Glorifying God When We Gather

Transcript

Well family, I have the privilege this morning of bringing the Lord’s Word to us from 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. If you have a chance to start heading that direction, I would say get going that way while I get us intro’d. If you’re new with us and you haven’t been with us the past few months, we’ve been going through 1 Corinthians since the end of March, and the title of the series is called Christian Living in the Current of Culture. We’re kind of jumping right into hot water off the bat here this morning, so you’re going to need some framework and some background to catch up. So I would recommend if you have time to go back, check out any of the other sermons that you can, or just read through the text up to this point, because there’s a lot of context to get us to the point where we are today. In helping to set this up a little bit, Greg preached from

1 Corinthians, chapter 10, last week and started chapter 11, and I want to take a second to circle back around to how he ended it. This is going to be part of what is key for helping us to hear and understand Paul’s words and how we are to respond to them. Greg asked us a few key questions. One of those, how are we doing in making sure that our actions contribute to the hearing of the gospel?

How are we doing in making sure that our actions contribute to others hearing the gospel? Are we, in all we are doing, bringing glory to God? We were asked to consider if the actions that we are now taking are going to cause someone else to stumble and fall into sin.

That’s a lot right off the bat, family, but it is worth taking a moment to consider those realities before we dive into our text today. And I want to ask that as we prepare to do so, you have a higher degree of grace to hear the word of the Lord to you this morning.

Approaching Difficult Scripture

When I signed up to preach this passage back in January, something like that, Thomas immediately grabbed his phone, looked up a quote from one commentator that read, this passage is probably the most complex, controversial, and opaque of any text of comparable length in the New Testament. To which I said, thanks pastor, very encouraging. But the reality is, family, that we have a tendency to avoid passages like this.

If they don’t make sense, or if they don’t encourage us the way that we want to be encouraged, or if they rub us the wrong way, we tend to not dig into them and try to figure them out. Or we take them and misuse them as a weapon against others, without taking the time to understand what is being said in the passage.

I want to recognize right off the bat that first Corinthians 11 on head coverings 2 through 16 has been misused against people to keep them under wrongful submission to others around them, setting up improper systems of authority. My own frustrations with this passage have prevented me in the past from wanting to dig into that, and that’s wrong. That is not the correct attitude.

There’s a quote from John Calvin, and I just want to paraphrase it, that says something like, we tend to hear God’s word and subject it to our own judgment. Rather, we need to subject our understanding to God’s word and receive it. Family, I want to ask you right now to do the hard work of softening your heart with me. We’re going to pray in just a moment, and so I ask that you pray with me, for the Lord to speak to you through his word, that we would be subject to it in order that we may be built up and instructed in all of God’s ways. Would you please pray with me as we get started? Heavenly Father, as we prepare to open your word, we ask that you would give us soft hearts, that you would give us humble minds, that you would give us a love and desire to hear what you would have to say to us.

Father, would you quiet any outside influences that would seek to distract us and impute ideas into this text that are not there, or to repel from it, because it may be difficult to hear. Holy Spirit, would you help us to see your truth, to see your love, to see your beautiful design?

Lord, would you help us as one body to unite in glory of you? We love you so much. We ask all this in your name, Jesus. Amen. So, if you haven’t yet, go ahead and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. If you don’t have a Bible with you, there should be one under the chair in front of you or near to you, and you’re welcome to take that with you if you don’t have a Bible. We’re going to be reading 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 2 through 16. I’ll go ahead and read this for us. Would you please stand with me as you’re able for the reading of God’s word? Now, I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions, even as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ.

The head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. But every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. For a man ought not cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God. But woman is the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, in the Lord, woman is not independent

of man, nor man of woman. For as a woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God. Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is a disgrace for him? But if a woman has long hair, it is her glory. For her hair is given to her for a covering. If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You go ahead and have a seat. So we’ve got a lot to unpack this morning, family. I’m going to move pretty slowly through this so that we can really dive into the text. I’ve broken it up into three sections as we normally

do, but I haven’t given it any creative or fun titles or names. I’ve just broken it up in different verses. I’ll leave that to the creatives. Verses two to three serve as our introduction into the topic that is at hand, as well as the theological foundation for Paul’s argument. In the second section, that is going to be verses four through seven, and honestly, kind of eight and nine, but that’s where it gets a little squishy. Paul is going to deal with the issue at hand in the church and address directly what is going on. And in the third section, Paul wraps up his argument, pointing it back to the Corinthians to judge for themselves. So let’s start out in the first section. Let’s look at verses two to three and start breaking them down. Verse two says, now I commend you because you remember me in everything

