GodsWord - I Corinthians - 11

11:1  Imitate me as I imitate Christ.

11:2  I praise you for always thinking about me and for carefully following the traditions that I handed down to you.

11:3  However, 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.

11:4  Every man who covers his head when he prays or speaks what God has revealed dishonors the one who has authority over him.

11:5  Every 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.

11:6  So 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.

11:7  A man should not cover his head. He is God's image and glory. The woman, however, is man's glory.

11:8  Clearly, man wasn't made from woman but woman from man.

11:9  Man wasn't created for woman but woman for man.

11:10  Therefore, a woman should wear something on her head to show she is under someone's authority, out of respect for the angels.

11:11  Yet, as believers in the Lord, women couldn't exist without men and men couldn't exist without women.

11:12  As a woman came into existence from a man, so men come into existence by women, but everything comes from God.

11:13  Judge your own situation. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?

11:14  Doesn't nature itself teach you that it is disgraceful for a man to have long hair?

11:15  Doesn'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.

11:16  If 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.

11:17  I have no praise for you as I instruct you in the following matter: When you gather, it results in more harm than good.

11:18  In 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.

11:19  Factions have to exist in order to make it clear who the genuine believers among you are.

11:20  When you gather in the same place, you can't possibly be eating the Lord's Supper.

11:21  Each of you eats his own supper without waiting for each other. So one person goes hungry and another gets drunk.

11:22  Don'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.

11:23  After all, I passed on to you what I had received from the Lord. On the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread

11:24  and 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."

11:25  When supper was over, he did the same with the cup. He said, "This cup is the new promise made with my blood. Every time you drink from it, do it to remember me."

11:26  Every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup, you tell about the Lord's death until he comes.

11:27  Therefore, 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.

11:28  With this in mind, individuals must determine whether what they are doing is proper when they eat the bread and drink from the cup.

11:29  Anyone who eats and drinks is eating and drinking a judgment against himself when he doesn't recognize the Lord's body.

11:30  This is the reason why many of you are weak and sick and quite a number of you have died.

11:31  If we were judging ourselves correctly, we would not be judged.

11:32  But when the Lord judges us, he disciplines us so that we won't be condemned along with the rest of the world.

11:33  Therefore, brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, wait for each other.

11:34  Whoever 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.