Introduction
This is easily the hardest passage in the whole book to understand. There is a lot of ambiguity of terms throughout the passage. But the principles taught in it are clearer than what we may be willing to admit. I hope you listen to this message with a believing ear, an ear that has been opened by the power of Christ.For a helpful article by Thomas Schreiner, go here. I. Starting with Praise, 2.
A. After all that we have seen in this letter, praise for doing the things Paul taught them is the last thing we expected here.
B. Not only what has already been said, but also the things that he is about to say in chpts. 11-14 really make this commendation a surprise.
C. This indicates that, though there were problems in the church, they were not systemic.
1. This means that they were located in a small group of people.
2. By and large, the congregation was doing well.
D. This commendation now introduces an area of concern that is more systemic: they were struggling with several aspects of the worship of God, starting with worshiping God as men and women.
II. What This Passage Is about: the Real Issue
A. This passage is about head covering, praying and prophesying, and we will talk about all these things.
B. But on a more fundamental level, this passage is about worshiping God distinctively as a woman and worshiping God distinctively as a man.
1. There is such a thing as God appointed masculinity and femininity.
2. As I hope to who you, there are fundamental characteristics instituted by God that a man should exhibit and others that a woman should exhibit.
C. It seems that what led Paul to write this particular passage to the church in Corinth was the widespread belief in that church that the Gospel had completely eliminated any differences in function between man and woman.
1. They had heard great and powerful teaching such as what Paul says in Galatians.
Gal. 3:26-29 – For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
a. The Gospel transcends ethnic barriers, gender, and socio-economic conditions.
b. The identity of a person is irrelevant to his/her justification because it wholly depends on whom Christ is.
2. But they were grabbing hold of this glorious concept and were concluding that since being a man or a woman is irrelevant to justification, it is also irrelevant for everything else in life.
a. Men were doing what had been designed by God to be a characteristic of femaleness and women were doing what God had appointed to be a characteristic of maleness.
b. So they assumed that the Gospel made life gender neutral.
c . This idea was manifesting itself in the way they worshiped God.
D. Paul teaches that the Gospel does not eliminate the functional differences between man and woman because they are not the result of sin, but the divine design of creation.
III. The Head
A. This is easily the hardest passage to interpret in this letter not necessarily because of the ambiguity of several key terms.
B. Yet, the whole concept is not difficult to understand.
C. The first difficult term is the word head, 3.
1. There are two ways that this word can be understood.
a. Head as the source like the head of a river.
b. Head as the authority as in the head of states.
2. Though evangelical feminists have tried to argue that the word head here means source instead of authority, it really means authority.
a. Notice that in this hierarchy, the man/woman relationship is compared to the relationship between God the Father and God the Son.
b. In other places as in Ephesians 1, Christ is called the Head of the Church, which means without any doubt that he has authority over the Church and the Church is to be submissive to him.
3. Paul, then, starts by emphasizing that the different roles of man and woman as far as authority and submission go have not changed on account of the Gospel.
4. This relationship between man and woman actually reflects the perfect relationship in the Trinity.
IV. Man/Woman or Husband/Wife?
A. The second difficult terms are the words man and woman.
B. Is Paul saying that every woman is to submit to every man and every man is to have authority over every woman? Or, is he talking about the husband and wife relationship?
1. This difficulty exists because Greek uses the same words for man/husband and woman/wife.
2. Because Paul uses the relationship between Adam and Eve as the reason for the way man and woman should relate, I conclude that he is talking about the husband/wife relationship.
a. He uses the language of Gen. 2:18-24, particularly in verses 8-9.
b. His language also parallels what he says in Ephesians concerning husbands and wives.
Eph. 5:23-24 – Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.
3. He addresses husbands and wives because that's where the most observable problem was, but what he has to say about masculinity and femininity will apply to every man and every woman.
V. What Is the Head Covering?
A. It does not get any easier when we come to the term head covering.
1. Paul says that when the husband prays and prophesies in church, he must not cover his head – it is a disgraceful thing for him to cover his head, 4.
