MAN IS HUNGRY, LET HIM EAT AT HOME. ‘The religious gatherings of believers are for higher purposes man satisfying the cravings of natural appetite: this should be done at home.' THAT YOUR COMING TOGETHER BE NOT UNTO JUDGMENT do not issue in blighting rather than blessin... [ Continue Reading ]