1 Corinthians 11: Honor at worship and humiliation at the table

Worship in Corinth exposes relationships that private intention cannot hide. Paul first addresses men and women praying and prophesying, using headship, creation, hair, coverings, and custom in an argument whose details have generated genuine interpretive difficulty. He does not erase that difficulty, and neither does the chapter. The second half is much less obscure and much more severe. At the Lord's supper, social division has turned a shared meal into a scene where some have abundance and others are hungry and ashamed. Paul answers by returning to what he received about Jesus giving bread and cup on the night of betrayal. A meal that proclaims the Lord's self-giving death cannot be organized around taking one's own supper first. Self-examination therefore ends in something practical: discern the body, wait for one another, and do not let ordinary hunger turn the church's gathering into condemnation.