After the first five books of the New Testament are the Epistles, from Romans to Jude, followed by the seven epistles to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. All these deal with this great mysterious man by giving us the definition, the explanation, of this great man and telling us how the members of this great man come into being. In the book of Romans we are told clearly that originally we were sinners, but one day we were saved and justified, and gradually we are transformed into the living members, the members in reality, the members functioning in the Body. Then, at the end of Romans we see the Body of Christ and the Body life with all the members. This is the central message of the book of Romans. In brief, Romans reveals to us that we all, whether Jews or Gentiles, were formerly sinners, but through the redemption, justification, deliverance, and transformation of the Triune God we become the members of the living Body of Christ.
Following this is 1 Corinthians. The first Epistle to the Corinthians deals with the problem of the gifts. The gifts carried the Corinthian believers away from the center. Gifts can distract us from the central line of God, which is Christ as the Head being life to the Body, and the church as the Body with all the believers as living, functioning members. To experience Christ, to feed on Christ, to live by Christ, and to express Christ in a corporate way is the proper and central line. However, the spiritual gifts, which seemed to be good and of God, distracted the Corinthians from the proper and central line to pay attention to something other than Christ and the church.
Since the Corinthian believers appreciated the gifts, they also appreciated and highly valued the gifted persons. Some appreciated Paul, others appreciated Apollos, and still others appreciated Peter (1:12). They appreciated the gifts and the gifted persons, but they forgot the Giver. Paul was a gift, Apollos was a gift, and Peter was a gift. However, they are not the Giver, they are not the Head, and they are not Christ. The Corinthian believers did not know Christ deeply, and they did not know the church in the way of Christ. They paid too much attention to the gifts rather than to Christ and the church. Hence, the apostle Paul told them, “We preach Christ crucified” (v. 23). Furthermore, he said, “I did not determine to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified” (2:2). The apostle tried his best to bring the distracted believers from the gifts back to Christ and the church.
In 1 Corinthians 11 we have Christ as the Head and the church as the Body. In this chapter, the apostle Paul told us that in the church the believers need to do two things, to properly care for head covering and to have the Lord’s supper in a proper way. The real significance of head covering is to respect the headship of Christ. God is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman (v. 3). Hence, there must be the head covering. This is not merely a teaching or a custom but a realization and respect of the headship of Christ. As the church, we have to realize the headship of Christ; we have to realize that Christ is the Head.
Verses 17-34 speak of the Lord’s supper. Why do we come together around the Lord’s table week after week? Is it simply to remember that the Lord died for us? That is too low and shallow. In verse 29 we are told that we need to discern the Body and that we eat and drink judgment to ourselves if we do not discern the Body. We who are many are one bread, one Body (10:17). When we participate in the Lord’s table, we must discern whether the bread on the table signifies the one Body of Christ. Thus, in the first part of 1 Corinthians 11 there is the Head, and in the last part there is the Body. All the gifts must be for the expression of Christ and the building up of the Body. Otherwise, the gifts become something that distracts the Lord’s people from the central line. No matter how good something is, we have to realize that as long as it is separated from Christ and the Body, it is something wrong and misused. Today even many divine things are misused through human handling so that what should be a help to the building up of the church becomes a damage, a separating element, and a dividing factor.
Home | First | Prev | Next