WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:14.200 Hello, if you would open your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 00:00:14.200 --> 00:00:32.260 Let me just point out before we read that chapters 11 all the way through 14, the apostle was dealing with issues related to worship in the local church, worship-related issues. 3 00:00:32.260 --> 00:00:41.680 Today we read this most interesting passage in verses 2 to 16. 4 00:00:41.680 --> 00:00:50.940 It has to do, of course, with the role of women in the church, it has to do with head coverings. 5 00:00:50.940 --> 00:00:54.900 Let me first read this. 6 00:00:54.900 --> 00:01:01.780 This is God’s holy, inherent Word. 7 00:01:01.780 --> 00:01:10.420 Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you. 8 00:01:10.420 --> 00:01:18.820 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and that man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. 9 00:01:18.820 --> 00:01:25.000 Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. 10 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:31.520 But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head. 11 00:01:31.520 --> 00:01:38.980 For she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved. 12 00:01:38.980 --> 00:01:43.860 For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off. 13 00:01:43.860 --> 00:01:51.540 But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head. 14 00:01:51.540 --> 00:01:59.960 For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and the glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man. 15 00:01:59.960 --> 00:02:03.760 For man does not originate from the woman, but the woman from man. 16 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:10.660 For indeed, man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake. 17 00:02:10.660 --> 00:02:18.520 Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. 18 00:02:18.520 --> 00:02:26.260 However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor man independent of woman. 19 00:02:26.260 --> 00:02:35.100 For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman, and all things originate from God. 20 00:02:35.100 --> 00:02:36.880 Judge for yourselves. 21 00:02:36.880 --> 00:02:41.400 Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 22 00:02:41.400 --> 00:02:46.230 Does not even nature itself teach you that for a man is long hair, it’s a dishonor to him? 23 00:02:46.230 --> 00:02:52.920 But if a woman has long hair, it’s a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering. 24 00:02:52.920 --> 00:03:03.620 But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God. 25 00:03:03.620 --> 00:03:08.180 Let us pray. 26 00:03:08.180 --> 00:03:14.320 Father, as we look at this passage this morning, we pray for Your special grace and help. 27 00:03:14.320 --> 00:03:18.420 Lord, I pray that You keep us into Your truth. 28 00:03:18.420 --> 00:03:35.840 As we explore the words of the Apostle Paul, help us to understand what they mean for us today and that we would understand how to live this out in our life. 29 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:42.460 We ask for Your protection and blessing through the power of Your Spirit, Your guidance, and grace. 30 00:03:42.460 --> 00:03:45.120 In Christ’s name we pray. 31 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:51.940 Amen. 32 00:03:51.940 --> 00:04:06.700 Just to summarize one of the main takeaways from this section before we began to explore it, it has to do with symbolism. 33 00:04:06.700 --> 00:04:27.140 Any symbolism in worship should be directed by God through His Word and should illustrate what’s true of God’s nature and design for the world that He created, with the goal of submitting to Him and glorifying Him. 34 00:04:27.140 --> 00:04:41.500 A few weeks ago on Sunday evening, I quoted Stephen Charnock, the Puritan, who has that wonderful volume on the attributes of God. 35 00:04:41.500 --> 00:04:50.480 He wrote, “When we believe that we should be satisfied, we should be satisfied, rather than God glorified. 36 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:57.500 We put God below ourselves, as though He had been made for us, and not we for Him.” 37 00:04:57.500 --> 00:05:05.300 As I was reflecting on this, I thought it might be a very good quote to begin with as we reflect on this passage. 