INTRO: I will tell you unashamedly that I am not scared to preach on this passage. Not scared, I am terrified! I want to handle the Word of God rightly and accurately. There is a big, gigantic “HUH?” that you could right over the top of these verses in your Bible. You read this passage once, twice, or five times, and you always come away with the same brilliant, theological question – “What now?” “What does this mean?”
Besides the difficulty of the passage, we are talking about women here! Women! Some of you ladies walked into church today, opened up the bulletin and saw the title had to do with you – and you might already be mad at me. “Well, let’s see what the preacher man has to say about this!”
But let me give you rule #1 for preaching to women about women: “If I say something that can be taken in two ways, one good and one bad, always assume that I meant it in the good sense of the word.” And rule #2 is that when you are in doubt, refer to rule #1.
This chapter begins a new section of the book about order in the church. Pretty large and meaty section of the book.
Illus: A study was done on how members of the various sections of a major symphony orchestra perceived each other. The percussionists were viewed as insensitive, unintelligent, and hard-of-hearing, yet fun-loving. String players were seen as arrogant, stuffy, and unathletic. The orchestra members overwhelmingly chose "loud" as the primary adjective to describe the brass players. Woodwind players seemed to be held in the highest esteem, described as quiet and meticulous, though a bit egotistical.
Interesting findings, to say the least! With such widely divergent personalities and perceptions, how could an orchestra ever come together to make such wonderful music? The answer is simple: regardless of how those musicians view each other, they subordinate their feelings and biases to the leadership of the conductor. Under his guidance, they play beautiful music.
That said, chapters 11-14 of 1 Corinthians help us understand some principles of public worship, and how Christians with all of our differences and diversities can submit ourselves to God and harmonize with our fellow believers. This will be seen in the roles of men and women in the church and in the home, proper procedure for the Lord's Supper, how to use your spiritual gifts to help others, showing true, Godly love and not self love, and so on.
So, why are these verses so tough? Because culture, context, and characters always play a huge part in understanding Scripture. We have to consider to what extent and how this applies to us today. I don’t think we can lift this teaching that was written to 1st century Corinthian Christians and plop it right down on 21st century Christians in America.
I will endeavor to give you a basic understanding of the teaching and also throw in some universal truths that apply today that you can use.
You ready for this? Cause there ain’t no turning back now...
I. The Sensibility of Submission (2-3)
– You have to just trust me on this one, but this passage really does make sense. It is a sensible and logical teaching. Paul wants them to understand it. God wants us to understand it. Though it often doesn’t seem like it, I don’t think that God doles out difficult verses to understand and then has a fun time watching all the theologians fight over what it means.
– Listen, there is something here that makes sense and that we are to get hold of
– Paul starts with words of praise. Even with all their problems and spiritual immaturity, Paul was glad they were remembering some things. They respected Paul’s authority on the teaching he was trying to give them. They were receiving the teaching, but it wasn’t always changing their lifestyle.
– Here’s the deal, the problem with Corinth, the problem with us...is not our doctrine, but our morals. Not our beliefs, but our behavior.
– Let me put it this way. There was nothing wrong with their orthodoxy. The problem was with their orthopraxy. Their doctrine was good, but their practice was bad. So Paul had words of praise for their doctrine. Words of clarification for their practice of doctrine.
– Same with us. We have no issues understanding the proper role of women in church here. We get the fact that women are to submit to their husbands. The problem comes in the practical application of that on a daily basis.
– Look at verse 3. Paul uses logic here to open the conversation on submission. Three statements about headship. First, Christ is the head of every man. Probably also means that Christ is the head of the church. Second, man is the had of the woman. Like it or not, this is the way God has set it up. So, your beef is not with me, it is with God. It is not right for the woman to be the head of the man. God says the head of every woman is the man. Applies most to husband and wife relationship, but it is universally true for all men and women as well.
– A church may have some women who are better Bible students, better theologians, and better speakers than any of the men, including the pastor. But if those women are obedient to God's order, they will submit to male leadership and will not try to usurp it. A wife may be better educated than her husband, better taught in Scripture, and more spiritually mature than her husband. But because she is spiritual, she will willingly submit to him as head of the family.
– Third, God is the head of Christ. Christ has never been inferior to God the Father in essence, but he has always been submissive to God the Father's will.
– Now, what is meant by the word “head” in verse 3. Headship can mean “authority.” Let’s read it like that. The authority of every man is Christ, the authority of every woman is the man, and the authority of Christ is God. That works. But it can also mean “source.” Okay, so the source of every man, or the church, is Christ. And the source of every woman is the man. In creation, the woman came from the man. Last, God is the source of Christ. You might be able to argue that is true, but we kind of have a problem putting it like that. This would be the only time Paul puts it like that. We get into the heresy that God created Christ, which we don’t believe.
– So the concept of authority and submission fits better, and it just makes sense.
II. The Symbols of Submission (4-6)
– It gets into church life here and the roles of men and women in church. Verse 4 talks about praying and prophesying. Prayer is talking to God about people, and prophesying is talking to people about God.
– When a man prays or teaches in church, his head is to be uncovered. The word head is used first to talk about a literal head, the man’s head. The second time it is used, it refers to a man’s figurative or spiritual head, Christ. Get it now. You ever heard someone say at a function when the pray, “hats off gentlemen,” and wondered why? How come men shouldn’t pray with a hat on? The answer’s right here.
– Watch, if I cover my head (point to head) when I pray, I dishonor my head (point to Christ). I am not really showing that I am in submission to Christ.
– Now just the opposite is true of the woman. She is to pray with her head covered. If she prays with her head uncovered, she dishonors her head, which is the man. Because the man is her authority and source.
– Are you with me? What does all this mean? The next question to ask is this: What is meant by head covering?
– Is it a veil like you wore at your wedding? Is it a shawl you would where on a windy day? Is it a lace doily that you bobby pin to the top of your head? Is it a baseball cap you wear backward like a gangster? Is it a basket of fruit that you wear on your head from the market? Or, is it talking about hair?
– To those questions, let me answer emphatically and clearly – Yes! And No! And I really don’t know!
– There are those who lift this quite literally from 1st century Corinth and apply it to women in church today and they insist that their women wear a hat or veil to church. Either all of you women are in rebellion, or we don’t believe it teaches that. We obviously at our church don’t believe it teaches that.
– I think it is talking about hair. Verse 13 gets into that.
– Here is what was going on then and then we’ll talk about what it means for us today. Back in Corinth, women were usurping men’s authority in the church. They were acting like men. They asserted their rights and disregarded all actions of a godly lady. Paul says, they might as well just shave their heads. For the Corinthian ladies, the covering was a sign of submission and reverence. The mark of loose, rebellious women of the day was a shaved head. They were indicating to the culture disrespect for men, for God, for authority, for creation, etc. They were rejecting the role that God had given them.
– What God is trying to communicate to you ladies today is this...don’t just have the symbols of submission, have the reality of submission in your heart. That is what is most important. Don’t just have the hair of a lady, put on the modest apparel of a lady, talk like a lady of submission, actually be in submission to your husbands and other men in the church. Ladies must be careful that your practice of submission speaks louder than the symbols of submission.
– Joke: Everybody on earth dies and goes to heaven. God comes and says "I want the men to make two lines. One line for the men who dominated their women on earth, and the other line for the men who were whipped by their women. Also, I want all the women to go with St Peter."
Said and done, the next time God looks, the women are gone and there are two lines. The line of the men that were whipped was 100 miles long, but, on the line of men that dominated women, there was only one man.
God becomes angry and says, "You men should be ashamed of yourselves. I created you in my image, and you were all whipped by your mates. Look at the only one of my sons that stood up and made me proud, learn from him! Tell them my son how did you manage to be the only one on that line?”
The man says, "I don't know. My wife told me to stand here."
– Some woman have all the symbols of submission, but they don’t give a plug nickel what their husband says.
– Men and women alike ought to fulfill their God-given, distinctive roles in the home and also in the church.
III. The Support for Submission (7-10)
– This wasn’t just a matter of custom. Scripture support for this idea of the woman submitting to the man goes all the way back to creation.
– When man was created, he was created in the image of God and for the glory of God. Man, like God, was also given a sphere of sovereignty. In other words, man was given dominion over the created world. He was told to subdue his environment. Man was given rulership.
– Women were also created in the image of God. But they were not created for the glory of God. Look at verse 7, it says the woman is the glory of the man. The role of dominion was not given to the woman – she is not for the glory of God like the man is. So the woman is the image of God, but not the glory of God. She is the glory of the man. Her job is to submit to the direction of the man, to whom God has chosen to reveal His glory.
– Woman was created from the man, verse 8. But woman was also created for the man, verse 9. Her role was to come under his leadership, his protection, his care. She was to be help for him (Genesis 2:20).
– Look at verse 10. The woman should have this symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. Angels? Where did that come from? The point is that even heaven is observing the heart of submission in a woman. The world is watching what kind of wife and woman you are. Are you brash and bossy? Or are you sweet and submissive?
IV. The Symmetry of Submission (11-12)
– Lest men misinterpret what Paul is saying, he is quick to bring balance back to the discussion. Though it is right for a woman to submit, that is not a cause for man to take it to extremes and abuse his power over women.
– Paul reminds them of their mutual dependence on each other. The man is nothing without the woman, and the woman is nothing without the man.
– We are not talking about man having superiority over a woman. We are talking about man having authority over a woman. Women are not inferior, all things are of God.
– In the Lord's work, women are as important as men. Their roles are different both in function and in relationship, but not in spirituality or importance. Though it is true that the woman is not independent of the man, it is equally true that the man is not independent of the woman. Men and women are complementary; they need each other.
– Just like we don't want feminists in the church, we don't want to have any male chauvinists either. There must be a balance in the church.
V. The Simplicity of Submission (13-16)
– Paul asks the church at Corinth to disregard his apostolic authority for a minute. Judge for yourselves. Think about this and realize that this matter of roles and genders and distinction of men and women in church and in the home is really quite simple.
– Nature even teaches us that men and women have different physiological makeups. Nature itself shows us the distinction of the sexes.
– The topic of hair comes up. This is weird place to wrap this up but we’re going to figure it out. What does a blonde call a bottle of black hair dye? Artificial intelligence.
– The Bible says that a woman’s hair is her glory. Now there are a few things that we can derive from that statement. The first is that you men need to be careful what you say about your wife’s hair. It is important to her. Let me help you – it always looks great. The second is that a man should let his wife get her hair done. Now I have talked to numerous women about this, and men have absolutely no concept of what it means to a woman, of how a woman's disposition is improved, by the mere fixing of her hair. That is her glory. She has a P.h.D – professional hair doer. The third thing that we can derive from this is that it should not be a glory for a man to get his hair done. Some men get perms and the whole nine yards; I have never understood that. It is the woman's hair that is a glory.
– Closing: There is to be a distinction between men and woman. Both genders have different roles in church and home life. Both genders have different responsibilities in church and home life.
– If women dishonor their husbands at home, they dishonor Christ. If men dishonor their wives at home, they dishonor Christ. If we dishonor Christ, it corrupts our worship services. And it damages our witness in the world.
– This matter of women and worship is very important.
