Be Wise about Church Order

Scripture

Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:1 KJV

Big idea

Summary

A newfound equality in Christ had, in Corinth, produced some genuine confusion about how men and women should conduct themselves in public worship. Paul grounds his instructions about head-coverings and hair length in the created order of headship, careful throughout to insist that difference in role never implies inferiority in value — the same passage that speaks of headship also insists that man and woman are mutually dependent on each other in the Lord.

A second, more damaging problem centered on the shared “love feast” that preceded the Lord’s Supper. What was meant to be a meal of shared generosity had become an occasion for the wealthier members to indulge themselves while poorer believers went hungry and humiliated — a display of the very cliques and self-interest Paul had been confronting since chapter one, now acted out at the Table itself.

Paul closes with instructions for approaching the Lord’s Supper rightly: looking back in grateful remembrance of Christ’s death, looking ahead to his promised return, looking within through honest self-examination, and looking around with genuine care for fellow believers rather than competition or contempt. Because some in Corinth had approached the Table carelessly, Paul says, the church had already experienced God’s disciplining hand — a sober reminder that this meal is never merely symbolic.

Key points

• Paul’s instructions on head-coverings rest on an order of headship that he insists carries no implication of inferiority — man and woman remain mutually dependent in the Lord.
• The Corinthian “love feasts” had degenerated into scenes of selfish indulgence, with wealthier members humiliating poorer ones instead of sharing generously.
• Approaching the Lord’s Supper rightly means looking back to Christ’s death, ahead to his return, within through self-examination, and around with genuine care for other believers.
• Unworthy participation in the Supper is a serious matter, not a merely symbolic lapse — Paul links it directly to real suffering and discipline in the congregation.
• The purpose of self-examination before Communion is confession and restoration, not perfection — no one is required to be worthy, only to partake in a worthy manner.

Illustrations & analogies

• Paul contrasts the head-covering worn by respectable women in that culture with the shaved or closely cropped hair associated publicly with temple prostitutes, showing how much was actually being communicated, intentionally or not, by the choice to go uncovered.
• He describes wealthier Corinthians arriving early to the shared meal and consuming their own food and wine before the poorer members could even arrive, turning a meal meant for unity into a display of exactly the divisions it was supposed to heal.
• He recalls a Scottish pastor comforting a weeping woman who felt unworthy to receive Communion, telling her, “Take it, my dear, it’s for sinners!” — a reminder that the Table is approached in humility, not achieved worthiness.
• He describes a personal experience of a church member publicly confessing sin before Communion, and the wave of visible relief and unity that moved through the congregation as a result.

Notable lines

It is impossible for a true Christian to get closer to his Lord while at the same time he is separated from his fellow believers.

Warren W. Wiersbe Be Wise, ch. 9

Let us give thanks also.

Warren W. Wiersbe Be Wise, ch. 9

For reflection and discussion

1. Where do you see cultural expressions of respect or humility today that might serve a similar purpose to the head-coverings Paul describes?
2. Have you witnessed — or been part of — a church gathering where wealth or status created the kind of division Paul confronts at the “love feast”? What helped, or would have helped?
3. What does honest self-examination before Communion look like for you, practically, without tipping into either carelessness or paralyzing guilt?