1 Corinthians 11
1 Corinthians 11 tackles two issues tearing apart the gathered church in Corinth. First, the question of head coverings in worship - who covers, who doesn't, and why it matters. Second, the abuse of the Lord's Supper itself, where selfishness and division have replaced remembrance. Paul's letter to the Corinthians is full of his corrections, but these two passages are among the most doctrinally dense and culturally complex in the New Testament. Both touch on the nature of headship, submission, and the body of Christ.
Behind both issues lies a single problem: the church has forgotten what it is. It has stopped being a reflection of Christ's headship and covenant love, and has become, instead, a mirror of Corinth's appetite and pride. Paul must restore both the custom of the head coverings (a sign of created order and humble reflection) and the sacred weight of the meal (which proclaims the Lord's death until He comes). Both are about alignment - alignment with the Head, and alignment with one another in His body.
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
1 Corinthians 11:1Be Ye Followers of Me, Even As I Also Am of Christ
Paul does not ask the Corinthians to follow him for his own sake. He asks them to follow his example of following Christ. The chain of imitation - from Christ to Paul to the Corinthians - flows downward. Each person is meant to reflect the one above them, as a mirror reflects light.
1 Corinthians 11:3The Head of Every Man Is Christ
3But I would have you 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.
Paul establishes a chain: God, then Christ, then man, then woman. This is not a chain of worth - it is a chain of headship and reflection. A head does not value the body less; a head sustains and leads the body. This verse has sparked centuries of debate across Christian traditions, and the honest truth is: serious readers of Scripture disagree about what it prescribes for church life today. What no reader disagrees about is this: Christ is the head. That is the foundation.
Here is the surprising move: even Christ has a head, and that head is God. Christ submitted to the Father's will. The pattern Paul describes - headship flowing downward, submission flowing upward - is not a pyramid of dominance. It is a structure of alignment with the One Above. Christ models this perfectly: “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).
1 Corinthians 11:4-7Covering the Head; Reflecting the Glory
4Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, disgraces his head. 5But every woman that prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
In Corinthian culture (and much of the Mediterranean world), the covering signified different things for men and women. A man who covered his head in prayer dishonored Christ, his head, by hiding the very image-bearer God appointed. The logic is: the image should not be hidden.
6For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. 7For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
The shearing or shaving of a woman's head in Corinth was a mark of shame - a sign of adultery or punishment. Paul uses this to show the social seriousness of the covering. But notice: he also says a man is the image and glory of God, and the woman is the glory of the man. These are statements about reflected order, not about inherent worth. Both are image-bearers of God (Gen. 1:27). The difference is about who reflects whom in the order of creation and the structure of the assembly. Genesis 2 records this creation order in detail1.
1 Corinthians 11:8-12Neither the Man Without the Woman, Nor the Woman Without the Man, in the Lord
8For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. 9Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. 10For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
The word translated “power” is subtle and debated. It may mean the power of her own choice (the covering as a sign of her authority), or it may mean the authority that covers her (the protection of headship). The phrase “because of the angels” is also cryptic - perhaps meaning the angels witness the church's order, or perhaps alluding to Genesis 6:1-4. What is clear: the covering is not meant as a mark of powerlessness, but as a sign of covenant alignment.
11Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. 12For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
After laying out the created order, Paul immediately qualifies it: in the Lord, neither stands alone. The man came from God; the woman came from the man; but now all men come through women. They are woven together. Paul is not erasing the difference he just described; he is situating it inside a larger truth: mutual dependence. The ordering is real; the separation is false.
1 Corinthians 11:13-16Doth Not Even Nature Itself Teach You
13Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? 14Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? 15But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
Paul appeals to the Corinthians' own judgment. He is not issuing a harsh decree; he is inviting them to see for themselves. The covering, he suggests, is natural - almost instinctive. Hair itself, grown long, serves the purpose of covering. Nature (understood as God's design embedded in creation) teaches the principle.
16But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
Paul closes the head-covering section by stepping back from absolutism. If someone wishes to contend about it, he says, the practice is not universal across the churches - but it is practiced by those who understand its meaning. The principle (submission to created order, visible alignment) is binding; the specific application may vary.
1 Corinthians 11:17-22Coming Together, Not for the Better, But for the Worse
17Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse.
Paul is blunt. When the Corinthians gather, he cannot praise them. This is the harshest opening to a section in this letter. Something has gone deeply wrong.
18For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. 19For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
Division at the meal. Paul has heard of factions, and he believes the reports. The unity that should mark the table is shattered by preference, status, and selfishness.
