1 Corinthians 11-12

Common English Bible

11 ¹ Follow my example, just like I follow Christ’s.

Appropriate dress in worship

² I praise you because you remember all my instructions, and you hold on to the traditions exactly as I handed them on to you. ³ Now I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. ⁴ Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered shames his head. ⁵ Every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered disgraces her head. It is the same thing as having her head shaved. ⁶ If a woman doesn’t cover her head, then she should have her hair cut off. If it is disgraceful for a woman to have short hair or to be shaved, then she should keep her head covered. ⁷ A man shouldn’t have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is man’s glory. ⁸ Man didn’t have his origin from woman, but woman from man; ⁹ and man wasn’t created for the sake of the woman, but the woman for the sake of the man. ¹⁰ Because of this a woman should have authority over her head, because of the angels. ¹¹ However, woman isn’t independent from man, and man isn’t independent from woman in the Lord. ¹² As woman came from man so also man comes from woman. But everything comes from God. ¹³ Judge for yourselves: Is it appropriate for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? ¹⁴ Doesn’t nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him; ¹⁵ but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? This is because her long hair is given to her for a covering. ¹⁶ But if someone wants to argue about this, we don’t have such a custom, nor do God’s churches.

The community meal

¹⁷ Now I don’t praise you as I give the following instruction because when you meet together, it does more harm than good. ¹⁸ First of all, when you meet together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I partly believe it. ¹⁹ It’s necessary that there are groups among you, to make it clear who is genuine. ²⁰ So when you get together in one place, it isn’t to eat the Lord’s meal. ²¹ Each of you goes ahead and eats a private meal. One person goes hungry while another is drunk. ²² Don’t you have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you look down on God’s churches and humiliate those who have nothing? What can I say to you? Will I praise you? No, I don’t praise you in this.

²³ I received a tradition from the Lord, which I also handed on to you: on the night on which he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread. ²⁴ After giving thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this to remember me.” ²⁵ He did the same thing with the cup, after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Every time you drink it, do this to remember me.” ²⁶ Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you broadcast the death of the Lord until he comes.

²⁷ This is why those who eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord inappropriately will be guilty of the Lord’s body and blood. ²⁸ Each individual should test himself or herself, and eat from the bread and drink from the cup in that way. ²⁹ Those who eat and drink without correctly understanding the body are eating and drinking their own judgment. ³⁰ Because of this, many of you are weak and sick, and quite a few have died. ³¹ But if we had judged ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged. ³² However, we are disciplined by the Lord when we are judged so that we won’t be judged and condemned along with the whole world. ³³ For these reasons, my brothers and sisters, when you get together to eat, wait for each other. ³⁴ If some of you are hungry, they should eat at home so that getting together doesn’t lead to judgment. I will give directions about the other things when I come.

Spiritual gifts

12 Brothers and sisters, I don’t want you to be ignorant about spiritual gifts. ² You know that when you were Gentiles you were often misled by false gods that can’t even speak. ³ So I want to make it clear to you that no one says, “Jesus is cursed!” when speaking by God’s Spirit, and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. ⁴ There are different spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; ⁵ and there are different ministries and the same Lord; ⁶ and there are different activities but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. ⁷ A demonstration of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good. ⁸ A word of wisdom is given by the Spirit to one person, a word of knowledge to another according to the same Spirit, ⁹ faith to still another by the same Spirit, gifts of healing to another in the one Spirit, ¹⁰ performance of miracles to another, prophecy to another, the ability to tell spirits apart to another, different kinds of tongues^[a] to another, and the interpretation of the tongues to another. ¹¹ All these things are produced by the one and same Spirit who gives what he wants to each person.

¹² Christ is just like the human body—a body is a unit and has many parts; and all the parts of the body are one body, even though there are many. ¹³ We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jew or Greek, or slave or free, and we all were given one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ Certainly the body isn’t one part but many. ¹⁵ If the foot says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not a hand,” does that mean it’s not part of the body? ¹⁶ If the ear says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not an eye,” does that mean it’s not part of the body? ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, what would happen to the hearing? And if the whole body were an ear, what would happen to the sense of smell? ¹⁸ But as it is, God has placed each one of the parts in the body just like he wanted. ¹⁹ If all were one and the same body part, what would happen to the body? ²⁰ But as it is, there are many parts but one body. ²¹ So the eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you,” or in turn, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” ²² Instead, the parts of the body that people think are the weakest are the most necessary. ²³ The parts of the body that we think are less honorable are the ones we honor the most. The private parts of our body that aren’t presentable are the ones that are given the most dignity. ²⁴ The parts of our body that are presentable don’t need this. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the part with less honor ²⁵ so that there won’t be division in the body and so the parts might have mutual concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part gets the glory, all the parts celebrate with it. ²⁷ You are the body of Christ and parts of each other. ²⁸ In the church, God has appointed first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, the ability to help others, leadership skills, different kinds of tongues. ²⁹ All aren’t apostles, are they? All aren’t prophets, are they? All aren’t teachers, are they? All don’t perform miracles, do they? ³⁰ All don’t have gifts of healing, do they? All don’t speak in different tongues, do they? All don’t interpret, do they? ³¹ Use your ambition to try to get the greater gifts. And I’m going to show you an even better way.