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1 So you have to try to live the way I live, and do the same sorts of things that I do, just like I try to live the way that Jesus Christ lived.*1 Corinthians 4:16; Philippians 3:17
Men and women in Christian meetings
2 There is another thing I want to talk to you about now. I know that you always remember me, and you do the things I taught you. That makes me very happy. 3 But I also want you to know this. Jesus Christ is the leader of every man, like he is the head one. And men are the leaders of women, like they are the head ones. And God is the head one of Jesus Christ.
4 So think about that when you meet together, and think about what other people might reckon when they see what you do. If a man prays, or if he tells a message from God in your meeting, he can’t cover his head. If he covers his head, other people will reckon that he isn’t following his leader, and that will shame his leader, Jesus. 5 But for women it is different. If a woman prays in your meeting, or if she tells a message from God, that woman has to cover her head. If she doesn’t cover her head, other people will reckon she isn’t following her leader, her husband, and that will shame him. You know, if somebody cuts off all the hair from a woman’s head, that will shame her. And like that, if a woman doesn’t cover her head in your meetings, she shames her husband. 6 If she will not cover her head, maybe she has to cut off all her hair, right? No. If she does that, then she will shame herself. She can’t do that. And she can’t shame her husband either. So she has to cover her head in your meetings.
7 You see, God made the man like himself, to show everyone that God is great and good. So a man can’t cover his head. He has to show that he respects God. And a man looks after his wife, and she shows how good her husband is, so she has to cover her head to show that she respects him.*Genesis 1:26-27 8 Remember that God made the man first, then he made the woman. He took a part of that first man to make the first woman. God didn’t take a part of that first woman to make the man. 9 And God didn’t make the first man to help the woman, but he made the first woman to help the man.*Genesis 2:18-23 10 So a woman has to cover her head to show that she respects her husband as her leader. And, you know, God’s angel messengers can see everything we do.
11 You see, we all belong to our leader Jesus. And in his family the women need the men, and the men need the women. 12 It’s like this, God made the first woman by taking a part of the first man, but after that, every man was born from a woman. But really, everything comes from God.
13 So if a woman in your meeting doesn’t cover her head when she prays to God, do you reckon that’s all right? You work it out for yourselves. 14 It is usually like this. If a man has long hair, people will rubbish him. 15 But if a woman has long hair, it is beautiful, and people will say she looks good. God gave her long hair to cover her.
16 I know some people might want to argue with me about all of this, but I’m telling you that we always do it that way. It is our custom. All of God’s churches do it that way when they meet together.
The food we eat to remember that Jesus died for us
17 There is something else now that I have to talk to you about. I’m not happy about what happens at your meetings. They are not good, they are bad. 18 You see, some people told me what happens at your church meetings. They say that there are different groups among you, and each group argues with the other groups when you meet together. And I believe that some of that is true. 19 Look, I know some of you will split up into groups, but when you do, you have to let God show you who is right.
20 And when you meet together, you reckon you eat food together to remember that Jesus died for us. But you don’t really do that. You don’t even share your food with each other at that dinner, so you are not respecting Jesus. 21 You bring your own food and drink, but nobody shares their food with anybody else. And none of you waits for anyone else. So some of you go hungry, while others get drunk. 22 Listen. Each of you have your own home where you can eat and drink. But there are poor people that haven’t got any food at your meetings, and if you don’t share your food with them, you shame them. That is bad. You are rubbishing God’s people, his church. I’m not happy with you when you do that. I can’t say anything good about you.
23 Listen. Our leader Jesus gave me this message, and I taught it to you. It is this.
One night our leader, Jesus, had dinner with his special workers, and on that same night, one of those followers turned against him and went to help Jesus’s enemies grab him. At that dinner, Jesus picked up some flat damper 24 and thanked God for it. Then he broke it into bits and said, “This damper is my body. You see, I will let bad people break my body. I will do that for you. So whenever you eat this special meal, remember what I did for you.”
25 And Jesus did something like that at the end of the dinner too. He picked up a cup of wine and said, “Drink from this cup. God has agreed to save people, and I will die so he can do that. My blood will come out, and it is like I’m using my blood to sign God’s new agreement with people, to say that they are not guilty of the bad things they did. So every time you have this special dinner and drink from this cup, remember that my blood came out, and that I died for you.”*Exodus 24:6-8; Jeremiah 31:31-34 That’s what Jesus said that night.
26 You see, every time you eat that damper and drink from that cup you are saying that Jesus died for you. And you will keep on doing that until he comes back again.
27 You see, you want to remember that Jesus died for you, so you eat that damper and you drink from that cup together. But if you do it in a bad way that doesn’t respect Jesus, you are guilty. You are just as guilty as those people that hurt Jesus’s body and made his blood come out.
28 So, when you eat this meal together, first of all, you each have to think very carefully about yourselves, and the way you live your lives. Then, after you do that, you can eat that damper and you can drink from that cup. 29 You see, if you don’t respect the body of Jesus when you eat that damper and drink from that cup, you are doing wrong, and God will judge you and punish you. 30 That is the reason why a lot of you are weak and sick now, and some of your mob have died. 31 But if we think carefully about ourselves and how we live, and if we are sorry for the wrong things we did, God will not punish us. 32 But if God does punish us, he does it to teach us to do good things. So later, when God judges everyone in the world and punishes all the bad people, he will not punish us too.
33 So, my Christian friends, this is what I’m telling you. Whenever you meet together to eat, to remember that Jesus died for you, you have to wait for each other to be ready. 34 And don’t come to that meeting hungry. If you are hungry, eat something at home before you come to the meeting, so when you meet together, you will not do something wrong, and God will not punish you.
That’s all I want to say about this matter right now. There are some other things that I want to talk to you about, but I will wait until I come and visit you, and then we can sort them out.