Take cover!

Good morning. Before we proceed into the passage here, I just wanted to be sure to pass along a thank you from Nancy and I. We sure appreciate all the help moving into and getting settled in our new home. Just over the last couple of months from moving out one day to moving into our place and all the help along the way, even this last week, people helping us out.

So we just wanted to make sure that we express a big thank you. For the very, very generous gift. Yeah, generosity in every regard. So, thank you. Sometimes things have been a little upside down. No question about it. And so we appreciate your patience with that. And it has been an adjustment to having this, you know, home a mile high. You know, certainly that's been a bit of an adjustment.

But anyway, as the seasons change, and a lot of you know I tend to prefer the cold weather, we just want to continue to give you thanks. So anyway. Thank you. All right. Meanwhile, back in 1 Corinthians. All right. So here we are. We're in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We'll be looking at the first 16 verses there. To give you some perspective, this is an outline that we had in your handout. It's not there today, but earlier.

And it laid out the fact, kind of a simple outline for what Paul does in this book. He begins addressing what was told to him orally by the people likely who brought the letter. And then he responds to a letter with kind of questions on specific topics. At this point, in today's passage in chapter 11, he shifts back into addressing things that were brought orally, not what they had written about, but these people who had brought questions and comments and concerns.

So that's the portion of the letter that we're stepping into this morning. We'll continue with that in our study of things next week. The very first verse is actually something we addressed last week where Paul said, be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ. And so as we go through today's passage we won't be addressing that specific verse directly. But what ends up being the big question, the really big question in this passage, are you ready? Okay, the big question.

Many people who read this passage have this big question, do the people in the church, especially the women, have to wear head coverings or not? That's the bottom line. Do I have to come in with a head covering? And so that ends up being the big question.

Everybody who reads the passage, that's what they're wanting to find out. Well, in order to attempt to give you what many have concluded, I've given on the top part of your handout sort of a summary of the various views that people have come to. I think they're all wet. And here's why. I think that what people do is they look for the superficial answer.

Do the women at Holly Hills have to wear a head covering or not, or is long hair good enough, and how long does it have to be, and give us the specifications. That ends up being what most people try to resolve. What I would say is they have missed Paul's main points, plural, and we'll see about that in a minute.

Many people who have studied this passage have then come up with various things that they want the ladies to wear, and different designs, and certain ways that they have to wear their hair, even lengths and hairstyles have been specified among Christians. And people have come up with variations on some of these different head coverings as a way of trying to answer this one passage. I'm not aware of any other passage that really brings up this head coverings issue to any great degree. But it's one that churches have in some way tried to respond to or set aside.

Now we're not going to be going, and I'm glad nobody selected some of these other head coverings, that we're not going to see any of those, and I don't think we'll have any of those required at Holly Hills, unless you want to bring them for one of those gifts that Courtney was talking about. And I'm glad that we haven't adopted what some folks around the world have. It makes it very difficult to greet people. It's also really tough for those dating services. But anyway, the pictures are hard to recognize.

But when a person looks at the passage beyond just trying to answer the question, OK, do I have to wear a head covering or not? Or do we have to make the women have their hair at some certain specification length? When we get past that and look for deeper principles, we find that it's got a lot to say. And it's got some very important things to say. And studying the passage ends up taking a whole different significance. then what kind of head coverings ought the woman to wear or what length of hair ought they to have.

As Paul often does, he first presents the spiritual principles and then derives the application and that's exactly what he does in this passage. As some of you have been through either here in the main service some years back or are currently going through a study of the book of Ephesians, what does Paul do? He presents the principles first and then presents the application.

And he does something similar here in this passage. He continues to present the principles. What I'd like us to do is to certainly read through the whole passage and to study it all, not leaving anything aside. But let's not lose the principles that he has. So we'll get to that.

Now, one of the things that is important to understand is Paul is making some statements in the context of the culture. Just as we have a culture, I think, They had a culture in their day and certain, you know, hairstyles and what you wore on your head, all those meant something and need to be considered. And we'll certainly be taking a look at that.

