"Be Ye Followers of Me" (I Corinthians 11:1-16)

"Be Ye Followers of Me" from I Corinthians 11:1-16 was preached by Dr. Mark McElreath at the City Baptist Church of Atlanta on May 31, 2026.

Find out more about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta at www.citybaptistchurch.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the City Pulpit. Bible messages from the pulpit ministry of the City Baptist Church in Atlanta. Well, please take your Bibles with me. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And we've just been going through on Sunday nights, going through this book of 1 Corinthians, just passage by passage, sometimes taking a whole chapter at a time, sometimes taking just a verse at a time. We'll take roughly about half of this chapter of 1 Corinthians and work our way through it and see what the Lord has for us. Let's begin reading in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We'll begin reading in verse number 1. The Bible says, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and verse number 1, be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I appraise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head, for that is even all one as if she were shaven. And if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn, but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man, and neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so the man also by the woman, but all things of God. Judge in yourselves. Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even Atre itself teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him, but if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. Let's mark one phrase, we'll mark one phrase as we begin in verse number one, and this will be the theme of the Bible message this evening. This phrase in verse number one, be ye followers of me. Be ye followers of me. Now keep in mind, as Paul is writing here, this is a letter that he's writing to a church that he knows. It's a church in the city of Corinth. And as he's writing to them, he loves these people, he knows these people. In fact, throughout the book of Corinth, he names many of them because he has been there. He saw this church started. And here we find as he's coming through this book and he comes to the beginning of 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 1, he says, Be you followers of me. Now can you imagine speaking to a group of people and say, I want you to follow me. When we first look at this, we may think, now that's a little brash, Paul, to tell people, hey, come on, come on along and follow me, right? I mean, are you just trying to gain a following, Paul? Are you just trying to get people to follow you on your side? What is it exactly? But I don't think that's what it is. Paul speaks here very specifically about some key things. And if you're taking notes, would you just write a few of these things down as we work our way through the passage? Paul is saying, first of all, be ye followers of me, number one, in an orderly life. An orderly life. Let's look at these opening verses here as we look at verse number one, where he says, Be you followers of me. And he says, even as I also am of Christ. Now think about what he connects this with. He says, I want you to follow me the same way that I follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Now think about this. Could we say that to someone else? Could we speak to another Christian and say, hey, I want you to follow me the same way that I'm following the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, we've got to ask ourselves, how well are we following the Lord? Can I, as a parent, look at my children and say, I want you to follow me, which they don't have a choice, right? But I want you to follow me the same way that I'm following the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a pretty heavy thing to place on someone, right? That means if we're going to say, follow me, we better be following the Lord the way we ought to, right? We better be following him with a dedication and a devotion and a diligence that we would expect others to come after us, right? We also find Paul says this in other passages. Earlier in the book, in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16, he says, Be ye followers of me. In Philippians chapter 3 and verse 17, Paul says, Brethren, be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example. What is he saying? There are some in the church that are examples that we should follow. And it's very easy for us to say, Well, Pastor, I don't see any examples I should follow. Well, here's the question. Then why don't we become the example that should be followed, right? Instead of calling out those that are not an example, let us try to be one that can be an example among the believers. He says in the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 6, he says, And ye became followers of us and of the Lord. He says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, he says, not because we have power, but we make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. Here's what we've got to ask ourselves can we be an example among the believers that they can follow after? Look, we live in a world today of people that are looking for someone to be the right kind of Christian. They're looking for someone. What's amazing is many times the world knows how a Christian is supposed to live. Because when we don't act that way, they usually call us out on it, don't they? The world is looking for someone to live the Christian life whole and right and standing out as an example. Sometimes we think, I was speaking to someone this week, and they said, I have a problem with the word Christian because I've used it with some people, and when I say Christian, they say, well, Christianity has, and they have this litany of things they think Christianity is faulted for doing in history. And I said, Look, there is no doubt that many times in history the word Christian or the title Christian has been used in a terrible way. And people have not followed the true biblical meaning of it. But just because we haven't seen it used entirely perfectly all through history doesn't mean we shouldn't use that title ourselves. I told him, I said, look, I've known a lot of fathers that have done horrible things. But that doesn't mean I neglect the title father. I just want to be the right kind of father. I said, I've known a lot of bankers in my time. They've done terrible things with people's money. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to trust all bankers. We can fill in the blank with all those stories, can't we? So then, can we say, be you followers of me, even as also I am of Christ? Because he's going to connect it with something here, thing of this orderly life, he says in verse number two, he says, Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things and keep the ordinances. What are the ordinances? Well, specifically, the ordinances are baptism and the Lord's Supper. We find, we go through Scripture, we find that the Lord Jesus Christ left us the ordinance of baptism that follows salvation. Not for salvation, but it follows salvation as a step of obedience. And then the Lord's table. In fact, Lord willing, next Sunday night we'll cover the rest of chapter 11, where he gives us very clear teaching on the Lord's Supper. He gives us a reading for the Lord's Supper in verse 23 down through verse 26. He gives us a warning concerning the Lord's Supper. Don't take it unworthily, is what he talks about. And so he says, you follow the ordinances. Now, what does the word ordinance look like? There's another word it looks like. It looks like the word order. And you know what Paul is really getting at? He's saying, I want you to live an orderly life, and I want there to be order in the church. Now, does that mean that I, as the pastor, have to get up and I'm kind of like we're all a marching band and I'm the one conducting everything? That's not what it means. But here's what it does mean. There should be a sense of order in following the Lord that each and every one of us have personally and in our homes and in our church. Not just follow me in an orderly life, but would you make note of a second thing? He says, Would you follow me, be you followers of me, and have a submissive life. A submissive life. He says in verse number three, would you look at this with me? He says, I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Now what do we find here? We find authority is needed in order to keep order. I'm not going to ask how many of you work in a place. Most of you work somewhere, and somebody's got to be in charge, right? Otherwise you'd have total anarchy. You ever gone somewhere and you got bad service? What do you say? Can I speak to your manager? Why? Because someone's in charge, right? And what do we find in verse number three? Somebody's got to be in charge. Verse number three says that the head of every man is Christ. Now that's where he begins, and we should begin where God begins. Some people like to focus on the part that the head of the woman is the man, but you know where God begins? The head of every man is Christ. By the way, men, we will never be the Christian man we're supposed to be until we are mastered by the Lord Jesus Christ. And by the way, none of these things work in verse number three unless we as men are under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. If men are not taking the lead and taking the place of leadership that they're supposed to, and you know, with leadership comes responsibility. Many people want leadership, but they don't want responsibility. Many people want leadership, but they don't want accountability. We as men have a leadership responsibility, which means we have a leadership accountability before God. And here he says, the head of every man is Christ. And if Christ is not our head, men, then we're not going to lead women as we should, and we're not going to lead the church as we should, we're not going to lead the lives that we should if we're not first mastered by the Lord Jesus Christ. So he says, this is a submissive life. Men, we are submitting to Christ. And then here's what he says. Not only is the head of every man is Christ, but the head of the woman is the man. Now make note of this, this middle part of verse number three, it does not say the head of the woman is a man. That doesn't mean any man can boss around any woman. If he's speaking of the man, what is he speaking of? He's speaking of the bond of marriage here. You say, Well, Pastor, I'm not married. Well, if you're not married, then who do you answer to? You answer to Christ, all right? So, no, no, nothing missing in the order here then. But he says, if you are married, the head of that woman is the man. And what does he liken it to? Look at the third part of verse number three. He says, And the head of Christ is God. Now, you plumb the depths of that. When you get to the bottom of that one, you let me know. Because Jesus said, I and my father are one. And yet he also said, My Father is greater than I. And we also understand in the Trinity that there is a oneness in the Godhead between God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And yet, still he says, the head of Christ is God. Now, the only way I can explain that is that there must be authority in order to have order. Who sent the Son to be the Savior of the world? The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. And when I am ruling in my house, I'm not ruling because I want authority. I'm ruling my house because there must be order. And I'm not ruling my wife because I want a Lord over her. I'm ruling because that's the place of authority God's put me in. And when I have submitted myself to God, then I can expect my wife to submit herself to me, and I can expect our children to submit ourselves to us. Why? Because we need order in the home, we need order in the church, we need order in our Christian lives. It is an orderly life, and it is a submissive life. Would you go with me? Hold your place here and go with me to the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5, we have some of the clearest teaching. Paul is also the human penman here. He's writing in Ephesians 5, and he's speaking of a submissive life. He says in Ephesians 5 and verse number 20, he says, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse 21, submitting yourselves, what are those next three words? One to another in the fear of God. Now he's specifically speaking of marriage here in Ephesians chapter 5. How does marriage work? Marriage