1 Corinthians 11:4-15 • God's Divine Design

Review & Overview

1. Previous Study’s Review

Paul said back in chp.7:1 now concerning the things of which you wrote to me… So the Corinthians had many questions for Paul.

Last Sunday, we began Ch. 11 where the Corinthians ask 2 more question to Paul:

The First question Involves The Worship Service as it pertains to Men & Women.

The second questions involves the Communion Service.

Last week, we didn’t finish with the first question regarding the Worship Service.

We learned that “Church” is God’s idea so it should be His ideas we should look towards to see how the church is to operate.

Paul starts off with this whole section of how the Church is to operate by teaching us about Hierarchy.

1 Corinthians 11:3 NKJV

3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

Here Paul gives us 3 Examples of Hierarchy:

The Church - The Head of Mankind both men & women in the Church is Christ.

Marriage - The Head of woman is man. This word head speaks of Prominence, Hierarchy, and Authority.

And though the Bible teaches that there is equality with men & women, there is also God’s divine Hierarchy.

When it comes to the church and marriage, it is God’s idea that men are to be the head of women.

The 3rd example is that Paul gave us was...

1 Corinthians 11:3 NKJV

3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

God - The Head of Christ is God the Father.

And what a beautiful picture that was for us.

Though Jesus being God, He humbled Himself and submitted Himself to the Authority of God the Father.

He Humbled Himself to the point of death, a horrible death on the cross.

He died for our sins so that now we are saved from Hell and can enjoy eternal life in heaven w/ Him.

2. Current Study’s Overview

Now, that brings us to Vs. 4 and our study for today. READ...

As you can see in our quick reading of today’s scripture, we are continuing to unravel the first questions regarding “The Church Service as it pertains to Men & Women”

Now that Paul made it clear that there is God Ordained Hierarchy, he now begins to talk about...

The Roles Men & Women have in the Church.

If your taking notes today we want to look at 2 things:

Paul Presents The Purpose For Them Vs. 4-15

Paul Puts No Pressure On Them Vs. 16

1. He Presents The Purpose For Them Vs. 4-15

in vs.4-15 Paul Presents the Purpose or the reasons for Pointing out that Principle of Hierarchy & Authority…

The first reason why Paul Presented the principle of Hierarchy is ...

1.1 For The Sake of Dishonor Vs. 4-6

In Dealing W/ Men Vs. 4 - Today in Israel all men must wear a kepa (A kippah, yarmulke, or koppel) at all the Holy Sites… covering their head…

They probably get this from Ex.34: when Moses came down from the Mountain with the Law the 2nd time.

When he came down his face was glowing so he covered it up…

But we know in In 2 Cor.3:13-16 Moses covered his face out of pride & arrogance not humility… so it’s a Dishonor.

In Dealing W/ Woman Vs. 5 - Now in those days in that culture, and we are dealing with a specific culture.

The married women wore veils and the idea of wearing the veil, was so that no man would look at her and lust after her beauty.

She saved her beauty for her husband only, for his eyes to admire and to adore.

And as a result when she would go in public, she would wear the veil. So in that culture it was accepted that women wore a veil.

However, the only women, that didn’t wear the veils, were the prostitutes, who often shaved their heads also.

So if you saw a women without a veil or with a shaved head, it was pretty generally accepted that she was a prostitute.

So for a woman to pray or to prophesy with her head unveiled would dishonor her head, which is her husband because the husband is the head of the wife.

At the end of Vs. 5 Paul said, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved.

In other words, a women with no veil is like a woman who has a shaved head.

It’s like a badge of the prostitute.

And of course there in Corinth, there were over a thousand prostitutes from the temple of Aphrodite, there at the acropolis above Corinth. And they would come down into the city. The money that was earned would support the temple of Aphrodite.

I Dealing W/ Woman Vs. 6 - So he is talking about the situation there in Corinth of the necessity of keeping order, that Divine Design that God has implemented.

And Notice don’t over look what Vs. 5 said, Paul acknowledges that women were allowed to pray and to prophesy. There was no restriction on that.

Understand this, there are many things that a woman can do in the church.

There is only one restriction that Paul speaks about when he wrote to Timothy...

1 Timothy 2:12 NKJV

12 And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.

Look there is no problem with women teaching other women. In fact Paul wrote to Titus

Titus 2:4 NKJV

4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,

There is no problem with the woman teaching the Sunday school.

There is no problem with the woman, exhorting, sharing her testimony, witnessing, exhorting.

In fact! Jesus told Mary, to go tell the disciples that He was risen. It was a women that God chose to let know Jesus rose from the grave.

It was a woman, who was the first one who was commissioned by God to tell the good news of the resurrection. The Gospel message.

The very first Evangelist (post resurrection) was a woman.

There’s only the one area where the woman is restricted from, teaching and having authority over the man because that destroys the divine design implemented by God.

The second reason why Paul Presented the principle of Hierarchy is ...

1.2 For The Sake of Creation Vs. 7-10

Women are the Glory of Man Vs. 7-9 - woman was created from man so she is the glory of man - Because she came from man.

In the beginning when God created Adam, God said that it’s not good that man should live alone. So God created the woman.

Adam went into a sleep and God took a rib or God took out of his side and made Eve, the woman.