But it isn't simply a matter of just looking at hairstyle and head covering, but looking at what is the meaning of that hairstyle and head covering. One of the reasons why I put this picture in here is that when Bruce and I went to Uganda, One of the things that we found is a number of the ladies had their hair in this style. And one reason why this is a very good style over there is that it's difficult for the lice to get entrenched in hair that isn't there, right? And so a practical matter is you just shave it all off.

It is a cultural thing that has a practical reason for it. But so different cultures around the world will have different ways in which they address hair and head covering and things of that sort. And it's important for us to understand it. The other thing is gender distinctions vary by culture. What people look at and they say, oh, well, that is characteristic of a woman, that's characteristic of a man, is something that varies from one culture to another. And so something we ought to consider as well. While we're talking about culture, it would probably be helpful to get an idea of what was the culture like in Paul's day that influences how he expresses things in this passage.

Some of the reasons why the hair and the head covering question would be addressed in this letter are, there is evidence, for example, that adulteresses were punished by shaving off all of their hair. Now what's very interesting is in that culture, all sorts of immorality took place and that was just fine. But for a woman who was married to commit adultery, it was very shameful. Oddly enough, it almost seems like a contradiction. And one of the ways that she was treated if she was found to be in adultery was by shaving all of her hair off. That was a way of shaming her in that culture.

Some of the women would shave their head as a sign of mourning and right alongside that, some categories of prostitutes kept their head shaved. And along with that, the Temple of Aphrodite sat atop the Acropolis, that's the high point, that kind of mountaintop, right above the city of Corinth. And the female temple prostitutes of Aphrodite shaved their heads as a statement of who they were, and what they were offering, prostitution. And so that was another thing that was a major point in Corinth and something to keep in mind when Paul talks about shaving the head, it had a significance there that obviously we don't have.

Additionally, the Jewish women were always to cover their hair in public. Jewish women were to keep their hair covered. They were also to, aside from keeping everything else covered, keep their arms covered. If you see pictures or even movies that show women who are Jewish in the New Testament times, and if they have like bare arms, that was called constructive adultery. They were treated as if they had already committed adultery by having their arms bare, similar with their hair. Their hair was to remain covered.

So the actual head coverings, as you see in this one picture, or as is often pictured with Mary and Joseph and Christ, as we'll observe and celebrate here over these next couple of months, The depictions showing her with hair covered would have been typical because a proper Jewish woman would not have had that covered. Here is a picture of, it was an actress's attempt to look in the era. It would have been considered risqué and unacceptable. for a Jewish woman to have hair that was exposed to that degree and have that much skin exposed. That would not have been acceptable. Too risque.

So given that cultural background, one of the things as we examine this passage, we have the one slide there on page two of your handout where it says, let's not veil the meaning of long hair, a pun intended. Some have tried to conclude that this passage simply requires women to have long hair as a head covering or a veil. That a woman has long hair, that fits the bill, and that's exactly what Paul had in mind. But the passage does not exactly say that by veil, Paul just means long hair.

Now, some of you may object, but wait a minute, what about verse 15? But one of the things that's not apparent in our English is that while Paul had used the word cover or covering six times, let's see, get the fingers out here, six times in this passage, that this particular Greek word is a different word and does not mean the same thing. So he's not saying that the hair is just simply an equivalent and you've covered the bases. That's not what he meant.

Now, here is what appears to have been happening in the church there at Corinth. Some of the women were exercising their freedom in the church gatherings by casting off the culturally accepted expressions of godly womanhood, either by showing up at church with shaved heads, which remember, what would that have communicated? It would have communicated I'm a prostitute, it would have communicated I'm in mourning when I'm not, or that I had been adulterous. That would have been that communication.

The other is an uncovered head would also, especially for the Jewish women, have been unacceptable completely, constructive adultery, and even in the regular culture would have said, I disregard my husband and I want to be like a man. The question is, what is the woman communicating? with this shaved head or uncovered head.