and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. From the very first word here in the word now, we get an indication that Paul is transitioning out of the topic of food sacrifice and idols and whatnot to the topic of corporate worship. Paul is now going to focus in on what the believers do when they gather together to worship and praise his name. Paul is going to spend the next few chapters all the way through the end of chapter 14 with this topic being the underlying theme of everything he brings up. So in many ways, we can think about it, Paul telling the Corinthians to deal with their worship service just as we would gather today is what he was addressing back then, their corporate gathering for worship. One of the key things to remember though is that the church in Corinth most likely met in somebody’s house, not in a

building out in public. So it would have been a more private and intimate setting. And even though Paul is switching topics, he is not dismissing all that has been said to lead up to this point. Everything that he has said builds upon itself and he refers back to it throughout this. We need to remember that we can’t just pull out one piece of the text, but we’ve got to look at it in the whole context. So Paul commends them because they remember him and everything and maintain their traditions. What are those traditions? The traditions of gathering together regularly. This is a reflection of what we see in Acts 2.42, where the first church began to meet regularly, devoting themselves to prayer, to the teaching of the word of the apostles, and to the breaking of bread. So Paul commends them because they are still maintaining this

tradition. We know from other scriptures, such as Hebrews, that the church did not do this regularly. There were churches that fell away from this habit. So for a church to continue doing this would have invoked a bit of encouragement from Paul. Hey, at least you guys are still meeting together. This is good. There’s a lot of issues that you’re dealing with, but you’re maintaining gathering together to focus on worshiping God.

I also want to point out that this intro is comparatively soft to what Paul will use elsewhere in 1 Corinthians. He’s fairly gentle here and actually encouraging. Like, hey, I’m stoked on what you guys are doing. Keep going. Just a quick point that would be a reminder and encouragement for us that if we’re going to be correcting people, also encourage them. Help them to see areas where they are doing well. Paul is going to spend plenty of words talking about following issues, but here Paul is trying to gather their attention gently so that they can hear what he is going to say and be able to be open to his wisdom. So that gets us into verse 3. Verse 3 says, but I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. So Paul is making a massive theological statement right here

at the beginning, and this is the foundation for everything else that he is going to say. So it is pretty important that we understand what he is trying to say in this one verse. Throughout this passage, Paul is going to repeat the word head a lot. Whenever you see something family that pops up repetitively like this, pay attention. There’s probably something really important to do with this word. Paul uses the word head 14 times in these verses. He is referring in this to both our physical head, the one that sits on top of our shoulders, but also a metaphorical head, the one whose authority we sit under. Now, I did a lot of research on this and trying to figure out what Paul intended with the word head, and it comes from the Greek word kephale. Kephale could also be read or translated as foremost or preeminent, and some have also translated it as source. However, in the context

of this passage, some of those do not make sense to apply to this word head. Most accurately, the metaphorical head is referred to as an authority, somebody whose authority we are under. You could kind of compare it to the phrase somebody who is the head of the household. They’re the one who’s kind of responsible for things and overseeing the household to make sure that things run orderly. What Paul is stating is significant to his following argument to say that we all are under a form of authority in one shape or another. First of all, men are under the authority of Christ. A wife is under the authority of her husband, and Christ is under the authority of God. One thing to note here is that Paul uses a lot of male and female language in these verses following. For the most part, he’s going to be using the image of husbands and wives to refer

to the relationship between men and women. There are some portions where he refers to all men and all women, but most of it is referred to the relationship between husband and wife. Now, we know that this is important because the relationship between a husband and wife reflects, in many ways, the relationship that Christ has with the church.

The argument presents that his following is that relationship between husband and wife, that the husband would use his authority and be the authority in the appropriate way, that he would take the role that he was made for and do what he should with it, and he instructs a wife to submit to that authority as is appropriate. Because a husband is not to use his authority to abuse or take advantage of or have this domineering effect over his wife. Thomas talked about this recently, a few weeks ago, where he instructed us that Paul says in Ephesians 5 that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. That means laying down their lives for their wives.

It is not an excuse in this passage to take it out of context and to say that, well, I’m the husband. You have to listen to me. Or I’m the husband. You must do what I say. I’m the decision maker. The buck stops with me. That is not what this is saying.

