Search
In 1 Corinthians 11:3 Christ is presented as the Head of every man, who brings man under God’s headship and sets up the order between man and woman: “Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ.” In Ephesians 1:22-23 the headship of Christ over all things is to His Body, the church. In 1 Corinthians 11:3 the headship of Christ over every man is related to individuals. Christ is the Head of the Body, the church (Eph. 5:23), corporately, and of the believers individually. He is the Head of every one of us directly.
In 1 Corinthians 11:3 Paul points out that the head of the woman is the man. In the divine governmental ordination, woman is under the headship of man. God created the female in this way (Gen. 2:18-24; 1 Tim. 2:13). According to the nature (1 Cor. 11:14) created by God, woman is subordinate to man.
Paul also says in verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 11 that the head of Christ is God. Christ is God’s anointed One, the One appointed by God. Hence, He is under God, and God as the Originator is His Head. This refers to the relationship between Christ and God in the divine government.
Verse 3 reveals the universal headship. In the universe there is the headship: God is at the top as the head of Christ, Christ is the head of every man, the man is the head of the woman, and human beings are the head of all animals and plants (Gen. 1:26-28). Originally, there was such a headship in the universe, a headship that maintained a proper order in God’s creation. Yet this order was overthrown by man’s rebellion. Among the unbelievers, despite their civilized or cultured appearance, there is disorder in their private life, particularly in their marriage life. The women are not under the headship of men, and since the men do not have Christ, they are not under the headship of Christ and thus are not under the headship of God. Hence, all unbelievers, both men and women, are lawless. They live under the human government by compulsion, and many of them murmur and complain about the government, disliking the human authorities that rule over them. However, when we receive the Lord and become believers, Christ becomes our head. Our enjoyment of Christ as our head brings us under the headship of God and sets up a proper order between man and woman. We should enjoy Christ in His headship in order that we may be under the headship of God and man may be the proper head over woman.
We all need to be under the headship in God’s governmental administration. The headship of Christ is related to the headship in God’s universal governmental administration. The archangel with his subordinates rebelled against God’s headship (Ezek. 28:13-18; Isa. 14:12-15; Matt. 25:41), establishing his kingdom of darkness (12:26; Col. 1:13), and became Satan, God’s adversary. God created man to deal with Satan and his rebellious angels. Nevertheless, Satan seduced man to follow him and rebel against God. God then sent His Son to destroy Satan and rescue man out of Satan’s authority back to God’s kingdom (1 John 3:8; Heb. 2:14; Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13); in redemption God in Christ brought fallen man back to Himself. God’s redeemed people are now the church. As the church, we should declare to the angels, to both the rebellious and submissive ones, that as God’s redeemed people, we are not rebellious against His headship but are under His headship, the divine authority. We enjoy Christ as our Head and thus remain under the headship of God. Not only will we be under God’s headship in the coming kingdom age and in eternity, but we submit to His authority even in the present rebellious age. We need to realize that we must be under the headship of Christ. When we enjoy Christ as our Head, this enjoyment brings us under God’s headship and sets up the order between man and woman. Hence, we must enjoy Christ as our Head in order to live under God’s headship, the divine authority, and to keep God’s ordained order in His administration.
In Revelation we see that Christ, the slain Lamb, is absolutely under the headship of God for the carrying out of God’s administration. Christ is the Administrator who is carrying out God’s administration through His submission to God’s headship. Revelation 4 and 5 show that the slain, resurrected, and ascended Lamb is taking the lead to submit Himself to the headship of God in the heavens. In contrast, the earth is filled with rebellion. Satan is taking the lead to rebel against God. Nevertheless, in the midst of all this rebellion, there is a Body composed of those who have been redeemed and baptized into the Triune God. This is the Body of the One in heaven who submits Himself to God’s headship. The Body of Christ on earth should reflect Christ the Head in submitting Himself to the headship of God. Although the earth is filled with rebellion, we must be a people under God’s headship, who through their submission to Christ reflect Christ’s submission to God.
