Gender Roles (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendrock. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures, verse by verse, with no compromise.

The Controversial Passage in 1 Corinthians 11

Well, why don't you turn your Bibles to the most controversial passage, the most difficult passage in all the Bible. Go ahead and turn there, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. It is controversial. It is difficult.

Some passages are hard because they are difficult to understand. Other passages are hard because they're difficult to implement, and other passages are doubly hard because they're hard to understand and then difficult to implement.

So we're going to look today at 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 2 through 16. Sadly, people default to this as the head covering passage. This is the passage people think that when you go there, that is the truth to be mined out of the shaft is, do I wear a head covering if I'm a lady or don't I?

And sadly, people miss the main teaching of the passage. The main teaching of the passage isn't that difficult. And the main teaching of the passage isn't, should I wear a hat if I'm a lady who's married or should I not?

And so Paul is teaching these Corinthians all kinds of things, and he is telling them how to do the right things. First, the way to think properly, and then what to do. And so now in chapter 11, 12, 13, and 14, he's going to talk about worship.

And in chapter 11 specifically, later communion, but now how do ladies and men function in worship? It's important how you worship. With pagans and other people, they say, well, I just feel we should do this in worship.

And Paul is different because God is different and he requires precise worship. He determines how he's to be worshiped. It's never this gut feel. The passage today has nothing to do primarily with head coverings.

It has everything to do with primarily that men and women are different. We're different at home, and now Paul is going to teach us we're different in the local church. In our society today where there's feminism and women liberation, how many people know what I've ever heard women libers before?

And I came up with that with a sermon title. I thought half the people are going to think it's Libby's vegetables or something. I don't know. But the society, Satan, the world system wants to say men and women, they're no difference.

Of course, we are equal in Christ Jesus. We are both image bearers. Nobody's better. I think of my mother, I think of my wife, I think of my daughters. I never think I'm a male, therefore I'm better. But there are different roles as dads are fathers and they are over their children.

Nobody thinks dads are better. Husbands are leaders in their families and nobody thinks they're better than their wives. I've met a lot of you husbands. And in the church too, there are differences. And what was happening at Corinth was in paganism and pagan worship, there's no difference between men and women.

They all act the same in a local worship service when it comes to pagan idolatry. And Paul wants to make sure in the church, androgyny doesn't rule. Men and women are simply different and they complement one another.

Paganism says sexual differences are transcended because we're in search of the higher power. And Paul says men and women are different even in the local church. By the way, being in Kansas for a few days, they all say different because they're in Kansas.

And I know growing up in Nebraska, I say different, but I'm resolved to make that word have three syllables when I'm in the Harvard educated New England crowd. I didn't know what to think when I was in Kansas, by the way.

I'm driving from Amarillo to Kansas, and I get about an hour from Hugenton. And I thought, what are these people doing? Driving by me about 80 miles an hour, and they all do the same thing. I thought, this is just odd.

And they're all driving and they do this when you drive by. I felt like my tire's flat or something. He's pointing to me or making some rude gesture. Every person that you, and I thought, I'm such a New Englander now.

Because they want something from me. These people have an agenda, and they're trying to get into my brain. But finally, at the end, I let my hair down and just felt really free and loose and happy. And a guy drove by, and I went like that and waved.

I just felt so good. The ladies at Corinth felt emancipated, and they thought, you know what? We'll just do whatever we want. We're so influenced by paganism where there's no difference functionally. And so, let's just let our figurative hair down, and Paul is going to address it.

So why don't we look at chapter 11, verse 2. Remember, chapter 11, verse 1 should really be up with chapter 10, if you want to think about a proper context. And so, we start with chapter 11, verse 2. We went through a couple verses, but we'll just quickly review them.

Now, I commend you because you remember me in everything. Verse 2, and maintain the traditions even as I deliver them to you. And so, Paul, remember, in Galatians, receives gospel content and teaching from Jesus himself.

And then he formally passes it down to people that he taught. And he was there for 18 months. And so, he's received this formal message, this formal message. And he says, I delivered it to you. I gave it to you faithfully discharging my duty.

The Divine Order of Headship

And then we move to chapter 11, verse 3. And I think for our outline today, let me give you five reasons why Paul said the Corinthian women should have their heads covered if they prayed or gave prophecies.

Five reasons. And a lot of these have to do with different roles. Why are there differences between us? Because God says. Men and women are different. Why? Because God says. And if you get this through your mind, that God is God.

And we are, as Scott said this morning in his prayer, we are creatures. You will be helped out immensely. If you say, well, I don't really like this because men are supposed to be in charge at home and in the church, and I don't like it.

If you say to yourself, God, you are God, and I will submit to your word. And whatever your word says, whether I like it, whether society likes it, whether I can understand it fully, I will submit to your word.

Friends, your life will be so much easier. Let me just be, let me just be blunt. This is New England after all. You are meant to be mastered as a creature. God made you to be mastered. I don't mean you're like a dumb ox or something, but I mean like a creature.

You are meant to be mastered and you will be mastered by someone. Society will master you. The world will master you. Other people will master you. Philosophies will master you, but God made you to be master.

And so you'll either have God himself as your master, or you'll have money as your master, or something else. You're meant to be mastered. And so when you think I have a master, then what my master says, I just tuck under that master and just believe what he says.

I will just do what he says. I know what he says is right because he's good and he's kind. And so when I approach scripture, if I'm not careful, I think I've got to figure out how this works. And I'm not sure I like this, that, and the other.

It's never a matter of what I like or don't like, because I have a master and this is what the master says. And if you come to this passage with that attitude, it'll be a lot easier on you. Five reasons Paul said that Corinthian women should have their heads covered if they prayed or prophesied.

Number one, we saw last time, the divine order, verses three through six. There are differences between men and women. That's just the way God has planned it, verse three. But I want you to understand that the head, the authority of every man is Christ.

And everybody thinks that's fine. The head of a wife is her husband. Remember, by nature equal, by essence equal, by function subordinate. And you go, oh, subordinate, I hate that word. Well, look at the rest of the sentence in verse three.

And the authority, our head of Christ is God. Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, is equal to God the Father and the Spirit by essence, but by function, Jesus is the eternally subordinate son.

Sons are subordinate to their fathers. This has nothing to do with culture, because we're talking about the transcendent Trinity. This has nothing to do with the fall, because this has to do with the Trinity.

It's not as if we can say with the feminist, you know what, men have a different role, the authority in the church because of the fall. No, Paul doesn't drive back to that point. And he says, therefore, in verse four, every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered, dishonors his head or his authority, Christ.

Not talking about his own head. Oh, I just covered my head when I did some prayer, and therefore I dishonor my head. No, he's talking about the head, Christ Jesus. And that covered there in verse four, just means literally having down from the head.

So here's what would happen. Back in those days, if you were a Corinthian, you were a Greek person and you wanted to give a libation to a false God, you didn't know it was false. You would walk into the temple and you would take your shawl, your tunic, your kind of toga deal.

And if you were a man, you would roll it up over your head and offer the libation. Paul says, don't do that. This public worship service, don't do it. If a man utters a prayer or prophesies, he shouldn't have his head covered.

You can even go there and see statues now of veiled men offering sacrifices. Statues of those things. What's Paul saying? Like in eight, nine, and 10, don't bring paganism to the church. He's saying the same thing here.

Don't bring paganism into the church. Now that word prayer there means just to pray. The word prophesy always means to give inspired speech. It doesn't mean to preach, I'm not prophesying now. Prophecy during the time in the New Testament, where the New Testament wasn't put together, people would stand up, the Spirit of God would come on them, and they would say, thus saith the Lord, I'm going to give you an inspired revelation, inspired speech.

Paul says, when you get up and do that, men, don't cover your heads. Don't act like a pagan. Same thing, verse five, with ladies. Men, don't act like pagans by covering your heads. Keep them uncovered.

