On Proper
Behavior Before and During Worship
[1st
Corinthians chapter 11]
First,
my apologies for my recent absence and many thanks to all my readers
who have waited patiently while my website was being rebuilt. My
former Internet hosting account with Yahoo was hacked beyond repair,
which is to say that Yahoo's tech support was clueless about how to
recover my website and my extensive list of professional contacts.
That's right, it all got wiped out and I am now using a different
company. Now, however, it's time to get back to focusing on the
promotion of Jesus Christ and His agenda, which is to reach out
across the Web and help save souls through this on-line church, and
to get the message of salvation to those persons on the Internet who
would normally not be found in traditional churches or denominations.
We all have so little time left before His return, which is why the
message I am passing along has such a sense of urgency. The world as
we have known it is dying from rampant pollution, pointless wars that
have no end, overpopulation, potentially catastrophic climate change,
and the overuse and mis-allocation of natural resources. And so it is
time for all of us to get our minds off all the negative forces that
make up our dying world, and to begin to focus on and engage with the
forces of good. In so doing, the best way to begin to do this is to
focus our hearts and minds on Jesus, whose Spirit causes us to rise
up and stand against the forces of evil. That brings me to the topic
of 1st
Corinthians chapter 11, which delves into what is fitting and proper
in the course of worshiping Christ, who is the world's only remaining
hope.
I'm
going to skim through the first 13 verses of chapter 11 without much
comment due to some rather antiquated concepts about dress and
personal grooming taught from a 1st
century perspective. The most important is verse 1, which simply
says, “Follow
my example, as I follow the example of Christ”,
and this is timeless advice any way you look at it. We learn to
follow the example of Christ by reading his Word and putting it into
practice, and this should be an ongoing practice for everyone because
faith in Jesus is serious business, especially in a world where we
are surrounded by evil on all sides. Paul then writes in verse 3,
“Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ,
and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God”.
Although these values were very relevant when St. Paul first wrote
them 2,000 years ago, the part that says, “the head of every woman
is man” is no longer true in today's world, where modern values
dictate that men and women are equals and that there is parity
between the two genders. Such thinking would have been considered
heretical in Paul's time.
I
grew up in a household where the father totally dominated everything
and everybody else, both inside and outside the marriage and the
family. The end result was a dysfunctional family that was ruled by
fear and intimidation instead of by love and unity as it should have
been. In short, the relationship between the father and the other
family members was abusive. Abusiveness and domestic violence such as
what I experienced when I was growing up simply have no place in any
household, and that is doubly true for a Christian household
regardless of church membership or denomination. And so I have seen
this precept misused by “religious” people over and over again.
Jesus does not rule over us by domination and control, He does so out
of love, grace and mercy (“Blessed are the merciful, for they will
be shown mercy”). The remainder of these first 13 verses is where
Paul writes, mainly from his own viewpoint, about the type of dress
right down to the length and style of the believer's hair. Very
seldom will you see me disagree with anything in the Bible, but this
is one of those rare exceptions. Paul even gets into whether or not
people should cover their heads during prayers (as if that matters).
It
is common to see me in church wearing casual clothes such as shorts
in the summer (it gets plenty hot in the summer here in Atlanta where
I live) or jeans in the winter. I find it most unfortunate that some
churches use these verses as an excuse to dress up like they are
going to a fashion show instead of to a house of worship. I have been
in churches where men and women alike were wearing literally
thousands of dollars in high-end clothing and jewelry, and these
types of people invariably sneer at those who don't – or can't –
afford to dress as they do. Remember what Jesus said when He was
teaching in the temple at Jerusalem, and I paraphrase: it matters a
lot more what is on the inside of a believer than what is on the
outside. External appearances don't count for very much in the church
of the last days before His return. God is far more interested in the
state of our souls than in the state of our wardrobe.
The
apostle Paul seems to at least attempt to clarify this when he wrote
in verses 11 and 12, “In
the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man
independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born
of woman. But everything comes from God.” It
is difficult to tell whether Paul is offering this as a continuation
of his train of thought in the previous verses, or that it is a
caveat
for
the same. At any rate, I will now continue with this study by
returning to the verse-by-verse teaching that you all have become
used to, beginning at verse 17.
