1You must do what I do, and I do the same as Christ does.
Men and women in the congregation
2Believers in Corinth, I want to praise you because you always try to remember what I taught you. You remember and do the things that I have learnt from the Lord and from the other apostles and what I taught you. 3You must know that Christ is the Head of every man. The husband is the head of his wife and God is the head of Christ. 4A man who prays or who preaches God's message must not cover his hair because then he does not honour Christ, his Head. 5But a woman who prays or who preaches God's message must put a veil over her hair. If she does not put a veil over her hair, then she does not honour her husband, her head, because then she is the same as a woman who has shaved off all her hair. 6If a woman does not want to put on a veil, then she must also cut off all her hair. But you know it is wrong when a woman cuts off all the hair on her head or shaves her head. That is why she must put on a veil when she prays or preaches God's message.
7A man must not put a hat or anything on his head when he prays or preaches God's message, because he is the head in God's place and he must honour God. But the woman must honour her husband, 8because God did not make the man out of the woman. He made the woman out of the man. 9And God made the woman to help the man. He did not make the man to help the woman. 10That is why a woman must put something on her head when she prays to show the angels that her husband is her head.
11But remember: The man and woman both belong to the Lord and the man needs his wife and the woman needs her husband. 12It is true that God made the first woman from the first man, but after that every man is born out of a woman. And all of us come from God. 13You must now decide: Do you think it is right if a woman prays to God when she has nothing on her head? No, it is not. 14Look at the people from other nations and you will see that it is not right for a man to have long hair. 15But if a woman has long hair, it is beautiful because God gave a woman long hair to cover her head. 16If someone wants to argue about these things, then I say to him: We and the other congregations of God do not argue about these things.
The Lord's_supper or holy_communion
17There is something more that I must tell you, but I can not praise you for this. When you come together in your congregation, some of the things that happen there do not make your faith stronger. They break your faith down. 18Firstly, some people have told me that there are groups in your congregation who fight against each other when you come together, and I think those people speak the truth. 19Maybe it is good that there are groups in your congregation, because now we can see who really belongs to Christ and who does not belong to Him.
20When your congregation comes together to eat the Lord's_supper, you do not_really eat the Lord's_supper as you should. 21Because when you eat it, some people start to eat their own food before the other believers. And what happens then? Some people get nothing to eat and some people drink too much wine and get drunk. 22Don't you have homes where you can eat and drink? Yes, you have. You show that the congregation of God is not important to you and you humiliate the poor people. What must I tell you? Must I praise you? No, I can not.
23I say these things to you because the Lord Himself told me what holy_communion is and I also told you about it: That night when Judas Iscariot betrayed our Lord Jesus, Jesus took bread 24and He thanked God. Then He broke the bread and said: ‘This is my body that I give to you. When you break this bread and eat it, you must remember Me.’
25After they had eaten the bread, Jesus took the cup of wine and said: ‘The wine in this cup is my blood. My blood is the blood of the new covenant. Every time you drink this wine, you must remember Me.’
26Every time you eat this bread and drink this wine, you are preaching that the Lord Jesus has died. Do this often until He comes again.
How the congregation must eat the Lord's_supper
27That is why you must eat the bread and drink the wine of the Lord in the right way. If someone does it in a way that does not please God, then he is guilty. 28Everyone must first ask himself if he really believes what the Lord's_supper is and who the congregation of Christ is. If he believes this, he may eat the bread and drink the wine. 29The congregation is the body_of_Christ. If you do not believe this, then you eat and drink in a wrong way and the Lord will punish you. 30That is why many of you are weak and sick and many of you have died. 31We must first ask ourselves if we believe what the Lord's_supper is and who the congregation is. If you do that, then the Lord will not punish you. 32But when the Lord punishes us, He does it like a father who punishes his children. He does not want to punish us like He punishes the sinful people of the world.
33My friends, that is why you must wait for each other when you come together to eat the Lord's_supper. 34If someone is hungry, he must eat at his home before he comes to church. If you don't do what God says, He will punish you. There are other things that I want to tell you about this, but I will tell you when I come to you.
