Headship and Covering - Christopher G. Brenyo

1 Corinthians 11 and the Doctrine of Headship

We start in your Bibles to 1st Corinthians chapter 11 and begin reading in verse 2. This is God's holy and infallible word. 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. 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 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 and glory of God.

But woman is the glory of man. For man is not from woman but woman from man. 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 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 custom nor do the churches of God. Please pray with me.

O Lord Jesus we come to you in a spirit of humility and I pray teachability. O Lord we regularly must amend our life practice the doctrines we espouse in the light of your.

Word.

O Lord I pray that we would be willing to do that in our own lives wherever we are challenged in our sin in the scripture. Lord I pray that we would repent and turn and walk in your ways. O Lord today I pray that this would be filled with grace this message and seasoned with.

Salt.

We ask these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

Please be seated. Authority and Covering is the title of the message today and we're covering 1 Corinthians 11 chapter 2 through 16. We are attempting to answer the question that has been hanging around for us for a little while.

What does this passage teach about head coverings for women in public worship? Let's look at the word. But first I want to give a brief structure to today. There's a lot of moving parts in the message today.

There's quite a bit of content and I'm going to give you 5 outline points to have your notes arranged in and it should help you to understand. This might be a good day to take notes even if you're not a note taker normally.

First the Christological argument which is headship. The theology of headship. Number one. The Christological argument headship. The theology, the doctrine behind all of this is headship.

Authority.

Number two. How does Paul apply the theology of headship to the area of corporate worship? This question of headship. How does Paul apply it to the realm, the area of corporate worship? In that he's going to make his case for a covering for women.

And number three. The argument is from creation. His first point of defense of his assertion is an argument from creation. And number four. He's going to make an argument, a sociological one from everyday life.

Citing the woman's tendency to have long hair. The argument from normal life, everyday occurrence. Sociological argument. A woman's long hair. And finally number five. Paul will argue against the opponents of the doctrine.

That's verse 16. Paul will argue against the opponents of the doctrine. Let's begin looking at the first heading. It's interesting in verse 2. Paul sets the stage because he's received a letter from Chloe's household.

Remember this started back in chapter 7. And what's happened since chapter 7 has been Paul's answer. To the troubles or problems or errors at the church at Corinth. So Paul has been on a diatribe of sorts.

Addressing all of the issues, all the questions that have been raised. About the practice, the doctrine, the life of the church at Corinth. In chapter 11 he deals with a significant issue of head coverings.

And he deals with a monumental issue of the Lord's Supper. These are two areas of practice that need to be amended by the Corinthians. That's what verse 2 is talking about. I praise you brethren that you remember me in all things.

And keep the traditions just as I delivered to you. And he tells them, but you're not doing it in these two areas. That sets the stage for chapter 11. 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. So this idea of headship is foundational. And it is completely controversial in our day. Culturally we do not believe in headship. Culturally we do not believe that men have a place of authority over women.

Particularly in the area of marriage. We reject that culturally, but the church holds to the scripture. The church holds to apostolic doctrine and tradition. Headship is central to our understanding of God's dealings with men.

We're not going to go back there. But it's important to remember that the problem of sin came into the world because of headship. Adam plunged the human race into sin. A lot of times ladies feel like they're being picked on in issues like this in the church.

The burden of responsibility fell upon the man. The man, capital M, Adam. And he failed. This predicament, this mess, this sinfulness was ushered in by a man. But there's a glorious truth that follows.

There's a second Adam. And his name is Christ. And Christ came in and he takes away the guilt, the pain of sin and death. By being our glorious living head. So headship is the foundation, really, of our salvation.

We have two representatives, historically, redemptively. One plunged us into sin and death. Two, finally, one of them gets it right, the Lord Jesus Christ. He ushers us into righteousness and life to dwell with him in perfect communion forever.

So the idea of headship, though controversial to our time, is utterly essential to Christian orthodoxy. This word head is used three times in this verse. Headship, as a central theme of scripture in our text, must be apprehended.

We must lay hold of this doctrine of headship. Well, Paul provides this really matrix for how we should govern our thinking as it concerns headship. First, look at verse 3. The head of every man is Christ.

The head of woman is man. And the head of Christ is God. Now, when we think about these three ideas, it's important for us to understand that women and men are to submit to the authority of Christ. It's not just for men.

It's also for women. But the women also have the responsibility of submitting to the authority of their husbands or their fathers. It's an important distinction. Women are not universally subject to the authority of men.

I can't tell other men's wives what to do. It's totally inappropriate. It's a disregard for God's lawful authority. Husbands generously, tenderly, with understanding, lead their wives. Wives co-equal with their husbands, joint heirs with Christ.

Not a lack of value or equality. They are called to an area of submission in this headship. Let's go to Genesis chapter 2. It's also important to remember I've forgotten this a couple of times recently that the command to not eat of the tree was given prior to the creation of Eve.

Verse 16. Let's start at verse 16. Genesis 2 .16. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone I will make him a helper comparable to him. Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them and whatever Adam called each living creature that was its name.

So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field but for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh and its place.

Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man he made into a woman and he brought her to the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

I'm not trying to be trivial or funny here I believe Adam said something in this exclamatory way Wow, look at her and men have been doing that ever since with their wives. This is God ordained and blessed.

God was kind and gracious to grant a suitable helper to Adam and Eve. Of course all of this the culture hates it all those around us despise this idea but this is God's plan, this is God's creation God decided this is the way it's going to be.

You cannot kick against this and win. There is no argument that can be made. This is creational in nature. God called men to be the head of their woman their women in the case of fathers and fathers have to relinquish that title of leader of their daughters when those daughters become married and honor that jurisdiction.

So in nature and the understanding of the ancient world even the pagans had an acquaintance and recognition natural revelation it would seem about this doctrine. So our culture's hatred of it is really kicking against both natural revelation and special revelation.

In both instances we are denying the plain truth of nature and the God of nature and his law. Let's turn back now to our text in 1 Corinthians 11. The first principle is that of headship and he uses these examples of Christ being the head of all he's the head of the church, he's the preeminent one and that the woman has man as her head.

Of course the issue within the trinity is one of Christ's relationship to God the father probably in his humanity submitting to the authority of God to do his will on earth because in his divinity he would have one will with God there would be no division or separation though they be distinct persons in the trinity in Godhead.

So the very first principle, headship this is the theology, this is the doctrine that supports and is the backbone of all that goes with it. So now the question, how does Paul apply the doctrine of headship to public worship?

The answer is found in verse 4 and 5. He gives the man and the woman explicit direction about head coverings in worship. Now in my acquaintance with this doctrine for a number of years I've never heard any man upset because he wasn't allowed to wear a head covering in worship.

Never! But Paul is actually amending a practice that was in existence in his day some men came to the church with their head covered. The Romans in their worship of false gods both the men and the women were covered.

The Greeks, nobody was covered. And the Jews, the men were covered sometimes in worship and the women not covered in worship. Today the men still wear little hats on their heads because of shame and connection to the exodus.

So Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 11 isn't an attack on women. It becomes the universal standard by which Christian worship is to be conducted. It's not an attack on women. He reforms the practice of men and women both Jews, Greeks and Romans.

All of them are affected by the teaching. We tend to think of this, as I said an attack on the ladies. But in reality everyone's practice has to be amended. Very simply. 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. That is one and the same as if her head were shaved. Now, this is the part that may be a little bit more sensitive to our ears.

Often times when a woman was caught in adultery, even in the pagan world. One of the ways and remedies for this would be to shave her head. It would be a very dishonorable thing. It would be a punishment inflicted upon her.

If we saw a lady with a shaved head today culturally, we wouldn't assume anything. We might think she has cancer or she's battling a disease or something. But in the ancient world for a woman to have her head shaved would be incredibly dishonoring.

Paul is saying your practice of not covering your head is dishonorable and he equates it with this idea of shaving the head. Now in verses 5 -9 Paul explains how God's creative order affects head covering in worship.

Let's look at that again. Second half of 5.

5b.

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. He appeals to their understanding of course of being shaved and says it would be good for a woman to be covered.

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. For man is not from woman but woman from man. That text we read in Genesis chapter 2.

Here.

What's really interesting what we're going to find at the conclusion of all of this. In verse 16 Paul says effectively that the practice of the churches universally is head coverings for women even at the time of Paul's writing the letter to 1 Corinthians first letter to the Corinthians.

So the practice that Paul is offering is not entirely new but now this principle that's held by all the churches has been inscripturated part of the canon here in 1 Corinthians 11. The practice was now established.

There was a pattern in the new covenant church. It seems to be a distinctive and new kind of commandment in the new covenant era not the same kind of thing found in the old covenant. So this carries a lot of weight and import into the significance of the doctrine as I said already.

The Romans the Greeks the Jews they all had to amend their practice. All of them brought something different to the table and all of them were reformed and admonished exhorted by Paul to change their practice to have a conformity to the universal standard.

Now it's very interesting. We have a large synagogue by our house in southwest Orlando and we have people in our neighborhood who live probably 3 or 4 miles from the synagogue and they walk to synagogue every Saturday.

And I always see the men they're very striking. The ladies they dress very distinctly. The men always have their heads covered. And I've learned in my research these last several weeks and months about this doctrine that the Jews very early on had great hostility to the Christian teaching that men could not wear head coverings.

And that women should they were very hostile to their practice. There's some debate about when men started wearing head coverings in the Jewish tradition. Some say it was around this time in the early first century some place it a bit later.

But the question for us is what does the scripture say. And the scripture clearly says that women have their head covered. Now we're going to have some objections that are going to be raised as we think about this.

And toward the end I want to try to answer all of the objections Lord willing. So how do we apply this doctrine of headship to public worship. Paul says strangely to me in my natural senses put a covering on the heads of women.

I have to be honest nothing intuitive about it. Nothing in my head says on Sunday morning worship women should wear head coverings. Nothing about it has that to me. But I have the burden now and responsibility to look to the scripture and see what the scripture says on the subject.

And the scripture says very plainly women cover your heads. Now there is an argument I have a section on church history that time will not permit us to do that. We have to really ask ourselves the question.

How.

Did we get to this place in the life of the church. As I told you if you're here for the study hour earlier saw pictures in my family's photo albums my grandmother in the 50's my great grandmother wearing hats to church.

In a liberal leaning church the universal practice of Christianity for over 1900 years regardless of denomination was women wear head coverings. Remember in the study hour I said to you the egalitarian feminists in the 1800's women who were fighting against all kinds of things they continued to wear their head coverings to church.

So we have to ask ourselves what happened. Why did we stop think culturally. We succumb to pressures from without and took on the thinking of the world. Let's continue. Some of you may be very concerned a happy ending will happen for all of us when we think about what God is calling us to.

The next thing we'll look at is section 3 on your outline. The two arguments. What is the basis of Paul's argument for women's head coverings. First verse 8 creation. We read Genesis 2. God has a purpose in creating humans male and female and Paul here argues that purpose.

That distinction should be appreciated and demonstrated by women wearing a covering in worship. This is Holy Spirit inspired writings of Paul not the opinions of man.

Now.

I want you to think about the time in which we live this transgenderism.

Issue.

And all of the related ideas about blurring the lines of the distinction between men and women is an affront against our God. God created man male and female. We're different we have very different purposes and functions.

I like women better but we have different functions. Men have no capacity to carry babies. They do not have the same nurturing instinct that women do. They just don't have it. Women are not as physically strong in most cases as men.

There are things that men can do that women can't do. And this is not a bad thing. God created us different for His glory our distinctiveness our differences are not in hostility to God's glory. They reveal it.

He says I've created you for these purposes and you should flourish when you pursue them. That's a wonderful thing. This nonsense of being unhappy about your gender is really a shaking your fist at God.

God determined your gender. It wasn't an accident it wasn't a mess up in the cellular level, chromosonal level. God determined us to be what we are on every cell of our DNA. We are men and we are women.

And that's all we will ever be. So the church is in a pickle now because we've been very quiet about social issues been very afraid of social issues. We have to speak up on this issue. We have to speak up on the homosexual issue.

We have to speak up on a lot of issues. But this attack on the created order is an assault against God. It's on the same level as denying that He's the creator. It's the same kind of sin culturally, unbelievers waging war against God, trying to eradicate His image in man by taking away and blurring those lines that distinguish men from women.

You and I must preserve and uphold the scriptural teaching about who we are and particularly who we are in Christ as men and women.

Next.

Paul says in verse 10 for this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head.

The text.

Literally says the woman ought to have authority on her head. And when you look at verse 10 I don't know if it's true in your Bible but I have an italicized word for a symbol. The word is italicized and the reason the English translators did that is because they knew in English we'd have a trouble with the idea of a woman having authority on her head.

What does that mean here. Paul is clearly arguing there really isn't a textual argument you could make that. He is arguing for anything other than an external cloth, hat, veil something on her head to represent this authority.

And Paul says I find quite strangely because of the angels. Three or four of the guys I looked really hard on looked really closely at how how they viewed and interpreted this all of them said and it was very exciting to consider.

I wonder if it's true for us now that there could be angels in our presence in our corporate worship. That sounds kind of mystical and crazy.

But.

If the angels are ministering spirits sent to serve the ones for whom Christ died it would seem that they might show up where all of Christ's people gather. So is it possible that there are beings of a higher created order than us present here.

It is according to the scripture.

The Holy Spirit's here if he's here the angels could be here. And so Paul says we are testifying to our submission to Christ. We're testifying to the angels who are in submission to Christ. We're saying we're in submission to Christ we are following Christ we are obeying his word.

Now.

As we think about this idea one of the things that could happen and I should point out to you I want to stop here. One of the things that has been a great perversion of this doctrine has been men who don't treat their wives properly use this to their advantage.

Women wearing coverings has nothing to do with male patriarchy so much as it has to do with the headship of Christ and the recognition of the woman's place as the helpmate to the husband. Men should never abuse this privilege and honor.

In fact when we read about the husband's responsibilities we learn that the husband gives his life for his wife he gives himself up and his interest and service to his wife. And so there's a danger of a perversion of this doctrine.

There's a danger that we would misunderstand it that we would apply it in a way that would be self-serving toward evil ends. But it doesn't negate the fact. In the simple plainest reading and understanding of the text Paul says women should be covered in worship.

Though the fall sullied the image of God and man. Christ has restored the image in his atonement on the cross. So at the very depths of our atonement is this idea of headship. At the very thing that Christ is restoring is the marred image and glory of God.

Verse 7 Christ is restoring that he's changing that that fall that brought mankind into sin. Christ is changing he's bringing us into life. So Paul's argument is you should have your head covered. You should have a symbol of authority on your head.

But verse 11 changes it a little bit. Paul prevents us from thinking that man and woman are independent of one another. Eve originally came from the rib of Adam. But every man who's ever lived since then even the Lord Jesus Christ has come from the woman.

And so Paul says we are mutually dependent on one another. We are mutually in submission to the Lord though it takes on various forms and looks different. In some applications like this one we are together following Christ.

Well it takes us to our fourth point the argument from everyday life the sociological argument. There's something that happens that's interesting when you're driving down the road and you look 500 yards down you can faintly see someone walking across the street.

You can usually tell if it's a man or a woman. And usually the hair is an indicator of that women have longer hair by nature than men. Do you look great with long hair. We do not look good with long hair.

The women look beautiful with long hair. It looks natural and fitting. It doesn't look right for men to have long hair. This is a natural thing that even pagans have recognized throughout the centuries.

It seems to be ingrained in us in this distinction between men and women that women would have long hair and men would have short hair. So Paul appeals to the senses really look outside the door look down walking down the street.

Isn't it clear that women have longer hair and men have short hair. Now I should point out here that there is no length requirement that I can find. I think women girls should pursue feminine styles whatever that is.

I can't tell you how long that is but I think that is really the standard. Choose femininity. Men likewise should choose masculinity in their hairstyle. That should be the way that they view their head their hair.

From the distinctive character of them being a man or a woman.

Now.

As I said I'm not naturally inclined to women wearing head coverings in worship. I would not have come up with this on my own but I'm going to tell you after deep searching in prayer there's no way that you can do hermeneutical gymnastics to say that 1st Corinthians 11 means something else.

It's just not possible. You say well there's some arguments you can make. Well I'm going to address a couple of those in just a second. I think you'll find each of those could be answered pretty quickly and easily by the text itself.

So.

Lastly verse 16.

Paul.

Argues against the opponents of the doctrine. He says if anyone seems to be contentious. We have no such custom nor do the churches of God Paul says effectively the women are wearing head coverings in the other churches.

I'm giving you this letter to tell you to amend your practice. You are really fighting against the whole witness of God's church in Christ.

Now.

Let's ask some questions. What conclusions can we draw. And then after that we're going to answer some of the common objections first. Here are the conclusions. Again I have a ton of material I can drop on you if you need it to help you with this.

If you need some more information I can provide it. We need to get to the place of answering the objections and some application first. This is a conclusion we can draw just from the exegesis bare exegesis of the text.

First Paul urges the church that a distinction between men and women be symbolized by women wearing head coverings. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 11 number 2. God has established headship in the created order.

It cannot be argued against. I don't care what they say culturally I don't care what you think. In contradiction to it the scripture clearly defines these headship and roles and relationships as part of the created order.

And in so doing God asserts his headship and asks God's people to recognize and demonstrate their submission to his authority. Now there's a point of application here that I think should be made. I mentioned it in the teaching hour this morning.