In the culture of the New Testament times, for a woman to wear this head covering, not just a doily or a little short scarf, conveyed that she was being submissive to her male head or heads. So for a woman to walk into the church then was conveying that she was being submissive to her husband, or if she was a daughter, she would be being in subjection to her father, and also being in subjection to the elders. So there were multiple contexts in which there was reason for her to express her subjection, in addition to the Jewish concerns of not having her hair, you know, covered, communicated the wrong thing. Among the married Jewish women then, the head covering over her hair said that she was for her husband only. It was a sign of faithfulness on the part of the Jewish women.

My hair is for him and for him alone. That's how it would have been understood. But for a woman to have longer hair, as Paul says in the passage, was her glory and that of her husband. So the hair was a glory. The covering over the top of the hair was a picture of submission and exclusiveness to her husband.

Now there's an additional slide with the same title, but we've got a different subject to talk about here. What it meant for a woman to have her head covered or to have long hair meant two different things in that culture. And so while the short hair and the head covering had two different messages, not having either a hair cover or hair, said that she was trying to be a man. The same message.

And so that's what Paul was trying to address. And he says that. So what Paul does in this passage is to present the biblical reasons for a distinction between maleness and femaleness. So that's why he's explaining things, and essentially what does Paul do in this passage? He goes back to Genesis, and so will we.

In the beginning, Genesis 1.26 and 27 says, God created a male and female. That was his intent. The distinction between male and female was something that God intended from the very beginning, the very first chapter of Genesis.

Now, as we look at these cultural insights, some people will look at things that are culture and then just look at a passage and say it's all cultural and then just throw it away. The point that we want to make here is cultural insights are to illuminate the meaning, not eliminate the meaning. Get my point? Cultural insights are here not to say, oh, nothing matters, but to have us understand what the passage is saying. That's why we've taken the time to talk about what the shaved head means, what the head covering means. So the intent is not to just say, oh, it's not applicable, on to the next page. The intent is to say, what does understanding the culture help us see in this passage?

Instead, what are we doing? We want to take the principles that Paul presents to mind and heart because he didn't intend that we set the whole passage aside. He intended instead that we say, okay, now that I understand the principles that Paul has laid out, and he does lay them out, how does that impact us here at Holly Hills? How does that impact us as believers now?

So one of the questions we run into as we go through this passage is, what does he mean by head? So we're going to ask that question, what does he mean by head? Well, as it turns out, this word that is translated head is used literally, and we'll see that in some places in the passage where he's just talking about the physical head.

It's also used metaphorically. We use the word head for various things. He's got three different uses. It means authority, source, or preeminence. And in fact, he addresses all three of those definitions at various parts of this passage here. The word head, then, has all those meanings in the passage. The exact meaning in each place is understood by the context of the word. And we're used to understanding things by context, right? We do that in our own language, and so it's the same thing here in this passage.

Here in 1 Corinthians 11, 3-4, Paul has written, But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. Every man who has something on his physical head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. So he has different uses of this word head determined by context.

One of the things we see as we step into verse 2, the very beginning part of this topic, is Paul begins by praising them, which for the Corinthians, that's saying a lot. They were a people that had a great deal to try to correct. They came to him with, here are some questions, and he had to answer some questions, and in some cases completely contradict what they had been doing and teaching. They also came to him with things that they reported orally by the people likely who had delivered the letter and said, you've got this problem and that one, and they're divided, and they're squabbling, and they're fighting, and they're trying to build up their own personal empires. And so he's addressing all that. They have lots of things to talk about. But he says, in great degree, and in at least some regard, you are paying attention to and listening and responding to the principles that I had laid down, the things that I had taught, the things that he had passed along to them.

While Paul has some praise for them before the end of the chapter, he's going to tell them a couple of things having to do with the Lord's Table that he is not going to praise them about. And we'll be looking at that this next week. And so he's got some things to praise them about and some things to not praise them about but instead to correct. So he talks about traditions, and we want to discuss what does he mean by that. And he also, very quickly in this passage, talks about prophesying, and we want to talk about that. So the Apostle Paul, you can envision him founding the various churches and think about what the Apostle Paul had to help him found the churches.

He had the entire Old Testament, And many of the Jews would already have copies of all or portions of the Old Testament. And as we've seen as we've gone through the study of this letter to the Corinthians, he is quoted from some of these Old Testament passages.

