I Corinthians 11:2-16

I Corinthians 11:2-16

I Corinthians 11:2-10

Today we come to a strange passage. One of the more difficult in the New Testament… This passage requires of us an extra measure of grace, help from the Lord, and focus...

Read the passage. I Corinthians 11:2-16

Pray

Intro - Order?

It only works when it is in order

It is broken when it is out of order.

Baking has an order. liquid is rarely first, the oven is almost always last. Don’t mix those 2 up.

Putting an engine together has an order. If not strictly followed will simply cause the engine to never be put together or never work. The pistons don’t go in last and the oil doesn’t go in first.

On Christmas Eve, when you were asked to help Santa put together a toy did you ever not follow the directions and then it took twice as long as it needed to?

I had a friend who heard more swearing from his dad on Christmas Eve than any other night of the year coming from the garage where his dad was working on a deadline.

Even our church service has order.

Once John and I planned a service where we had scheduled the offering to come after the sermon - toward the end of the service. We had a couple of people beg us to, Please stop having the offering at the end.

-To these people it seemed out of order.

Life works best when it is in order.

God created your/my spiritual walk to work within a certain order.

Transition - In Corinth there was a break in the cultural & spiritual order in the Corinthian church.

We just read a passage that spoke about women covering their heads.

Women in much of ancient Greece and Rome wore head coverings. This was a cultural tradition. A simple scarf or material that could be draped over the head. For some more mature and more wealthy the outer rob would have a hood built in like a hoodie.

In the metropolitan educated city of Corinth the head covering had a specific meaning.

The head covering for a woman was a sign or signal of several things:

First

When a woman wore a head covering in public she was saying, I am a respectable woman with standards & dignity.

A woman who wanted others to think of her as respectable & dignified started with wearing a covering on her head when she was in a public setting.

She was making a statement about her dignity, respect, and morals.

Because of this, all married Corinthian woman were fully expected to wear a head covering.

A married woman who did not wear a head covering would bring shame on her husband. She would be saying, I have no standards, or morals.

2nd,

-A head covering would also signal to other men. This woman is covered in the protection of a husband (if married) or father (if not married).

-In Corinth especially that were full of foreign travelers had issues with women being pressured and taken advantage of physically.

-If you mistreat her, you will have to deal with a husband or father.

-There were few police to help women in Bible times, your Husband or Father was to protect you from the common muggings and rape.

-A woman in Bible times was happy to be under the leadership and protection of a husband or father. There were many benefits to her. The husband or father lead the family in which gods to worship. There were many shrines in a home. If you were a Christian, you were also blessed by having a spiritual leader at home that pointed you to the God of the Bible.

3rd In Corinth the head covering set you apart from the prostitutes

Every evening, from the Temple of Aphrodite cult prostitutes would roam the city. It’s a pretty good historical guess when we look at artifacts and art from that time period that the female prostitutes of Aphrodite that roamed Corinth did not wear a head coverings. They usually did not have family or a father and certainly were not married.

-The flowing of the locks would be a sign of sensuality.

How does this help us understand our passage today?

We have some women in the Corinthian church service standing up to to pray or sharing spiritual life application not wearing a head covering.

-In that culture this would be extremely odd. This woman would stand out like a soar thumb.

Culturally, It would be like a woman coming up front in our church to pray or read scripture wearing daisy dukes and a halter top. Or a guy shirtless in flip flops and bathing suit.

It would be shocking and confusing.

In Corinth when a woman removed her head covering in church she was signaled 2 things:

She was not a person of standards, morals, or dignity.

If married, She was intentionally removing her outward sign of marriage. Which would bring shame on her husband by denying her need for him to bring spiritual leadership and physical protection.

The woman who were removing their head covering were causing a distraction and confusion in the worship service. They were shaming their husbands.

There was confusion and break in the cultural and spiritual order.

When something is out of order, it doesn’t work.

What appears is that this church in Corinth wrote Paul a list of question on how to deal with specific things going on and the reply we see today in this passage is about this issue.

Transition - So what are some principles that we can take away from this passage?

Teaching

1. God has created an order of leadership to live by.

Specifically in the area of the order of Authority.

This passage speaks specifically of some women casting off not only the head covering that the culture gave them, but something much more important, something that God gave them - their husband’s leadership. Pause

Transition - Here is what we know about authority

Enter 3 slides of authority

Man - Let’s look at a man’s or single woman’s line of authority.

Woman - a wife’s line of authority

Verse 3 line of authority

Vs. 3 This is not telling us that a woman or a wife does not follow Christ, but is simply telling us that there is an order of authority that God has laid out for the family.

IN verse 3 we see that...

Even the Godhead has a line of Authority.

We see all throughout the Gospel’s that Christ follows the leadership of the Father.

In eternity, in heaven now, Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and is subordinate to the Father’s authority.

If there is an eternal line of authority in the Godhead, we should expect there to be a line of authority in this life.

But not only in this earthly life, but in the eternal life to come in heaven.

In eternity the angels as well as Christ Followers will be under the eternal loving leadership of God.

Leadership is part of the Godhead. Leadership, authority, and submission within the Godhead is part who God is.

It only makes sense that humankind who was made in his image would have leadership and authority created in it’s human order.

The struggle that some women had in the Corinthian church is a struggle that we’ve had in our families since the beginning of marriage, in the garden.

***Genesis 3:16, “...Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” (ESV)

Isn’t there a working tension in many homes of who is in charge or who has control at any given moment?