20When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. 21For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.
The word “heresies” does not necessarily mean false doctrine, but “sects” or “factions.” Divisions in the church are inevitable, Paul says - they reveal who is really devoted to Christ and who is just chasing status. The test of devotion is the meal itself.
The Corinthians are eating in the same location, but it is no longer the Lord's Supper. They have turned a covenant meal into a social meal. The wealthy bring plenty and eat well; the poor arrive late and find nothing. Some are getting drunk. The shame is cosmic.
1 Corinthians 11:23-24I Have Received of the Lord
23For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
Paul claims apostolic authority: he has received this directly from the Lord. He is not inventing a rule; he is transmitting what was handed to him. This is paradosis in Greek - tradition, handed down. Not dead tradition, but living covenant.
24And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
The timing is crucial: the night of His betrayal. Jesus established this meal not in triumph but in betrayal - facing abandonment by His closest friends and imminent death. The meal is rooted in the darkest moment of His earthly life.
The word remembrance is not mere mental recall. It is anamnesis in Greek - a making-present of a past reality. When you eat in remembrance, you are not merely thinking about the cross; you are making it present, standing before it, aligning yourself with its power.
1 Corinthians 11:25-26The Cup; The New Testament in His Blood
25After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
The cup is the covenant cup. The Hebrew word for “testament” is berith - covenant. Jesus is saying: the old covenant, ratified by the blood of animals at Sinai, is being replaced. My blood seals a new covenant. It is personal, intimate, eternal. To drink the cup is to say: I am grafted into this covenant. This meal echoes the Passover seder3, which Jesus transformed into the Christian Eucharist2.
26For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.
“Shew” is the word katengello in Greek - to display, to proclaim publicly. Every time believers eat and drink, they are making a public declaration: He died. We remember. We wait for His return. The meal is not private piety; it is public testimony. The Corinthians were eating, but they were not proclaiming. They were not showing the Lord's death; they were showing their own appetites.
1 Corinthians 11:27-29Examine Yourself; Discern the Body
27Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
To eat unworthily is not to eat while sinful - everyone is sinful. It is to eat without understanding the meal, or while harboring contempt for others, or while living in flagrant rebellion against the Lord. It is to eat as if the bread and cup were just bread and cup, with no cosmic weight behind them.
28But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
Paul calls for introspection - not morbid self-condemnation, but honest assessment. Am I approaching this meal with reverence? Am I broken over my sin, or defending it? Am I at peace with my brothers and sisters, or nursing a grudge? Am I ready to meet my Lord? The examination is not meant to paralyze; it is meant to align.
29For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
This is staggering language. To eat unworthily is to become “guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” - as if you yourself had betrayed Him, as if you yourself had pierced Him. That is how serious the meal is. It is not a symbol you can take lightly; it is a covenant you are entering, or renewing.
Paul uses the word krima - judgment, condemnation. To eat unworthily is to draw judgment on yourself. This is not annihilation; it is correction. God judges His own children to restore them.
Discernment is the key. You must recognize the Lord's body - not just acknowledge it intellectually, but see it as holy. The Corinthians were eating, but their eyes were not open. They were not seeing.
1 Corinthians 11:30-34Weakness, Sickness, and the Mercy of Self-Judgment
30For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
Paul connects the physical afflictions in the Corinthian congregation to their unworthy participation in the meal. Some are weak. Some are sick. Many have died - “sleep” is Paul's word for death. The consequences are not merely spiritual; they are embodied. God takes the meal seriously, and so does His judgment.
Paul offers an escape clause - not from judgment, but from harsh judgment. If the Corinthians would judge themselves first, would examine themselves and repent, then they would escape the Lord's discipline. Self-judgment is mercy. It prevents harder judgment later.
32But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. 33Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. 34And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.
Paul's solution is simple and devastating: wait for one another. If the meal is truly the Lord's Supper, then no one eats alone. The wealthy must wait for the poor. The early arrivals must wait for the latecomers. To come together and not wait for one another is to make the meal a mockery of the body it is supposed to celebrate.
Further study
- Genesis 2 - Woman from ManSefariaFull text with classical Jewish commentary on the creation of woman from man's rib, the foundation Paul references in 1 Corinthians 11:8-9.
- The Eucharist in Early Christian PracticeBible Odyssey (SBL)Open-access overview of how the early church understood and practiced the Lord's Supper, covenant meal, and memorial of Christ's death.
- Rabbinic instructions for the Passover meal ritual, the Jewish covenant meal Jesus transformed into the Lord's Supper at the last supper.