But the New Testament was still being written, still being copied, and still being collected. And I might add to that, circulated. And imagine, here's Paul, one of the letters that he had written is this one that we have right here. But there were things he had not yet, from any record that we have, not yet taught.

The complete New Testament was not finished. One of the things that's rather almost surprising to think about is to think about We talk here at Holly Hills about the fact that Christ is seated in the heavenlies, right? And you are seated with Him in the heavenlies. But what's interesting is being seated with Him in the heavenlies, being a heavenly citizenship, and setting your mind on things above, none of that was written until after Paul was in Rome 30 years. after Christ had been crucified, buried, and resurrected. There were things yet to be taught, things yet to be recorded.

And so, what did the Apostle Paul do as he went to the churches? He would give them specific direction on things orally. He would also write letters to them, which of course began to be collected and copied among them. And in addition to that, there was also those with the gift of prophecy. So you had apostles who would directly found churches and give them direction and also prophecy. What was prophecy? Prophecy was a temporary gift to fill in for the fact that they did not have the New Testament revelation available to them except in very limited degree in these churches. So someone would give a prophecy that would provide insight and direction to that local church as an interim means of directing and guiding that church and giving that church understanding until the whole New Testament had been gathered together.

That is why Ephesians 2.20 says that the apostles and prophets together are a foundation. They were there at the beginning to found the church and to not only bring the New Testament, but to provide guidance for the church until they had the New Testament completed and collected.

One of the other things we see in this passage is Paul makes a contrast between disgrace and dishonor and glory. And we see it here several places. You have it on a slide on half the page there on page three. So there is a question of what is disgraceful and what's glorious? What's dishonoring? And who is glorified? And so he uses that as a point of comparison and contrast here in this passage.

There is a phrase in there that many have puzzled over, because of the angels. People look at that and they say, what does that mean? And what's very interesting is I looked at various commentators on this. Most of them said, what does that mean? And that was about as far as they could go.

I think that's unnecessary, however. And the reason is this. We have insights. He doesn't explain what because of the angels means right here, but he does elsewhere, even earlier in this letter, provide some insights. And here's what I think those are. In chapter 6, verse 3, when Paul was addressing the lawsuits, one of the things is he asked them a question. Do you not know that we will judge angels? So here's one thing.

A lot of times as Christians, we may not think, you know, what am I supposed to think about the angels? And of course, in the popular culture, people have all sorts of distorted ideas about angels. We won't go into that. But I think one of the points that's valuable for us to get as we start stepping through these things here in 1 Corinthians and adding to the insights from other passages is to begin to think of what is our relationship to angels by God's intent?

If you're a believer here this morning, a time will come, and I hope it's not very far away, a time will come when you will have a responsibility for judging angels. Do you think about that? I think that Paul intended that we do think about that. You will have a responsibility for judging angels. Are you ready? Wow. It's something to think about, isn't it? We may, in a very short period of time from now, have a responsibility for judging angels. That's really almost mind-boggling to contemplate. But Paul asks the question. He presents it to the believers there. Therefore, it's valid for us to begin thinking about that too. I think there's something else.

1 Corinthians 4.9 and Ephesians 3.10 both indicate that the angels observe us as believers and learn from us. And they learn about God's character by watching us.

If you're a believer here today, you are living angel college. Yeah, you are living angel college. See, we tend to think of the angels, well, God sends them down when there's some great thing to announce or something to tell us, and not realizing, now look, you're going to be judging angels, and right now the angels are watching, and right now God intends, it is God's intent that the angels learn by watching you. So now I have a question for you.

What are they learning? This is really fascinating to contemplate. A part of what they are learning by watching you is God's character. What's very interesting, here they are in the throne room of God and there are things that they will learn by seeing God's work in your life. They learn about God's grace by watching you. They learn about God's love and about God's mercy by seeing how God has worked and is working and will work in your lives.

So very interesting, you have a God-intended relationship with angels now. I don't mean loss of interaction, but they're observing you now and a time will come and it may not be far away. where you will be judging angels. So when he says, because of the angels, a lot of commentators get all puzzled. I look at that and I say, why are you puzzled? You have a place right now as a believer impacting the angels, and when we're done here on this planet, and I hope we're done pretty soon, because I hope the Lord comes soon, I hope today, When we're done on this planet, we will have a place of judging angels. So there is a purpose because of the angels now, and there's a purpose on into when we're done here on this planet.

