Andrew Meredith’s Reviews > The Headcovering in Worship > Status Update

Lipsy: "From a “big picture” perspective, Paul primarily focuses on two sins that had begun to seriously affect the Corinthian congregation. The first of these sins was a growing spirit of individualism, driven in part by pride over spiritual gifts and attainments. The second somewhat- related sin was a gross misunderstanding and misapplication of Christian liberty. As we will see, he addresses these sins in a variety of ways. It is helpful to recognize these twin sin areas in order to better understand all that Paul is saying in the passage we are studying together."

Andrew: I really appreciate that he seeks to first set the passage in context. Just beginning with 1 Corinthians 11 invites a whole lot of misunderstanding. I personally would emphasize a (related) sin that Paul is addressing throughout the letter and that I believe is even more overarching than the ones Lipsy names: division among Christian brothers due to a lack of love (which is why chapter 13 is such a scathing rebuke: Paul defines "Love" as everything the Corinthians were not.).

Un-Christ-like division in the Corinthian church was happening along many lines (favorite Apostles, wealth, public litigations, food, marital status, spiritual gifts, etc.). Furthermore, although they were dividing into all kinds of factions for all sorts of bad reasons, they weren't dividing from someone whom they should have been separating themselves from (ch. 5). Paul's message to them largely revolves around love expressed in unity and orderliness.

I would caution anyone reading the Bible against too quickly inserting post-Enlightenment concerns into the core message. Yes, what Paul says has rather direct application to what we understand as a "spirit of individualism" and "Christian liberty," but the former would be virtually meaningless to a pre-Cartesian audience, and for the second, "liberty" would have to be carefully nuanced, meticulously pruned from it's 'Age of Reason' accoutrements.

Otherwise stated, there are additional contextualization steps that prevent these two modern-day problems from being Paul's "primary focuses."