Catholic Commentary
Imitation of Christ and the Holding of Traditions
1Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.2Now I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions, even as I delivered them to you.
1 Corinthians 11:1–2 establishes a hierarchical chain of imitation in which Paul commands believers to imitate him as he imitates Christ, grounding apostolic authority in self-sacrificial example rather than personal cult. Paul then praises the Corinthians for maintaining the traditions (paradoseis) of apostolic teaching he delivered to them, setting the foundation for subsequent corrections about worship practices.
Paul doesn't say "imitate Christ directly"—he says "imitate me imitating Christ," because apostolic life itself is the visible proof that the Gospel works.
Verse 1: "Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ."
This verse grammatically concludes the argument of chapter 10 (Paul's self-renunciation in the matter of idol meat, 10:31–33), while simultaneously serving as the hinge into chapter 11's instructions on worship. The command is striking in its structure: a chain of mimesis — Christ, then Paul, then the community. Paul does not say "imitate Christ directly," though that is the ultimate goal; he says imitate me as I imitate Christ. This is not arrogance but ecclesiology. Paul understands his apostolic office to be a living icon of the Gospel he preaches (cf. Gal 2:20). The Greek word mimētai (μιμηταί) carries the full weight of discipleship — not mere external copying but the formation of a shared inner disposition. Paul has just described himself in 10:33 as "not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved." That self-emptying posture is the imitation of Christ he commends.
This verse also implicitly corrects the factionalism of Corinth. In 1:12, some claim to be "of Paul," others "of Apollos," others "of Cephas." Paul's point here is not that belonging to him is the goal, but that belonging to him rightly means following his example of belonging wholly to Christ. The chain of imitation is not circular — it is hierarchical and Christ-centered.
Verse 2: "Now I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions, even as I delivered them to you."
The Greek word translated "traditions" is paradoseis (παραδόσεις) — from paradidōmi, to hand on, to deliver over. This is the same root used in 11:23 ("I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you") and in 15:3 ("I delivered to you...what I also received"). The term is technical: it refers to a body of teaching, practice, and rule that exists as a structured deposit. Paul is not speaking loosely of "customs"; he is describing a specific act of apostolic transmission that carries binding authority.
Crucially, Paul praises them here before he goes on to correct them (11:17: "I do not praise you"). The commendation is genuine — they have, in the main, maintained fidelity to what was handed on. This sets the rhetorical stage for the corrections that follow (on head coverings, on the Lord's Supper) as applications of the same principle: fidelity to apostolic tradition requires ongoing discernment and sometimes correction.
The phrase "as I delivered them to you" locates the authority of these traditions in an act of personal, authoritative transmission — not in a written text alone, but in the living chain of apostolic teaching. Paul received, Paul delivered; the community is to hold firm. This is the earliest explicit use of the term paradosis in a positive theological sense in the Pauline corpus, and it opens a window onto the structure of early Christian authority.
Typological and spiritual senses: The chain of imitation — Father → Son → Apostle → Community — mirrors the Trinitarian sending structure of John 17:18 and 20:21. Just as the Son is the perfect image of the Father (Col 1:15), and the apostle is sent as Christ was sent, the Christian community is called to become a visible corporate image of Christ. The paradosis functions as the formal means by which this image is transmitted through time, guarding it from distortion.
Catholic tradition finds in these two verses a foundational scriptural warrant for two of its most distinctive convictions: the role of Sacred Tradition alongside Sacred Scripture, and the necessity of a living apostolic ministry for the transmission of faith.
On Sacred Tradition: The Second Vatican Council's Dei Verbum §8 teaches that "the Apostles, by oral preaching, by example, and by ordinances, handed on what they had received from Christ's lips, from living with him, and from what he did." Paul's use of paradoseis in verse 2 is precisely this: an oral and practical transmission that is not reducible to a written letter. The Catechism of the Catholic Church §83 explicitly affirms that "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together and communicate one to the other" — and this passage is one of its supporting texts.
St. John Chrysostom, in his Homilies on First Corinthians (Homily XXVI), comments that Paul "shows that he delivers nothing of his own, but all things from Christ," situating Paul's mimēsis within a chain of divine authority that does not terminate in the human teacher. St. Thomas Aquinas (Super I Cor., lect. 1) links verse 2 to the concept of the depositum fidei — the deposit of faith which must be received whole and transmitted intact.
On apostolic succession and the Magisterium: Paul's role here prefigures what the Church teaches about bishops as successors to the apostles. Just as Paul says "I delivered them to you," the Church's Magisterium understands itself not as a source of new revelation but as the guardian and authentic interpreter of what was once for all delivered (Jude 1:3). Lumen Gentium §20 grounds episcopacy precisely in this succession of teaching authority.
For contemporary Catholics, these two verses pose a searching challenge in an age of spiritual individualism and doctrinal relativism. Verse 1 does not call us to construct a personal spirituality from first principles but to place ourselves in a chain of lived imitation — finding in the saints what Paul was to the Corinthians: concrete, embodied patterns of Christian life that make Christ visible. This is why the Church canonizes saints: not to create celebrities, but to multiply Pauls — men and women who can say, "imitate me as I imitate Christ."
Verse 2 speaks directly to the temptation to treat Catholic teaching as a buffet — accepting the doctrines one finds congenial while quietly discarding those that are culturally awkward. Paul's word hold firm (katechete, κατέχετε — to hold down, to grip tightly) is the language of active retention against pressure to let go. In an era when Catholics are often pressured to "update" the Church's moral or sacramental teaching in line with contemporary consensus, Paul's praise of those who hold firm the traditions as delivered is a direct and bracing encouragement to doctrinal fidelity — not as rigidity, but as love for the living deposit received from the Apostles.
Commentary