1 Corinthians 11:2-16

1 Corinthians 11:2-16

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Head Coverings

2 Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. 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. 4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. 5 But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. 6 For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. 7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man is not from woman, but woman from man. 9 Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. 10 For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. 12 For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God.

13 Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? 15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering. 16 But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 1 Co 11:2-16

• Transcript

  Find almost their perfect phone. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions is for every day you and I we get together. We have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's word, and we grow in our love Lord together and this year 2022 will make the book of Acts to the book fight Lehman and today we're at what some people think is a controversial section. First Corinthians chapter 11, verses two through 16. We're gonna have some coffee first we'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this time. And we pray that as we read your word that Your Holy Spirit would be the one teaching us we pray, Father that you would let us know what your Word says, what your word means, and how your word applies to us. In Jesus's name, Amen. All right, here we are at first Corinthians chapter 11, beginning at verse two. Now, so again, there's a new section. Now, by the way, this now it's gonna start issuing a whole bunch of practical things that are going on in the church between chapters 11, and chapters 14 is kind of a unit of things that are going on in worship that he needs to kind of iron out and straighten out. So now, I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things, and keep the traditions just as I delivered them. To you. But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered, dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head since he is the image of image and glory of God. But woman is the glory of man for men is not from woman but woman from man. Now was, nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman, independent of man in the Lord. For as woman came from man, even so, man also comes through woman, but all things are from God. Judge among yourselves is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it does honors? It is a dishonor to him. But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her. For her hair is given to her for a covering. But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such cuts system, nor to the churches of God. Well, we have a difficult passage we need to ask ourselves a What's this about? Be what's the best verse to summarize this and see what are we called to do in response to this? So as we come into this new section, we're going to move through this a little bit slowly, because there's a lot of cultural baggage that we might not understand that's coming behind a lot of this. So let's start just there's gonna be a little bit differences taking chunk by chunk, we're gonna go through a few verses. We don't normally do it this way. But I think it's important. Verse two. Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember all the things and keep the traditions just as I delivered to them, right? They remember the things that the apostles and the prophets brought to them. And they have kept those things right. They're following the pattern of worship that they had given to them. Now, I'm going to say here, that this is where our friends or people we might know who are Roman Catholics are going to say, Oh, look, see? There's traditions, oral traditions that are in in the scriptures that they follow. This is the massive stuff. I don't think that that's what this is talking about. Right? They'll try to shove a whole bunch of ecclesiology into this one, Pat into these little bits of passages like this. That's not what this is talking about. How are things to be done? Orderly, but he's got a contention with them. There's something going on in the church. People are prophesying, specifically women in the church. And we need to deal with this honestly. We need to deal with this subject. Honestly. There are many people who I would call conservative, who would say well, there's no way that they're the women were were praying and prophesying in the church in the worship service. Well, the problem is, it's right here. Right. The problem you have is you have the you have Philips daughters who are Prophet Tess's, you have and you have too many Prophet Tessa's in the scriptures that just ignore this offhand and, and so we need to deal with this genuinely. And we need to work through this together. But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. And the head of woman is man and the head of Christ is God. Right? There's a there's a order to things, right. God the Father, Christ, men women. Now, this is not an ontological order. What do I mean by that? This is not a an order, meaning how valuable someone is. Jesus and the Father are one. Jesus and the Father are one in deity and yet the sons admit to the Father, and yet the son comes to do the Father's will. And yet the font the son listens to his father and does everything that his father tells him. Now he's in full agreement with his father, but the point is, there is an economic order to things. This is not ontological value, but this is economic order. So how things happen this is the same way in a marriage. Husbands and wives fulfill different roles in a marriage. Men and women fulfill different roles in society. And so what this is saying here is not saying that women are less valuable than men, but that there are different functions in different roles in a marriage and in a marriage. The husband has to be the head of the home and work he's gonna work this out. We're gonna see how this goes. He says every man praying or prophesying has his head, having his head covered dishonors his head. Now in the Roman world, we have statues and we have release that show what Roman worship looked like, even if senators and emperors and stuff and when they would go into pagan temples, they would take their toga, and they would actually cover their head with their toga as they prayed and made their sacrifices and, and made their prophecies by saying that this is dishonouring to God, what they're what the Apostle Paul what the Holy Spirit is telling us here is that they're going to be having a actual sign. Right? When Paul gave them this tradition of how to pray in church, he was saying, You're not going to do it like the pagans. You're not going to cover your head, man. You're not going to go in there. You're not going to cover your head and pray like you used to pray to the idols. You're not going to cover your head and give fake prophecies like you used to do at the temple. You have a new god and a new way to pray. Alright, so for men, right? You're not going to cover your heads, because something has radically changed. So what about for women? Right, it's a natural question, right? Because there are women in the church who are prophesying and praying. So what happens with that? Ma he