Struggle
I always
struggle with the opening section of 1 Corinthians 11. Today I’m going to talk at length about why I
struggle with it so much. I struggle
with 1 Corinthians 11 for the same reason that I struggle with much of
Leviticus. Both parts of the Bible are
sections of ordinances – and when I read the Bible I’m not looking for human ordinances
but rather spiritual truths.
Traditional Instruction
I need to unpack
that last sentence, so let me do so. The
Greek word that Paul uses in verse 2 is paradosis (παράδοσις). It is often translated as “tradition” or
“teaching.” It is a word that literally
means “the content of traditional instruction.”
Believe it or not, it is a derivative of the word paradidomi (παραδίδωμι)that
we use in the Lord’s Supper when we say “He was handed over.” {And if
you are part of a tradition that says “betrayed” instead of “handed over” it is
really messing up the Greek!} Jesus
was handed over much like teaching is handed over or passed from one person to
another. As Paul opens this chapter he
is speaking about an academic transaction.
He is talking about a scope and sequence of traditional teaching. All of this goes back to the fact that Paul
is talking about “traditional instruction” more than “spiritual directives.”
Now don’t
get me wrong. I love traditions. Christmas morning is a wonderful
tradition. It’s nice to have that
feeling of nostalgia. But spiritually, I
am a person who is quick to balk when a tradition interferes with spirituality. No tradition should ever get in the way of
spirituality. I’ve spoken often about
the fact that the nature of God is almost always “doing something new” – and He
has to because our culture is always changing away from Him. So long as a tradition genuinely reinforces
faith, keep it! But when a tradition
becomes a hindrance, get rid of it!
Okay, so
I’ve gotten a bit distracted today. Let
me try and put it all together. I
struggle with this passage in 1 Corinthians because on its surface it is a
passage about human tradition rather than spiritual directive. I don’t spiritually believe women were made
for men. I read Genesis 1 especially as
a story that focuses on their togetherness rather than a predetermined hierarchy. {Go
back and read my blog for that day if you don’t believe me!}
However, Paul
finds himself in a position of needing to pass along a human tradition that
made sense for the Corinthian community to hear. Let’s look at this fact for a second. We’ve already talked about how much sexual
immorality was predominant in the Corinthian Church. In that context, it really makes sense for
Paul to emphasis things that will help people keep their hormones in control.
However,
by looking at the concluding verse for that section we know Paul’s greater
point is about order and not how people dress.
1 Corinthians 11:16 is about contention, not how people dress. This chapter is ultimately Paul’s attempt to
help restore order in the Corinthian Church.
Paul is using a human tradition to teach a greater lesson about order in
worship and community. In these verses, Paul
isn’t passing along some sort of absolute spiritual truth regarding a hierarchy
of the sexes as much as he is passing along an assertion to help people get
along and live together in Christian community.
We can actually
step back and learn the spiritual truth here in Paul’s words without being
bound to the human tradition that may or may not be appropriate for our
culture. Paul is giving us a spiritual
directive that it is good to have order in the church. Paul is telling us that spiritually we need
to be approaching worship with the idea of dressing and acting in ways that
make it easier for others to be in a relationship with God. The spiritual directive behind what Paul is
saying is that when it comes to worship the focus should be on God and being in
a relationship with God rather than me the individual and the control I can wield
over what happens. Regardless of whether
or not I think women need to have long hair and cover their heads in my
particular ministry context, the spiritual directive of having an orderly
worship that allows people to focus on their relationship with God is applicable.
The Other Half of the Chapter
The same
thing is true for the second half of 1 Corinthians 11. This section of the Bible that most of us
lift up to unify us around the Lord’s Supper actually comes from a portion of
the Bible where Paul is chastising people for having the absolute wrong idea about
worship.
In the
Corinthian church, some people were coming to the Lord’s Supper and consuming
more than their share. This meant that others
would not be able to partake. Some
people were using it as a time to come and get drunk. This meant that other people would have a
hard time partaking in genuine spirituality.
Their communal spirituality was in trouble, and Paul chastises them for
it.
This
section points us to a really strong truth.
Our actions should follow our spirituality, but in most human beings our
spirituality follows our actions. In an
ideal world, our spirituality would be so strong within us that our
spirituality would convict us when we do something wrong. But in most people, we do what our hearts
tell us and we justify it with our spirituality after the fact.
In most
human beings, the way we behave dictates how spiritual we are. This is tragic and completely backwards from
how it should be. But because of this
fact, it means that in most churches if there is conflict there will be poor
spirituality. It should be that strong
spirituality would help resolve and heal the conflict. But tragically this is not the case. In most churches, our conflict fragments and
destroys the spiritual bond that should be between us. Isn’t this really why there are over 33,000
Christian denominations in the world? {Actually, I think the number is up to about
41,000 as of this post.}
1
Corinthians 11 is really a sad chapter to read in spite of it containing one of
the most popular Bible passages ever written.
Here we see the depth of the destruction that follows a community with
poor spiritual practices and poor spiritual perspective.
Being Someone You’re Not
If I can
loop back around to where I began, I think that’s why I am placed in turmoil by
sections of scripture like 1 Corinthians 11.
In 1 Corinthians 11 I hear a Paul who is being forced to be a person
that he really would rather not be.
Remember the story in Acts 16 (especially verses 11-15) when Paul went
to Philippi and God used him to create a wonderful church there? Paul started that church largely through
Lydia. Paul doesn’t have an issue with
women unless the lack of spirituality around him forces him to do so. Remember the genuine faith that Paul asserts
in Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor
free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” When Paul is able to be himself, we see a man
who views Christianity as being free to mold and shape to match the needs of
the mission field around us.
But here
in Corinth – largely because of the poor spirituality among the people – the “Paul
of spiritual freedom” becomes a “Paul of establishing order and managing
people’s behavior.” Just read that
description. Doesn’t that sound sad?
I don’t
think that God sets up an absolute pattern for behavior for every
circumstance. Sure, we are to avoid sin
– God certainly sets up that expectation!
But I don’t know that God wants to be in the business or mandating
whether I listen to an organ, a piano, or a guitar at worship. I don’t think God wants to be in the position
of mandating how long my hair should be.
I think God has bigger priorities that He would rather have us focus
upon. But when we refuse to be
spiritually minded, we have to spend time focusing on the management instead of
the spirituality. I think for me that
this is the saddest part of 1 Corinthians 11.
How often do we spend time managing the behavior of others when we could
be spent focusing on genuine spirituality?
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