Beginning with chapter eleven through chapter
fourteen.
Please read all the references. They will help you
to gain a better understanding.
“Be
ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.” Again, we see that Paul
practiced what he preached. He is saying if you follow me you will be following
Christ! “Now I praise you that you remember me in all
things, and hold fast the traditions, even as I delivered them to you.” It looks like verse two and
verse seventeen indicate that they had, in the letter that they had sent to
him, asked questions about the things that he gives instruction about in the
first sixteen verses, and then in verses seventeen through the rest
of the chapter he answers
questions about the Lord’s Supper. In verse two he praises them for “holding
fast the traditions”, that he had taught them, and of course he is referring to the God given
tradition that had been given to him by the Holy Spirit. Verse three, “But
I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of
the woman is man; and the head of Christ is God” So the head and subjection order is, God,
Christ, man, woman.
“Every
man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head (Christ). But every woman praying or prophesying
with her head unveiled dishonoreth her head (man) for it is one and the same thing as if she were shaven.”
The latter part of verse five may mean that she would be behaving like a
shameless prostitute. Instead
of “with her head unveiled” in verse five The King James
says, “with her head covered”; The
New King James, “with her head
uncovered”; The Revised Standard, “with
her head unveiled”; The New Revised Standard, “with her head unveiled”; The New International, “with her head uncovered”; Contemporary
English, “without something on her
head”; Translation by Charles Williams, “bareheaded”;
The New American Standard, “who
has her head uncovered”; New English Bible, “bare headed”; Phillips “head
uncovered”.
All of the above versions say that a man should not have his head covered in the public assembles of the church, and that the women should have a veil, covering, or something on her head in the assemblies of the church.
“For
if a woman is not veiled, let her also be shorn
“Judge
ye yourselves
New English Version, “bareheaded”. “Doth not even nature itself
teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is a dishonor to him? But if a
woman has long hair, it is a glory to her
Now, let me see if I can remember some of the arguments that some brethren have given as to why women should not wear a veil, covering, or something other than her hair in the worship service of the church today.
1. Some say that this
instruction was given because of the customs and behavior of the Greek women in
2. On the bases of the
reading in the King James and American Standard Versions on verse sixteen, that
if a man contends against the instruction, then forget about, it is not
binding! Boy, isn’t that really logical! The inspired apostle uses fifteen
verses giving the instruction, and then a troublemaker can cancel out all of
the instruction! Verse sixteen in the New International Versions, “If
anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice- nor do
the churches of God.” The Contemporary English Version reads, “This is how
things are done in all the churches, and that is why none, of you should
argue about what I have said.” Williams, “But if anyone is inclined to be contentious
about it, I for my part prescribe no other practice than this, and neither
do the churches of God. The New American Standard Version reads, “But if one is
inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the
churches of God.
3. On the bases of the
reading of the latter part of verse fifteen, “For her hair is
given her for a covering” some say that statement rules out two coverings for men and women as
given in verse four through seven and also verse thirteen. If these verses are
not talking about two coverings, one an artificial covering and the other a
covering of hair, then most men would have to have their heads shaved to meet
the requirements of verses four and seven. This would be necessary, even for an
ancient model like myself, because I still have a covering of hair!
4. I remember one preacher
brother reasoned that you know it is not necessary for a woman to wear a
covering when she prays to God. His argument was on this order, “Just suppose
that she is in a car, and she sees that she is going to have a tragic accident,
and she does not have time to get her coving on her head.” His statement
reveals that he did not have much understanding of the nature of God (I John 1
5. The most recent argument
that I remember is also based on verse fifteen that the translators just made a
big mistake, that the latter part should read, “for her hair is
given her instead of a covering.” I checked eleven different versions, and not a
single version reads instead of a covering. Does it seem reasonable to
you that all of those Greek scholars who had a part in translating the more
accurate versions like the K.J.V., the N.K.J.V., the A.S.V. and the N.A.S.V.
would have made such a mistake?
Frankly, I get skeptical of
any person who makes an argument based on his great knowledge of the
Greek Language, and a few great authorities that he quotes to set aside
what is given in the more accurate versions of the Bible. Is he not in substance
reasoning that you cannot know the real meaning of any passage of the Bible,
unless you are a real authoritative scholar in the Hebrew language for the Old
Testament, and the same in Greek for the New Testament? Such reasoning leaves
at least ninety-nine and ninety-nine hundredths of us in a hopeless condition!
May the reading of the
various versions assist you in making up your own mind about what these sixteen
verses teach. I am surely ready for each person to make up, his or her, own
mind about what these verses teach.