First Corinthians 11:23-26 indicates that we may experience and enjoy Christ as the object of the believers’ remembrance. According to this portion of the Word, when we eat the Lord’s supper, we remember Him. In verse 20 Paul speaks of eating the Lord’s supper. In 10:21 the Lord’s supper is called “the Lord’s table.” The emphasis of the Lord’s table is on the fellowship of the Lord’s blood and of His body (vv. 16-17), the participation in the Lord, the enjoyment of the Lord in mutuality, in fellowship, whereas the stress of the Lord’s supper is on the remembrance of the Lord (11:24-25). At the Lord’s table we receive His body and blood for our enjoyment; at the Lord’s supper we give Him our remembrance for His enjoyment. To take the Lord’s supper is unto the remembrance of the Lord Himself.
In 1 Corinthians 11:23 Paul says, “The Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread.” Then “having given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body, which is given for you; this do unto the remembrance of Me.” The bread is broken that we may eat it, for concerning the bread, the Lord said in Matthew 26:26, “Take, eat; this is My body.” These verses show that we remember the Lord by eating the bread; to remember the Lord is to feed on Him, that is, to eat Him as the bread of life. The more we receive Him, eat Him, and feast on Him, the more we remember Him.
The bread in 1 Corinthians 11:23 signifies the Lord’s body that was broken for us on the cross in order to be distributed to us as bread. In the Bible, bread refers to life. The Lord said that He is the bread of life that gives life to the world (John 6:33-35). The Lord’s body being broken to be given as bread to us means that He gave His body for us that we may have His life; that is, through the breaking of His body on the cross, Christ released the life of God from within Him to impart it into us (12:24; 19:34). When we receive His broken body, we partake of His life. Christ gave His body as the bread of life for our life supply and enjoyment.
Eating the bread signifies taking the Lord in to digest and assimilate Him organically that He may become life to us. Just as the food we eat, digest, and assimilate becomes us, the Lord as bread is for us to take in, to eat, as our life supply so that He may become us. When we take in Christ as our food and thoroughly digest and assimilate Him into us, we are truly mingled with Him.
First Corinthians 11:25 goes on to say, “Similarly also the cup after they had dined, saying, This cup is the new covenant established in My blood; this do, as often as you drink it, unto the remembrance of Me.” The bread is of life (John 6:35) and the cup is of blessing (1 Cor. 10:16). This cup is the new covenant, comprising all the rich blessings of the New Testament, including God Himself. The new covenant, a covenant of full blessing, was established by the Lord’s blood, which He shed on the cross for our redemption (Matt. 26:28).
According to Luke 22:20, the cup is the new covenant or title deed which was enacted by the blood of Christ and testifies of the portion we receive from God. The blood of Christ instituted a new covenant, a better covenant (Heb. 8:6-13), which became the new testament after His resurrection (9:16-17). The blood Christ shed on the cross has become a covenant, and this covenant has become a cup, a portion, which is God Himself as a blessing for our enjoyment. In this covenant God gives us forgiveness, life, salvation, and all spiritual, heavenly, and divine blessings. In short, the Lord shed His blood, God established the covenant, and we enjoy the cup, in which God and all that is of Him are our eternal, blessed portion.
The word unto in 1 Corinthians 11:24-25 implies not only a purpose but also a result. Participation in the Lord’s supper will surely produce a result — a continual remembrance of the Lord for His satisfaction. To take the Lord’s supper is to remember the Lord Himself by eating and drinking Him. The real remembrance of the Lord is to eat the bread and drink the cup (v. 26), that is, to participate in, to enjoy, the Lord, who has given Himself to us through His redeeming death. To eat the bread and drink the cup is to take in the redeeming Lord as our portion, as our life and blessing. This is to remember Him in a genuine way.
