WWUTT 1581 Q&A Head Coverings and the Lord‘s Table (1 Corinthians 11)

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Yes, we finished up 1 Corinthians chapter 11, but I want to come back to it one more time because you submitted some good questions that we may understand more rightly these instructions concerning head coverings and the

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Lord's Table when we understand the text. This is

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When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.

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For questions and comments send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 1 Corinthians, and this week we are in chapter 11.

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I know you're thinking, wait a minute, I thought we finished chapter 11 last week. We're on to chapter 12. Well we are going to get to chapter 12 tomorrow, but I received a few questions about some of the things that we talked about in 1

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Corinthians 11 regarding both head coverings, that was verses 1 through 16, and the

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Lord's Table, verses 17 through 34. This coming Friday, Becky and I are going to do a

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Christmas -themed episode, and then the week after that we're doing our year -end review. So it's going to be a few weeks before we come back to responding to questions from listeners.

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I thought I would go ahead and commit an episode to some of those questions that I received over 1

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Corinthians 11. I've got four of them here. Two of them have to do with head coverings, and two have to do with the

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Lord's Table. So quickly, let me read a couple of portions here. I'm going to read from 1 Corinthians 11, 1 through 3.

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I'm going to start with that, and then when we switch to the Lord's Supper questions, I'll read a portion there regarding the

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Lord's Table. So here's how Paul begins the chapter. 1 Corinthians 11, beginning in verse 1.

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Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to you.

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But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.

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There's the first three verses of 1 Corinthians 11, because that principally is what

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Paul wants the Corinthians to understand regarding this matter of a woman wearing a covering on her head.

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The main point, the aim of this section is right there in verse 3.

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I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.

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That was how we began that section, and that was how I summarized it or summed it up at the conclusion as well.

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So here's the two questions that I have regarding head coverings. This first one comes from Todd in Illinois.

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Pastor Gabe, I appreciate your teaching on head coverings and your willingness to address every subject in the

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Bible, even matters as complicated as this, but I still felt like we were left without a definitive yes or no answer on head coverings.

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I know that when I'm asking this question, I'm asking for your opinion. So in your opinion, yes or no, should women wear a covering over their head in church or not?

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Todd, your question is more complicated than you think it is. It sounds like a simple yes or no question.

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It's really not, but let me go ahead and give you what you're asking for. So in my personal opinion, would

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I prescribe that a married woman, since of course that's really the context of what we're looking at over here in this section, a woman who is married shows a symbol of authority over her head with the covering that she wears.

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The authority is her husband. So should or do

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I prescribe rather that women, married women in church must wear a covering over their head?

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The answer to that question is no. There's your straightforward yes or no answer.

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Even though the question you asked is not as straightforward as you think it was.

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So let me look at the question again. Should women wear a covering over their head in church or not?

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First of all, we're not talking about all women. Remember, we're talking about only married women. She shows that she has authority over her head by the covering that she wears and the authority over her is her husband's.

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That's number one. Number two, we don't know what a covering is. There's disagreement over exactly what

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Paul is saying that a woman should be wearing on her head. Is it talking about a veil? Is it talking about some kind of a shawl like a scarf?

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Do modern day hats provide a reasonable substitute? Some believe that we're only talking about hair here, that a woman's hair is her covering.

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So therefore, what Paul is actually prescribing is that a married woman should wear her hair long.

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Look at verses 14 and 15 again. Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him.

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But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her for her hair is given to her for a covering.

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We don't have anything else stated is what a covering is, except right there. Only there does it is anything ever specified about this covering, that it's her hair.

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So therefore, is Paul just simply saying man should not have long hair, but women should have long hair.

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And even nature testifies to this. Now this is there is a a principle going on here that is applied to all people everywhere at all times.

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But there also seems to be something customary. So there's both a principle and a custom.

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Now the principle that applies to all people everywhere is in the fact that as Paul is giving this instruction, he's tying it back to creation.

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So if you're going back to a creation mandate, it's therefore for everyone everywhere.