Now, please let me make a
few comments about what some few preacher brothers have done. I have seen and
heard, and heard of, some getting into the pulpit and making fun of, and trying
to shame women who were sincerely wearing artificial coverings in the worship
service of the church. They absolutely have no right to do such a thing in the
pulpit or anywhere else! It is a plain violation of the principles set forth in
the fourteenth chapter of Romans. Even if it fits in a category of what Paul
refers to as a “scruple”, meaning that a person thinks that something is right
or wrong when that is not the case. Please read (Romans 4
The rest of the chapter deals with the Lord's Supper. Paul affirms that when they came together,
they were not coming together for the better, but for the worse. Instead of partaking of the Lord's Supper in
the proper way, they were eating the Lord's Supper with a common meal, and they
were not even charitable to those who did not have anything to eat. Verse seventeen, "But
in giving this instruction, I do not praise you because you have come together not
for the better, but for the worse." I
believe the great black preacher Marshall Keeble had a sermon entitled,
"Been To Church But Wrong." He
made application primarily to people in denominationalism, but people in the
church can come together, “not for the better, but for the worse”, and Paul says this was
the case with the Corinthians. "For
in the first place when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions
exist among you, and in part I believe it. There must also be factions among you in order
that those who are approved may be made manifest among you.
Verse twenty,
“When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not possible to eat the
Lord's Supper." Why?
They were eating a meal and mixing it with the Lord's Supper and setting
at naught those who did not have anything to eat. "For in your
eating, each one takes his own supper and one is hungry and another is
drunken.” Their
eating and drinking to drunkenness was wrong, plus mixing it with the Lord’s
Supper; and putting to shame those who did not have anything to eat.
In verse twenty-two, Paul
rebukes them with righteous indignation. "What do you not have houses in which to
eat and drink in, or do ye despise the
Verse twenty-three,
“For I received of the Lord that which also I had delivered unto you." So Paul had given them plain instruction
about the Lord's Supper. And they were
going contrary to his instruction. "That
the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and
said, this is my body which is for you.
This do in remembrance of me. And
like manner also the cup after supper saying, this cup of the new covenant in
my blood, this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink
this cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death until he come." Verse twenty-six tells us one way that every
child of God can show that he believes in Christ, that he believes in his
victorious death, and in his resurrection, and in his coming again. "For as often as
you eat this bread and drink the cup. Ye proclaim the Lord's death till he
comes." What about the child of God
who just decides he will do something else on the first day of the week? He is going contrary to the Lord’s
instruction! Some denominational people reason that on the basis of, “For
as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ---‘’ that Jesus did not give us
any specific time to partake of the Lord’s Supper. The practice of some is
every three months, some every six months, and some once a year, and still
others do not follow any set time.
How would you respond to
such reasoning? Most of our brethren who would respond would use Acts 20
What is the best answer? I
Corinthians 16
Jesus instituted the Lord’s
Supper at the last Passover Supper, which he kept with his apostles (Matthew 26
Verse twenty-seven, "Where
fore whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy
manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord." Now, I have not heard anyone reason like this in
recent years, but I can remember the day when brethren would do wrong, and when
they went to church they would not partake of the Lord's Supper. And they would reason I am not worthy to
partake of it because I have sinned.
What they needed to do was to repent and pray for forgiveness (I John 1
Verse thirty,
"For this cause many among you are weak and sickly and not a few
sleep." Now, I have heard preachers preach as though
they were weak physically, and not a few of them had died physically. In the context, I do not believe that is what
he is talking about. When we remember
the Lord's death that gives us spiritual strength (John
Verse thirty-two, "But
when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned
with the world. Wherefore my brethren
when you come together to eat, wait one for another." Now, he is talking about eating the Lord's
Supper. I like the King James Version,
"Tarry one for another." We may need to think about “wait
one for another”
or “tarry one for another”. We are living in the day of a fast-moving
society in the main, and we should start our services on time and close it on
time as usually counted, but that can go to the extreme. Back in that day a lot of the Christians were
slaves, and they probably were not at liberty to get off any time they wanted
to. And that may be the reason why he
said, “wait one for the other”. Of course, there are societies today that
move very slowly where this would still apply to “wait one for
another”.