Christ is the object of the believers’ remembrance for them to eat and drink, declaring His death until He comes. In 1 Corinthians 11:26 Paul tells us that at the Lord’s supper we “eat this bread and drink the cup.” The bread and the cup are the elements of the Lord’s supper, a feast, set up by Him so that we, His believers, may remember Him by enjoying Him as such a feast. This means that we should remember the Lord by eating and drinking Him. At the Lord’s supper we partake of the bread and the cup as the symbols of His body and His blood in order to enjoy Him. It is by eating, drinking, and enjoying the Lord that we remember Him. The following stanza of Hymns, #233 speaks of this:
We long to eat and drink e’en more,
To take Thyself in spirit thus,
Till Thou shalt all our being fill
And true remembrance have from us.
The more we eat, drink, and enjoy Him, the more we render Him the true remembrance. To remember the Lord is not merely to recall that Christ is God who became a man, lived as a carpenter, and was persecuted, arrested, judged, and crucified. Rather, to remember Him is to eat and drink Him, to enjoy Him. In other words, we do not remember the Lord by using our mind to meditate about the Lord; instead, we remember the Lord by exercising our spirit to feed on Him. Our remembering the Lord in such a way declares to the whole universe that we daily enjoy Him as our food and drink. He is our feast, our enjoyment.
After we have been saved and regenerated, we should come together to take the Lord’s supper in remembrance of the Lord by eating the bread and drinking the cup. On the first day of every week, we need to come together to remember Him by enjoying Him, that is, by eating and drinking Him. In so doing, we declare to the universe that we live by daily eating, drinking, and enjoying Jesus. When we come to eat the Lord’s supper, we come to establish a testimony to the universe, including all the angels, demons, human beings, and creatures, that we are a group of people who live by Jesus, eating, drinking, and enjoying Him.
At the Lord’s supper we not only remember the Lord but also declare His death until He comes. Whenever we eat the bread and drink the cup, we simultaneously remember the Lord and display His redeeming and life-releasing death (John 19:34). In 1 Corinthians 11:26 Paul says, “As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you declare the Lord’s death until He comes.” The word declare here means proclaim, announce, or display. While we are remembering the Lord, we display His death. In fact, we remember the Lord Himself by declaring and displaying His death to the entire universe: to the demons, to the angels, and to human beings. When we remember the Lord, the bread and the cup are displayed separately on the table. The bread refers to the Lord’s body, and the cup refers to His blood; the separation of the body and the blood signifies death. With this display of death, we proclaim and announce Christ’s all-inclusive termination of twelve items on the cross: the angelic life (Col. 1:20), the human life (Gal. 2:20), Satan (Heb. 2:14; John 12:31), the kingdom of Satan (Col. 2:15; John 12:31), sin (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:3), sins (1 Pet. 2:24; Isa. 53:6), the world (Gal. 6:14; John 12:31), death (Heb. 2:14), the flesh (Gal. 5:24), the old man (Rom. 6:6), self (Gal. 2:20), and all creation (Col. 1:20).
According to 1 Corinthians 11:26, we are to declare the Lord’s death until He comes. This shows that when we break bread to remember the Lord and to display His death, we are also waiting for His coming. We should display the Lord’s death and thus remember Him in the spirit and atmosphere of waiting for His coming. We have a glorious hope: one day Christ will return and change our body (15:51-54). When our body of humiliation is transfigured into the body of His glory at His coming (Phil. 3:21), our redemption will be complete (Rom. 8:23).
We should take the Lord’s supper unto the remembrance of Him by declaring His redeeming death without ceasing until He comes back to set up God’s kingdom (Matt. 26:29). By His first coming the Lord accomplished His death to carry out an all-inclusive redemption for the producing of the church. After His death He went away to receive the kingdom, and He will come again with the kingdom (Dan. 7:13-14; Luke 19:12). The period between His first and second comings is the church age. The church thus bridges the gap between the Lord’s first coming and His second coming and connects His death in the past with God’s kingdom in the future. Hence, to declare the Lord’s death until He comes may imply the declaring of the existence of the church for the bringing in of the kingdom. When we eat the Lord’s supper in this way, with a view to a continual remembrance of Him in His first and second comings, that supper becomes a satisfaction to Him in relation to the kingdom, God’s administration.