The bottom line is that we are all people under authority of others in our lives.

Their are points in our lives where we don’t like it.

Transition - These Corinthian women were doing what a lot of us want to do. Cast off authority from our life.

Cast off those people who have the power to tell us what to do.

Whether it is casting off the authority government, bosses at work, or family members. Pause

One of the first words we learned as a 2 year old is “No”.

You figured out very quickly how to use this very well.

It appears that the church at Corinth has written Paul a letter and he has taken parts of his letter to answer some of these question. Our scripture today is a part of 1st Corinthians where Paul is answering the question, How are we supposed to respond to women who stand to pray in worship service without head covering.

What is Paul’s answer to this question?

Put on your head covering.

Following the order that God has placed in your life. This is hurting your marriage and hurting others.

Let me ask you a few questions.

-If you are a teenager or college student.

How are you doing willingly following the leadership of both your parents and your teachers?

-While every teenager has imperfect parents and imperfect teachers ???your willingness to follow their authority???

-If you are a wife, how are you doing willingly following the leadership of your husband?

I want to address the men.

Men - When I talk about a wife following her husbands lead, on the inside you cheer me on.

I want you to hear me.

It is your responsibility to work hard at being a good leader.

Do you like a boss who is demanding or understanding?

Do you want to follow a leader who is gracious and thankful or harsh?

I want you to hear me most of all in this.

Your leadership in the home has a direct correlation to your regularly feeding yourself spiritually.

Men, you must be regularly spending time with God in His Word and in prayer.

When you neglect your relationship with God, you are neglecting your leadership in the home.

You can only lead lovingly and gently pointing your family to Christ when you are regularly taking in the love and gentleness of God in your private spiritual life. x2

Men, Will you please focus attention daily on your time with Jesus. Your church needs you to and your family needs you to.

I want to challenge you with this.

-If you are not already praying with your wife before you go to bed, begin.

-As you are laying the bed, before the light is turned of, hold her hand and pray a short prayer.

-It should not be a long pastoral prayer. Just a few sentences.

If you love your wife, & your family, you will help them follow your leadership by leaning into growing in your walk with the Lord.

To recap - Our first point is this -

God has created an order of leadership to live by.

Point 1 - I must follow God’s authority (order), vs. 3-10, 13-16

Transition - God is glorified when certain parts of our life are in order.

Gospel - For some in this room, you are not following the leadership that God is calling you to. You are not allowing Christ to be your leader because Jesus has never been your savior.

Jesus died on the Cross because He loves sinners.

Jesus was the great sacrifice to make a payment for sin.

Jesus is calling you right now to be your savior and King.

Jesus is calling you to follow Him. Will you say “Yes” to Jesus?

Will you surrender all of your life to Him, and trust Him as your Savior and your King? Long Pause

Before we go to point 2 I want to cover just a few statements in the passage that are a bit tricky.

Look in your bibles in verse 5 & 6 and notice that it speaks of women who cut their hair short. (This is going to apply to verse 15 as well.)

Historically it appears that there were 2 types of women who cut their hair short in Bible times.

1-refuge, immigrant, or a fugitive.

-A woman who was traveling and who was hiding her gender so she could travel more safely. Disguise herself. A woman dare not travel alone for safety reasons. In Bible times (in most of human history) women were very vulnerable to violence.

A woman would cut or shave her head to look like a man out of desperation for safety. This was considered shameful to be in this position - like being homeless.

2-Lesbians, Some lesbians in N.T. times would masculinize and cut their hair short.

-Both the refuge and the lesbian would not have the leadership or protection of a man.

-In Greco/Roman times was considered a disgrace for a woman to cut her hair short for cultural reasons. It was the fashion of the day.

This reflects a cultural standard, not a biblical standard.

-A girl with a short pixy cut is fine.

v s. 10, Angels. What does having a symbol of authority on the head have to do with angels?

2 things:

A) Angels are always learning from people. Angels learn, not omniscient (all knowing). A woman with a head covering in church was reminding the angels that their is an order of authority, ultimately under God.

B) I Corinthians 6:3 states that Christ Followers will one day Judge angels. Christ Followers in this judgement will exercise authority over angels.

-Even to angels a reminder of authority is important.

Transition - Our 2nd and final point

Point 2 - Man and woman are interdependent on each other.

A marriage must be a team. vs 11-12

Read vs. 11-12

Paul comes back after he has talked about head covering and authority in a marriage and has said.

Look - In case you think I’ve said man is better, I am not.

Men need women, and women need men.

A husband needs his wife, and the wife needs her husband.

Embrace an d appreciate this need of each other.

Your marriage has 4 purposes.

Companionship

to sanctify you, help you die to yourself and learn to be holy

to send Christian children into the world

for your marriage to be a picture of Christ (represented by the husband) lovingly and sacrificially leading his Bride the church (represented by the wife).

-Men, your marriage is meant to be one of the ways you witness to others about who Jesus is.

-If someone were to ask you. How does God love. We should be able to say. Look how I treat my wife.

This only happens when we celebrate and respect the strengths and differences that each one of us bring to our marriage.

My church family. We need each other. When we do not follow God’s order for how he has set up his church, marriages, families, relationships we are broken.

But when you and I decide to be a loving team that follows the order that God has given us - we become effective in ministry for God’s Kingdom.

-Will you defer to God. Follow His order for your life?