I Corinthians 11
11
1Imitate#Eph. 5:1 me, just as I also imitate Christ.
Head Coverings
2Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. 3But I want you to know that #Eph. 1:22; 4:15; 5:23; Col. 1:18; 2:19the head of every man is Christ, #Gen. 3:16; (Eph. 5:23)the head of woman is man, and the #John 14:28head of Christ is God. 4Every man praying or #1 Cor. 12:10prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. 5But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were #Deut. 21:12shaved. 6For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is #Num. 5:18shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. 7For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since #Gen. 1:26, 27; 5:1; 9:6; James 3:9he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. 8For man is not from woman, but woman #Gen. 2:21–23; 1 Tim. 2:13from man. 9Nor was man created for the woman, but woman #Gen. 2:18for the man. 10For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. 11Nevertheless, #(Gal. 3:28)neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. 12For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God.
13Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? 15But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering. 16But #1 Tim. 6:4if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, #1 Cor. 7:17nor do the churches of God.
Conduct at the Lord’s Supper
17Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. 18For first of all, when you come together as a church, #1 Cor. 1:10–12; 3:3I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. 19For #Matt. 18:7; Luke 17:1; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Pet. 2:1there must also be factions among you, #(Deut. 13:3); Luke 2:35; 1 John 2:19that those who are approved may be recognized among you. 20Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. 21For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and #2 Pet. 2:13; Jude 12another is drunk. 22What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise #1 Cor. 10:32the church of God and #James 2:6shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.
Institution of the Lord’s Supper
23For #1 Cor. 15:3; Gal. 1:12; Col. 3:24I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: #Matt. 26:26–28; Mark 14:22–24; Luke 22:17–20; 1 Cor. 10:16that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
26For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death #John 14:3; (Acts 1:11)till He comes.
Examine Yourself
27Therefore whoever eats #(John 6:51)this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28But #Matt. 26:22; 2 Cor. 13:5; Gal. 6:4let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. 31For #(Ps. 32:5; 1 John 1:9)if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. 32But when we are judged, #2 Sam. 7:14; Ps. 94:12; (Heb. 12:5–10; Rev. 3:19)we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
33Therefore, my brethren, when you #1 Cor. 14:26come together to eat, wait for one another. 34But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.
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I Corinthians 11: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
1 Corinthians 11
11
1follow me in this attitude, my brethren, as I follow the Christ.
Paul’s views on woman in the church
2You do remember and mark my words, I know, and you do keep the rules and the instructions which I lay down. I commend you as an obedient flock, and therefore listen now to another rule, a tradition I wish to be observed in our churches. 3Let men be bareheaded at our meetings, but let the women still wear the head-covering, as has always been the custom, and not thinking themselves free, as they begin to do, appear bareheaded like to men. 4-9And why? There is a reason. If a woman is to appear bareheaded like a man, then let her cut her hair, and wear it in the way that men wear theirs. That would be ugly, you say, and I agree. There is then a difference between the man and the woman; and what is our interpretation of it? Mine is this. Man stands for God; but woman stands for man. The head of the man is the type of Christ governing the body, and the head of Christ is God. The man then in every way stands as the type of the divine, the image and likeness of God, and with unveiled head he stands in the presence of God. 10But woman represents the glory of man; and in the presence of the angels of God man’s glory should be veiled. A woman’s beauty is her modesty. Her long hair is her glory, because it clothes and covers her. 11The male comes first as the representative of God, and the female next as the representative of man. 12In the second chapter of Genesis the difference made between the creation of man and of woman lies, as I interpret it, in these two different types, the one of God, the other of man; 13-15and so I advise you to keep the old custom whereby men wear their hair short, and bare their heads in prayer or preaching, but women wear their hair long, and in praying or in preaching they keep their heads covered. 16I advise you, I say, to keep this rule, but if you intend to argue the point with me — then I declare I am ignorant of any such custom, and the churches of God know it not!
Divisions and abuses at the Lord’s table
17Now in this next point I cannot add any commendation to the advice I am going to give you, for the reason that things are far from well, and that you are receiving harm where you ought to get only good. 18It is an excellent thing that you assemble yourselves together that you may get mutual profit thereby, but not if thereby differences and divisions arise amongst you. This I have heard to be the case, and so in a measure I believe it to be; 19because these divisions, it would seem, have a part to play in our faith, whereby the false are separated from the true, and true faith is tried and tested. 20-21Similarly taking food and drink in common, arriving at this meal hungry and thirsty, is no part of our faith. To dine all together is not to eat the supper of the Lord, especially when some are far better provided than others, and there are great differences in the way you fare at this common feast, and excess even and want are found seated at the same table. 22I like not such customs as that. Why not take your meals in the ordinary way at home? To eat and drink in such a way is to hasten the doom that is coming on all flesh — that doom and judgment of the flesh which is seen in the sickness, the ill-health and the death that still is found amongst your numbers. Now through the eternal body and blood of the Christ we are released from that fate and judgment that come upon the flesh. We look forward to the appearance and coming of the eternal Christ, and we show forth that peculiar death of his which overcame death and releases us from it.
The last supper described
23That is what the Lord Jesus meant by his words at that last supper the night on which they took him, when he handed the cup to his disciples, and broke the bread for them. I taught you his words and his action on that occasion, as they were given me by those who were present. 24After taking the bread, he gave thanks, spoke the usual blessing, and handed it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is surrendered on your behalf. In future, when you break bread thus, and give thanks, remember my body, remember me.” 25-26In handing the cup after dinner, he said, “This is the new covenant, sealed in my blood. In future, whenever you take wine thus together, think of this new covenant, remember my blood.”
Its spiritual meaning explained
27Do you then my brethren, when you come together, eating and drinking, with the intention of carrying out his injunction, and recalling his words, do you really discern beneath this semblance and type of bread and wine the eternal body of Christ to which we belong? Do you really celebrate that wondrous death of his, which differed from all other deaths in that it is to be followed by his second coming and eternal presence in the world? 28Examine yourselves on these points, and assemble together in that spirit only. Otherwise you will only eat and drink the doom of all flesh, as it comes upon the whole world. 29But if you discerned that infinite eternal body, if you understood the meaning of Christ’s death in the flesh, and what is signified by the shedding of his blood, and the giving up of his mortal life and material body — 30-31then, my brethren, there would not be so much sickness and disease and death in your midst as there still is. 32-33You would not be bound up with the world in the common doom of perishing mortality, but by first judging yourselves, you would then escape the general ruin. 34Such feasts as you observe, where the eating and drinking predominate over the teaching, have little in keeping with the Lord’s supper and this can be avoided by eating first at home, and then when you come together, giving place to one another, and taking the bread and wine as it comes to you. There are other details in connection with this matter which I will arrange when I see you.
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Translated in 1916, published in 1937.