Adam said, this is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. So Adam named her Eve which means woman because she was made from the man.

So she was created by God so that the man might have companionship, love, and might have beauty.

And God brought her to Adam and she became his wife. So He made her for the man.

Now when Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and offered it to Adam. Adam ate.

When God began to proclaim the consequences of this disobedience, to the woman, He said

Genesis 3:16 NKJV

16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.”

So the result of sin is that her desire would be to her husband and he would rule over her.

So we see here, that is God's declaration. We are talking about the beginning design that God established.

So Paul goes back and shows you that this is the order, or divine design that was established in the very beginning.

APPLICATION: In the marriage relationship the fact that the woman is the glory of man and she was made from man and for man.

Means that our wives (in your case boys, your future wives) are a direct reflection of us, they reflect our attitudes & our actions…

If we’re not submitting to God & His Authority… they won’t submit to our authority…

And if our wife is really messed up… It’s a reflection of us…

Say something funny will ya...

Because Of The Angels Vs. 10 - Just as the angles are under the authority of God...

The third reason why Paul Presented the principle of Hierarchy is ...

1.3 For The Sake of Dependence Vs. 11-12

In other words, yes, in the Lord there is this equality. Men and women depend on each other.

And of course in Corinth, the women were saying that. Look, we are equal in the Lord! We’re all redeemed.

Galatians 3:28 NKJV

28 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.

Paul wrote to the Galatians, there is neither male or female(Galatians 3:28), bond or free, but Christ is all and in all.

But the problem was that they were carrying it far beyond God’s Divine Design.

But it is true that neither is the man without the woman nor the woman without the man, in the Lord. There is this beautiful equality in the Lord!

APPLICATION: You know, Women, often times are more spiritual than men, more sensitive and more attuned to the things of the Spirit than men are.

Trust me, I do some of the counseling here.

My wife has a far more Spiritual Sympathy than I do.

I’m sort of, you know, let’s just plow right through.

But she’s got that fine temperament. She’ll say well just a minute, I don’t think so.

I think of Genesis when God said to Abraham, listen to your wife, Abraham.

There have been a few times, I wish I had, more than a few.

APPLICATION: But think about it! What would the missions ministry be like today if it weren’t for the women?

How many women have done such a fabulous, commendable, work in missions throughout the history of the church?

When Paul wrote his letter to the Roman church, the church in Rome, at the end, in the sixteenth chapter, he speaks to several women, commending them for their ministry and for their work in the things of the Lord.

For in Christ, the man is not without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.

APPLICATION: So we see while there is hierarchy & equality there is also a Dependence… we need each other, we depend on each other. Husband & wife, man & woman.

But look at the end of Vs. 12.

ultimately we need to depend on God because all things are from Him…

The fourth reason why Paul Presented the principle of Hierarchy is ...

1.4 For The Sake of Equality Vs. 13-15

ILLUSTRATION: In the 60’s & 70’s with all the hippie movement they all had long hair which at that time was a symbol of rebellion against authority…

And the Calvary Chapel movement was birthed during that time. Calvary Chapel really started the Jesus Movement during that time, and was biNow we had all kinds of trouble with this verse around here, a few years ago when we were dealing with a particular cultural phenomena at that time. When, I remember we had a male choir at one time and I had to sit behind them on the platform. They were wearing robes. Somehow they got the idea to wear choir robes. Here these fellows were singing wearing these choir robes. I began to chuckle because from behind all you could see was this long, wavy, beautiful hair. I thought really I need to take a picture from back here. Calvary Chapel’s choir, then go around and take a picture from the front. You would see the beards and the granny glasses and the whole bit.

When we had so many so long haired fellows around here, I was getting heat from so many different churches and pastors and rednecks around the country. And this is the Scripture that I had thrown up to me so many times. Does not nature itself teach you that it is a sin for a man to have long hair? So when I would be challenged on that, I would be on radio talk shows and so forth. People would invaribly get to that and they would think, got you, you know! So my stock answer is that I developed is, what is long hair for a man? Have you seen pictures of George Washington and some of the early presidents? What’s long?

Secondly, does it say it’s a sin? Does it say that God says it’s a sin? No, nature teaches you. It’s not a sin, it’s a shame. It’s not a sin, just a shame. And when I see these guys going around here with long, wavy hair down to their waist. I short of say, what a shame! But then when I try to comb with what’s left, I say what a shame! God has to have a sense of humor, choosing me to defend the guys having long hair.

Now the context is dealing with those in Corinth… as we’ve already talked about the problem there…

For us today it’s not necessarily about the length of our hair or if our head is covered or not… it’s about the heart behind the action… if it’s done out of rebellion it’s wrong

1. He Pours out Praise on them. 2. He Points out a Principle to them. 3. He Presents the Purpose for them.

2. He Puts no Pressure on Them Vs. 16

As we’ve mentioned the problem in Corinth had to do with Temple Prostitutes & the Lack of Authority…

So once again for us it’s not about our clothing… our hair… or a head covering…It’s about the Heart:

1 Samuel 16:7 NKJV

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Jeremiah 17:10 NKJV

10 I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.

It’s about having Submissive heart to the Authority of God in our lives… our marriages and future marriages… & here at His church…

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