Where we get the reasoning for that is looking at Christ and his relationship to God. It kind of seems awkward and weird to look at Christ being under the authority of God. It doesn’t make sense for us to think about a member of the Trinity as being under the authority of another member of the Trinity. Does that diminish Christ? Does that make him less? Is he not God, fully God, because he’s under the authority of God the Father? That’s not at all what this is saying. What this is saying is that Christ being submitted under the authority of God is the example for Christ submitting under the authority of their, or for the wives to submit under the authority of their husbands. Paul is not trying to give us a comprehensive theology of the Trinity, but rather using Christ as an example for the wives in the Corinthian church

to look to of how we submit under the authority that we are under. Look at Jesus’ own words. If you have a chance to turn over to Matthew chapter 12, I’m going to spit a few really quick verses at us, so I invite you to either listen, write them down, or if you can, flip there. Matthew 12 verse 50, Jesus himself says, for whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. And then in John 5 19, Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what the Father does, that the Son does likewise. Jesus’ essence as God the Son is not lessened by his being obedient to the Father. He is not diminished. He is not less God because he takes up the role he is to play and obeys the will of

the Father. Thomas Schreiner puts it really well, saying this, Jesus is the God-man and is the eternal Son of God. He shares every attribute that belongs to the Father, yet as the eternal Son, he voluntarily and gladly submits to the Father. Family, hear this next part, this is key for us today. So too, the different role for women in the church does not call into question the essential dignity, value, and worth of women, just as Christ’s functional submission does not contradict his essential unity with the Father. Paul in verse 3 is not giving the Corinthian church or the church today the theological framework to think that women are somehow less than men or that they don’t share in the same inheritance and relationship with God that men do. What he is emphasizing and trying to remind the Corinthians of is that we have roles and how we have relationship with

one another. Men and women are different and have different roles within the church. He is asking the wives to do as he told the church in Philippians 2 to remember. In Philippians 2, give me a second, Paul asked the whole church to have this mind among yourselves. What kind of a mind? We got to read earlier, to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. To have a mind that is other focused, that is caring, that is desiring to serve those around you. And why are we to have that mind? Because that is the mind of Christ. Philippians chapter 2 verse 5, have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to

be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Christ is our ultimate example of obedience. And being obedient to God does not diminish or make himself less than God. Rather, his obedience highlights his nature as God. Because of it, we read in Philippians 2 verse 9, that therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So that in the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God. Family, Jesus is the prime and ultimate example of how to obediently submit to the role we are to fill as Christ’s followers, as his church.

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The Issue at Hand

And at this point, I’d like to ask you if you’re single here not to check out. Though Paul uses the marriage model to help us understand the relationship, this is for us as a whole body. Something that we need to hear as an encouragement for how we interact with one another when we gather in worship. So that’s the text, that’s the context, that’s the theological framework to set up why Paul says what he says. Let’s look at verse 4. This is section 2 now. We’re going to start with the issue that Paul sees at hand.

So here in verse 5 is the main issue that Paul is wanting to address. He is using the example of the man to help highlight the issue that there was in the church. That there were women who were praying and prophesying with their heads uncovered and causing issues. So I want us to be able to understand why this would be an issue. What is going on in this two verses here? We need to understand three main elements from these two verses. First, we need to understand what he means by when he says praise and prophesy. And two, we need to understand head coverings and their implications. And three, we need to understand honor and shame culture. So let’s start with the first one. When Paul is talking about praying, this is public prayer. This would be in the worship service or in your gatherings together. Somebody who prays

out loud publicly. It’s pretty easy for us to understand. We do that on a regular basis. However, prophecies is not a word that we use frequently or often. And it’s referring to a spiritual gift given to folks for a specific purpose. That the church may be built up. That it may be encouraged and they may point always to Christ, its savior.

