This page gives you ready-to-use study questions for 1 Corinthians 11, with a leader’s answer or discussion note for each one. It suits a small group, a Sunday class, or a personal study where you want to move past a surface reading. The chapter covers three connected topics: head coverings and the order of worship, the Lord’s Supper, and the way the Corinthians were treating one another at the table.
1 Corinthians 11 at a Glance
Paul opens by asking the church to imitate him as he imitates Christ, then addresses how men and women should conduct themselves when praying and prophesying in the gathered church. He grounds his instruction in creation and in a sense of order that runs from God to Christ, from Christ to man, and from man to woman, while also insisting that men and women are not independent of one another in the Lord.
From verse 17 the focus shifts to the church’s gatherings, which Paul says are going backward rather than forward because of division and selfishness at the shared meal. He then recounts the Lord’s own words at the Last Supper and calls the Corinthians to examine themselves before they eat and drink, closing with practical instruction to wait for one another.
Observation Questions
Use these questions first to get the group reading the text carefully before anyone offers an interpretation. Ask people to point to the words in the passage rather than answering from memory, and let the first answers stay on the surface.
1 Corinthians 11:1
Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.
(WEB)
Paul begins the chapter by pointing to Christ as the pattern for imitation. Reading it first sets the spiritual tone for everything that follows, and it reminds the group that the questions are about following Jesus, not about winning arguments.
1 Corinthians 11:17-22
17 But in giving you this command, I don’t praise you, that you come together not for the better but for the worse. 18 For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it. 19 For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you. 20 When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. 21 For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken. 22 What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly, and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.
(WEB)
This passage names the problem at the shared meal with unusual directness. Reading it aloud helps the group feel the sting of the rebuke and see that the church’s worship was being damaged by its own partiality.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
23 For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread. 24 When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.” 25 In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
(WEB)
Here the words of institution are given in the most detailed form of this chapter. Hearing them read together grounds the discussion in the Lord’s own action and invites the group to reflect on what the meal proclaims.
1 Corinthians 11:27-29
27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body.
(WEB)
These verses carry the chapter’s most serious warning about approaching the table. Reading them aloud helps the group hold the seriousness of the moment together with the grace that the rest of the passage points toward.
1 Corinthians 11:33-34
33 Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34 But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment. The rest I will set in order whenever I come.
(WEB)
Paul closes his practical instruction with a call to wait for one another and to eat at home if hungry. Ending the reading here sends the group back to the concrete, everyday obligations of shared life in Christ.
Memory Verse for 1 Corinthians 11
1 Corinthians 11:26
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
(WEB)
This verse captures the heart of the Lord’s Supper as a proclamation of Christ’s death and a hope in his return. Memorizing it gives the group a short, durable summary they can recall each time they share the meal.
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we come to you as a group that has been studying your word together, and we confess that we often approach the table with too much of ourselves and too little of you. Show us where we have been careless with one another, where we have made others wait or go hungry in our gatherings, and where we have treated your gifts as ordinary. Teach us to examine our hearts honestly and to receive your grace without fear pushing us away. Help us wait for one another, honor the people around us, and remember your death until you come again. Let the bread and the cup remind us that we belong to you and to each other. Amen.