38 00:05:05.300 --> 00:05:40.380 Before I explain my approach to the passage, what I try to always do when I go to the Bible and study it is to— this may sound odd to you at first, but I think you’ll understand—I try to disinterest myself from the text in the sense that I don’t immediately start thinking about the application and how this text applies to me. 39 00:05:40.380 --> 00:05:45.300 My first concern is, what does the text say? 40 00:05:45.300 --> 00:05:49.120 What is being said in this passage? 41 00:05:49.120 --> 00:06:13.320 The problem that I have is that if I start the other way, and I start thinking about how am I going to apply this, and what does this mean for us, before I understand what is actually said, then my view of application begins to shape my understanding of the passage. 42 00:06:13.320 --> 00:06:17.860 I don’t want that to happen. 43 00:06:17.860 --> 00:06:29.840 As a pastor, I think that I’m responsible to the people that God’s entrusted to me to teach scripture and to explain what it means. 44 00:06:29.840 --> 00:06:36.880 Then understanding what it means, we can begin to explore application from there. 45 00:06:36.880 --> 00:06:48.580 So, let me just begin by talking about some of the major views of how people understand this passage. 46 00:06:48.580 --> 00:07:09.000 Let me, before I do that, the key idea in this passage, one of the key doctrinal issues, has to do with the role of women in the church in the sense of authority in the church. 47 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:18.240 That’s something that is emphasized throughout this passage, and it’s one of the major points of the passage. 48 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:21.080 But you have questions. 49 00:07:21.080 --> 00:07:25.680 What is, what is a head covering mean? 50 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:29.420 Let’s just begin with that because it’s what this whole topic is. 51 00:07:29.420 --> 00:07:39.200 We’ve read all of these verses from verse 2 to verse 16, and it’s all having to do with the head covering. 52 00:07:39.200 --> 00:07:41.260 What does that mean? 53 00:07:41.260 --> 00:07:44.000 What is the head covering? 54 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:57.740 One of the major views, and one of the most common understandings of this passage, is that the head covering that is being described is the lady’s hair, long hair. 55 00:07:57.740 --> 00:08:24.420 The argument for that comes from verse 15: “But if the woman has long hair, it’s a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.” 56 00:08:24.420 --> 00:08:31.980 The idea is that the hair itself is the covering. 57 00:08:31.980 --> 00:08:38.820 To make sense of that, it is sometimes nuanced a little bit. 58 00:08:38.820 --> 00:09:03.480 With the nuance, the idea is it’s not you have a lady has long hair, and she should have long hair, is the idea, and as she worships, when she is in a worship service, which for us happens on Sunday mornings, we have other meetings in the church but our formal worship service is right now. 59 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:26.120 If she was, if there was a lady who was about to in this text, if she was to pray in public, pray as part of the service, or if she was to give a prophecy, present a message of some kind, it says that she is to have this covering. 60 00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:33.720 So in verse 15, this understanding is that that covering would be her hair. 61 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:41.360 Well, that is nuanced because it’s difficult to hold up in the passage. 62 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:58.020 So one of the ways that people have tried to argue for that view is by trying to understand the meaning of what it means to cover and to uncover. 63 00:09:58.020 --> 00:10:04.820 That’s pretty easy normally speaking because you can just look it up in the lexicon. 64 00:10:04.820 --> 00:10:12.900 When you look it up in the lexicon and the meaning isn’t there, then sometimes you have to get creative to find the meaning. 65 00:10:12.900 --> 00:10:33.720 One of the arguments has been to quote from Numbers 5:18, which describes a woman who in shame and judgment has her hair let down. 66 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:42.500 To read that meaning of “let down” into the word of the idea of “covering” and “uncovering.” 