Chapter 11

¹You must follow my example in this, as I am following Christ’s.

²I appreciate your always remembering me, and your standing by the things I passed on to you, just as you received them. ³But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, while a woman’s head is her husband, and Christ’s head is God. ⁴Any man who offers prayer or explains the will of God with anything on his head disgraces his head, ⁵and any woman who offers prayer or explains the will of God bareheaded disgraces her head, for it is just as though she had her head shaved. ⁶For if a woman will not wear a veil, let her cut off her hair too. But if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her wear a veil. ⁷For a man ought not to wear anything on his head, for he is the image of God and reflects his glory; while woman is the reflection of man’s glory. ⁸For man was not made from woman, but woman from man, ⁹and man was not created for woman, but woman was for man. ¹⁰That is why she ought to wear upon her head something to symbolize her subjection, out of respect to the angels, if to nobody else. ¹¹But in union with the Lord, woman is not independent of man nor man of woman. ¹²For just as woman was made from man, man is born of woman, and both like everything else really come from God. ¹³Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to offer prayer to God with nothing on her head? ¹⁴Does not nature itself teach you that for a man to wear his hair long is degrading, ¹⁵but a woman’s long hair is her pride? For her hair is given her as a covering. ¹⁶But if anyone is disposed to be contentious about it, I for my part recognize no other practice in worship than this, and neither do the churches of God.

¹⁷But while I am on this subject, I cannot approve of your meetings, because they are doing you more harm than good. ¹⁸For, in the first place, when you meet as a congregation, I hear that you divide into sets, and in a measure I believe it. ¹⁹Doubtless there must be parties among you, if those who are right are to be recognized among you. ²⁰So when you hold your meetings it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat, ²¹for each of you hurries to get his own supper and eat it, and one goes hungry while another gets drunk. ²²Have you no houses to eat and drink in? Or do you mean to show your contempt for the church of God, and to humiliate those who have none? What can I say to you? Can I approve of you? Not in this matter certainly. ²³For I myself received from the Lord the account that I passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus the night he was betrayed took some bread ²⁴and gave thanks for it and then broke it in pieces, saying, “This is my body which takes your place. Do this in memory of me.” ²⁵He took the cup, too, after supper, in the same way, saying, “This cup is the new agreement ratified by my blood. Whenever you drink it, do so in memory of me.” ²⁶For until the Lord comes back, every time you eat this bread and drink from the cup, you proclaim his death. ²⁷Hence anyone who eats the bread or drinks from the Lord’s cup in a way that is unworthy of it will be guilty of profaning the body and the blood of the Lord. ²⁸A man should examine himself, and only when he has done so should he eat any of the bread or drink from the cup. ²⁹For anyone who eats and drinks, eats and drinks a judgment upon himself if he does not recognize the body. ³⁰This is why many of you are sick and ill and a number have fallen asleep. ³¹But if we recognized our own condition, we would not incur this judgment. ³²But since we do incur it, we are disciplined by the Lord, so that we may not be condemned along with the world. ³³So, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. ³⁴If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that your meetings may not bring down a judgment upon you. The details I will settle when I come.