I have known those who
wanted to change the time of serving the Lord's Supper so that some that were
accustomed to being a little late, would not be there for the time to partake
of the Lord's Supper. My, my, what a
shame, what a lack of love! "If
any man is hungry, let him eat at home; that your coming together be not unto
judgment." Verse thirty-four shows very plainly that
verse thirty-three is talking about eating the Lord's Supper. And Christian worship centers on remembering
the Lord's death, and the partaking of the Lord's Supper, each first day of the
week. Now, when Christ instituted, he
emphasized this do in remembrance of me.
“This do in remembrance of me. And as often as you
drink it, (verse
twenty-five) in remembrance of me”. But then this passage (I Corinthians
Chapter Twelve
Verse one shows they had
written him and had asked him questions concerning spiritual gifts. And Paul goes into detail about the nine
different miraculous gifts and the proper use of those gifts. Chapters twelve, thirteen, and fourteen are
all on the subject of spiritual gifts, and there is more instruction in one
place here on spiritual gifts, and the proper use of spiritual gifts, than any
other reference in the New Testament, by far the longest discussion. "Now concerning
spiritual gifts brethren. Ye know that
when ye were Gentiles, ye were led away unto those dumb idols, howsoever you
might be led. Wherefore I make it known
unto you that no man speaketh in the Spirit of God sayeth
Jesus is anathema. And no man can say
Jesus is Lord but in the Holy Spirit." No
man speaking by the Spirit of God is going to say that Jesus is cursed and
condemned, but will teach that Jesus is the Son of God and that he gave himself
as a ransom for us. Spirit in my Bible
is capitalized, which means that the translators thought that it is the Holy
Spirit or the Holy Ghost as used in the King James Version. We must know about Jesus and the facts of the
gospel before we know that he is Lord. "Now,
there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit." He gives the listing of the miraculous gifts then in
the rest of this paragraph, nine miraculous gifts. And these gifts were given by the laying on
of the apostle's hand. Do you remember
about Phillip’s preaching to the Samaritans (Acts 8
Verse five, "There are diversities
of gifts, but the same Lord and there are diversities of workings, but the same
God who worketh all things in all. But
to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit to profit with all." Each one of the spiritual gifts was to be
used for the profit of the whole church, and in chapter fourteen, we read how
that there were those who were misusing those gifts. "For to one is
given through the Spirit the word of wisdom." This is referring to miraculous wisdom, and
not wisdom that a man gets by obtaining a lot of knowledge and by observing and
acting properly for a long time, but this was a miraculous wisdom. "To another the word of
knowledge. (miraculous knowledge) According
to the same Spirit, to another faith. (miraculous
faith) in the same Spirit And
to another gifts of healing in the one spirit, and to another workings of
miracles, and to another prophecy (received by revelation, so that they could teach others)
And to another discerning of spirits.
And to another diver's kinds of tongues." The Lord gave the apostles the ability to
speak in tongues that they had not learned, and that ability overcame the
language barrier of that first generation. I get the idea that anywhere Paul
went, regardless of what kind of language the people spoke, that he could
communicate to them. And that is what
the miraculous gifts of speaking in tongues was, the ability to speak a foreign
language that they had not learned, but given them by a miraculous gift.
I have been in services when
I was a teenager, where they supposedly had those who were speaking in tongues,
and they did not make sense in their speaking in tongues. You couldn't learn anything from what they
were jabbering, and I never did see an interpreter get up and interpret what
they had said. But in chapter fourteen
we read, if a man had the ability to speak in tongues and he could not
interpret, and there was not an interpreter present, he was to keep silence in
that service. "But
all these worketh the one in the same spirit. Dividing
to each one severally even as he will." The nine
gifts of the Spirit, but they are all a part of that divine working of God's
Holy Spirit. Then he compares that to
the physical body, how that each member of the physical body doesn't have the
same rank as we think of it, but all of them are necessary for the proper
functioning of the body. And if one
member of the body is hurt in some way, the whole body suffers with it, and so
it is to be in the church. I Corinthians
twelve and Romans chapter twelve have quite a bit in common.
Verse thirteen, "For
as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of the body being
many are one body, so also is Christ.
For in one spirit were we all baptized into one body whether Jews or
Greeks, whether bond are free and were made to drink of one spirit." There are three passages, which teach that
baptism is that final act that puts one into Christ and into Christ's spiritual
body, the church. In Galatians 3
Romans 6
Okay. Baptism not only puts
one into Christ, but also into Christ's spiritual body, the church. “For in one spirit were
we are all baptized into one body.” And remember
those passages, Ephesians 1
For many years some talked
about those unnecessary parts of the body, but further knowledge has shown that
all of those parts have a function. And
for the best performance of the body, all those parts of the body need to be
healthy. Our youngest daughter got her
big toe cut off in a bicycle chain when she was four years old. And the doctor told us, do not start giving
her something for the relief of pain, she will get to the point where she will
depend on something, and it would not be the proper thing. He said, “That big toe effects the balance of
the body, and her back will hurt”. Well,
the fact that she was so young, that second toe grew much larger, and somewhat
in the process of time took the place of the big toe. But he was surely right that a toe is very
important to the proper functioning of the body. The boys nicknamed her Slew Foot.