67 00:10:42.500 --> 00:10:47.000 The argument sounds pretty good when you first hear it. 68 00:10:47.000 --> 00:11:04.520 The idea there is that in Numbers 5:18, the woman was accused of repudiating her relation to her husband, giving herself to another. 69 00:11:04.520 --> 00:11:07.040 It’s an adulterous situation. 70 00:11:07.040 --> 00:11:10.740 Her hair, which was done up on her head, was let loose. 71 00:11:10.740 --> 00:11:34.840 Then the argument goes like this: “The Hebrew word which is used to describe both the letting loose of the hair and being unveiled, is translated by the Greek Old Testament by the word *akatakalyptos*. 72 00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:38.420 It’s the word that Paul uses for ‘uncovered’.” 73 00:11:38.420 --> 00:11:40.880 That’s really a powerful argument in itself. 74 00:11:40.880 --> 00:11:49.920 In other words, if the Apostle Paul is reading from the Old Testament, and he’s going to be very familiar with the Old Testament. 75 00:11:49.920 --> 00:12:18.700 He comes to this word *akatakalyptos*. 76 00:12:18.700 --> 00:12:23.620 When he thinks of this word, the idea of covering, that passage comes back to his mind. 77 00:12:23.620 --> 00:12:26.160 That would be a powerful argument. 78 00:12:26.160 --> 00:12:30.640 He’s going to be very familiar with the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. 79 00:12:30.640 --> 00:12:48.120 So, when he thinks about this, if this passage would come back to mind because it’s the Greek for that, and it’s used in that passage, the problem with that is that word is not found in the Septuagint as a translation for that passage. 80 00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:54.520 It’s just not there at all. 81 00:12:54.520 --> 00:13:04.860 In fact, the word in all of the Septuagint is found only one time, not even exactly there because it’s not in the main text, it’s in a variant that is in the text. 82 00:13:04.860 --> 00:13:06.800 You can find it there. 83 00:13:06.800 --> 00:13:15.500 Then the understanding of that in that passage is a little bit uncertain. 84 00:13:15.500 --> 00:13:22.120 I was reading this from Dan Wallace’s has an interesting article. 85 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:26.660 I encourage you to look it up online and read it about this topic. 86 00:13:26.660 --> 00:13:35.580 He’s a wonderful New Testament scholar, especially having to do with grammar, Greek grammar. 87 00:13:35.580 --> 00:13:48.100 But he said, “You know, that’s kind of like trying to argue that way, it’s kind of like saying all Indians walk in a single file line. 88 00:13:48.100 --> 00:13:52.180 I know that that’s true because the one that I saw does.” 89 00:13:52.180 --> 00:14:00.500 I know that whole illustration is pretty offensive in every way, that’s the point, and the point is, it’s very well taken. 90 00:14:00.500 --> 00:14:09.320 A stereotype that’s based on a marginal usage that I mean, it may be there, probably isn’t. 91 00:14:09.320 --> 00:14:15.660 You take from that one example, and you extrapolate a whole understanding. 92 00:14:15.660 --> 00:14:33.980 If you want to look this word up, what it means, you can look it up in Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich, Danker’s, a lexicon of the New Testament Greek text. 93 00:14:33.980 --> 00:14:39.660 They don’t ever give a meaning, not even suggest that, of being let down. 94 00:14:39.660 --> 00:14:42.520 They’re dealing with the whole Koine period. 95 00:14:42.520 --> 00:30:00.720 So it probably doesn’t have to do with hair being let down, it has to do with a covering that is put on. 96 00:30:00.720 --> 00:30:34.840 So, if this tradition has to do with a doctrinal truth that’s communicated to us, and it is a real head covering, then we need to understand what Paul’s doing with the rest of this. 97 00:30:34.840 --> 00:30:37.220 Paul is making an argument. 98 00:30:37.220 --> 00:30:43.520 Another thing about this idea of tradition is the arguments that he makes for it. 99 00:30:43.520 --> 00:30:50.640 If Paul was arguing and his whole argument was in verse 16, this is what the churches are doing. 100 00:30:50.640 --> 00:30:53.100 You should do this too. 101 00:30:53.100 --> 00:30:57.310 Well, churches can do a lot of different things. 