If the Lord says hop on your foot all day on Sunday we should hop on our foot all day on Sunday. That's a ridiculous command. But our spirit our natural disposition should be if the Lord says it. If the scripture teaches it we should do it like I said.

It seems weird to me naturally. But the scripture says it. So we have to do it. And that idea that axiom that principle is played out in hundreds of ways in the Bible we need to amend our life and our doctrine according to the word of God wherever it takes us.

However counter cultural it is. However embarrassing it seems to be we as the people of God have to go there. We have to do it.

Third.

Because of this submission to authority I really believe Paul is arguing for a visual display of headship being worn. The symbol of authority the token the emblem of authority is indicative of the authority.

There's another thing some of the women that I know that are most passionate about head coverings. I'm not talking about anybody in this church are the most unsubmissive. Contradictory trouble making people that I know in the church.

And it's a really amazing guise because under the guise of their head covering they look like these sweet little submissive people. But in reality they're contentious and have no respect for their authority of their father their husband or the church.

So wearing a head covering isn't a panacea that covers all of this. If you're wearing a head covering you better have the commensurate submission to lawful authority Christ the head and your husband or father.

You better be doing both of those. You can't just wear a hat on your head and that will make it okay. That would be a perverted legalism on our part. Number 4 we don't want to be shameful in our conduct.

And I think this is a really hard teaching. In 1 Corinthians 11 Paul said getting your head shaved is an image of shame. And he likens not wearing a head covering to being shameful. We don't want to be shameful in our conduct.

Number 5 the first example of married men and women Genesis 2 the single women and young girls also show their submission to God's authority and headship and the authority of their fathers. Brothers or elders of the church.

In the case of absence of a husband and father. Maybe this is only for married women. It doesn't seem to be the practice of the churches in history. Nor Paul's teaching. Number 1 married women are under authority of their husbands who is under the authority of Christ.

Number 2 single women are under the authority of their fathers. 1 Corinthians 7 36 -38. They too are still under the headship of Christ. That would cover women who are unmarried. It would cover widows cover a wide range of unmarried people.

And finally a woman who is married or single is not permitted to usurp man's God given authority in any sphere. A woman is not permitted to usurp man's God given.

Authority.

There's a couple other things before we move on to objections. The distinctions are evident. This is number 6. The woman has a natural tendency toward long hair which Paul describes as her glory. You remember.

Women are the glory of man. And I'll say it again women are much more beautiful than men. Men are not beautiful. In my eyes women are beautiful. That's why God made women to be beautiful. It's part of their glory it's part of the gift that he's given to them.

They are beautiful. I don't think men are so beautiful. And number 7.

The conclusion.

All the churches practice this. Don't be contentious except the teaching. We have to ask ourselves what happened in 1940 or 50. What was the reason. It's probably not because of a life of pursuit of godliness.

I could give you examples from Tertullian, Augustine a number of others. All of them say effectively the same thing. The practice of the churches is head coverings. Our virgins wear head coverings. The girls wear head coverings.

The single women, the widows, the wives the husbands, the married women they all wear head coverings. So we have to answer now the question of the objections. And this is probably one of the more important parts of this teaching.

This is an unusual Sunday. I appreciate your patience. The structure is a little more teaching than preaching today. But these are some of the objections many of you have heard these many of you have held to these yourself.

Number 1, isn't this the first question. Culturally bound. Isn't this really just about what was going on in Corinth. Well, the answer is no. Because of the diversity of practice among the Romans. The Greeks, the North Africans and the Jews, it's all very striking.

And as I mentioned the Romans, both men and women worshipped with their heads covered the Greeks, men and women worshipped with their heads uncovered. And strangely to us the Jews covered their heads in worship and women uncovered their heads in worship.

Though.

They may have remained veiled at other times so that women and some of the Jewish women probably were veiled walking the streets and took the veil off going into Corinth. I have to tell you in my original research my argument was shifted from the plainest reading of the text to this cultural side because when I kept reading it over and over again it seemed like the women were going into the assembly already veiled and taking it off.

That can't be the universal practice because all the different kinds of people that were going to the church at Corinth. The question posed in Corinth may have been and it could have only been a couple of people, the Gentiles don't wear coverings in their pagan worship.

The Jews don't wear them, why should we? Nobody worships with their head covered. Some of them would argue only the Jewish men. We don't have any Romans here, all the Greeks. None of them wear their heads.

Wear coverings on their heads. Paul asserts here. I believe this to be a binding universal standard on the churches. Is it at odds in some way with every cultural group. Everyone is offended by 1 Corinthians 11.