WWUTT 1567 Shaming His Head and Her Head (1 Corinthians 11:4-6)

Paul’s Opening Summary of Gender Distinctions in the Church

Paul continues to address these gender distinctions in the church. It's important for men to be a certain way, and it's important for women to be a certain way because that's the way God has made it. He ordered it in the Garden of Eden when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's Word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. I apologize for the delay in these lessons. I got sick and lost my voice. Little difficult to record anything when I don't have a voice. So I'm going to be uploading these lessons to the dates that they originally would have aired, and we'll continue with our study of 1 Corinthians 11, verses 1 through 16.

Christ, the Head of Every Man and the Order of Creation

I'm reading out of the Legacy Standard Bible the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to you.

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying shames his head.

But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying shames her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut short.

But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut short or her head shaved, let her cover her head. For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man.

For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man. For indeed, man was not created for the woman's sake, but the woman for the man's sake. Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels.

Nevertheless, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman. But all things originate from God.

Judge for 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? 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 one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God. As I mentioned in that first lesson, this opening verse here is a good bridging verse between what we just finished up reading and what Paul is going to be instructing the Corinthians in for the remainder of the letter.

So in chapters eight through ten, Paul addressed the Corinthians about Christian liberty, specifically as it had to do with food that has been sacrificed to idols. And these are things that the Corinthians needed to think about, not just their conduct among believers, but even their conduct among unbelievers.

And if there's any further questions that they have about how they should live among one another and even in the world, they look to Paul as an example. For Paul is an example of Christ. So be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

That also is a good opening verse to the rest of what is coming here in first Corinthians, because we talk here in chapter 11, verses two through 16 about conduct and worship as it pertained to head coverings, then 17 to 34, how the believers are to conduct themselves at the Lord's table, which is something that is only for believers.

Only Christians can come to the Lord's table and eat of the bread, which represents the body that is broken for us and partake of the cup, which represents the blood that was spilled for the forgiveness of sins.

In chapters 12 to 14, Paul talks about spiritual gifts and how those gifts are to be used to build the church up, not to promote yourself, but for the benefit of one another. And right in the middle of that, you have the call to love one another.

Chapter 13, the most excellent way is love. In chapter 15, Paul has an apologetic argument that he wants to make concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's the greatest apologetic that we have in the New Testament for Christ's resurrection and therefore our resurrection also.

We who believe that Christ was raised from the dead. And then in chapter 16, final instructions for the church. So right here, as Paul says, be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ, that leads into all these other instructions that we have coming up.

Headship, Public Worship, and the Role of Men and Women

Now, as he's talking here about head coverings, he says in verse 3, the point of this address, I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man and the man is the head of a woman and God is the head of Christ.

Now that's the point. So whatever else we get out of verses 2 through 16, that's what we're meant to understand. And it's not just limited to what Paul is addressing here in chapter 11. For later on in chapter 14, Paul says in verse 34, the women are to keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but are subject themselves, just as the law also says.

But if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in church. That's an important thing to keep in mind, because here in chapter 11, Paul says every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying shames her head.

So that reference to praying or prophesying cannot be public prayer or public teaching. Since Paul forbids that, a woman should not be the one to have teaching authority over men. We know that from 1 Timothy chapter 2 and also from 1 Corinthians chapter 14.

So this statement here in verse 3, again, not just limited to the context that we're reading about here in verse 11, although it's important that we see the immediate context, but it also applies to these instructions that we'll see coming up later on in 1 Corinthians.

I want you to understand, Paul says, Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. God has established this order, and we are to be in subjection first and foremost to God, but then also to every person that God has placed us in subjection to.

And he keeps this structure, this picture of that structure, very, very simple. It's the creation of the marriage, which God has made and has established and defined. I want you to understand, Christ is the head of every man, every single person.

Christ is the head of the man. The man is the head of a woman. So you have a reference to Christ is the head of every man, but then you have a single man is the head of a single woman, so this has to do with marriage.

The man, the husband, is the head of his wife, and then finally, and God is the head of Christ. So there's a structure, there's an order for everything. Paul limits that to the picture of, well, Christ being the head of every man, the husband is the head of the wife, God himself, the father, is the head of Christ.

Why is all of that important? Because in the instructions that are coming up here, these instructions are going to be more general regarding men and women. It's not about a husband and a wife, even though there are some translations of the Bible that go that far and translate these instructions to husbands and wives.

It's not, it's about men and women. But the standard is to look back at the first man and woman that God created, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the first family. So even social order should happen based on the creation of that first man and woman.

How are things supposed to be ordered and structured in society? Look back at the first family that God created. How are things supposed to be ordered and structured in the church, since that's what we're talking about here, the gathered body of believers in corporate worship?

How is that supposed to be structured? Again, the roles for men and women, even in corporate worship, are to be understood by looking back at the first family, at Adam and Eve. Even when Paul talks to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2 about how a woman is not to have authority over a man.

She's to learn quietly, but she's not to have teaching authority over men. Even there, Paul grounds that instruction by going back to the Garden of Eden. So therefore, because it goes back to Adam and Eve, then it is a rule or a principle that applies to every single church in all cultures at all times.

Not just the culture in which Timothy lived, and he was appointed to pastor that church there in Ephesus. You could take the instructions that are given there in 1 Timothy 2 and apply them everywhere, because Paul points back to Adam and Eve, and we're all descended from Adam and Eve.

So even here in these instructions to the Corinthians, where does he point back to? Adam and Eve. And the instructions are general to men and women. Again, so it's not just to husbands. It's not just to women, but we see the social order established in the creation of that first family in the Garden of Eden.

And so that's how we need to understand this. Now, that middle part of verse 3, the man is the head of a woman. That's specifically about a husband is the head of his wife, because not all men are the head of all women.

But when we look back at that created order, when we look back to see that God made Adam to be the head of the woman, and that woman was even taken from man, and she was made to be his helpmate, we see something about the way society should be ordered as well.

When women start positioning themselves in places where men are meant to lead, you're going to see the breakdown of a society. And God even mourns over Israel when women start ruling. Isaiah 3 .12, my people, infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them.

Oh, my people, your guides mislead you, and they have swallowed up the course of your paths. Anytime we talk about this, more often than not, the example that gets brought up is Deborah in the book of Judges.

Well, what about Deborah? She was a judge, right? She was a judge because the men wouldn't step up and lead. This was to the embarrassment of the Israelites. God was answering their prayers, and he was going to deliver them from their oppressors.

But he was going to give the victory into the hands of a woman. And that's exactly what Deborah said to Barack. Because you have to have me mother you, and you can't obey the voice of God and go into battle as he instructs you to do.

Therefore, God is going to take the victory from you, and he's going to give it to a woman. And that woman was JL. It wasn't even Deborah. It was a woman who was not an Israelite, and she received the victory for the final blow against the opposing general.

Then Barack, he did not get to be the one to claim victory over his enemy. So anyway, we see the structure, the order that's established here in verse three. I want you to understand Christ is the head of every man, and it doesn't matter whether man wants to acknowledge that Christ is their head, is their authority or not.

Christ is authority overall. We're not talking about federal headship here, like Christ is the federal head of every man. Christ is our federal head. We who believe in Jesus Christ. So when we stand before God in judgment, we will be seen as those who have received the righteousness of Jesus Christ rather than those who are living under the fallen nature of Adam.

Those who are not in Christ still have Adam as their federal head. Those who are in Christ, we have Christ as our federal head. We talk about that more when we'll get to chapter 15. But where it says here that Christ is the head of every man, this is in reference to the fact that Christ is authority over everybody and the man, the man, a single man here, husband is the head of a woman, his wife, and God is the head of Christ.

So that Christ himself, the son of God, second person of the Trinity is even subject to the father and submissive to his will. Now, this does not mean that the father has some kind of authority that the son does not have some sort of inherent authority that the son lacks, nor does the father have some kind of eternal quality that the son doesn't have.

But Christ, the son who is eternal as the father, who is without beginning and without end, willingly submits to the will of the father. The son is eternal as the father is eternal, but the son has chosen to submit to the will of the father.

And so, therefore, God, the father is the head of Christ. Verse four, every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying shames his head. But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying shames her head, for she is one of the same as the woman whose head is shaved.

So, once again, the context here is not limited to a husband and a wife. Again, even though there are some translations that will go that far, but we have a reference to every man and every woman. Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying shames his head.

Now, it's interesting to consider here how far this is removed from a Jewish custom, because the Jewish men would cover their heads in worship. And so, Paul is addressing mainly a Gentile or mainly a Greek people, and he's not calling the men to cover their heads.

He's saying, rather, that a man should have his head uncovered. Every man who has something on his head while he prays or prophesies shames his head. Now, to point out again, the instruction that comes up in chapter 14 is that women are to keep silent in the churches.

They're not permitted to speak. They're to subject themselves, as the law also says, 1 Corinthians 14, 34. So, this instruction here about women prophesying or praying doesn't mean that she's teaching.

It doesn't mean she's even standing up and praying or standing up and preaching. But as she is part of the body, as she is in this congregation, when the pastor prays, she subjects herself to that prayer as well, right?

When the pastor prays, we all pray. Do we not? When the pastor prophesies, when the pastor or elder is teaching and he is proclaiming what God has said. We're not talking here about new prophecy that God has not revealed, but when a pastor preaches, he's prophesying.

He's proclaiming what God has said, because a pastor should be preaching what is in God's word, not his own ideas or thoughts or opinions, but he's teaching the people the word of God. When a pastor preaches and the people say, amen, the people are expressing agreement with what the pastor has proclaimed.