Now, there's also this word judge. We've addressed this because Paul brings up this word judge back in first chapter, 10th verse. And we've seen it several times. We're going to see it the last time today. And there is a supplement available to help address that. There's a confusion among believers that is one of extremes about when it comes to judging. Some err by not judging anyone at any time. And that can be a problem. Others err by judging everyone all the time. And that can be a problem.

Both of those happen, and you've probably seen both of those happen. But there is a place to judge biblically. We've seen it several times, and we've got the passages listed at the top. And this, I believe, is the last time we're going to see it dealt with in this chapter.

There are places where believers are actually told you must judge, so it is not simply something that is optional or to be avoided at all costs. Jesus himself said, but judge, imperative, you must judge, with righteous judgment. Here, now for the second time in this book, we've seen an imperative use, and by the way, that judgment is judgment with the mind. It's not a judgment of how do you feel about it.

But 1 Corinthians 10.15, you judge what I say. You must. And here in this passage, judge for yourselves. You must judge.

1 Corinthians 11.13.

So at any rate, we won't go into all the details on that. The supplement, which we have made available before, will be made available here for the last time. So there's a handout to that effect on the cabinet to the right here as you leave. So you might say, what's in it for me, or rather for us?

The head covering and the hair don't hold the same meaning today as they did in New Testament times. But the principles that Paul laid out to the believers are still true and still apply to us now. It isn't a matter of saying, well, that whole half chapter is a waste. No. The principles still fit. Everything that he explains is still explanation that we can and should and ought to listen to.

So I want us to step through those principles now. They're big. It's not just to store spiritual data in our heads, but to help us behold Christ, Christ our Lord. First principle. Godly headship is not the same as value or quality. It's not a measure of superiority. Look at this.

God the Father is the head of Christ. He says that there in this passage, does he not? Christ himself says, the Father sent me. The Father even tells me what to say. He was fulfilling the Father's will. So he had a position of the Father as head, Christ as being subject to his head. At the same time, Christ is God, as is the Father. His role of having the Father as his head was not one of who's superior. It was a voluntary submission. Not on the basis of who's superior, but what's the appropriate role for the time?

We've had previously this little chart up here which briefly helps to explain what is sometimes known as the Trinity. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all persons of the Godhead, three personal beings, one essence. Now that's something that's hard for us to get our minds around because we're used to one personal being, one essence. But it showed up in the very first chapter of Genesis where God said, let us make mankind in our image.

Plural. It wasn't just talking to the angels. The angels are not someone that God can say, listen, we weren't made in the angel's image, we were made in God's image. At the same time, the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. They are separate beings.

So for husbands to be the head of the wife, or a father to be the head of his daughter, or for the elders to have the headship in a body of believers, it has nothing to do with superiority but willing propriety. As a matter of fact, if you're called into a place of being a head, it may not be because you're good at it. How about that? Oh, I'll take that on because I'm good at that. No, that's not the reason.

It is a matter of biblical propriety. God may indeed call us to be the head in a particular circumstance, not on the basis of our qualifications, but on the basis of His ability. As we went through the book of Genesis, we had this table, and I could encourage you to go back to it. I think it's about the third lesson in our Genesis series.

We were made, human beings were made in the image of God. That image was tainted at the time when Adam fell. And guess what? Are we restored simply to the image of God? No. There is a process going on right now. You are being conformed and transformed, two different processes, into Christ's image. into Christ's image. That's one of the reasons why we're here on this planet, is the conforming and transforming going on. So it's not simply a matter of restoring us back to the garden and back to the place that we once held, but instead, God is saying, no, I'm going to take you from the place that you are to be conformed and transformed.

Conformed, Romans 8.28 and 29. to the image of Christ by circumstances, because he works all things together for that kind of good, and transformed as we behold the Lord through his word.

