1 Corinthians 11:1  “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”
Continuation of the last thought from chapter 10.  Paul had expressed denying his own desires to protect a weak brother.  That was the behavior Christ displayed by dying for us.  Therefore we should do the same for fellow believers.  Pretty bold statement.  Paul’s focus on Christ was such that he was very secure in his Christian walk.  I don’t think he considered himself perfect or that he was a mediator between anyone and Christ, but he lived his life in such a way that he was a great example.

6  “…shorn or shaved…”
Had to look that up.  Shorn is just cut.  He’s saying if a woman’s hair has been cut or her head actually shaved.  Not necessarily trimmed, but cut off.  This has been a sort of shaming punishment through the ages even though now women have short hair styles.

3-16  People get hung up on passages such as this and miss the point of the situation.  The focus is not on the length of a woman’s hair, or whether or not her head is covered.  The point is reverence, humility and propriety before God.  Christianity came through the Jewish people, and they had particular ways of doing worship which showed reverence before God.  There was certainly nothing wrong with passing on these traditions to non Jewish believers.  Not to say that the Jews were perfect in their worship of God, but before Christ, God spoke His wishes through the Jewish people.  If anyone knew what would please God, it would have been a Jew.  We may have lost the practice and meaning of the traditions they had then, but we have our own now.  And the idea of reverence, humility, and propriety before Christ is the same.  Yes, he can and will forgive our bad behavior, but insisting on our way above what is pleasing to Him is rebellion, even in the smallest sense.

17-22  Example of what we were just saying.  The people had been conducting the Lord’s Supper as they saw fit.  It had lost its meaning and had become just another meal.  That was a very dangerous situation as Paul will attest to later in the chapter.

23  “…I received from the Lord…”
Confirmed with the commentary.  Paul is saying the Lord told him what happened during the Last Supper.  Adds to Paul’s genuineness as an apostle.

26  “…as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes”
In my experience, this section is most often used during the Lord’s Supper.  It is precise in telling what happened, and verse 26 gives the practical conclusion, why we do it.  This is why it is so important.  It is the gospel played out.  Christ gave his body and blood for us on the cross, and we are accepting that sacrifice unto ourselves.  It is a symbolic recreation, not cannibalism.

27, 30  “…whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood…For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.”
The results of being irreverent we mentioned before.  The act of the gospel is that we acknowledge our sinfulness and the fact that we are helpless to correct it, that we repent of that sin, that we ask Christ to forgive us of it, and that we accept His free gift of salvation to cleanse us from sin.  Once we’ve done that, whenever we commit sin, we simply repent and ask Christ’s forgiveness as a child of God.  We must have that type of attitude when we participate in the Lord’s Supper.  We don’t come before Him with known sin in our hearts and so profane His offering for us.  It is better to refuse to participate than to do so in an unworthy manner.  Those at Corinth were experiencing physical illness and even death because of it.

I hope you enjoy reading and studying His word.  May it accomplish what He desires.  Please feel free to comment or post questions.  Thanks for reading!

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.