I don’t want to take up all of our time trying to define prophecy, but I think we need to define it briefly so that we help understand what it means here in this context. Pastor Jan is going to talk more about spiritual gifts later, but for right now, let’s look at prophecy and what it means here in the New Testament. Prophecy is defined as a spiritual gift given to people. But I also want to differentiate prophecy from New Testament prophecy from Old Testament prophecy. New Testament prophecy can be understood as a form of speaking that is usually more spontaneous. It is a way of talking about biblical truths with godly wisdom into somebody’s life or situation. It is not fortune telling. It is not casting visions of the future and trying to tell people what their future holds. Rather, it is using biblical wisdom from the Lord to speak directly into a

person’s life. It is intended as a way to encourage, to call out sin, or otherwise build somebody up in Christ. So what makes prophecy in the New Testament different from prophecy in the Old Testament? Well, in the Old Testament, prophecy were words directly from the Lord through the prophets. They were words that had absolute divine authority. This is what Wayne Grudem says, they had absolute divine authority. It was what allowed the Old Testament prophets to say things like, thus says the Lord. New Testament prophecy is not on that same authoritative level. Otherwise, how could Paul tell the Corinthians later that they could interrupt one another if a second person had a prophecy to share? New Testament prophecy is a way to call people back to God’s word, to point them and direct them to what God has already said, which is why we are always

instructed to always check prophecy against scripture. Another thing I want to differentiate is that prophecy is different from teaching. They are different things altogether, and again, I want to refer to Grudem here. The task of interpreting and applying scripture is called teaching. It is also what we now would call preaching. I don’t want us to get off the rails and focus too much on that right now, but I want us to understand what is happening in this text, that we have both men and women in the church who are praying and prophesying and encouraging each other to be built up and to focus and look towards Christ. Second thing I want to break down are head coverings and their implications. This is a custom that we don’t really know much about in our day and age, unless you come from a super conservative church like my wife where they still wear head coverings.

Let’s look at the men first in verse 4. For the men, the head covering was almost always associated with religious worship. In Corinth, the men would cover their heads with either their robes or another article of clothing when they entered the temple to either participate in a sacrifice or an offering or some form of religious worship that was taking place. So Paul’s argument makes sense if we remember what he has just talked to them about with food sacrifice to idols and idol worship. Look back at chapter 10 verse 21. Paul writes, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of Lord and the table of demons. Paul spent a lot of time breaking apart what is okay and acceptable for them to partake of as far as food, but what is not acceptable for them to partake of in idol worship. And one thing is super clear. Paul was

not okay with dual worship. You cannot worship idols and God at the same time. For a man to come to the corporate gathering of believers with his head covered would indicate to others that he either has just come from worshiping an idol or from the temple or that he comes there intending to bring idol worship into the church. This would have distracted people and caused them to stumble and fall and be super confused. It would have thought that it was okay for them to have multiple gods, multiple places of worship, multiple reasons to go to different temples and offer different sacrifices. The Lord is clear. You shall have one God. I the Lord your God am one. The Lord will not tolerate dual worship. So the men should not cover their heads for their own sake and for the sake of others at the assembly. To do that, to cover your head, would shine a negative

or shameful light on Christ. It would make people misinterpret or misunderstand what you are there to do, which is to give Christ glory, to worship Him, Him alone. For a wife to wear a head covering was a different social application altogether. For a wife, wearing a head covering is a way of showing her to be virtuous, that she was following her obligations to be faithful to her husband alone, that she was not available, that she was married, and that she had a role in her household under her husband. For a woman to go around with her head uncovered would signify that she was sexually available to whomever would solicit her. And this is a practice mainly done by the prostitutes in that time.

Another implication of having her head uncovered could also mean that she was attempting to walk out on her husband, to seek an affair. For Paul, this is equivalent to having their heads shaved. To have your head shaved in that day was a mark of significant shame. It means that you had been caught in the act of adultery and that you were no longer welcome in your house. A husband who caught his wife in adultery would shave her head, have her stripped, and cast out into the street. In this passage, Paul is concerned that the women in the church who are participating in the corporate gathering of believers were doing so with their heads uncovered and causing either believers or unbelievers to be distracted and confused as to what was going on. Paul is asking the wives to understand that when they pray and prophesy with their heads uncovered,

it amounts to a great deal of shame and dishonor being brought on their husbands and through that to the whole church assembly. It would ruin their witness. It would ruin the fact that they are there to worship the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Because it is the same as if a man were to come in with his head covered, confusing people and telling them it’s okay to worship multiple gods or it’s okay to go practice worship at the temples.

Why is this such a big deal? Why is this such an issue for the church? Well, we need to take a look at the aspect of honor and shame in the culture of 1 Corinthians. We live in a time and an age where we desire autonomy above all else nearly. We think of that a person’s actions are their own and they reflect their decisions alone. They don’t have any implications on anybody else. Now, there are places, sure, in the world where honor and shame still exist in society, but it is not so here. We like the idea of American freedom. I do what I want, you do what you want, we’re good to go. But in the in the Corinthians time, when Paul is writing to them, honor and shame was almost a form of social currency.