Why this whole covering thing, by the way? Because there's nobody above you except Christ, men. In the subordination of things, in God's function, there's nothing on my head. Remember the Jews today, they'll put a yarmulke, I almost said yarmulker, on the head to say someone's over me, God is over me.

And so for the New Testament Christian though, New Testament Christian man, there's no one over you except Christ, so don't put anything over your head. But is there anyone over a lady? Well, let's find out.

But every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, verse five, dishonors her head, who would that head be? Her husband, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. So here's what would happen.

Boy, isn't this fun? Visitors come listening today and they're thinking, this is the church where you have three steps to live kind of a nice week this week. And then they hear this. Lady Margaret, professor of divinity at Cambridge said, quote, according to Jewish custom, a bride went bareheaded until her marriage as a symbol of her freedom.

When married, she wore a veil as a sign that she was under authority of her husband. So let's think about the culture. Everybody, both Jew and Gentiles had their head covered if they were a woman and they were married.

And that said something. And here's what it said to the culture. I have a husband, I have a head. Of course, I have a head, a cabeza, and then I have an authority over. This is complicated. Kids, you have to pay attention.

If you would meet a young lady today, maybe in the Eastern countries, and they have some kind of veil or something over their head, you could probably deduce pretty quickly that they were married. And so Paul says, men, you don't have a head covering on top of you because Christ is your head, wives, you do.

And the text really isn't trying to tell us, should she pray or prophesy, but how would she do so with her head covered? Why don't you jump ahead to chapter 14 for a moment? If you think things are already complicated, it only gets more complicated.

1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 34. Paul says later, still talking about worship. Some have said, well, since women can pray and prophesy, they should be able to get up and preach and do things like that.

But even later in the book, Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 34, women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says.

If there's anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only one it has reached?

If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. So I doubt Paul is saying in chapter 11, women, you should pray and you should prophesy publicly in front of people and lead.

When later in chapter 14, he's going to say no. But Paul is saying men in chapter 11, don't act like a pagan. Ladies, don't act like a pagan. Don't have your head uncovered. And then Paul goes into hyperbolic mode.

What does he say? For she, back in 1 Corinthians 11, is one in the same as a woman with her head shaved. If you're not going to have a covering on your head in those days, at least, then you might as well go all the way.

A little dab won't do you. You might as well just let your hair down all the way. No, shave it all the way off. If it's shameful not to have your head covered as a woman, then you might as well, if you're going to take it off, then might as well shave it.

You can act like an adulterer. You can act like a prostitute who had their heads shaved. Now, here's something else that's very fascinating. Back in the old days, these days, that's not 1960. Back in the old days, the Bible days, hair exposed was a sexual enticement.

These days, people don't think about that at all because our world basically leaves nothing to the imagination. But back in those days, the way a lady would wear her hair would be something that she could do wrongly if she wanted to be in public and seduce or be attractive to other men.

Of course, this has nothing to do with ladies at home if they wanted to have their hair a certain way. One of the things Paul is saying is when you go to church, ladies, this isn't the time where you should have your hair in such a way that men oogle you and look at you.

On a side note, it has nothing to do with this passage in particular, but just a pastoral exhortation. You know, when it's time to get after the men, I will. But ladies, form-fitting dresses, low-cut dresses are simply inappropriate in the worship service.

At home in front of your husband, I don't really care what you do. But as maturity says, you know, kids just do the, they do strange things. And so kids blurt out things and they say things that they're not supposed to because there's time and place.

Kids don't get that. They're immature. You said that at the wrong time. You said it at the wrong place. You said it at the wrong pace. This is all wrong. But as you mature, you figure out, yes, that's true.

So while God made our bodies the way he did, to show them off in church is completely inappropriate. Now, these ladies back in the New Testament, they wouldn't wear something form-fitting because a toga is a toga is a toga is a shawl is a linen is a covering, whatever they had.

By the way, they didn't have really special dress up clothes. They just had clothes. Do I wear this outfit or that outfit? Because I only have two outfits. But you don't put your hair together in such a way where you're going to make men want to look at it.