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It's not just customary. It's not just for the Corinthians there in in this first century

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Greek culture. Verse seven, a man ought not to have his head covered since he is the image and the glory of God.

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But the woman is the glory of man for man does not originate from woman, but a woman from man for indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake.

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Therefore, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels.

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So again, Paul goes back to creation with this. Therefore, you do have a principle that applies to everyone.

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But then there seems to also be something customary. Is the covering itself something customary or is it something, uh, is, is the covering also the principle?

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And that's where the confusion comes in. We recognize that submission is the principle.

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Going back to verse three again, I want you to understand Christ is the head of every man. The man is the head of a woman and God is the head of Christ.

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There's an order here. There's a hierarchy. Yeah. Our culture hates that term. There's even a lot of evangelical circles trying to get away from concepts of hierarchy as well, but you can't escape what is clearly stated here in the scriptures and each person is to submit according to their given role.

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A wife is to submit to her husband. We don't just have that here in first Corinthians 11, it's in Colossians three, it's in Ephesians five, a wife is to be in submission.

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So that's the principle. But then the symbol of that, of, of her having an authority over her head is the covering that she wears.

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Then the covering is the custom. So submission is the principle. The covering is the custom or, and, and like I said, because the custom or the covering rather is not clear, then there's even disagreement as to whether or not that's the custom or if the custom is so tied to the principle that every married woman is supposed to be wearing a covering over her head.

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So all of that to say, Todd, I was just trying to explain why your question was not as clear as yes or no, as you think it is, but we need to at least understand the principle of what's being laid down there.

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And that's first Corinthians 11 three. I want you to understand Christ is the head of every man.

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The man is the head of a woman and God is the head of Christ. Let's get to the next question here.

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This one from Jeannie in Charleston, West Virginia. I've heard it said that a covering on a woman's head in Corinth was according to the tradition of their time.

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She shows that she is married or in submission to her husband by wearing a covering on her head.

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But in our current context, the sign of submission is a wedding ring. In other words, a wedding ring today in America is what a head covering was back then in Corinth.

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Is this correct? Well, I've actually mentioned this in a what video sort of if you go back to this is one of the earliest videos because it's going back to 2015.

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That was the first or second year I was doing these videos. Anyway, they're all on YouTube.

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The title of the video is, is it a shame for a man to have long hair? And about a minute into the video,

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I'm reading from first Corinthians chapter 11 and there's a subtitle at the bottom.

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So I don't actually say this in the video, but you'll see the text and kind of like a footnotes at the bottom.

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And it says a married woman wore an additional covering on her head to show that she was unavailable today in our culture.

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Women wear a wedding ring. Now I put that as a footnote rather than it being like a main point in the subject of the video because it's not necessarily, it's more of a hypothesis or a theory than it is a stated fact.

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But just like you might find something in a study note section in a study Bible, that's kind of why

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I put that there. So I've said that before. I've even taught that before. In Corinth, women had a covering on their head in our present day context, in our present day context, women wear a wedding ring.

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So she's showing by her wedding ring that she has authority over her head.

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The problem with that, though, is it's not really a sign of authority on her head. We don't really look at a wedding ring and think that way.

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A wedding ring is kind of a sign of covenant bond to somebody else. You might hear it said in a wedding, the ring is circular because we're joined together in unity.

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It never ends, you know, something to that effect, which marriage does end even biblically marriage ends.

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It ends at death. The covenant is is done when one of the persons in the covenant dies.

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So marriage is not eternal. It's not forever. When your spouse dies, the marriage is over, biblically speaking.

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Jesus even says that in heaven, there is not marriage or being given in marriage. So we have that that God has given to us in our present context, in our present time, in this age, but it's not going to be in the age to come.

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So like I said, I've mentioned that as a footnote. It's really more of a theory. There are people who've written such into commentaries, but the commentary doesn't really explain to us exactly what we have in First Corinthians 11 verses one through 16.

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We have to look at this text first. And what we're going to understand from this text is going to be in the text rather than bringing history lessons that we've read about Corinth into this text.