If a family became so ashamed, they could lose integral relationships and people could begin cutting them off from society altogether. Shame was not just restricted to one individual. You don’t just stop inviting that weird uncle to thanksgiving and solve the problem. One family member’s shame was passed along to other family members and it most often was the case it would pass upwards to the next person in authority until it reached the head of the household, the head of the household, the head of the household, to the next person in authority until it reached the head of the household.

Once shame was brought upon the family, it would be almost certain doom because honor was something that you could not necessarily just regain instantly. It could last generations. For Paul, his concern is that the worshipers that were participating in the Corinthian church bring honor to Christ, that they do their worship in an orderly fashion so as not to distract or detract from other people that were there to worship God and God alone. And that meant that they had to be careful about how they interacted with one another. Yes, they are free in Christ, but their freedom should be not used

against other people. He wants men to be clear that their allegiance in Christ is to be first and foremost the only thing that they are allegiant to, not other idols, not to confuse others and cause shame to be brought to the Lord. And the same is for the wives. Paul asks that they be aware that they are bringing shame to their husbands by not covering their heads and that the reputation of the church is at stake.

Family, I want us to think about this in light of our time and our age and our day and what damage can be done to the reputation and the witness of the church. We will not be able to share the gospel. We will not be able to tell people of the good news of Christ if the reputation of the church is one that people will not enter the building. We think we don’t have any idea of honor and shame in our culture in our day, but we do.

Remember back when the Southern Baptist convention, that group of churches was exposed for hiding ugly sins of abuse, of scandal. How quickly everybody went to arm’s length. Oh, yep, yep, yep. That’s them. That’s not us. Our church is different. Our church doesn’t act that way. How quickly and easily shame is brought upon the church and then Christ because of it for how we act. Now, let me get a couple of things clear here because I’m really beating y’all down and I don’t want to do that. I want to make sure that we know that each person is indeed responsible for their own sins. I am not saying that all women are responsible for men who look on them and lust in their hearts. A man’s sin is his own and he should keep guard of his eyes and his heart. The Bible is super clear on this family. Deuteronomy 24 16 says, fathers shall not be put

to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin. Ezekiel 18 20 says, the soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. And Paul refers to this in second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10. For all we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each man will receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. I want to speak encouragingly here, not discouragingly. Ladies in love, continue as you are doing in modesty. I know that men have uses against women to beat them down and take advantage

in the past of authority that they should not be taking. I would ask you that you would hold in high regard your brothers and be examples to a world that watches and objectifies the body of women that God has a different design for you, that you have worth and dignity that displays the glory of God and his gospel in this world. I have not seen this to be an issue in Trinity, but I would encourage you to continue as you are doing in being faithful, to being careful, to watch how you are dressing and acting and talking to men around you and other women around you. And men, this is not just for the women. Hear me clearly. Be considerate of your sisters. Do not be fooled into thinking that what you consume in private remains in private. If you are taking in illicit content, it will bleed into the way that you view women.

And that is completely and unambiguously not acceptable. Brothers, if you are struggling with that, make sure that you find somebody else to confide in and get help, get out of that, run and flee from that. And as a family, let us work towards building each other up in Christ.

Let us consider each other, as Paul exhorted the Philippians, to consider each other first and foremost above ourselves. And this is not just in relation to how we dress, but it’s also in relation to how we talk to one another. We talk to each other appropriately with fear and reverence and wisdom, knowing that these are image bearers of God that we are interacting with. We are all to be doing what we can to take care of our brothers and sisters and not lead them into stumbling. Paul has talked about this. As the apostles write, he gave them up so that they would hear the gospel. Our freedom in Christ is not an excuse to go around parading around however we please, doing or saying or posting whatever we want.

