Sermon Tone Analysis

*Enniscorthy Christian Fellowship – 12th November 2006*

*Equal but Different - 1 Corinthians 11v2-16*

Jesus’ prayed for us on the night before his death: “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”

John 17v20-21 We followers of Jesus have not done well to express this.

Many things have caused this, but one of them has been the inability for us to handle our differences.

We’re going to disagree at times.

In fact, someone has said, “If two agree on everything, one of them is not needed.”

Parts of the Bible are difficult to understand.

Even though we hold to the truth and reliability of God’s Word, we might disagree on what it says.

So how should we handle our differences?  1 way is to divide from anyone we disagree with –until our church is made up only of people who agree with me on every topic!

Of course we cannot be united with people who reject our primary beliefs, but with secondary issues, there’s a better way.

We can express unity without demanding that we agree on everything.

This requires maturity, grace, understanding and humility.

As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13v12: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror… I know in part.”

We need this attitude this morning as we come to 1 Corinthians 11v2-16.

Craig Blomberg says: “This passage is probably the most complex, controversial, and opaque of any text of comparable length in the New Testament.

A survey of the history of interpretation reveals how many different exegetical options there are for a myriad of questions, and should inspire a fair measure of tentativeness on the part of the interpreter.”

* *

So this morning, as we work at understanding this passage, let’s not judge our brothers or sisters who might after the same struggle come to a different conclusion.

Read 1 Corinthians 11v2-16

 

*1)                  **A Crucial Principle – Headship *

Paul here appears to be dealing with a problem in this church associated with the principle of headship.

The word “head” is a key word in this passage.

Paul uses a deliberate play on this word (kephale) to use it to talk about literally and figuratively.

a)                  *God’s Created Order*

Paul starts by setting out the principle of headship in v3: “The head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.”

There is debate about what this means.

The relationship that is really in question is the one in the middle, the relationship between the man and the woman.

But who are they?

The difficulty is that the words Paul uses could be translated man and woman, or husband and wife.

They are used in both ways in the New Testament.

Also, what does it mean that the man is the head of the woman?

The word “head” can

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mean the source of something – as in headwaters of a river.

Or it can mean the authority of one person over another.

Paul seems here to use it in both ways – authority in v3-6, and source in v7-12.

So it would seem most likely that Paul is using both these meanings when he is talking about headship.

Paul teaches that headship is based on God’s created order.

In v7 Paul says that man is “the image and glory of God.”

Of course, Genesis 1v27 states that man and woman were both created in God’s image, in his likeness: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Man in some way gives or reflects the glory of God.

But here Paul states that the woman is the glory of the man.

He gives two reasons:

 

(i)                 *Source*

“Man did not come from woman, but woman from man.”  v8.

This is a clear reference to the creation record of Genesis 2:23: “The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’, for she was taken out of man.”

God doesn’t do things by accident!

This is God’s order – man was created first, then woman was formed out of man.

And this created order is the reason behind the headship of man!  Headship is a reflection of the order of God’s creation!

(ii)               *Purpose*

Paul also says in v9, “Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.”

This refers to Genesis 2v18 giving the purpose for which Eve was created: “The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Woman was created because man needed a companion who would complete him.

And so since the woman was created out of man and was created for man, she brings glory to him and completes him!

b)                  *Equal, and Interdependent*

Headship in no way implies any level of inferiority of the woman, or any right of any man to abuse or put down any woman.

This is crystal clear because of the headship ascribed to God the Father in relation to the Son in v3!

The Son is no less than God, and yet Jesus often talked about his willingness to be subordinate to the Father!

Jesus could say in John 10v30: “I and the Father are one.”

They are equal.

And yet he could also say: “The Father is greater than I.” John 14v28.

Headship deals with functional subordination, not with equality!!

About the role in God’s way of working in this world, not with superiority and inferiority.

Men and women are equal.

This is clear from creation.

The image of God is reflected in humanity – men and women!

The woman was created as “a helper suitable for him” which praises the woman’s strength because the word “helper” is used more often of God than of anyone else in the Old Testament; “suitable” means “appropriate to,” as an equal.

The animals were not equal to Adam and so were not suitable.

Woman was made as his equal, completing him.

Woman was not made to serve him, but because he needed her strength.

Paul is keen to show that no inferiority is implied and so he clarifies this in v11-12: “In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman.

They need each other - they are interdependent!

“As woman came from man, so also man is born of woman.”

This equality is illustrated in the birth of the man through the woman, and the creation of the woman out of the man.

One cannot exist without the other.

And Paul finishes that argument by saying that they both depend on God, for they both “come from God.” v12

 

And in Christ man and women are equal, they are one!

Galatians 3v28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

c)                  *But Different*

But Men and women are different.

God has made us different.

Different physically and different in terms of headship, role.

As Christ is equal with the Father and yet the Father is the head of Christ and each have a distinct role to play, so the woman is equal with the man, but the man is the head of the woman.

And they are called to have different roles in God’s world!

 

d)                  *Accepting God’s Order*

I believe this passage is encouraging the Christians in Corinth to accept this way that God has ordered his world.

In Ephesians 5v22-33 this headship is applied to how Christian marriages should function – in mutual loving submission, but with an added leadership responsibility for the men to lovingly lay down their lives for their wives!

In 1 Timothy 2v11-15 this headship is applied to who should be responsible for the leadership in the church in teaching God’s Word.

Here it is relating to how we should accept this principle as we worship!

This is not something that we Christians should be embarrassed about.

I’ve often felt that headship and how it was talked about was an embarrassment to Christianity in the 21st century.

Not so.

This is about the fact that God did not make a mistake in making us different.

People often talk about the problems because men and women are different.

That’s not a problem!  We’re not supposed to be the same – we were made to complement each other and so to reflect God’s image.

God has a plan for the women here – to serve him as women.

God has a plan for us men – to serve him as men.

Fulfilling our purpose in life does not mean rejecting our gender!

In fact, I think what Paul is getting at here is that fulfilling our purpose in life and so glorifying God requires that we accept and celebrate our difference – that we are men and women!

*2)                  **A Common Practice - Headcovering *