“In
the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings
do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come
together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some
extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you
to show which of you have God's approval. When you come together, it
is not the Lord's supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes
ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another
gets drunk. Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you
despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What
shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not! For I
received of the Lord what I already passed on to you: The Lord Jesus,
on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given
thanks, He broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you; do
this in remembrance of me'. In the same way, after supper He took the
cup, saying,' This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this,
whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me'. For whenever you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He
comes.” (1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 17-26 NIV)
Let me stop at this point and give a little cultural
and historical perspective on what Paul is writing about. First of
all, we must understand that Jesus Christ walked the earth as a
Jewish man, and consequently the vast majority of new converts in the
early church were mostly Jewish as well. It was actually Paul that
first brought the message of salvation through Christ to non-Jews,
first in ancient Israel and soon after to Greece and what is now
modern-day Turkey, and ultimately to Rome, capital of the infamous
empire of its day that could arguably be called the world's first
superpower like the USA is today. The Jews of that time had a
time-honored tradition that dated all the way back to the time of
Moses. They would gather together on the Sabbath and have a
celebratory banquet similar to pot-luck dinners today. The Jewish
term for this celebration is “Shabbot” , and this tradition is
still celebrated today in synagogues the world over as well as no
small number of Christian churches such as this who embrace the
Spiritual connection between Christianity and Judaism.
In
the time of the early church, there were a lot of poor and destitute
persons, many of whom did not always have enough to eat. Besides
coming to worship the Prince of Peace, there can be no doubt that
they looked forward to attending Shabbot on the sabbath because this
was one day out of the week when they knew they could get a pretty
good meal. Based on what Paul wrote in this passage, the services in
that day and time must have been pretty rowdy by today's standards,
and some believers were apparently far more devout than others.
People would show up before the service began, eat up all the food
and drink up all the wine and then leave, when in fact the feast did
not begin until after the service was over, as well it should. This
is what Paul meant when he wrote, “When
you come together, it is not the Lord's supper you eat, for as you
eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One
remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don't you have homes to eat and
drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who
have nothing?”
It's pretty clear that Paul was upset with these people who showed
callous disregard for the sacredness of the celebration. Paul then
reminds them in no uncertain terms of why they gather together to
commemorate the Last Supper, and he scolds them for having no
appreciation for this solemn occasion, and for total contempt towards
those in attendance who were less fortunate. He then finishes making
his point beginning in verse 27 while giving the Corinthian church a
very stern warning (as well he should have).
“Therefore,
whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy
manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the
Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and
drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing
the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why
many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen
asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.
When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we
will not be condemned with the world. So then, my brothers, when you
come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he
should eat at home, so that when you meet together it does not result
in judgment. And when I come I will give further directions.” (1
Corinthians 11, verses 27-34 NIV)
Going to church, whether it is to have a service,
revival, or a pot-luck dinner, is a solemn and momentous occasion.
Going to church is not so much a religious obligation as it is a
celebration of the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ, the Son of the living God. Let us therefore examine ourselves
to keep from coming under God's judgment so we will not be “condemned
with the world”. When our physical lives on earth are over – and
everybody has their time including me – we look forward to spending
an eternity with our Lord and Savior in heaven, remembering that we
would not be there if it weren't for Him. The time to begin preparing
for this is now. Worshiping God is serious business. Church is not a
social club, or just a nice place to network or to sneak a peek at
the opposite sex, and it most definitely is not a fashion show like I
mentioned at the beginning of this study. Worshiping Jesus Christ is
a sacred and highly spiritual co-mingling with Him, and it isn't
always done in church. I pray every day, sometimes at home, sometimes
on the bus or the subway, or when I am walking down the street. I can
take my church with me everywhere I go if I want to. After all, since
Jesus – and the guardian angels that He surrounds me with – is
always with me, it seems fitting and proper that I should want to
reciprocate.
And
so should the rest of us.
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