Because the early church in Corinth most likely met in people’s homes, that was the one place where a wife would remove her head covering. However, when they had everybody over for church and she didn’t put the covering back on, that is where the issues began to take place. Now, is the real issue hair coverings in Paul’s eyes? No. The issue is that members of the church were not taking care to make sure that all they were doing pointed to Christ, that they were not being a distraction and pulling away from the worship of God. Look back at 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31. So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, that’s whatever, that’s anything you do, do all to the glory of God. That includes both public worship gatherings and private. That includes community or small groups and when you have people over for dinner. That includes what you post on social media

and what you just talk about with your best friend in private. We should be pointing always, always to Christ. Brothers and sisters, you are co-heirs with Christ. What Paul is setting up is not division or power dynamics within the church, but saying that both men and women should be in the habit of speaking to each other encouragingly and hearing from each other encouragingly. Family, it would have been astronomical in that day for men and women to be worshiping together. Don’t miss that. This is beautiful. This is what God intended for men and women to be in right relationship, to not be over authority and taking advantage of one another, but to be caring for each other, to be building each other up. Though it seems odd at the beginning for Paul to be talking about, okay, everybody got to submit to the proper authorities, he’s going to flush that out later in verses 11 and 12.

God’s Design for Unity

But right now, what Paul is specifically addressing is that in the practice of praying and prophesying in the church, men and women should be doing so in a way that builds up the body of Christ and does not distract from the worship of God. So let’s read now verses 4 through 6 so we get a better idea of what Paul is saying. So every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short, but since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. In verse 6, Paul is qualifying that, listen, this shouldn’t be

an argument, but if you’re refusing, wives in the church, if you’re refusing to cover your hair, look, then just shave it off, but since I know that is disgraceful and shameful to walk around with your head shaved, just cover your heads, please. Paul knows that is a ridiculous request to ask a woman to shave her head in that culture. What that would implicate and do to her honor would just absolutely destroy her. In verse 7, we get a little bit of a better picture here of what Paul is trying to set up in verse 3.

And this is our first, like, super tricky verse, because none of this has been tricky so far. So read with me with verse 7. For man ought not cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. So this is another verse that people like to pick out and use it just on their own without look at how Paul is building his argument. Well, Paul is taking verse 4 and 5, putting those two together to enforce his theological statement from verse 3, that what we do in submitting to the authority that we are under matters. It would bring dishonor to God in verse 4, and here it is in verse 4. But why? Why should man not cover his head? Why would that bring dishonor to God? Well, because here in verse 7, Paul is hearkening back to the creation account in Genesis 1 and 2. And this is where we get a

little bit of a bleed over into 8 and 9. So let me work through 7, and then we’ll start looking into 8 and 9. What he is saying is that when God made the earth, when God created everything, all of that culminated or finished in the creation of man. Mankind, both men and women, completed, made full, God’s creation. And he said it was very good. It was in that God is able to have the glory for the creation. So in Genesis chapter 2, we see a clear picture of the delineation of the timeline of when man was created, when woman was created. If we only go off of that, we would say that, well, man gets the glory because he’s closer to God, but that’s not the case.

Man does culminate God’s creation account in Genesis chapter 2, but what does God say when man is there alone? It is not good. There is no glory to be had yet because man is alone. He needs himself a mate, a helper. And so he takes from man’s side a rib and makes woman and brings her to man, completing his creation. So when we see that man is made in the image and glory of God, it’s simply stating that men complete God’s creation. So therefore God gets glory. And in the same way, woman complete men and they get glory. And then God gets glory. That’s a lot.

We know that marriage is not in any sense complete a man or a woman. Paul has already made that argument to us early in first Corinthians. His goal here is to help the church see that men and women are not made to be complete in isolation from each other, that they need one another to fulfill the mandate that God has given them to do obediently all that the law of God. We see that later in verses 11 and 12 that says the woman is not independent of man nor man of woman. They are not independent. They are interdependent. What Paul is saying here is that they are interdependent of one another. They need each other, family. On their own, they cannot glorify God.

Brothers, we need the sisters in the church to point us to Christ. Brothers, we need the sisters in the church to remind us of what his word says. Sisters, we need faithful and godly men in the church to point us to Christ. It is not that we need only one or only the other. The monastics got it wrong by isolating themselves and separating by gender. We see the fullness of God in one another.

Family, we need faithful godly men and women to be praying and speaking prophetic words to God. We need to hear from each other. God has made it this way. God designed it and set it up this way. So let’s look then at our final section starting in verse 8. For man was not made from woman but woman from man. So this is to qualify what he is saying in verse 7. And the same is in verse 9 that neither was man created for woman but woman for man. If we read these verses separate from the rest of the text, what we get is a basic reason for why men are superior to women. But that is far, far, far from what Paul is saying.