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We need to see the text for what it says. There are different things that can help us get an idea of the culture in Corinth at that time or in ancient

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Greece. But I don't think that those things that you look up are going to add anything spiritual, especially to this text, like you don't have to read history to understand the

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Bible. You can read the Bible and understand the Bible. And it's the Holy Spirit of God that helps us to know what is being said.

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The principle that we need to draw from First Corinthians 11 is already there in the text. We don't have to read from history or understand

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Corinthian customs in order to find that. All right, now we're going to shift into the couple of questions that I have regarding the

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Lord's table. And let me read a little bit from the text here out of First Corinthians 11 verses 17 to 22.

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And then I'm going to read a little bit more later on. So Paul says, but in giving this instruction, I do not praise you.

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Remember at the start of chapter 11, he praises them for continuing in the traditions that have been delivered to them.

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But regarding their use of the Lord's table, they were not eating and drinking in a worthy manner.

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So Paul doesn't praise them for this, because you come together, not for the better, but for the worse.

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For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you and in part,

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I believe it for there must also be factions among you so that those who are approved may become evident among you.

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And as I explained regarding this verse, First Corinthians 11 19, there are going to be divisions in a church.

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There are people who are going to teach falsely. There are people that are not going to be following with the instruction that we have according to scripture.

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That's going to happen in any church. There is no church that perfectly governs itself in such a way that no one false ever comes in.

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There are going to be those that will try to stir up division. And this happens so that those who are genuine might be revealed who is truly acting according to the word of God and who is acting contrary to that word.

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So that's part of the exercise, the discipline of a healthy church. Just because somebody comes into the church that is false, just because anybody in the church speaks falsely does not automatically mean that's a hell.

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That's an unhealthy church. Rather, what does the church do about that?

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Do they handle that in a godly manner? That's going to be the exercise or the indicator as to whether that church is truly faithful, biblically faithful to the word of God.

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We go on into verse 20. Therefore, when you meet together in the same place, it is not to eat the

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Lord's Supper for in your eating, each one takes his own supper first and one is hungry and another is drunk.

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For do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing?

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What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this, I will not praise you.

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And I mentioned these are the love feasts, the agape feasts that the Corinthians were partaking in. Now, Paul never calls it that in 1

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Corinthians. We actually have love feasts stated in Jude chapter one, verse 12, but that is the kind of feasting that was going on, which wasn't really loving because you had factions there at that table.

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The rich were filling themselves up with their food. The poor were coming with nothing and they were leaving hungry.

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And so then when they went from the agape feast to the Lord's table, everybody's divided. They're not coming in unity and they eat and drink in an unworthy manner.

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And what's the result of that? Paul says in verse 29, he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.

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He gives the right manner that they're supposed to be conducting themselves at the Lord's table.

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That's verses 23 through 26. And because they were, they were eating and drinking in an unworthy manner.

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Paul says in verse 30, for this reason, many among you are weak and sick and a number sleep.

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But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. So calls them to repentance and calls them to eat and drink in a worthy manner.

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Now, this first question that I have regarding that teaching on the Lord's table, this comes from Steven in Pueblo, Colorado.

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He says, Pastor Gabe, with regards to the Lord's table, how much does Matthew 5, 21 to 26 apply to this?

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Was Jesus only talking about sacrificing at the altar? And so now Matthew 5, 21 to 26 no longer applies directly, though maybe somehow spiritually we don't sacrifice in the temple anymore.

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Or does Matthew 5, 21 to 26 apply also to the Lord's table in that we're not supposed to eat or drink if we know that someone is holding something against us?

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OK, so what is Steven referring to here? Let's go to Matthew chapter five.

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And this is with regards to anger, Jesus instruction concerning anger.

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Matthew five, starting in verse 21. You have heard that it was said to those of old. You shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.

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But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.

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So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you.

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Leave your gift there before the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.

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Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court. Lest your accuser hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard and you be put in prison.

