Chapter xi. deals with public worship. St. Paul gives directions for women to cover the head in church, and then comes a reference to the Holy Eucharist which is of extreme interest and importance. It was the custom for Christians to meet together before the Eucharist for a common meal called the Agapé, which was intended to commemorate the Lord's Last Supper. St. Paul complains that this meal has been made an occasion of sin among the Corinthians: the richer people had overeaten themselves, while the poor were left hungry and ashamed. The apostle sets off the unfitness of {140} this conduct by a brief exposition of the Eucharist; the preliminary meal, so much misused by these ungracious and ungenerous Christians, was intended to be a preparation for the ineffable Feast, at which the Fare was the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, and at which His death was solemnly represented (xi. 2-34).
St. Paul deals next with spiritual gifts, saying that they come from God, and so give no ground for boasting, and that the exercise of them is only pleasing to God if it be joined with charity. After a sublime chapter on charity, he lays down some regulations for those who possessed these abnormal gifts, which, it is evident, were already the cause of disorders in the Church. The Corinthians, with their craving for the miraculous, tended to set a high value on speaking with tongues, but St. Paul upholds the superiority of the more intelligible and useful gift of prophecy (xii.-xiv.).
The Epistle concludes with a splendid argument for the reality of the Resurrection. It is directed against some false philosophy. St. Paul claims for the fact of the resurrection of Christ the witness of Scripture, of many honest and intelligent Christians, and of himself. Then he goes on to show to the Corinthian objectors what a denial of the resurrection of the dead involves. It means that Christ did not rise, that I am preaching deceit, that you are believing a lie, that the dead in Christ have no existence except as memories, that we who have foregone the pleasures of this life have done so in pursuit of a delusive phantom. But it cannot be so. Christ is really risen. And St. Paul passes on to demonstrate the happy consequences which follow from this. The Resurrection is the earnest of all that Christ will do for man; and in the light of it Christian baptism for the sake of the dead[1] and Christian heroism have their meaning (xv. 1-34).
{141}
In order to remove difficulties from the mind of an objector, St. Paul discusses the kind of body which we shall have at the Resurrection. He shows by analogies from nature (a) that God is able to effect the transformation of a seed-grain into a new product, and can therefore transform us while retaining a connection between our present and future body; (b) that God is able to create a variety of embodiments, and can therefore give us a higher embodiment than we now possess. There will be a spiritual body adapted to the spiritual world, as truly as our natural body is adapted to life in this world. Thus the gospel is truly a gospel for the body as well as for the spirit. Our whole personality will be saved, and nothing will be discarded (xv. 35-58).
St. Paul concludes with an order for the collection of alms on behalf of the faithful in Jerusalem, and says that he hopes to come soon to Corinth. After some personal matters, he characteristically appends with his own hand a curse on those who do not love the Lord, and a prayer and loving message for the faithful.
ANALYSIS
Salutation, thanksgiving (i. 1-9).
(1) Evils in the Church: i. 10-vi. 20.—Sectarianism. This is rebuked on the ground that all the apostles, etc., are working for one end, and all their power is God's. Christ is supreme over all (i. 10-iv. 21).
Incest. The Church is to deliver the sinner to Satan (the severest form of excommunication). St. Paul mentions a previous warning not to associate with immoral Christians (v.).