Remember verses 11 and 12 that men and women are interdependent on one another. What he is, all he is saying here in 8 and 9 is that this is just how God created it. This is how God set it up. God made it this way. And it is for his glory. Our relationships for each other are on purpose. Not so that we can claim some sort of glory or authority that goes beyond what God has intended or made. If we begin to disregard God and how he has set things up, we go against him. We become disobedient. Our value is not found outside of what God has created for men and women. Our value and our freedom is found in being loved by God, being forgiven by God, and then being obedient to what he has called us to as men and women. We are complete when we realize that we are not the only ones that God has made.

But he has made each and every single one of us to be exactly who we are supposed to be. And he has gifted us brothers and sisters to help point out his truth and his value in the church. Rosaria Butterfield has a great quote about this, and I really appreciate how she says this. And I think this is instructive, so listen here. That man and women together are jewels of the same crown. The roles that women are blessed to embody cannot be replaced by a man, and likewise the roles that men are blessed to embody cannot be replaced by a woman. This is not a matter of competence, creativity, or modern medicine. God himself is holding the order and pattern of creation as a mandate for fruitful and good living. And this gets us into verse 10. And this is Paul essentially just saying, like, listen, because of everything that I’ve said, this is what you ought

to do. Verse 10. That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. So let’s look at the first part of this, and then we’ll get to because of the angels. So are head coverings really the issue? No. Being obedient and faithful to what God has made us to be is the issue. And we display that by obediently following what he has asked us to do, and not distracting others when we gather to worship. His argument is summarized here, and he appeals to them that giving honor to your husband gives glory to God, and it lifts up the whole church, and builds up the whole church. Now this verse has been extremely debated over the years, and it’s extremely difficult to pick apart. But the essence here is summed up is that because of our freedom

and love that we have found in Christ, Paul is asking the wives who are not covering their heads to show their love and deference to Christ by showcasing their love and deference to their husbands by covering their heads. It is Paul again using that reasoning from the end of chapter 10, which is crucial that whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Now the end of this verse here is a phrase that’s really not helpful, because it just makes no sense. Because of the angels. Do all of this because of the angels. I had a sister tell me this last week, that it’s kind of like a parent saying, well it’s because I told you so. And that, that honestly, that argument only gets you so far. Angels can be referred to as messengers, either of human or angelic source.

But I don’t think it’s Paul telling them like, listen, there’s people who are reporting on you guys, so make sure you keep it straight. That’s, that’s, that’s not helpful. That would remove the issue from being like, obey Christ and give him glory. It would just be, nope, give Paul glory and report to Paul what you’re doing. It makes sense to think about angels as participating in the worship of God along with us. When we see pictures of angels in the scripture and they are worshiping the Lord, they are doing so without distraction, without turning to the side and looking at each other or anything else. But their sole focus is on worshiping the Lord. And that is the point, that all worship, both ours and the angels should be focused on the Lord, not taking any bit for ourselves.

So let’s look at verses 11 and 12. It says, nevertheless, in the Lord, women are, is not independent of man, nor man of woman. For as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God. With these two verses, Paul is making clear that his focus is not on a power dynamic shift or subordinating women to men. In the Lord, you can also read that as in Christ, as Christians, we are not only made equal as created in his image, but we are saved equally. Remember Galatians 3.28, that in Christ, there is no distinctions, that we are one.

Moreover, we are not to be independent from one another. We are to be looking to each other and relying on each other to help clarify and make sense of what the Lord is calling us to do. This helps to make verses four and five make a lot more sense.

That Paul is saying, we need each other as believers. Who is doing the praying and prophesying? Both men and women. And it is extremely clear that Paul is saying, we don’t need to just hear from the brothers in the church, women be silent and sit down. No, but participate, be a part of that, speak boldly. We need to hear from each other, to hear how the Lord is speaking differently through the women in the church and through the men in the church. Men, are you listening to your sisters? Are you giving them your ear? How are you asking the Lord to speak through them? Or do you have a heart that tends to write them off because they are women? Do you only hear from men in your small group? Do you only hear from men when they pray? Women also, you do this a lot

of listening to men, but I ask you to continue doing this. Enjoy what the Lord is doing by speaking through the brothers in the church. Do not dismiss one another and so forfeit the Lord encouraging you through the brothers and sisters of the church. And how does Paul qualify this? At the end of verse 12, and all things are from God. God is the one who originated all of this. He is the one who created this. He is the one who set this up. So he is the one that we should be obeying and following and submitting to willingly and joyfully. We’ve done this with our catechism questions. We’ve talked about this specifically, question four, just a couple months ago. How and why did God create us? Did God create us? God created us male and female in his own image to know him, love him, live with him, and glorify him.