102 00:30:57.310 --> 00:31:01.440 You would say that that’s social. 103 00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:06.460 But look at the way he makes the arguments in this passage. 104 00:31:06.460 --> 00:31:15.100 First of all, Paul argues from the nature of God. 105 00:31:15.100 --> 00:31:16.460 Look at verse 3. 106 00:31:16.460 --> 00:31:20.940 He’s making an argument from the doctrine of the Trinity. 107 00:31:20.940 --> 00:31:28.820 He says, “I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.” 108 00:31:28.820 --> 00:31:52.800 What he’s saying there is that just as Christ and the Father are both have equality, and yet there is in the role, particularly in the role of Christ as Savior, there is a subordination of the Son to the Father. 109 00:31:52.800 --> 00:32:04.200 Even though there’s an ontological equality, that’s absolutely real, they’re of the same essence, they’re the same worth and value. 110 00:32:04.200 --> 00:32:12.100 But he says, “I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and that man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ.” 111 00:32:12.100 --> 00:32:22.300 So you have the Father, you have the Christ, you have Christ, then you have man, and you have woman. 112 00:32:22.300 --> 00:32:27.700 This is a line that Paul is teaching. 113 00:32:27.700 --> 00:32:48.180 There is a subordination, not out of not to bring about humiliation, but just practically speaking, in the outworking of God’s plan, in His creation. 114 00:32:48.180 --> 00:32:56.940 The other argument, not only does he argue from the Trinity, but he argues from the creation account in verses 8 and 9. 115 00:32:56.940 --> 00:33:00.070 “For man does not originate from the woman, but the woman from man. 116 00:33:00.070 --> 00:33:04.500 For indeed, man was not created for the woman’s sake, but the woman for man’s sake.” 117 00:33:04.500 --> 00:33:11.100 Therefore, for that reason, “the woman should have a symbol of authority on her head.” 118 00:33:11.100 --> 00:33:15.520 So the second argument that he makes has to do with the creation account. 119 00:33:15.520 --> 00:33:19.460 He’s not arguing from the culture of the day. 120 00:33:19.460 --> 00:33:28.780 He’s arguing from the creation. 121 00:33:28.780 --> 00:33:32.580 So God established this pattern in the beginning. 122 00:33:32.580 --> 00:33:41.460 God created man, and God created from man, woman, and then He created from man and woman, children. 123 00:33:41.460 --> 00:33:44.220 There was a pattern. 124 00:33:44.220 --> 00:33:55.200 The next argument that he gives is because of the witness of the angels in verse 10: “The woman should have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels.” 125 00:33:55.200 --> 00:33:58.340 Which is really intriguing. 126 00:33:58.340 --> 00:34:01.880 We don’t exactly know, that’s all it says here. 127 00:34:01.880 --> 00:34:12.250 One of the things that you know is true is that because Paul didn’t elaborate on what that meant, he understood that the Corinthians when they read that, they’re going to understand it. 128 00:34:12.250 --> 00:34:19.140 There are all sorts of wild things people do with that phrase, “because of the angels.” 129 00:34:19.140 --> 00:34:25.280 I think that the fact that the Corinthians understood it should rein us in. 130 00:34:25.280 --> 00:34:28.440 We should eliminate these wild views. 131 00:34:28.440 --> 00:34:34.880 One of the things, when he says “angels,” he’s clearly talking about the holy angels. 132 00:34:34.880 --> 00:34:37.860 Otherwise, that would be qualified in this verse. 133 00:34:37.860 --> 00:34:42.000 He’s talking about the holy angels here. 134 00:34:42.000 --> 00:35:01.380 The fact that it’s not unusual in scripture for the holy angels, it’s mentioned repeatedly that the angels are observers of us, especially in our worship. 135 00:35:01.380 --> 00:37:14.940 So I think the idea is that when we worship, we should be very careful not to offend the holy angels. 136 00:37:14.940 --> 00:37:22.980 Think about all the miracles of the Bible, what Jesus did, and the connection between them and the work of angels. 137 00:37:22.980 --> 00:37:31.440 We probably should take care of our angels and not offend them. 138 00:37:31.440 --> 00:37:38.780 In verse 5, I mean, the fifth argument in verses 13 to 15 is an argument where he’s arguing from nature. 