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Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. So Steven here is basically asking about that section right there in the middle versus twenty three and twenty four.

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And if this applies to the Lord's table and you've probably heard pastors that have tied this to proper conduct at communion, verse twenty three.

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So if you're offering your gift at the altar and there, you remember that your brother has something against you.

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So it's not that your brother is made something up, but you actually have committed some kind of offense to your brother.

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Verse twenty four. Leave your gift there before the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.

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And I think that there is an application of the Lord's table in this. It's indirect because that isn't exactly what

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Jesus is tying this to. But the Lord's table is an altar of sorts, because remember that Paul said in verse twenty six, first Corinthians eleven, twenty six.

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For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the

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Lord until he comes. So there is a sense in which the communion table is an altar.

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Now, it's not an altar where the body and blood of Christ are being sacrificed or offered up again, contrary to the way that the

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Catholics do it, where where Christ is being re -sacrificed, but rather it's a memorial, remember?

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So we're doing this in remembrance. We remember that Christ was sacrificed for us.

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So in that way, it's a it's an altar of remembrance, not an altar on which sacrifice is being conducted.

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We remember the sacrifice that was given for us. Therefore, when you come to that table and we are to be partaking in that table of a worthy manner, in a worthy manner, then, yes, part of that self -examination is going to be how am

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I with my brothers and sisters in the Lord? Remember that the Corinthians were coming to that table and they were divided.

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There was not unity among them, but division. So you must examine yourself in this same way.

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Have you committed some kind of offense against your brother or sister in the Lord to whom you need to be reconciled in order to partake of the body and the blood in a worthy manner?

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Then, yeah, do that before you get to communion on Sunday. Make things right with your brothers and sisters in the

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Lord. Now, the example of this that I gave was with regards to an elder who had committed adultery and because he had done that and would not repent, he was eating and drinking judgment on himself.

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And some of that judgment involved how mentally unstable he was and how unsettled he was in his spirit, was never able to come to peace.

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And I tried to communicate to him, it's because you were in adultery when you would serve the Lord's table and you've not yet repented of that and come to the

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Lord. And so you've eaten and drank judgment upon yourself.

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And he would not accept that answer, of course, made him very upset. But the one whom he offended would have been his own spouse, members of his church, but even his wife.

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And because he was not reconciled to his wife, he never could come to peace over what it was that he had done.

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And he would have continued eating and drinking judgment on himself if I had allowed him to do that.

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So there's kind of an example of making things right with your brothers and sisters in the

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Lord before you partake in the table. Now, again, and I said this last week, I don't think we should be looking for reasons not to take communion.

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And some people do that, like there's a certain piety that they believe that they have when they don't take of the elements.

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Well, look how holy I am. I'm not going to take of the bread and the cup because I don't want to keep judgment on myself.

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And I don't know if what's going on in their heads is just personal or if they think to themselves, hey, you all can eat and drink judgment on yourselves, but I'm not going to do that.

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I'm not going to assume that that's what's going on in their mind. Maybe it's just a personal thing. But nonetheless, we should not be looking for reasons not to take of the of the bread and of the cup, because Paul's instruction here is that you must test yourself.

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Verse 28, a man must test himself. And in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup for, as Jesus instructed to his own disciples, do this in remembrance of me.

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So let's do it. Let's come to the Lord's table. Remember this body that is broken for us.

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Remember the blood that was spilled for the forgiveness of sins. And we do this together as a body.

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If you're looking for reasons not to partake in communion, you're actually dividing yourself from the body in that way as well.

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When the church is gathered together for communion, let us all be of one mind in that all be of one together at the table of the

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Lord who died for us and unifies us. We are reconciled to God and we are reconciled to one another through the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

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All right. Let me get to this last question here. This one is from Connie in Kansas. She says,

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Pastor Gabe, you say that you believe that God still works to punish those who eat of the bread and drink of the cup in an unworthy manner.

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If the spirit still works in this way, then why can't the spirit still be working through miraculous signs and wonders like gifts of healing and speaking in tongues?

