1 Corinthians 11
11
1Imitate me as I imitate Christ.
Advice about Worship
2I praise you for always thinking about me and for carefully following the traditions that I handed down to you.
3However, I want you to realize that Christ has authority over every man, a husband has authority over his wife, and God has authority over Christ. 4Every man who covers his head when he prays or speaks what God has revealed dishonors the one who has authority over him. 5Every woman who prays or speaks what God has revealed and has her head uncovered while she speaks dishonors the one who has authority over her. She is like the woman who has her head shaved. 6So if a woman doesn’t cover her head, she should cut off her hair. If it’s a disgrace for a woman to cut off her hair or shave her head, she should cover her head. 7A man should not cover his head. He is God’s image and glory. The woman, however, is man’s glory. 8Clearly, man wasn’t made from woman but woman from man. 9Man wasn’t created for woman but woman for man. 10Therefore, a woman should wear something on her head to show she is under ⌞someone’s⌟ authority, out of respect for the angels.
11Yet, as believers in the Lord, women couldn’t exist without men and men couldn’t exist without women. 12As a woman came into existence from a man, so men come into existence by women, but everything comes from God.
13Judge your own situation. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14Doesn’t nature itself teach you that it is disgraceful for a man to have long hair? 15Doesn’t it teach you that it is a woman’s pride to wear her hair long? Her hair is given to her in place of a covering. 16If anyone wants to argue about this ⌞they can’t, because⌟ we don’t have any custom like this—nor do any of the churches of God.
17I have no praise for you as I instruct you in the following matter: When you gather, it results in more harm than good. 18In the first place, I hear that when you gather as a church you split up into opposing groups. I believe some of what I hear. 19Factions have to exist in order to make it clear who the genuine believers among you are.
20When you gather in the same place, you can’t possibly be eating the Lord’s Supper. 21Each of you eats his own supper ⌞without waiting for each other⌟. So one person goes hungry and another gets drunk. 22Don’t you have homes in which to eat and drink? Do you despise God’s church and embarrass people who don’t have anything to eat? What can I say to you? Should I praise you? I won’t praise you for this. 23After all, I passed on to you what I had received from the Lord.
On the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread 24and spoke a prayer of thanksgiving. He broke the bread and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.” 25When supper was over, he did the same with the cup. He said, “This cup is the new promise #11:25 Or “testament,” or “covenant.” made with my blood. Every time you drink from it, do it to remember me.” 26Every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup, you tell about the Lord’s death until he comes.
27Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks from the Lord’s cup in an improper way will be held responsible for the Lord’s body and blood. 28With this in mind, individuals must determine whether what they are doing is proper when they eat the bread and drink from the cup. 29Anyone who eats and drinks is eating and drinking a judgment against himself when he doesn’t recognize the Lord’s body.
30This is the reason why many of you are weak and sick and quite a number ⌞of you⌟ have died. 31If we were judging ourselves correctly, we would not be judged. 32But when the Lord judges us, he disciplines us so that we won’t be condemned along with the rest of the world.
33Therefore, brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, wait for each other. 34Whoever is hungry should eat at home so that you don’t have a gathering that brings judgment on you.
I will give directions concerning the other matters when I come.
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
1 Corinthians 11
11
To Honor God
1-2It pleases me that you continue to remember and honor me by keeping up the traditions of the faith I taught you. All actual authority stems from Christ.
3-9In a marriage relationship, there is authority from Christ to husband, and from husband to wife. The authority of Christ is the authority of God. Any man who speaks with God or about God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of Christ, dishonors Christ. In the same way, a wife who speaks with God in a way that shows a lack of respect for the authority of her husband, dishonors her husband. Worse, she dishonors herself—an ugly sight, like a woman with her head shaved. This is basically the origin of these customs we have of women wearing head coverings in worship, while men take their hats off. By these symbolic acts, men and women, who far too often butt heads with each other, submit their “heads” to the Head: God.
10-12Don’t, by the way, read too much into the differences here between men and women. Neither man nor woman can go it alone or claim priority. Man was created first, as a beautiful shining reflection of God—that is true. But the head on a woman’s body clearly outshines in beauty the head of her “head,” her husband. The first woman came from man, true—but ever since then, every man comes from a woman! And since virtually everything comes from God anyway, let’s quit going through these “who’s first” routines.
13-16Don’t you agree there is something naturally powerful in the symbolism—a woman, her beautiful hair reminiscent of angels, praying in adoration; a man, his head bared in reverence, praying in submission? I hope you’re not going to be argumentative about this. All God’s churches see it this way; I don’t want you standing out as an exception.
17-19Regarding this next item, I’m not at all pleased. I am getting the picture that when you meet together it brings out your worst side instead of your best! First, I get this report on your divisiveness, competing with and criticizing each other. I’m reluctant to believe it, but there it is. The best that can be said for it is that the testing process will bring truth into the open and confirm it.
20-22And then I find that you bring your divisions to worship—you come together, and instead of eating the Lord’s Supper, you bring in a lot of food from the outside and make pigs of yourselves. Some are left out, and go home hungry. Others have to be carried out, too drunk to walk. I can’t believe it! Don’t you have your own homes to eat and drink in? Why would you stoop to desecrating God’s church? Why would you actually shame God’s poor? I never would have believed you would stoop to this. And I’m not going to stand by and say nothing.
23-26Let me go over with you again exactly what goes on in the Lord’s Supper and why it is so centrally important. I received my instructions from the Master himself and passed them on to you. The Master, Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, took bread. Having given thanks, he broke it and said,
This is my body, broken for you.
Do this to remember me.
After supper, he did the same thing with the cup:
This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you.
Each time you drink this cup, remember me.
What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns. You must never let familiarity breed contempt.
27-28Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master irreverently is like part of the crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death. Is that the kind of “remembrance” you want to be part of? Examine your motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe.
29-32If you give no thought (or worse, don’t care) about the broken body of the Master when you eat and drink, you’re running the risk of serious consequences. That’s why so many of you even now are listless and sick, and others have gone to an early grave. If we get this straight now, we won’t have to be straightened out later on. Better to be confronted by the Master now than to face a fiery confrontation later.
33-34So, my friends, when you come together to the Lord’s Table, be reverent and courteous with one another. If you’re so hungry that you can’t wait to be served, go home and get a sandwich. But by no means risk turning this Meal into an eating and drinking binge or a family squabble. It is a spiritual meal—a love feast.
The other things you asked about, I’ll respond to in person when I make my next visit.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.