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NASB | Romans 14:13 ¶ Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this--not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 14:13 ¶ Then let us not criticize one another anymore, but rather determine this--not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block or a source of temptation in another believer's way. |
Bible Question: In chpter 11 of 1 Cor. it seems to be saying that women should have long hair and men should have short hair. Does this apply to us today? Does the chapter apply only to the Corinthian Church? |
Bible Answer: Hi, morleyde! I am not sure if you are referring to the complete chapter since it brakes down into two distinct admonitions: 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 -- deals with dress codes and spiritual rank 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 - deals with moral behavior and mode of worship Paul opens with a strong command: “Take me as your pattern, just as I take Christ for mine.” Somewhat sarcastically, he reminds them of the traditions (teachings of the Lord and revelation of the Holy Spirit passed down orally by the Apostles) that they were to have kept. Since rumors have reached Paul that they were not keeping the code of conduct, he revisited the pattern set by God during creation and restated his previous teachings: the man not the woman is the head, under Christ who is the Head of the Church. Notice how Paul is not being chauvinistic: “However, in the Lord, though woman is nothing without man, man is nothing without woman; and though woman came from man, so does every man come from a woman, and everything comes from God.” Paul is not saying that woman is to be demeaned by man or that there’s no place in the Church for the woman, he just questions the choices of how service is presented to the Lord: “Decide for yourselves: does it seem fitting that a woman should pray to God without a veil? Does not nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but when a woman has long hair, it is her glory? After all, her hair was given to her to be a covering.” Could you imagine Paul walking into some of the services performed nowadays where the dress codes epitomize the secular mode instead of the spiritual congregation’s? Shouldn’t 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 apply to today’s Christian? Having scratched the surface, Paul moves on to a more critical issue: moral behavior and form of worship!: “…So, when you meet together, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat; for when the eating begins, each one of you has his own supper first, and there is one going hungry while another is getting drunk. Surely you have homes for doing your eating and drinking in? Or have you such disregard for God’s assembly that you can put to shame those who have nothing? What am I to say to you? Congratulate you? On this I cannot congratulate you.” The assembly of the believers have become a social gathering where gluttony and drunkenness has replaced all values--Paul not only object to this pagan behavior but he points out that: “it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat;” and he chastises them for shutting out the needy. Can you imagine going to a banquet where all are welcome but those who have the least have to wait for meager scraps at the end of the festivities? Paul was imagining these things, and he was boiling hot! He breaks it down for them: “For the tradition I received from the Lord and also handed on to you is that on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and after he had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ And in the same way, with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’ Whenever you eat this bread, then, and drink this cup, you are proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes. Therefore anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily is answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.” Paul identifies our Lord’s words as a commandment to be practiced by the believers and emphasizes that it is not an empty symbolic gesture that we are to present to the Lord, “proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes.” Has the Lord come yet? Paul warns: “Everyone is to examine himself and only then eat of the bread or drink from the cup; because a person who eats and drinks without recognizing the body is eating and drinking his own condemnation. That is why many of you are weak and ill and a good number have died. If we were critical of ourselves we would not be condemned, but when we are judged by the Lord, we are corrected by the Lord to save us from being condemned along with the world.” Hope this helps! God Bless! |