The second principle, a distinction between maleness and femaleness. How it is expressed may vary from culture to culture, but God made them male and female from the very beginning. God intends that there be a distinction, not a confusion. Certainly, we are first human beings created in God's own image and ultimately as believers to be conformed to the image of Christ. But that second category that God intends is male and female, each having a role and a function and a distinction. And by the way, maleness and femaleness is here for this planet for this time. Matthew 22, Jesus said, when you step through heaven's gates, Maleness and femaleness will be done.

Why? Because the bridegroom is Christ. The bride is us and the church. We are right now living out, living out a distinction that's temporary, pointing to the eternal distinction. Applying the second principle, God's Word has many things to say about the functions and roles of males and females in marriages, in families, in the churches, and the difference between the genders does matter. It does. God does not want gender confusion among Christians while we walk about this earth. That's not his design and intent. Differences between male and female matter, but it is not about superiority. It is not about enforcing authority. None of those.

The distinctions that God has made are made in order that we glorify Him. One of the things that I get really excited about every day is that I get to be married to Nancy for one more day, and we get to live out, in each 24-hour period the Lord gives us, the eternal romance between Christ and the Church. For this time, while we're here walking this planet. To me, I just find that immensely exciting.

It has nothing to do with superiority. Let me tell you, there are some ways in which, functionally, I'm way inferior to Nancy. It has nothing to do with that. Third principle, see what's the same. God does intend that there be specific roles and functions and headships. Certainly, as we'll see in just another couple of chapters here, there are distinctions between the giftedness he's given us in the body. And that's fine. That's exactly what he intended. There's also a need to recognize what's the same. Every believer, male or female, has the same position in Christ.

That's why Paul would write in Galatians 3.28, there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. He is not saying the distinction between male and female does not matter. This whole half chapter here is pointing out the distinctions. But what he is saying is that all believers, regardless of all the earthly distinctions, all believers have the same position in Christ.

He says in here that woman was taken from man and we are born from a woman. Each was in one way the source of the other. Points back to Genesis, doesn't it? We studied that some months back here. But we have the same position. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us, regardless of male and female, regardless of those important distinctions, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Nancy and I are intended by God to have a complementary role and to be male and female, but our position in Christ is identical.

She is blessed with every spiritual blessing, as am I. 1 Peter 3.7, one of the things that Peter points out there is, show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, since she has the same grace of life positions and honors as I do. Finally, Paul says at the end of this letter, if anyone is inclined to be contentious, what's real interesting is that Greek word for contentious means a person that loves fighting. They love it. Oh, they love it. And as a matter of fact, that's all they really care about. I don't care what I argue about. I just love to argue.

You've run into folks like that. So what Paul says, if anyone's inclined to be contentious, we have all kinds of traditions and things that we do, that's not one of them. That's not one of them. The thing they consistently did practice was being inclined towards being contentious among themselves, of those who are of that sort.

But what I call it is spiritual mud wrestling. That's not Paul's style. That's not what we're about here in the body of Christ. We're not here about wrestling for wrestling's sake and slinging mud for slinging mud's sake and fighting because we love to fight. Since we have all kinds of traditions, that's not one of them.

As we look at this passage, I think that the take home on this is realizing here is Christ came to earth taking an inferior position, stepping into time, being subject to being killed, even volunteering to do so. being subject to his father, not because he was anything less than equal.

He was equal. But because of the particular role and assignment while on earth. We have the same kind of thing here. The Lord has given us different roles and assignments in the various places and stages that we're at. Some of those will vary with time. But all that is, is we're stepping into a reflection of the relationship between the persons of the Godhead and between Christ and the church.

It's a cool thing. It's a really neat thing. And that's the neat thing about this passage. Now, as the Lord decided, I have neither a head covering nor anything else covering my head. But this passage has some really cool things in it, really neat things, and the principles starting all the way back at the beginning. by God's very intent.

Okay, let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, we do thank you for the things that you intended from the beginning, the things about how we were made, the things about what you had in mind for male and female, for marriage, for families, and even the gift of singleness. And Lord, as we look at these things, we pray that you would take these principles and bring them home to our heart and bring them home to our living among all of us here, among the family and the church body at Holly Hills. We pray in the name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen.