1 CORINTHIANS 11
Given all the criticisms that Paul has levelled against the church at Corinth it might seem surprising that he starts this section with “I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the teachings just as I passed them on to you”. From the evidence so far, they have not thought highly of Paul and have deviated from his teachings in many respects. It may have been that generally the Corinthian church was faithful to the gospel but that there were still important things to be addressed. We can all be critical of the church and for good reasons, but we must not lose sight of all the good things that the church does that are often less noticeable than the bad. Despite all his criticisms of various churches, in all his letters Paul encourages them.
Verses 3 to 16 are about propriety in worship. The main issue in the passage is Paul requiring women to cover their heads in worship. The word used here is kalumma, which was a kind of veil that covered just the hair, not like the Arab headdresses that we sometimes see Muslim women wearing today. This was part of the normal, everyday clothing for women of the day; it was not something special for church services. It seems that some of the women in the congregation removed these veils. Why would that be a problem? Well, the prophetesses in pagan temples did that when they prayed or prophesied, and that is why Paul makes particular mention of women praying and prophesying in church without their veils; they are doing exactly the same thing as these pagan prophetesses, and that was not a good thing. There have been some churches who take this as an instruction for women to wear hats in church, but that is not really the point. It is not about women having to have their heads covered as such; it is about them not dressing and acting in the same way as pagan prophetesses in the secular world.
The second area of propriety in public worship that Paul addresses in this chapter (vv17-34) concerns the Lord’s Supper. Paul has already noted that there were divisions within the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:10-17) and this seems to have spilled over into the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. It all appeared to be a bit shambolic. People ate at different times and there are hints of gluttony and drunkenness, and some having plenty to eat while others went hungry (vv21-22). Paul was outraged. He was not going to praise them for this; it made a mockery of what the Lord’s Supper was all about. It should be about communion, about the church being together not divided. And so, at this point, Paul spelled out the significance of the Lord’s Supper in the words that we often use at our own Communion Services starting, “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you” (v23). Paul emphasised that it was the Lord Jesus Christ who instituted the Lord’s Supper and that it was his body and blood that has brought the gift of salvation to them (and to us). It is a serious matter and not to be abused by those in the church.