Verse eighteen, "But
now hath God set the members each one of them in the body, even as it pleased
him. And if they were all one member,
where were the body? But now there are
many members, but one body. And the eye
cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee
Chapter Thirteen
The first part of chapter
thirteen is usually counted as a chapter on love, but he is comparing love with
spiritual gifts. And the first thing
that he shows is, that regardless of what a person does, if it is not motivated
by love, it will profit him nothing. "If
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels."
Based on what he says about speaking in tongues in chapter fourteen, it
looks like the speaking in tongues was counted as the greatest gift of all by
those tongue speakers. But Paul goes
beyond the gift of speaking in tongues and says with “the
tongues of men and of angels”. "But have
not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging symbol." You are just making a loud noise if what you
do is not motivated by love, regardless of your ability to speak in tongues,
unless it is motivated by love, it will not profit you anything. "And if I have the gift
of prophecy, (another gift of the Spirit) and
know all mysteries, (another gift) and all
knowledge; and though I have all faith, so as to remove mountains (miraculous knowledge and
faith) but have not love, I am nothing." He is trying to press the point that everything that
they do in the church is to be motivated through love, and not to show off
the gift. "And
if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned,
but have not love, it profiteth me nothing." If a
man gives all his goods to feed the poor, it may help the poor, but the Lord
won't put it to his account if it is not motivated by love. If he just wants to make a big show and get
attention, then Paul says it does not profit him anything.
Then in verse four he begins
and gives a brief analysis of love, or the characteristics of genuine
love. "Love
suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not
puffed, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeket not his own, is not provoked,
taketh not account of evil." I believe I read from
one version, I think it was Williams’ translation says, “love
does not keep a score card.” In other words it does not
keep a record. Anytime a person does you
wrong, and you reason well, I am going to mark this against you, and when he
does something else, I got this marked up against you, and he does something
else, I have this marked against you, and finally, you call his attention to
all those things he has done wrong. This
passage says that love does not do that, it does not take account of evil or it
does not try to keep a remembrance of all those wrong things that a person has
done to you. "Rejoiceth
not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth in the truth." Sometimes we may have gossipers in the
church, who are ready if anybody does wrong, to get on the telephone and say,
“Do you know what brother Smith did, or do you know what this sister Brown
did?” And they are so glad to tell what
they have done that is wrong. Well, they
are doing wrong in that process, because love does not rejoice in
unrighteousness. And if a member tells anything
about what somebody has done wrong, they are to do it in such a way to try to
help that person and not to hurt that person.
"Rejoiceth not in unrightousness, but rejoiceth in
truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth
all things. Love never faileth."
In verse eight he starts
telling that spiritual gifts are going to cease, and this is the primary
passage of the New Testament that you need to use when talking to people
who think that we are still supposed to
have miracles and other miraculous gifts today.
"Love never faileth
People give attention to
matters when they have a problem to deal with. Back when cars had points in the
distributor, if the points stuck or got out of adjustment, the car would not
run correctly, sometimes it would not run at all. But you could go into all details in telling
a person about what to do if he should have that problem, but if he has never
had that problem, not one out of a thousand, I guess, would remember if he did
have that problem. But let a man be
stranded for a few hours because of that problem and you show him how, he will
remember it then. And so the apostles
did not receive all of God's instruction at one time, but as the truth was
needed, the apostles were guided into that truth.
Verse ten, "But
when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done
away." If you ask the average denominational
preacher what that means, he will probably say that Christ is the one that is
perfect, and so all of the miraculous will be done away when Christ comes. If
that is the case the language would reflect on the educational attainments of
the apostle Paul, and would the Holy Spirit refer to Christ as that which is
perfect. He is talking about when
all of the New Testament had been given.
James
In verse eleven, he speaks of
this miraculous period as being like the childhood period of the church. "When I was a child, I
spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child
Verse twelve, "Now
we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face-to-face. (after completion of New
Testament) Now I know in part; but then shall I know fully
even as also I was fully known. But now
abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is
love." Man cannot please God
without proper faith (Hebrews 11