will only work when we submit ourselves one to another in the fear of God. That means I'm submitted to my wife, my wife submitted to me as unto the Lord, everything in its proper place under the Lord's headship. He says in verse number 23, for the husband is the head of the wife. I've often heard it said, yes, the husband is the head of the wife, but the wife is the neck that turns the head, right? Now I don't find that in Scripture, but I think there is some truth to that. He says in verse 23, the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. You know what Paul understood? Paul understood men love themselves, don't they? We love ourselves, don't we, men? And he says, If you loved your wife as much as you loved yourself, you'd get along just fine, men. He goes on to say in verse 28, he that loveth his wife loveth his own self. Verse 29, for no man yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. What's the point he's making here? A submissive life is not so that one may lord over another or one may have authority over another. The submissive life is this question: who is in charge? If things go awry in this church, you know who they're gonna look to? They're gonna look at me. Why? Because I'm in charge here. And that doesn't mean I'm gonna boss you around. I have to tell you what to do and all that. But someone, look, I think it was Eisenhower that said the buck stops here. Maybe it was Harry Truman that said the buck stops here. This is where it's all going to end. And if something goes wrong in my home, who are they gonna look to? They're gonna look at me because I'm the one God's put in charge. But I'm also the one that should have the highest responsibility of submitting myself to everyone else in my home so that they may be able to live the life that God wants for them. It is an orderly life, but it's also a submissive life. Would you go with me to the book of Philippians? If you're in Ephesians, the book of Philippians is just the next book. Because I think the greatest example of submission we find in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians chapter 2 we find an example of this. Philippians 2, we'll pick up in verse number 5 as we think about the submissive life, submitting ourselves. The Bible says in Philippians chapter 2, verse 5, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Now, we understand in the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, all co-equal and coexistent. They're co-equal. And yet, what do we find in Philippians chapter 2 and verse number 6? It says he is equal with God, and yet what does he do in verse 7? He made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant. In my home, my wife and I are equal. I'm not better than her, she's not better than me, under the Lord. And yet, what do we find here? We can take upon ourselves the form of a servant, as it says in verse 7, and made in the likeness of men. It says in verse 8, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient. How far was he obedient? It says he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. How far did he go? Giving his life. Now, why would he do that? Now we understand that we're all sinners, we've come short of the glory of God. We understand that because of our sin we've been separated from God. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ would come, though he had his place at the right hand of the Father in heaven, angels before him, worshiping him, he humbles himself and he becomes a man, takes on the form of a servant, is obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. That's pretty low, isn't it? Why? Because he was because he was less than the Father, no. But because for order's sake and authority's sake and to fulfill his mission of bringing the gospel to a lost and dying world, he submitted himself. And when we submit ourselves, we're following the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, it says in verse 9, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. He who submitted himself and became a servant in the end was what? In the end was glorified. And as we submit ourselves unto the Lord, in his order, he exalts us in due time. And you know what the key to all of this is? Go back with me to verse number five. It says, let this what be in you. This mind be in you. You know what submission is? Submission is not an act, submission is a mindset. Somebody can I'll pick on my children just for a moment. But they may submit themselves. I say, now let's take out the trash or let's clean up the room. Let's put things away where they go, right? They can submit themselves and act and not submit themselves in their own mind, right? They can be upset about it. Maybe the Lord speaks to us and he says, now, Mark, I want you to do this. I want you to clean this up, I want you to put this away, I want you to do this, and I may do it in act, but there's a mindset of submission that I need to take in following Him. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And Paul is calling out to this church at Corinth, back in our passage, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, he's calling out, saying, I want you to live an orderly life, but I want you to live a submissive life. Submitting yourselves one to another, but submitting yourself under the hand of God. And then would you make note of a third thing here? He says, I want you to follow me in an orderly life. I want you to follow me in a submissive life. But I want you to follow me in an uncontentious life. Uncontentious life. I want to skip ahead to verse number 16 in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Because Paul says this, but if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. Now there are some things to be contentious about. That means to really take a stand and be stubborn about. Salvation by grace alone, right? Things about who God is, things about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are things to contend for. But Paul is saying, I want you to be careful you don't become a contentious people. There should be unity in the church about things which we can unify about. He goes on to go into quite some detail in verse 4, all the way down through verse number 15. I'm not going to read all those verses, but he's talking about head coverings, and he's talking about whether men should have long hair or women should have short hair. And there are some key things, though. I want you to skip down with me because he says in verse number five, I'll just draw out some condensed things. He says in verse five, but every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head. For that is even all one as if she were shaven. He's saying, if a woman's going to be in the church, her head needs to be covered. Now you say, Pastor, what does it mean that her head needs to be covered? I've seen some people, they wear hats or they wrap things around them. Well, let's answer that in verse number 15. If a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. So what is the covering of the woman? The covering of the woman is long hair. It is actually the glory of the woman to have long hair, he says in verse number 15. Now, what is the adverse of that? Look at verse 14. Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him. Now that word shame, there is the same word that's used in Romans chapter 1 and verse 21 to speak of things that are vile. Now I've heard it preached before, I've heard it preached. It says it's a shame to have long hair and not it's a sin to have long hair. But here's the question Do we want to be ashamed of the Lord? It is a shame for women to have short hair. It's a shame for a man to have long hair. That's what Paul is saying here. In fact, he says to come into the The house of God, the place of worship. We speak of order. A woman should have long hair. It's a glory to her. It's a wonderful thing to her. The man should have short hair. It should be cut. He goes on to say that a woman's hair is her covering and is a picture of her submission unto the Lord. I remember when I studied in England, I was studied in England for a semester, and we were in a number of different churches when we were in England. In fact, my wife, we were there at one time on a choir trip. We spent a couple of weeks in England. And the churches that we were in, all of them, the ladies wore hats. Some of them may be little hats, some were big hats, some were flowery hats, some were very simple hats. And so to not be contentious, you know what all the ladies did that went on that trip? Even though we didn't think you had to wear a hat in church, you know what all the ladies did? They all wore a hat in church. Is that because it was a conviction of theirs? No. But you know what they were doing? They were submitting themselves to the beliefs of those people that we were with so we would not be an offense to them and we would not be in contention with them. And that's fine. If a lady comes into this church and she says, I think I need to wear a covering over my head, I don't have a problem with that. I have no problem. That's just fine. But I don't think that's what the Bible teaches. Why? Because we don't have to be contentious about every little thing. We don't have to cause strife. We don't have to disrupt unity over every little thing. We may have a man come in this church, he may have long hair, and I'm not going to kick him out the door. We may have a lady come in this church. She has short hair. We're not going to kick her out the door. Why? Because we can be uncontentious about those kinds of things. Now, there are things I'm going to be as stubborn as a bulldog about. Especially things concerning salvation. But we can live the kind of life following the Lord, where we live orderly in our own personal life, orderly in the church, orderly in our family. We can live a submissive life, submitting ourselves one to another, having the mind of Christ. And we can also live an uncontentious life. I think about this idea, be you followers of me. I'm just about to finish a biography on Teddy Roosevelt. He's an interesting character. Like him, like him, love him, or lump him. He was an interesting character nonetheless. And on July the 4th, 1898, America was pitted in the Spanish-American War. Spanish was, sadly, they were starving tens of thousands of Cubans. And after the Maine was blown up, McKinley said, We're going to go and we're going to liberate them. And they went down. Teddy Roosevelt took the Rough Riders down there. He needed to take a thousand men in the 1st Volunteer Corps of the American Army. And in five days, he received 20,000 applications. He only took a thousand of them. And they went down and began fighting their way through the island of Cuba. And on July 1st, 1898, Teddy Roosevelt was the lieutenant colonel over the 1st Volunteer Regiment. They were on Kettle Hill, across from them was San Juan Hill. They were trying to take the San Juan Heights. It's an incredible account, but he led the charge up San Juan Hill, and there are multiple eyewitness accounts to what he said. He turned to his men, wearing a bright blue bandana around his neck. He was a fiery person. And he turned to them and he did not say, Go on, boys. You know what? Teddy Roosevelt turned and said to them, Come on, boys. You know why? Because he led the charge. He didn't say, now you go on ahead and you take that hill. He said, I'm going to take the hill, and I want you to go with me. In fact, when he first gave the call, he sprinted a hundred yards toward San Juan Hill, and he turned around, and only five men had followed him. He had them all hunkered down. Two of them were shot on sight by Cuban Mausers. And he ran back the other hundred yards, told all the men, come on, boys. And they said, Sir, we didn't hear you the first time. And they all followed. And it would be just moments after that. They took the top of San Juan Hill. Within just a few days, they took Santiago. And the Spanish-American War was just about over as quick as it began. Because someone said, Not go on ahead of me, but come on with me. Let's have that spirit. Let's advance with the Lord. Not sending people on ahead of us, but saying, let's all advance together. Let's all move forward together. Let's all, well, look, we're all in this fight together. Let's fight the devil. Let's run the devil down and run the Lord and his people up. Be ye followers of me. May we all be able to say that, even as I also am of Christ. Thank you for listening to the City Pulpit. For more information about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta, please visit www.mycitybaptist.com.