And if you dressed up like that and you didn't have your head covered, if you were a lady, you would try to be telling men this, I'm available. Okay, so now let's think about this for a second. Everyone who was a lady and married outside the church service or outside pagan services had their head covered.

When they walked in the pagan services, there's no man over me. Only my goddess is over me. But everyone, Jew or Gentile, if you were a married woman in that society, you had your head covered. I can't believe I'm doing this.

They didn't teach us this in homiletics. Paul says, now, ladies, when you go into the local worship service, even though you're equal in Christ Jesus, Galatians 328, there are differences. And if you don't recognize those differences, you dishonor your head.

Well, I think I, outside the service, I'm married. I have a wedding ring. I'm a lady. And when I go inside the worship service, off comes the wedding ring. That's kind of what's going on. The veil was a cultural sign.

The head covering was a cultural sign of I am married. I am subordinate to my husband. Not in essence, but in function. Here's what was happening. Paganism was slipping into the church. Ladies walk in and like, there's no man over me.

You think there's a man over me at church? Forget you. Distinct rules still apply in the local worship service. And then he repeats for effect. Look at verse six. For if a wife will not cover her head and go all the way, then she should cut her hair short.

But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, certainly we're not talking about any kind of cancer or chemo or anything like that, but purposely trying to look like a man, let her cover her head.

Women should not look like men. Men should not look like women. Shaved head in public that back in those days was dishonoring, shameful. And remember earlier with Corinth, everything's permissible. So what's also permissible as we go into the local church service and there's no man ruling over me.

And I say it a million times. I'll say it again. I love masculinity in men. I love femininity in women. And these women were trying to act like men. God has a structure. God has said. Certainly, if you look at this covering here, it can't simply be just hair.

Creation, Glory, and the Order of Human Origins

There's a divine order to things, but Paul goes further verses seven through nine, and he talks about creation. Why should women wear head coverings? The Corinthian women, Paul says, because of creation further describing why they should do this.

And this has nothing to do with culture either. Look at verse seven. For a man ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of God. But the woman is a glory of man. Just think if I was on the campus of Yale saying this, this is what God said.

I mean, what you can say is, well, that's not in the Bible. Men wrote that, but it's very simple. Nobody's better. There's just an order to God's economy. And if you're after your rights, you should be thinking about God's glory.

Instead, this is how God is glorified that man is the image and glory of God. But woman is the glory of man. Here's what Paul's saying. In a local worship service, nothing should detract from the glory of God.

Both created in men's and both the man and woman created in God's likeness and image. Genesis one. But the woman is the glory of man. Opposite of glory is shame. Don't shame your husband. Woman reflects the glory of man, not of God.

So man stands uncovered. Woman stands covered. That's just what the text says. Verse eight. Why should a woman bring glory to man? For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Think of that word from there, because the next one's for.

This is from. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Remember, Adam was made first because he was better. Just that's what God did. And remember, from his side, he took some rib and some tissue and made a woman.

Adam woke up and he was married, right? I always think that's interesting. I was only engaged for four weeks and I thought that was fast. Woman was taken out of a man. So there's a creation order. Which one was made first?

Nobody's better. Christ's redemption includes women. By the way, how about the Old Testament days when there was the court to worship and then there was the court of the women way over here? We have come a long way in terms of worshiping Christ Jesus because we are equal in Christ.

There's no court of women here. What if the balcony up there was the court of women? Men could come down here. All the ladies up there. Court of women. But no, we all have access through Christ Jesus, our Lord.

A creation order says man was made from woman, but woman. Man was not made from woman, but woman from man. It has nothing to do with inferiority. If that's your default, think again. This is just a fact in God's world.

And look at verse nine. It continues. Not just from. Eve wasn't just from Adam. She's made for Adam. If you're not mad yet, look at this verse. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. Let's close in prayer.

Why would I not want to even say these words? Because I know what the culture is saying. The culture is saying subordination equals inferiority. And in God's economy, that has nothing to do with anything.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. And Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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