says, but every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. For that is one in the same as if her head were shaved. What's it getting out here? What does this mean? Well, again, in the ancient Roman world for a woman to uncover her head, was for her to say I'm not married. Hey, I'm single and I'm I'm available. And pausing. That's not good, either, right? That's shameful. And it's just as shameful as if you had shaved your head. While we might think why why shaving your head shameful? Well, if you went back not too far ago, and you went back to the invasion of the Nazis in the Netherlands, the Nazi sympathizers a women who would go and would sleep with the Nazis when the Nazis were defeated and Germany was pushed out. They shaved the women's heads as a sign of disgrace. See, we were only maybe not even 80 years removed from that, but that's what happened. And so he's saying, right, women, you still need to have your heads covered. It's different for you because you're married. If you're a married woman, in the ward, here's Jeanne which could be translated woman or wife. It depends on the context. And here it's continuing to be this woman who's under authority and so it's most likely Lea wife. In those days and ages, if you were virgin, if you were a young woman, you wouldn't wear your head covered, you would have your head uncovered until you were married. Until you were married, sorry. And so he says in verse six for if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorter shaved, let her be covered. Right What? Okay, so if it's shameful for you to shave your head, so you can prophesy more than maybe she cover your head right This isn't what he's trying to say here. And so he, he goes through, kind of first part here, the customs of the day, how the worship of God is supposed to be kept, the traditions that he has given them now he's going to move on to more. Going back to Genesis going back to nature. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God. But woman is the glory of men, for man is not a woman but woman from man. Nor was man created for a woman but woman for the man. What's he getting out here? He's, he's saying that men were created in the image of God. Women were taken from men and women were made as helpers for Mrs. Genesis to theology. And so he's saying, we're not up ending the whole created order. Right now. There's a lot of things in culture that are going to be up and and but he's saying here, right, we're not getting rid of marriage. We're not getting rid of roles in marriage. We're not getting rid of roles between men and women. But this is the way in which God created things and so we're going to still continue to show that even though women are prophesying in the church, women are praying in the church. So he continues, he says, For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. That's a weird statement. There's a lot of ink spilled on that one. It's most likely what First Peter 112 is getting it and Ephesians chapter three, when it's talking about even the angels desire to look into these things, and even as we are gathered together for worship, the angels are are listening in to find out about this story of redemption that we have and so we have heavenly beings, we have rulers and principalities, authorities in the heavens who are listening in on worship. Nevertheless, neither is a man independent of woman or woman independent and of man in the Lord. For a as woman came from man even so man comes through woman, but all things are from God, right? Everything has its origin story, right? And so it's God first man came from God. woman came through man and so he says, now he, he gets into verse 13 through 16. He's going to talk about these roles once more. Judge among yourselves, is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? Well, we're post 1960 In that sense, I don't think that women actually need to cover their heads in the church because there's no more prophesying, there's no more new revelation from God in the church. And so, this isn't something that happens, actually, I would say, by later New Testament writing, it's actually not supposed to happen. Right, especially from certain people in the church not and again, this isn't saying that women are less valuable. It's just saying that that era of the first very beginning part of church history is just that it was the beginning part and and now this is gone. Now some people are going to argue with me against that and the guys, but this makes an argument from nature. Yes, of course. It makes an argument from nature. And that the orders still applies. Right? We don't just throw out the idea that there are roles in the world that God has made, nor do we throw out the idea that there are roles in marriage that God has made by saying, I don't think that this applies in the exact same way. As it did in the first century church. Doesn't mean that I saying that none of this applies at all. I still think that men must be submissive to Christ, and wives must submit to their husbands. We find that in Ephesians chapter five, and so are Ephesians chapter 455 Ephesians chapter five. And so there's this there is still this order in society. Do I think it's still a good sign that are a good thing that a woman would have a sign to show that she's married? Yes, I do. That's why I like that. My wife wears her wedding ring. I know, when I was a single guy, I would look at women's hands and see, is this a married woman I'm talking to or is it a single woman I'm talking to? I'm very glad Olivia wears her wedding rings. Right. And so I think that there are signs for this now. If a woman wants to wear and headcovering to show that she is in full submission to her husband and that she's a married woman, a full member of the church. Wonderful, great go for it. If they want to only wear it during worship because they think that this honors Christ. Fine. That's wonderful. But we must remember what he says in verse 16. But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God I don't think that this should be a contentious issue. This is not meant to provoke fights and cause fights this was meant to stop those fights this tradition, this, this practice that he had given the church in Corinth and so likewise as we are in a different century with different customs, we ought not to just throw these things out wholesale, but we're to understand them in their historical and grammatical context and apply them to our lives in right ways. So I think we can do this by bringing glory to God and all things even in the worship service. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, I pray that if I've said something wrong today, something sinful Lord, please let my friends send me messages, right comments, call email, and tell me where they think I've gone wrong. Father, I pray that Your Holy Spirit would be teaching us and that you would apply these words to our lives. Lord, we pray that we would be a people who would be ordered as you have commanded us, and that we would follow in your ways. Please, Lord, protect your church. Please let us do everything orderly to your glory. In Jesus's name, Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you find fulfilment in the role that he's placed you in in your life? May you glorify Him, whether you eat or whether you drink or whatever you do. You love him with all your heart. and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye. Bye. Transcribed by https://otter.ai