THIS chapter continues with Paul dealing with problems within the Corinthian church. Verses 1-16 deals with the problem of how women should present themselves when they come to worship. Verses 17-34 deal with the conduct of the whole church in worship, specially with regard to the sacrament of Holy Communion.

VERSES 1-16

It is plain that Paul is dealing with something within the practice of the church which offended the practice of society of that time and particularly in Corinth. Our difficulty is that we are not told what this is and have to deduce it from the context. Because of this to demand that women should wear hats in church today, when our cultural practice is so different, would be to apply Paul's directions here unwisely.

It seems that in the culture of the society in Corinth, respectable women kept their hair long and covered their head with a veil in public. The new found freedom found in Christ seems to have caused the exercise of liberty for women not to keep their hair long and their heads uncovered. Paul sees this as being misunderstood in the society of the city, and so bringing disrepute on the Christian community and upon Christ. In that society women who wore their hair short and went with uncovered heads were loose women.

According to his usual practice Paul deals with this issue from a Biblical perspective, and uses the order of creation, and the result of the fall into sin of Adam to urge that women should not use their freedom in Christ in an unwise way. Paul balances the teaching of the subordination of the woman to the man in the creation pattern with the new understanding in Christ where both the man and the woman are inter-dependent, with neither superior to the other (v.11, 12).

The teaching put forward in verse 3ff is that Christ is the head of the church, the family of God. All are in subjection to Christ as the head, so the way a man treats his wife is governed by how Christ treats those who are under his rule, and particularly in this respect how Christ treated women. On the other hand there is order in creation where Adam was created first, and Eve was created to be a help and companion for Adam.

The teaching hear has nothing to do with whether women can take part in worship and the conduct of worship. Paul distinctly says that the woman should pray with her head covered. What is important is that the way women, and men for that matter, conduct themselves in church must be with decorum, and sensitivity to honouring God and behaving in such a way that no dishonour is brought on the Gospel.

VERSES 17-34.

Another issue which brought dishonour on Christ and the Christian community was the way people were behaving when the sacrament of Holy Communion was incorporated into the meeting together.

Verses 17-22

These verses describes the sort of disorder that was occuring in the fellowship at Corinth. It seems that the practice was for the church to come together for a communal meal, into which was incorporated a celebration of the Lord's Supper. This was called the Agape meal or love feast. It was meant to express the love which exists within the family of Christ, where all, both rich and poor, are accepted and loved. People brought food and this was meant to be shared with all, so that the poor, who had little if anything to bring, would receive as much as the rich. Instead the rich were eating on their own, and the poor were left out and hungry. In this unloving and divided community Holy Communion was celebrated in a dishonouring way.

Verses 23-26

Paul lays before the church how Christ instituted Holy Communion, and what Christ meant it to be and to be celebrated. The straight forward understanding of Holy Communion as Jesus gave it to his church is that bread and wine are symbols that represent his body broken on the cross to atone for our sins. The eating is plainly meant to remind those receiving the bread and wine of what Christ has done for them in and by his death, The eating and drinking is to be a remembrance of Christ's death, and that he died for each believer, and to remind each receiver of the bread and wine of the great love of Jesus that he was ready to die to save them from the death and hell they deserve on account of their sins. The physical eating is simply to stimulate the spiritual and real eating which is by faith. The physical eating has not value if there is no faith.

Paul winds up this teaching concerning the nature and purpose of the sacrament by saying “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” Plainly the death of Christ and its meaning and efficacy is at the heart of Communion, and it is declaring of this and the declaring that this is what we trust in.

VERSES 27-34.

Paul then speaks of the seriousness in which every believer should approach attendance at Holy Communion. To come unworthily and carelessly is sinning against the death of Christ, that is despising it and treating it with contempt. A verse in Hebrews (10: 29) expresses the awfulness of such action and its consequence. "How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace."