Paul ended the last chapter by saying, “that whether we eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” this is important because the word “glory” comes up here a few times. It’s all about Gods glory. What is it to give glory to God? God is glorified when we submit to his rule and reign.
It is never good for us, or the gathered church, when we draw attention to ourselves. Nor is it ever good for us, or the gathered church, when we pray, sing, preach, or give testimony in ways that undermine the gospel. Every aspect of our lives ought to bring glory to God. Whether you eat or drink, pray or prophesy, “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (10:31).
Christ submission to the God the Father while on earth is at the heart of the gospel, and Paul’s instruction here. Christ has modeled the value of headship, authority, and humility, and what Paul says in the following verses are grounded in this verse.
Today we come to one of the hardest passages in Corinthians. Not only can it be hard to interpret, but it is hard to hear. It sounds offensive to our ears, and it is not because of the head coverings, but because of authority. To even read it let alone expound it and stand with it is a dangerous thing to do. But this is Gods word.
On the one hand what we have here is a principle of authority and submission that is not really debated throughout church history.
And on the other we have the application of head covering that is complex and very much debated throughout the history of the church.
There seemed to be a problem with the God ordained order. Society was mixing up male female roles, and men were trying to be women and women men. Not unlike our culture. The wives were saying I can do whatever I please, my husband has not authority over me, because I am free in Christ. And Paul says no you can’t act that way, because God created us with different roles.
All to Gods glory: Submission and authority.
- The principle
- The practice
The principle
He says in verse 2, “Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.” The traditions he has in mind are not early church liturgical traditions. Rather, he is talking about the gospel itself. We know this because later in the letter he is explicit about what he “delivered” to the Corinthians. He says in chapter 15, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received…” and then he goes on to give the gospel.
Paul is pleased that they sought his advice, “because you remember me”. the problem is not that they are thinking wrong. But they are not applying right thinking. They are like those who hear the word and then not do what it says. He had labored long and hard that the essential truths were embedded. No matter what else they forgot they would remember certain things. And he commends them that they have. But it is one thing to hear, and quiet another to do.
He says in verse 3, “But I want you to understand…” Paul says I am trying to make a very important point. Listen carefully.
What is that? “that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” He sets the debated truth between two undebated truths. The head of every man is Christ. That is not up for debate. and here in this context he seems to be particularly speaking about husbands and wives as we will see. Also, the “head of Christ is God.” That is not up for debate.
Jesus’ submission to the Fathers will made the gospel possible. God the Son became man, and acted on behalf of Adams race, and made himself obedient to the Father even unto death.
So, the example for both the man’s submission to Christ, and the woman’s submission to the man is found in the submission of Christ to God. He is not saying anything new here or radical. He repeats it in Ephesians 5. The wife’s voluntary submission to her husband as her God-given authority, beautifully displays the humility of the kingdom of Christ. And the man’s call to live a life of sacrifice as Christs did is only possible if he is in Christ.
This order of submission not only made salvation possible but is also tied to the glory and honor of God the Father as the ultimate end of all things. That is what it is about glorying in ourselves or in God. This is why he ends with verse. 12b: All things are from God.
Now listen. The fact that Christ submitted to the will of the Father follows that Christ was no second-class person. The fact that he submitted to the Father’s will made him no less equal to the Father - Made him no different in the essential nature of his being. But for him to submit to the Father was an indication of Gods eternal purpose for what was good and right. Therefore, loved ones in the same way for women to submit to the leadership of men in the church as elders and in the home as husbands never and in no way renders them 2nd class beings. Nor inferior on any level. But their submission is an indication of their willingness to acknowledge the glory of God in the way that he has made us.
The practice.
“Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head was shaven.” Now the questions come up quickly. What is this covering? And why is it good for a woman to wear one and not a man? And what does Paul mean by prophesying and praying? Is he contradicting himself when he says in 1 Corinthians 14, “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.”
First of all, it is important to understand the idea of prophecy. This is a word from God. I think the equivalent might be reading the bible in public worship. We must remember at that time the Canon was not yet finished. Now these prophesies were to be tested to see the validity of them. So, they were not exactly like the prophets of the OT. It’s not like people in the OT would get a group of three together to see if what Isaiah said was true. We will get more into this in chapter 14. For now what we can say is that they were prophesiing or praying in a way that was rebellious against a God-ordered structure.
For if the wife will not cover her hair, then 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. We know that in first century Corinth the regular practice was to shave the heads of slaves and convicted adulteresses. He additionally suggests that sacred prostitutes at the local temple of Aphrodite did not wear the customary head coverings of regular female citizen of Corinth either. So, Paul is saying, if you don’t wear a head covering you may as well go all the way and shave it. But since that is disgraceful cover let her cover your head.
