1. “ Be ye imitators of me as I am of Christ.” Not even an apostle enjoyed a right to human leadership, only so far as he was in harmony with Christ. Hence the utter futility and glaring preposterosity of all human leadership. All we can do is to walk in the footprints of Jesus, and shout aloud:
“Follow me as I follow the Lord.” The clergy men in the fallen churches have in all ages sought to lead the people, and demanded their obedience. Entire sanctification saves us all from human leadership. Hence it has been antagonized by the ruling clergy, who have usurped the prerogative of the Holy Ghost and constituted themselves leaders in all ages.

2. “ I praise you because you imitate me in all things, and hold fast the instructions as I delivered them to you.” The original word here is not “ordinances,” as in E.V., but “traditions,” which really means everything transmitted to the people by the Savior and apostles, both written and unwritten. I use the word “instructions” as the more comprehensive and the freer from ambiguity.

16. “ If any one seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do the churches of God.” During Paul’s absence of three years in Asia many changes had taken place among them. A multitude of preachers from Judea, and other countries, had been there preaching; Peter, Apollos and other godly heralds of truth and righteousness, and still others whose Christian character was probably to be discounted. Many had backslidden. The church was racked with controversies on many different lines. Among other things, they wrote to Paul in reference to the women who were preaching among them bareheaded, like men, raising no controversy about their preaching and praying and taking an active part in the public worship, as Priscilla and others had done while Paul was with them. But there was quite a criticism against the habit of some of their women preaching and praying bareheaded, like men, the costume at that day being so identical among men and women that the veil of the latter and the shorn locks of the former became the ordinary designation of the sexes. While Paul is disposed to lay no emphasis on the latter, stating to them that it is unworthy of controversy, because the churches have no fixed custom requiring the woman to have something on her head when she exercises in public, yet, for the sake of harmony and to obviate unprofitable criticism, he advises all of the sisters to put something on their heads when they pray and preach in the meetings, setting forth a beautiful concatenation, beginning with God, then Christ, then the husband and then the wife. God is over Christ, and Christ over the husband, and the husband over the wife in the domestic government, which is the basis of all civil society and state government. The man is to have nothing on his head, indicative of the fact that he is king in the home government, no earthly authority being over him; while the woman is to have something on her head, symbolic of her husband’s authority over her. The apostle reminds them that the angels are present in their meetings, which is a beautiful and consolatory truth. We should remember that a portion of our congregations is unseen by mortal eyes, and yet present, i. e., “ministering angels hovering round.” As we fix up to go out in company, we ought to be decorous in the presence of the angels. Hence he advises the women to extend courtesy not only to the human portion of the audience, but to the angels present, by putting something on their heads so they wouldn’t look odd nor uncouth. While he thus answers their questions, advising the women praying and preaching to wear something on their heads by way of decorum, relieving them of unnecessary criticism, at the same time he attaches no gravity to it, as there is no such principle settled in the churches.

21. He here alludes to the fact that in this meal which preceded the sacrament, and in its original institution was simple and frugal, demonstrative of their love to one another some of them have gone to excess, actually eating to gluttony and drinking to drunkenness. This was not the sacrament, but the meal which preceded it, called the agapee, i. e., the love feast.

22. “ For have you not houses in which to eat and drink, or do you look down with contempt on the church of God, and shaming those not having? What do I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I do not praise you.” This is a withering rebuke to the church festivals of our day, setting forth the fact that they are utterly inappropriate in the house of God, because they are even much more extravagant and luxuriant and hilarious than these Corinthian festivals.

26. “ As often as you may eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show forth the death of the Lord until He may come.” Hence we see the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is to be perpetuated until He returns to the earth, since it is a memento of our absent Lord. It is a valuable means of grace, perpetuatory of our membership in the visible church, as our baptism is initiatory.

27. “ So whosoever may eat the bread or drink the cup unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” What an awful responsibility! How consummate the delusions of the devil, which have long ago girdled the world with wicked carnal communicants, thus involving themselves in the guilt of the Lord’s innocent blood, shed by the diabolical rabble led on by the fallen clergy.

28. “ Let a man examine himself and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” Here the close communionists make the sad mistake of examining the communicant themselves, which they have no right to do. Every tub stands on its own bottom. This is a matter which every soul is to settle with God alone.

29. “ For he that eateth and drinketh not discerning the body, eateth and drinketh condemnation to himself.” We need the light and truth of the Holy Ghost to enable us spiritually to discern the Lord’s body broken in the bread and His blood flowing in the wine. “Damnation,” as in E.V., does not occur in this life. The Greek krima means “condemnation” here and “damnation” hereafter. Oh! What a wholesale damnation work Satan is doing! Deluding millions of poor unsaved, wicked, worldly, carnal people, to crowd the sacramental board, without the light of the Holy Ghost shining in their hearts, to discern the Lord’s body in the holy sacrament, and thus eating condemnation now and damnation in the world to come. Thus multitudes of proud, carnal church members, who in their hearts despise the humiliation of the cross, and could not be induced to come to the altar to consecrate themselves to God and get His blessing in their poor lost souls, are ready to crowd around the chancel and partake of the holy sacrament.

31. “ On this account many among you are weak and sickly and some sleep,” i. e., sleep the sleep of spiritual death. In this age of apostasy and worldliness, this sad truth is simply appalling.