2. He also says that when the wife prays and prophesies in the church, she must cover her head – it is a disgraceful thing for her to have her head uncovered, 5.
B. I think head covering means head covering like a veil or a shawl.
1. Some have suggested that the covering is long hair because of verse 15.
2. But whatever v. 15 means, it doesn't make sense to say that head covering throughout this passage means hair.
a. If hair was intended, then Paul would be saying that the husband should have his head shaved because it is disgraceful for him to have his head covered, 4.
b. Yet, Paul just says that he should not have long her, 14.
C. To pray and prophesy, that is, to worship God with her head uncover is shameful to the wife and dishonoring to her husband, 5-6.
1. If you are going to worship without a head covering, you might as well shave your head.
2. That would be a shameful thing to do because in Corinth it would mean that you were either a prostitute or you were trying to be like a man.
D. The reason for the wearing of the head covering is the way God created humanity, 7-10.
1. Paul is not saying that the woman was not created in God's image – by being created from man, she automatically possesses the image of God.
2. Eve was created for Adam to be his helper and companion.
3. The head covering is the symbol of that creative design.
4. Because of the angels – really don't know what this means, but it is not germane for our understanding the principle that Paul has here.
VI. Should the Women in the Church Wear Head Coverings?
A. Only if they want to because this passage doesn't require them to do so.
B. Wearing a head covering was what women did in first century Corinth to display their femininity.
1. Not to wear a head covering in that context was equivalent to shaving her head.
2. In turn that was equivalent to trying to be like a man.
C. Wearing a head covering is the culturally attached display of the principle that women are to worship God like women.
1. The Gospel has not eliminated the different functions of each gender.
2. The Gospel freed us to fulfill our roles as man and as woman.
D. Women are honored in the sight of God by looking like a woman, and some of it is culturally determined.
1. In our culture, head covering is not really the way that this idea is demonstrated.
2. But there are other ways to do that.
3. The bottom line is that it brings glory to God and honor to her husband when a woman looks and acts like a woman – when you look at her and there is no doubt she is a woman.
E. Don't miss a point that Paul makes here about men, 14.
1. Men are also to look manly.
2. This is not to be the source of legalistic rules concerning length of hair.
3. It teaches the idea that a man acts like a man and looks like a man.
VII. These Are Functional Differences not Essential Differences, 11-12.
A. We have been trained by our culture to understand differences in role as differences in worth.
B. We often are tempted to think that if the husband has authority over the wife, then he is better than she is.
C. To think that is to miss the point of who God is.
1. God the Father and God the Son are equal in worth, power, and glory.
2. Yet the Son submits to the Father and the Father has authority over the Son.
3. That's the pattern that is given to us for our relationship as husbands and wives.
D. If man thinks that he is better than woman because he is given authority, he really does not understand the Gospel.
1. He was given authority to serve, not to claim glory for himself.
2. His leadership is to be the leadership of a servant leader.
Mk. 10:39-45 – But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, "You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
3. This doctrine has certainly been abused.
4. But the solution is not to throw this teaching out.
5. Rather, the solution is to repent and follow what God says in his Word, asking him for grace to do so.
VIII. Paul Says that Ultimately There Is no Point in Arguing Otherwise.
A. Nature, that is, the order God appointed and the law he wrote in our hearts show that there is maleness and there is femaleness, 14.
B. Only those who love to argue will want to argue otherwise, and really there is no room for that in the church, 16.
Conclusion
In summary, this passage is not dictating what type of hat you should wear or how long your hair should be. God is here telling you that he instituted different roles for man and for woman, and these different roles are good. So we are left with a choice, as we often are. We can rejoice in the goodness of God and in his wisdom in appointing these different roles. Or, we can follow what the teaching of this world is. You know, you might think that blurring the roles and making man and woman almost indistinguishable is easier. Yet, Jesus says that HIS yoke is easy and HIS burden in light. What has been called the women's liberation movement is actually a tool to enslave women and men. As with everything else, the Gospel of Jesus Christ frees us to be man and to be woman for God's glory and for our good.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2013/11/worshiping-god-as-men-and-women-1-cor.html
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