“Head Coverings & Gender Roles” (1 Cor 11:2-16) | 3/8/20
1 Cor 11:2-16 | 3/8/20 | Will DuVal
Next week will mark my 1 year anniversary here as lead pastor, and we’ve tackled some pretty tough topics in that time:
-Race in the Church
-Slavery in the Bible
-Abortion
-The End Times
-Divorce
-Tithing
-The dangers of WEALTH
-God & Suffering
-Healing & Miracles
-Demons & Exorcism
-The Unforgivable Sin
-The Catholic Church
-Who can get baptized
-Who can take communion, and
-How can Christians vote for TRUMP?
Who’s excited for year TWO?! Those of you still LEFT will be happy to hear I’m running out of ways to run you off! But jokes aside, I will tell you, of ALL the sermons in this “Tough Text” series that I have been NERVOUS about preaching, today’s passage takes the cake: 1 Corinthians 11, head coverings, and gender roles for men and women.
For some of you, this is indeed the toughest text of ALL. Some of you have MOTHERS who are women pastors. At least ONE of you used to be a pastor HERSELF! Others are simply principled “egalitarians” - you believe that men and women are equal in every way - whereas we complementarians, believe that God made men and women equal in value and dignity, but different in role and responsibility.
So I want to acknowledge from the outset, if we go back to my “levels of importance” diagram, for various doctrines in the church, I believe complementarianism is a CLEAR issue, and a crucially SIGNIFICANT one. I hope to show you that this morning from the evidence of Scripture. And YET, this is NOT a CORE issue, not a GOSPEL issue. I am CONVINCED there will be both complementarians AND egalitarians in heaven, worshipping together. So let’s keep that in mind this morning - if you make it all the way to the end and STILL disagree with me; remember that the gospel that unites us is stronger than the significant, but secondary issues that divide us. AMEN?
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That said, this IS a VITALLY important issue, ESPECIALLY in our culture today, so let me try and frame it up in this way for us: the TWO BIG questions that you and I have to ask ourselves, and more importantly, ask of God’s WORD this morning, are: 1) “Are men and women DIFFERENT?” Do those words even MEAN anything in our society anymore? And #2: “IF we ARE different, how so? What does it MEAN to be a man, or a woman? How ought our masculinity or femininity influence our marriages, our churches, our occupations… ALL of our behavior?
The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, is going to answer BOTH those questions. And in answering the first, he will offer us a universal PRINCIPLE; in answering the SECOND, he applies that principle in HIS culture, by means of a contextualized PRACTICE. Got that? The biblical PRINCIPLE, that differentiates a man from a woman, is the same today as it was 2,000 years ago; but how that principle is APPLIED in PRACTICE, will vary - because Ladies: I don’t see ANY of y’all wearing veils this morning!
That is WHY Paul wrote this! Paul is writing here to address a 1st c. feminist movement that was stirring within the Corinthian church. In that society, women traditionally wore veils as a sign of modesty and submission to their husbands or fathers. But apparently some of the Christian women had started rebelling against this practice, because after all, even PAUL had written in Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” So they had confused spiritual oneness with cultural identical-ness and begun using their newfound freedom in Christ as an excuse to REJECT traditional gender roles. And Paul responds with a 9-point apologetic, a DEFENSE, NINE Arguments for the distinctness of men and women, and for how that uniqueness ought to play out in Corinthian society. So I want to dissect his message and drill down to the universal principle, and then appreciate how Paul applies it, in practice, in HIS day, before considering how WE might apply it in OUR context today.
Would you stand with me… 1 Cor 11:2-16;
“Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. 3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, 5 but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. 6 For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. 7 For a man 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 was not made from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; 12 for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God. 13 Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, 15 but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. 16 If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God… This is the word of the Lord...
Now, before we dive in, some quick, biblical BACKGROUND on this issue:
In the beginning, Genesis ch1, v27 “God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.”
Notice God goes out of his way to specify, to highlight, His distinct creation of our maleness and femaleness. He COULD have just said, “I created you in my image” and left it at that. But He calls special attention to having created us male… and female. Made EQUALLY in His image, but distinct in our nature. When WE try and do “separate but equal”, it doesn’t work out so well, does it? We get the Civil Rights movement. But friends, God is not LIKE us. When GOD creates “separate but equal”, it WORKS. And He proves that in the very next chapter:
Genesis 2:18-24 “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” ...So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Eve was created by God from Adam and for Adam, as a “suitable helper”. She was a perfect COMPLEMENT to Adam; the picture here of “two becoming one flesh” is this synergistic idea that the “whole is greater than the sum of its parts”; that when a man and a woman come together, we’re both better off for it, because we have been wired differently so as to balance one another, to be the “ying” to the other’s “yang”. That is the POSITIVE aspect of our gendering. But ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the fruit, humans have experienced our gender not ONLY as a blessing, but as a curse as well.
Gen 3:16 “To the woman God said… Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
It’s a DUAL curse: BOTH feminist discontentment AND male chauvinism. Eve’s curse is that she wants to BE the husband - she desires his ROLE, his place - yet he shall rule OVER you. Adam’s curse is the temptation to be domineering, to flaunt and ABUSE his authority over her.
We skip now to the NT:
1 Tim 2:11-14 -- Paul admonishes Timothy: “Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.”
Now, some people stop reading there, and they say, “Ah ha! That’s the CURSE of gender.” But notice where Paul grounds his argument for these gender distinctions - NOT JUST in Genesis 3, but in Genesis 1 & 2 as well! He says: “For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” Paul affirms that gender roles were part of God’s original, PRE-Fall design for humanity.
Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 14 He exhorts them: “As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. 35 If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.” (vv33-35)
And AGAIN, as if he’s anticipating their response - “Well that’s just YOUR opinion, Paul.” Or OUR response today - “Well that was just in THEIR culture back then”, Paul continues: “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. 38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. ” (vv37-38) Paul says, “This isn’t just MY word; this is GOD’S word on the matter. Not just contextualized practice, but universal PRINCIPLE.
Similarly, Eph 5 - “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...” (vv22-25). So wives submitting to their husbands, and husbands lovingly leading their wives, is in fact a picture of the GOSPEL! Of Christ LAYING down his life for us, and our joyful surrender, to follow Him in response.
Col 3: “Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.” (vv18-19)
Paul claims a healthy, biblical view of our gender ought to be part of our church-wide discipleship strategy: Titus 2: “Older women… are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” (vv3-5)
Lastly, and lest you think PAUL is just some male chauvinist and write him off, which means, by the way, you’ve gotta rip half the NT out of your Bible, the apostle Peter affirms the same principle in 1 Pet 3: “Wives, be subject to your own husbands… For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord… Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” (vv1-7)
And there is SO much we’re skipping over here: Can mistreating my wife really HINDER my prayers? Yes! What does it mean for women to be “weaker vessels”, or that they’ll be “saved through childbearing”? All great questions for later podcasts, but let’s get to Paul’s NINE arguments from 1 Corinthians 11:
#1: The Argument from TRADITION. (v2)
Paul COMMENDS the Corinthians in v2: for “maintain(ing) the traditions.” Christianity is an inherently TRADITIONAL faith. Some of y’all who STILL wanna trash the drum kit and get the organ and choir robes back in here oughta be “AMEN”-ing that one! But seriously, where does it stop? This obsession to stay RELEVANT. I saw a church BEFORE coronavirus was a thing advertising their new ONLINE service - “Stay home and do church from the comfort of your own couch!” We’ve gotta ask ourselves this morning:
-Does the church need to adapt to accommodate the surrounding culture, or is the church called to be COUNTER-cultural?
-Does the Bible need to be updated to fit the culture, or do WE need to change, to fit the Bible?
-And are the changes we’re making, even getting us closer to what God wants for His church, or is there a reason that the farther we’ve gotten away from 1st c. Christianity, the slower the church has grown, now we’re actually SHRINKING!
Paul commands us to- “Stand firm and hold to the traditions” (2 Thessalonians 2:15). When it comes to gender roles, both in AND outside the church, are we going to be on the side of those pushing the boundaries, or those holding to the traditions? Friends, the culture doesn’t need our help pushing the boundaries! If the words “man” and “woman”, “male” and “female” are going to mean ANYTHING in our society in the years to come, it will be because the CHURCH decides to stand up for the BEAUTY of God’s unique, distinctive design of “male” and “female”, in His image.
#2: The Argument from HEADSHIP. (v3)
This is the heart of the matter. Paul writes in v3, “I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” Liberal scholars have gone to great lengths to try and make “head” here mean something less offensive: “pre-eminence”, “source”, “end-point, extremity”... ALL in an attempt to skirt the real issue: headship is a matter of authority.
Jesus said in John 5:30 - “I can do nothing on my own… I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” Christ voluntarily emptied himself of His divine attributes, His omnipotence, His all-powerfulness, when He took on flesh, as the man Jesus of Nazareth. Philippians 2: “...though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (vv6-7) He was EQUAL to God, in His nature, His status, His GOD-ness. Yet he didn’t GRASP it, CLING to it, he willingly relinquished the powers and privileges of divinity to come, serve and die for us.
Women are EQUAL to men. In your nature, your status, your image-of-Godness. But like CHRIST, women have been created and called BY God, to a special role, in relation to men, specifically, submission to male headship. THAT is the universal biblical principle for this morning. Male headship. It’s not a matter of ABILITY - I know women who are better Bible teachers than I am. It’s not a matter of SPIRITUALITY - my wife probably has a stronger faith than I do. Submissive does NOT mean inferior; Jesus submitted to the Father’s authority, but was in NO WAY inferior to God the Father. You SUBMIT to your boss at work, even if you know you could do his job BETTER than him!
In fact, and I’m not just saying this to score points with the ladies, but I genuinely believe that God might have purposely designed our roles this way, and called the generally more CAPABLE partner - the woman - to submission, while using the oftentimes more unqualified partner, the man, as the head, the leader, so that when God STILL manages to accomplish his purposes, in SPITE of us, men, He gets even MORE glory, by proving just how capable HE is. I can’t prove that biblically, but that’s my theory.
Whatever his motive, God’s PURPOSE is clear: I’ll let Mary Kassian, one of those “better female teachers” summarize: “God created male and female to reflect complementary truths about Jesus… Males were designed to shine the spotlight on Christ’s relationship to the church (and the LORD God’s relationship to Christ) in a way that females cannot, and females were designed to shine the spotlight on the church’s relationship to Christ (and Christ’s relationship to the LORD God) in a way that males cannot. Who we are as male and female is ultimately not about us. It’s about testifying to the story of Jesus.” (Mary Kassian, “Complementarianism for Dummies”, TGC, Sept 4, 2012) Our gender was given to us BY God for HIS glory.
#3 - The Argument from BEHAVIOR. (vv4-6)
Now, here is where we see the PRINCIPLE of male headship play out in PRACTICE in Corinth: Pauls says, “Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, 5 but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head”. Is there anything inherently sinful about a man covering his head, or a woman NOT covering hers? No. That was merely the SIGN of headship in their particular culture. And there’s debate about whether the head covering Paul refers to was LONG HAIR, or was it a VEIL; there were practical REASONS to observe BOTH customs - long hair on men was associated with homosexuality; a woman’s shaved head indicated she was a prostitute; men only wore veils in pagan worship; women forsook their veils to send the message that they were “down to fornicate” - but the point is that WHATEVER customs your society recognizes for differentiating between a man and a woman, they ought to be OBSERVED by Christians. The church of ALL people ought to CELEBRATE God’s unique design of men and women.
Now, it’s getting harder and harder for us to put this into practice today, because the lines have become SO blurred, we have almost NO gendered customs anymore. Many of these battles SHOULD have fought 50 years ago in the church, but you Baby Boomers were too busy burning your bras, and the Sexual Revolution prevailed and now here we are. So I probably have more questions than I have answers for you, but ask yourself: In what ways can we celebrate our distinctive gendering by God in our behavior today? Should men all grow out our beards like Eli Sandhaus? Should women wear dresses? Should we discourage our sons from playing with Barbies? At least the new transgender ones! I don’t presume to know how to perfectly apply this principle in our practice today, but we SHOULD. How can YOU honor and celebrate the way God has made you, today?
#4 - The Argument from CREATION. (vv7-9)
Paul does the same thing here in vv7-9 that he did in 1 Timothy ch.2: he grounds his argument in God’s original, “very good” design from Genesis 1 and 2: “Man... is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.” Eve was created from and FOR Adam, her primary role was to be a suitable helper to him. So too, women today, Paul says, should view their role as HONORING - glory and honor; same word in Greek: Doxa - women HONOR the men in their lives, especially their husbands, if they’re married.
#5 - The Argument from CELEBRATION. (v10)
This is Paul’s STRANGEST argument for the principle of male headship. V10: “because of the angels”. 3 possible interpretations: #1) In the Bible, angels are “guardians of order in worship (Rev 8:3; Heb 1:6)” (Paul Gardner, ZECNT: 1 Corinthians, p494); so head coverings help maintain order in the church. #2) “angels are the supreme example of proper creaturely subordination (Heb 1:4-2:18)” (John MacArthur, MNTC: 1 Corinthians, p.259). Or #3) the way I interpret this, in Matthew 22:30, Jesus implies that angels don’t HAVE a gender. And yet our gender was given to us BY God, as a good GIFT. So we should celebrate it while we can, because in the resurrection, there’s no more marriage; maybe no more gender either; we’ll be like the angels. So enjoy it while you can.
#6 - The Argument from COMPLEMENTARITY. (vv11-12)
Paul reminds us in vv11-12: “Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman.” We’re both UTTERLY dependent on one another. Even if your SINGLE, this morning, you need the opposite sex. Not JUST for procreation and the perpetuation of the human race, but because we really ARE different, we really do balance one another out. Look, I know that stereotypes don’t always hold true… but they DO exist for a reason. Polly softens me, she makes me more compassionate; I toughen her up, I make her more resilient. She is practical and managerial; I am analytical and visionary. Opposites attract, and then we attack, right? Perhaps your complementing, your balancing of one another in your marriage, in YOUR relationships, isn’t like ours, it doesn’t fit the stereotype. But you still need to be complemented. With an “e”, not an “i”. Although you need to be com-PLI-mented too! We’re doing premarital counseling right now with Aly and Ryan and our last exercise was titled “CELEBRATING our non-moral differences” - we ought to praise GOD, and THANK one another, for our distinctiveness. If you marry someone just like you, a “ying” to your “YING”, don’t expect to grow and mature very much. We need one another for our mutual sharpening and sanctification.
#7 - The Argument from DISCERNMENT. (v13)
Paul exhorts them in v13 to “Judge for yourselves”. We’ve got to be careful here, because our consciences can fail us. They are influenced by the surrounding culture, and marred by the Fall. They are not infallible, so we test everything, Acts 17:11, against the perfect truth of God’s word. But Paul still argues - “Doesn’t it just FEEL wrong to see a woman praying without her veil?” He might ask us today: Doesn’t it just FEEL wrong, to see a guy wearing a dress? Wearing make-up? To see women boxing, beating the SNOT out of each other. If Polly and I were arguing in public, at the mall, and she punched me in the arm, we might get some looks, but no one would intervene. If I punched HER? Hopefully some bigger guy would come put me on my BACK! Because we DISCERN that that is a very different scenario. And we respond differently.
#8 - The Argument from NATURE. (vv14-15)
“Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.” (vv14-15) Paul says, “even if you reject EVERY OTHER argument I’m throwing at you, you CAN’T argue that we are different ANATOMICALLY.” Our biology, our very DNA attests to our dissimilarity. MacArthur exposits: “Men and women have distinctive physiologies in many ways. One of them is in the process of hair growth on the head. Hair develops in three stages - formation and growth, resting, and fallout. The male hormone testosterone speeds up the cycle so that men reach the third stage earlier than women (And SOME of us REALLY manly men, have SO much testosterone that we started balding before we even hit our TWENTIES!). The female hormone estrogen causes the cycle to remain in stage one for a longer time, causing women’s hair to grow longer than men’s.” And Gregg Johnson, in his chapter in Piper and Grudem’s landmark compilation: Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, you can download the whole book for FREE online now, outlines dozens and dozens of additional sex-based physiological differences between us. It’s one thing to ignore the BIBLE; it’s another thing to ignore the scientific evidence right in front of you.
And finally, #9 - The Argument from UNITY. (v16)
Paul concludes: “If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.” And that’s the biggest tragedy in ALL of this, friends, is that not only do many progressive Christians miss out on the BEAUTY of God’s good design for us in our gender, they split the CHURCH over it. So many of the church and denomination splits in the past 50 years really do boil down to professing Christians choosing unity with the CULTURE, over unity with the CHURCH. With Scripture. With historic Christianity. So let me END with a plea AGAIN this morning for UNITY, West Hills. May the gospel that unifies us TRULY be stronger than ANY force or issue that would come against us to divide us. Cuz listen: the issues will change with the culture. 40 years ago it was feminism. 20 years ago it was homosexuality. Today it’s transgenderism. Who knows what it’ll be 20 years from now. But you know what HASN’T changed, through ALL of it? God’s word... And His gospel truth.
That HE’S perfect and knows what’s best for us.
That WE’RE sinful and DON’T.
But He loved us so much, He sent Jesus to die for us.
And all we have to do is repent and trust Him as Lord and Savior and we will be saved.
In a world where even GENDER seems to change DAILY, praise God that His gospel, His love for us, NEVER does. Let’s pray.