That's what amen means. Amen, amen. You say amen, I say amen, right? Anyway, that word means, so be it. It means, may the things that have been proclaimed be done. And I'm in agreement with those things.

So when the pastor preaches and we all say amen, we all prophesy. And that's really what's being expressed here. It's almost like a figure of speech, if you would consider it in that way. The praying and the prophesying is the people together under the proclamation of God's word.

The women don't have authority to pray and prophesy publicly or leading the congregation in that because of what we see later on in chapter 14. Paul is not going to say one thing here in chapter 11 and then prohibit it later on in chapter 14.

Oh, I take back what I said in chapter 11. A woman needs to remain silent in the church. The figure of speech regarding the corporate worship of the body of believers is this statement regarding praying or prophesying.

So every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying shames his head. He's not to have a symbol of authority on his head. I'm jumping ahead when I say that, but that's what comes up in verse 10.

That's the specification. Therefore, a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. So a man doesn't have that symbol of authority on his head. He prophesies, prays and prophesies with his head uncovered.

If he has a symbol of authority on his head, symbol of authority, meaning that he is submissive to the authority of some earthly power, then he shames his head. But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying shames her head, for she is one in the same as the woman whose head is shaved.

Now, again, oftentimes these instructions are limited to husbands and wives, but it does appear here that Paul is addressing something that is generally applied to men and women, not just husbands and wives.

For as he's going to talk about length of hair here, we wouldn't just say only wives should have long hair and a woman who is not married should have short hair. So this is a general instruction. Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying shames his head.

But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying shames her head. And that could have a double meaning. That could mean her own head or it could be her husband who is her head. She brings shame on her husband.

The rest of the verse says, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved. Now, some have said that that latter part of the verse there is a cultural reference to the prostitutes in Corinth who would have their heads shaved.

But that's very unlikely, because remember, the the temple that was there in Corinth used to hire, used to employ priestess prostitutes. And as women, even in a Greek culture, it was it was desires of women to have long hair.

It's very unlikely that these priestess prostitutes would have had shaved heads. So what's the what's the meaning of this here? Well, there's two possible definitions. Number one, it could be that Paul is being sarcastic and we've seen him do that over the course of this letter, especially so in his next letter in Second Corinthians.

But he could be saying, hey, if gender distinctions don't matter, then a woman can just cut her hair and look like a man. So he's calling upon the church to to keep those gender distinctions that women need to dress like women need to conduct themselves as women, even in corporate worship.

And men need to wear their hair like men and conduct themselves as men in corporate worship. If a woman doesn't want to submit to that order, which God has established again, going back to verse three, then go ahead and just let her cut her hair off.

She can look like a man. He's not saying that she should. He's again, he's being tongue in cheek here. So that could be the the first reference there in verse five. Another potential explanation for this goes back to the law in Deuteronomy 21, verses 10 through about 13 here.

This is what we read. If you go out to battle against your enemies and Yahweh, your God, gives them over into your hands and you take them away captive and see among the captives a beautiful woman and set your affection on her and would take her as a wife for yourself, then you shall bring her home to your house and she shall shave her head and trim her nails.

She shall also remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house and weep for her father and mother a full month. And after that, you may go into her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.

So the reference to shaving, to shaving a head there to a woman shaving her head is in mourning. And if a woman just does not want to accept her role as a woman, Paul is saying, let her shave her head.

She's in mourning over the fact that she's a woman. Does that bother her? Well, then let her shave her head for she is one of the same as the woman whose head is shaved. We also have a reference in Isaiah 7 to God shaving the heads of those whom he is chastising.

So whether she's guilty of some sin or she is in mourning, if that's where she's at, then let her shave her head. It could be an Old Testament reference that Paul is making there in 1 Corinthians 11, 5.

He goes on in verse six to say, for if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut short. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut short or her head shaved, let her cover her head.

And once again, Paul is just calling upon gender distinctions here that it's still important for men and women to retain that God has appointed a man for a certain task and he's appointed women for certain things as well.

And we submit to these things in submission to Christ as we come back to the principle in verse three again. But I want you to understand Christ is the head of every man and the man is the head of a woman and God is the head of Christ.

So we keep that in mind in all things, in the ways that we conduct ourselves. May it be unto the glory and the honor of God. And we'll try to finish the rest of this up with our final lesson on this section tomorrow.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the way that you have created us. We thank you for the roles that you have made for us. And may we not lament those things, but we rejoice to be appointed to these particular positions and do so to the glory of God.

May it be to the honor and greatness of your name. Our society, our culture is very obviously ashamed of distinctions that are given to men and women. But may we rejoice to be made men and women. The reward that we have is in Christ Jesus and you have called men and women equally to serve the Lord and receive this salvation that we have by faith in Christ who died for us and rose again from the grave so that whoever believes in him will not perish under the judgment of God, but we will have everlasting life.

Bring us into your kingdom, Lord Jesus. In his name we pray, amen.