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That's a good question, Connie. So if I'm willing to say that I believe that God would still punish somebody who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, and of course,

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I gave examples of that, and even I'm an example of that. I remember a time in my life when

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I was walking in sin and God's hand was heavy upon me because he would not let me be comfortable in that sin that I was in.

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So if God, if the Holy Spirit is still working in this way, why can't God be working in miraculous signs and wonders?

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Because the miraculous signs and wonders were apostolic gifts. The gifts of healing, the gifts of prophecy, the gifts of speaking in tongues, right?

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These were all apostolic. They affirmed that these men were apostles who came preaching the word of the

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Lord. The apostle Paul to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 12, 12, the signs of apostleship were performed among you.

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Hebrews chapter two also where it says that God confirmed this word through miraculous signs and wonders.

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These are apostolic gifts. The punishment, however, that happens because a person would eat and drink in an unworthy manner is not apostolic.

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So it's not something that has come to a conclusion at the end of the apostolic era.

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We are still gathering together at the Lord's table and eating of the bread and drinking of the cup.

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So whoever does this in an unworthy manner, who does not judge themselves ahead of time, they will be judged because as Paul says in verse 27, they shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the

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Lord. They don't proclaim the death of Christ. They're guilty of the death of Christ. Now, the judgment that they receive may not be in this lifetime.

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Like I said last week, just because a person is sick, that doesn't mean we look at that person and go, oh, well, you came to the

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Lord's table guilty of sin. And just because a person is healthy doesn't mean we look at them and say, oh, you are handling the body and the blood of the

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Lord in a worthy manner. There are plenty of people in many churches today who are eating of the bread and drinking of the cup in an unworthy manner.

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And the judgment of God is not coming upon them in the present, but it will come upon them at a future time.

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Some do experience a judgment in this way, but not everybody. And there are some later on who will stand before the judgment seat of God and they will be judged because they were guilty of the body and the blood of the

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Lord. All of that is in the Lord's hands. This is a self -examination thing.

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Remember, because Paul says to examine yourself, if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

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But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

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Verse 33. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

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There's a self -examination that should be going on here. And there is also an instruction to the church that they are to encourage and admonish one another in the ways that we can see that a person is misbehaving, is sinning contrary to the instruction of God.

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Then we should call that person to correction. Otherwise, if we see it and we don't call them to correction, then we're guilty of tolerating that sin.

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Paul had rebuked the Corinthians about that before because they had a man in their midst who was guilty of incest, and the church was not disciplining him.

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Rather, what the church was doing was they were suing each other and taking one another to court. So you're letting unbelievers handle these things instead of judging yourselves the way that you're supposed to.

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So there's a self -examination that we should be doing, and we also have a responsibility to one another in the body of Christ.

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Let us judge ourselves rightly so that when we come to the Lord's table, we will not be judged.

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But once again, Connie, to answer your question, the judgment that might come as a consequence because we mishandled the

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Lord's table is not tied to the apostolic gifts.

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Speaking in tongues, miraculous signs, healings, prophecy, those kinds of things, those were all apostolic gifts.

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And those are not in regular practice, especially new revelation. There's no new revelation today because we have the word of God.

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As Peter says in 2 Peter 1, we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which we would do well to pay attention as to a light shining in a dark place.

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We have the Bible. We don't need anything else. The Bible is sufficient for our every need.

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And so these apostolic gifts are not in regular occurrence anymore. But as Paul said to the

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Galatians, do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever one sows, that will he also reap

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Galatians 6, 7 for the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption.

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But the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. All right.

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Is that clear? Thank you so much for your questions and for letting me come back to first Corinthians 11 one more time.

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We'll get into chapter 12 tomorrow. Heavenly Father, thank you for these good instructions for us.

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May we rejoice in God to read these things and follow them that we may walk in a worthy manner unto the

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Lord Christ who gave himself for us, who redeemed us and has made us a people for his own possession.

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We walk to the praise of his glorious grace this very day in Jesus name. Amen. This is

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When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study,