Passage of the Day - 1 Corinthians 11
1 Corinthians 11:1 And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.
The verses that follow this one talk about cultural head coverings during worship. The previous passages discuss food sacrificed to idols. How easy it is to read past this simple sentence, these ten words easily missed.
Imitate me as I imitate Christ.
Questions this requires of us:
1. Do I imitate Christ? Is my hearts desire to allow His work, His life to define all I do? Is my passion to live all my life in submission and to the glory of God?
I have never been at a place when looking at my life where I can answer a solid yes. There are moments of fear and lack of faith. There are segments of my day where prayer and dependance upon the Holy Spirit were forgotten or intentionally skipped. There were affections for things not godly. Sin, period. However, my desire deep inside is to imitate Christ. Though I often fall short and lack what it takes to live this way - these questions bring me to a place of prayer - asking God to continue to shape me into the image of His Son. Take this afternoon and post a little note asking God WHAT? What do I need to repent of? imitate?
2. Who are the people I am inviting to follow me?
Paul understands that faith is not a personal, individual pursuit. It has been, is, and will continue to be a communal journey. Some of you have people that serve as “tour guides” - those ahead of you that you seek to imitate. Who are these people? Do they know you “follow” and listen to them? If you don’t have a person (of the same gender!) who you are following - you NEED to prayerfuly seek that out!
However, you as you pursue Christ, you should also be offering this invitation to those around you. This doesn’t need to be large, though it doesn’t need to be small either. It just needs to involve someone!
Begin asking God to reveal the WHO? Who do I need to connect with? Who should I be following? Who could I invite to walk with me?
Hi Ben! I was hoping you’d be out here today (yesterday)…as I read this bells were going off in my head. I know this isn’t the angle you went with it, but I’m just wondering a bit more about this head-covering thing…I have found myself in situations where I’ve had to defend the agnostic’s claim that Christians “pick and choose” what we want to believe out of the bible. And I must say, it’s been a difficult corner to be in. How can we read these passages and just dismiss it as somthing “cultural”? Paul sounds just ADAMANT about this.
Thanks for listening!
Christy,
The comments about head coverings were cultural in the sense they were dealing with married women who were not worshiping with their “wedding hats” on - or in our day it would be similar to not wearing your wedding ring. To not wear a head covering was to insinuate one was “available” and thus very disrespectful to the husband and ultimately to God. One of the cardinal rules in understanding scripture is - what does this text say to the original hearers. Which means understanding the “cultural” understandings, norms, values, etc will help then apply the text our day. Hope this helps.
Yes, that definitely helps, I didn’t know that. There’s another similar situation that always made me wonder…how about this one, I’d be surprised if any Christian church adhered to this one…
“As in all the congregations of the saints, 34women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.” 1Corinthians 14:34-35