This is why I think the principle of authority is clear in this passage, but the practice meant something in that culture that it clearly does not mean in this culture. So when a woman did not cover their head in that culture it would mean something that it does mean in our culture. It was an expression of freedom and liberation.
For a man ought not to cover his head. In other words, you are not a woman, and don’t mix the beauty of the way God created the genders. “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.” Now when I read this passage it was clear that it makes us uncomfortable to the degree that we even think it offensive. The Bible grates against our modern cultural norms, and the fact that this is so shocking to our ears may be a sign that we have bought in.
How are we to understand it? In relationship with verse 8 and 9. For man was not created from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. Paul is saying, that each reflect the glory from the one from whom they were created. He made the woman out of man. Not the other way around. And she came out as the glory of the man from whom she had come. It is not saying anything about worth, value, dignity. This is about the way God created man and woman. Furthermore, he is not saying anything that the Bible does not say in Genesis 2.
If you compare genesis 2 it is clear. Woman was created to be the help and helper of man. Adam was walking in the garden, and there was no helper fit for him. So, God made woman from Adam.
Now for those chauvinistic men who somehow think that this is the explanation you need why you don’t unload the dishwasher, or vacuum. Stop it. The Bible is clear against chauvinism and feminism. It is about giving glory to the other, where ultimately God gets all the glory for the perfect structure of creation. What the bible says is an expression of an amazing principle. It does not say that man is not supposed to help women, pitch in, die for her. Neither is there anything in it that is detrimental to a woman. Chauvinism and feminism are unbiblical nonsense.
This is about how God created the world with structure and authority. And at that time a symbol of that authority was the head covering, which is why Paul says, “That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of Authority on her head because of the angels.” What he may be referring to is the fallen angels. The disrespecting of authority started with the angels in the beginning. He has been talking about creation, and he continues to show them what happened when the angels rebelled, declared war, and showed complete disregard for authority. It all started in heaven and is nothing new.
But authority never means independence. Either for the woman or for the man. We need each other. And that is clear for any man who has any sense. The angels were not independent of God, and neither is woman independent from man. But the other side is also true as he says, “Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor man of women; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman.”
He goes back to creation order to show our interdependency. In fact, we owe our very life to each other. Woman was made from man, and man is born of woman. One cannot even exist without the other. This dependency when understood is beautiful. As one leads and one follows. And both need each other for life. Sacrificial authority and willing submission go hand in hand. Just like men come from woman and woman from man.
In a sense it is like a dance. Anyone that knows how to dance, knows there cannot be two leaders, or two followers. No. if the dance is to be perfect, the leader and the follower must fulfill the role perfectly. In fact, it gives glory to God – the dance of the sexes. I think in a sense Paul has in mind a picture of a cascade of glory from God to Christ to man, to woman, as his glory is poured out. And no one keeps that glory for themselves, but in submitting give it up so that the glory ends with God from whom all things come. As it says, “And all things are from God.”
It is therefore clear that man and woman come form God and are therefore completely equal in worth, spiritual condition, contribution to society, or intellectual condition. We make those distinction. Not the Bible.
Just because President Ramaphosa is a God given authority does not mean that his life is of more intrinsic worth then yours. It simple means he bears a God given responsibility to lead, and we to follow.
And so he ends with verse 13-16, “Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered?” This is a rhetorical question expecting the answer no it is not.
That is why he goes on and asks, “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?” Longer hair among the men in that culture would have been a symbol of homosexuality. Most people can see from a distance the difference between a man and women when they see it. Gender is binary and not a massive spectrum. In this case, when a man wears his hair long, in the manner that women wear it, it is to his shame. When a woman has the long hair, it shows the image bearing glory she has as an individual, and the honor she brings to the man. For woman the long hair was a sign of their femininity. When she shaved it has noted earlier it would be a sign of being a convicted adulteress often, or prostitute.
What he is saying, is that whatever society you live in there is a woman and man section of the clothing store. IF I came here dressed as a woman, the elders should immediately come up, not let me preach and say, Johan: it is disgraceful for you to dress like a woman. That is not the role God gave you. And the same should be said of woman. If they tried to dress like a man, in order to fill the role of a man, we should say that is disgraceful.
And Paul ends with “If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.” In other words, if you want to fight, you are breaking unity with the churches Paul planted, as well as the churches that the others planted. And unity as we will see is what Paul deals with a lot in the next few chapters.
So to conclude. This is about authority and submission which brings glory to God. Christ who submitted to God is our example. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of both the glory of God and the glory of man. No other human keeps glory for himself. The Glory of the God flows from him to his creation in man to women. We receive that glory and willingly bow our knees to that authority returning the glory to the man to Jesus and ultimately to the father! It is order. What this world does is chaos. It is beauty, what this world shows us is a mess. It is structure, what the world wants is anarchy.
There is such confusion in the world. May that not be true in the church. For the churches of God throughout history have had no other practice. Why would we?
Amen.