139 00:37:38.780 --> 00:37:40.110 He says, “Judge for yourselves, is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 140 00:37:40.110 --> 00:37:40.970 Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it’s a dishonor to him? 141 00:37:40.970 --> 00:38:01.960 But if a woman has long hair, it’s a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.” 142 00:38:01.960 --> 00:38:05.940 The argument there is from nature. 143 00:38:05.940 --> 00:38:18.820 And finally, the practice in the churches. 144 00:38:18.820 --> 00:38:20.820 So how do you apply it? 145 00:38:20.820 --> 00:38:25.660 If this has to do with a covering, what does it mean for us today? 146 00:38:25.660 --> 00:38:37.420 First of all, we need to remember that it’s describing a man who, if a man is not, who had his head covered in temple worship. 147 00:38:37.420 --> 00:38:43.660 They did that when they sacrificed, they covered their head. 148 00:38:43.660 --> 00:38:57.580 So they might think something like, if we did this to honor Dionysius, shouldn’t we show this kind of humility when we’re worshiping Christ? 149 00:38:57.580 --> 00:39:02.000 What Paul does is he says, “No, that’s not appropriate at all. 150 00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:06.820 What you did in your pagan temple worship is not to be done with Christ. 151 00:39:06.820 --> 00:39:12.480 You should illustrate God’s order, God’s creative order. 152 00:39:12.480 --> 00:39:16.900 You should illustrate it through His nature and His Trinity. 153 00:39:16.900 --> 00:39:23.100 You should illustrate it through the creation that He has given and the order of the creation. 154 00:39:23.100 --> 00:39:26.880 We should honor God in all these things. 155 00:39:26.880 --> 00:39:32.060 That should be foundational to all of our expressions of worship.” 156 00:39:32.060 --> 00:39:34.900 That’s true for the man, as well as for the woman. 157 00:39:34.900 --> 00:39:38.800 It’s true for the man, as well as the woman. 158 00:39:38.800 --> 00:39:46.900 We are to honor God through the order that He has given. 159 00:39:46.900 --> 00:39:58.600 So in our worship, you know, if a woman is to pray or prophesy in the worship service, there should be a symbol of authority on her head as it says. 160 00:39:58.600 --> 00:40:11.320 There should be a symbol of authority that means something, that’s describing a place of submission to God’s authority within the roles that He has given. 161 00:40:11.320 --> 00:40:16.020 So that’s the minimal application. 162 00:40:16.020 --> 00:40:18.940 I’m going to leave it to you how to apply this. 163 00:40:18.940 --> 00:40:32.760 But I would say that in this passage, the context is in a worship service, where a person is speaking or prophesying in the worship service. 164 00:40:32.760 --> 00:40:39.960 If they’re speaking, or they’re praying in public in that worship service, these things should apply. 165 00:40:39.960 --> 00:40:43.580 Okay, I know I’ve been faltering and struggled with this. 166 00:40:43.580 --> 00:40:48.040 It’s a passage that can be confusing as you read through it. 167 00:40:48.040 --> 00:40:55.080 I’ll try to do this in a way that is clear, as much as I can make it clear. 168 00:40:55.080 --> 00:41:16.180 But I think in our application, we should remember that any symbolism in worship should be directed to God, and should illustrate what’s true of God’s nature and design for the world that He created, with the goal of submitting to Him and bringing glory to Him. 169 00:41:16.180 --> 00:41:27.310 We should avoid doing anything that dishonors us, dishonors our head, as it says, and remembering that our head is the Lord Jesus Christ. 170 00:41:27.310 --> 00:41:29.660 Let us pray. 171 00:41:29.660 --> 00:41:32.760 Father, we thank You for the truth of Your Word. 172 00:41:32.760 --> 00:41:44.560 We thank You for recognizing that this isn’t about anyone being humiliated in any way. 173 00:41:44.560 --> 00:41:47.660 We should do nothing that causes that. 174 00:41:47.660 --> 00:41:59.440 This is about us showing reverential care to You Yourself and all that we do in worship. 175 00:41:59.440 --> 00:42:28.780 Help us, Lord Jesus, to be obedient to Your Word and I pray that for all of us in every way. 176 00:42:28.780 --> 00:42:33.940 Help us, Lord Jesus, to understand Your Word and to apply it. 177 00:42:33.940 --> 00:42:36.320 In Jesus’ name. 178 00:42:36.320 --> 00:42:38.320 Amen.