19 For there must be also factions among you, that they that are approved may be made manifest among you.
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us: but `they went out', that they might be made manifest that they all are not of us.
And he said unto his disciples, It is impossible but that occasions of stumbling should come; but woe unto him, through whom they come!
A factious man after a first and second admonition refuse;
and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties,
But there arose false prophets also among the people, as among you also there shall be false teachers, who shall privily bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their lascivious doings; by reason of whom the way of the truth shall be evil spoken of.
yea and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul; that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.
Try your own selves, whether ye are in the faith; prove your own selves. Or know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you? unless indeed ye be reprobate. But I hope that ye shall know that we are not reprobate. Now we pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that ye may do that which is honorable, though we be as reprobate.
having knowledge of me from the first, if they be willing to testify, that after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
But this I confess unto thee, that after the Way which they call a sect, so serve I the God of our fathers, believing all things which are according to the law, and which are written in the prophets;
But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees who believed, saying, It is needful to circumcise them, and to charge them to keep the law of Moses.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 11
In this chapter the apostle blames, and endeavours to rectify, some great indecencies and manifest disorders in the church of Corinth; as,
1Cr 11:1-16
Paul, having answered the cases put to him, proceeds in this chapter to the redress of grievances. The first verse of the chapter is put, by those who divided the epistle into chapters, as a preface to the rest of the epistle, but seems to have been a more proper close to the last, in which he had enforced the cautions he had given against the abuse of liberty, by his own example: Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ (v. 1), fitly closes his argument; and the way of speaking in the next verse looks like a transition to another. But, whether it more properly belong to this or the last chapter, it is plain from it that Paul not only preached such doctrine as they ought to believe, but led such a life as they ought to imitate. "Be ye followers of me,' that is, "Be imitators of me; live as you see me live.' Note, Ministers are likely to preach most to the purpose when they can press their hearers to follow their example. Yet would not Paul be followed blindly neither. He encourages neither implicit faith nor obedience. He would be followed himself no further than he followed Christ. Christ's pattern is a copy without a blot; so is no man's else. Note, We should follow no leader further than he follows Christ. Apostles should be left by us when they deviate from the example of their Master. He passes next to reprehend and reform an indecency among them, of which the women were more especially guilty, concerning which observe,
1Cr 11:17-22
In this passage the apostle sharply rebukes them for much greater disorders than the former, in their partaking of the Lord's supper, which was commonly done in the first ages, as the ancients tell us, with a love-feast annexed, which gave occasion to the scandalous disorders which the apostle here reprehends, concerning which observe,
1Cr 11:23-34
To rectify these gross corruptions and irregularities, the apostle sets the sacred institution here to view. This should be the rule in the reformation of all abuses.