Judge for Yourselves

In the closing arguments, Paul transitions to asking the Corinthians to judge for themselves. He literally says, judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? This is a rhetorical question. He’s not actually asking them to give a counter argument. He’s saying, listen, based on what has been said, does it make sense? Yes, we should submit to the Lord by submitting to those in whose authority we are under. But then he goes on in verse 14, does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is a disgrace for him. But if a woman has long hair, it is her glory for her hair is given to her as a covering. When Paul is asking them to think about hair length as an issue, the hair length itself is not what’s at stake, but what you are trying to do with your hair.

Are you trying as a man to become less manly or less of a man who bears God’s image as a created man in that day and age for a man to wear long hair? It would have been a symbol of him trying to become more effeminate, be less of who he was created to be and take on the form of the other gender. And in verse 15, what Paul is saying is that the long hair is that significance, that symbol of who you are created to be. He is not saying you have to have long hair, but that it is your glory. It is that what that cultural thing that distincts you as a woman, but it’s not that he gives you a length. Otherwise he would have said, okay, you got to have it down past 12 inches, down past your shoulders and men no further than your neck.

If that was the case, I would have been in trouble in college. A lot of long hair. We can even think of some biblical examples of men who were godly and followed him who had long hair. Think of John the Baptist. He had extremely long hair. The length of hair was not the problem, but what are you trying to do and what are you trying to say with what you do? It would violate how God created us to be, to buck against his way of making us, that we should be men and we should be women, each to their own, not trying to be the other.

In verse 16, Paul heads off any who would seek to debate and draw out the conversation in an unnecessary and unhelpful way. Paul says, if anybody is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God. So he wants to get ahead of the arguments that he knows will come and say, listen, this is not an argument that we are going to have. This is just not the way God has set it up. There is nowhere in the church where you have found that this is a common practice. And what practice is he talking about? People distracting each other in worship and drawing away from the worship that is exclusively reserved for God. And in this text, it was specifically women who were not having their heads covered. But this applies to the whole church, that we seek with all that we have

to build up one another in Christ and not to distract, not to pull people away from worshiping the Lord, both when we gather and when we go out from here. Ask these questions of yourself, am I taking care that I am not leading others into temptation by what I say, by what I wear, or what I post online? Remember that all that we do starts with giving glory to God and it ends with giving glory to God.

We need to remember that we are one body. We are united in Christ. What affects one of us impacts the whole. Again, remember, we are not the only church. We are a part of a universal church that is worldwide. Think of how much it impacts you when you see another church going wild and crazy, caving to the demands of culture and not remaining faithful to the Lord. It ruins the witness of the whole church when that happens.

We are not doing anything to position ourselves or to gain position for ourselves as men and women in the church. Anybody who steps up here to lead is not trying to gain worship for themselves. We are trying to focus all of our attention on the Lord. For me to come up here in my work clothes with paint all over myself and holes in my jeans or wearing my muddy boots would be a distraction. That would distract us from worshiping the Lord.

We know that we have this degree of impact on each other, so we need to think about this. Family, remember that there are other Bible-believing, gospel-preaching churches in the area, and what we do here impacts our brothers and sisters not only in this area but around the world.

So let us pursue giving God the glory and being a witness to others. Family, you can practice that this afternoon at the picnic. Love each other in that park. Enjoy the time that God has given you. Invite the neighbors of the park to come join us. Have a meal with them. Get to know them. Show them the love of Christ. Be salty so that many may see Christ. Be flavorful. Be rich in love and mercy to one another.

I want to read for us the passage from Philippians, and it’s full. This is what Paul is getting at. This is the idea. So this is Philippians chapter 2. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. By taking the form of a servant,

being born in likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Brothers and sisters, you were bought at a price.

Remember who has redeemed you, who you owe everything to. We are not here to gain for ourselves a position or glory, but to point it all to Christ, who is our Savior and Redeemer. And who is with us and will help us in this endeavor. Family, my prayer is that we would look at each other and see the extreme value that there is, and see the fullness of Christ in our brothers and sisters, and that we would be able to give him praise and glory because of that. Let us do all, all that we do to the glory of God. Let’s pray.