1 Corinthians 11 - Part B

We are interdependent. This is why I see a value in men's groups and a value in women's groups, but I really see a supreme value when men and women get together and share with one another in the same assembly.

There's an interdependence. In the body of Christ, everyone is equal, and God uses everyone in his church to further his purposes. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzing, Skip shares how men and women have a partnership within the body of Christ and what it means for you. Right now, we want to tell you about a resource that will encourage you to be a part of cultivating a more loving church than ever before. The most recent US Census revealed that our population is much more diverse than ever before. In fact, over the past 10 years, our multiracial population increased 276%, which presents new challenges.

Here's Skip Heitzing. To say that this nation is divided would be a gross understatement, but I am not going to take sides politically. I am going to take sides morally and spiritually and biblically. I'm going to raise the conversation to a different level, to a higher level, to a biblical level, because the issue as I see it is not a skin issue as much as it's a sin issue. We want to help you understand this divisive issue from a divine perspective. When you give $20 or more today to this Bible teaching ministry, we'll send you Pastor Skip's booklet, The Church and Racism, plus his teaching featuring a conversation with Pastor Tony Clark.

Get these relevant resources today when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Now, we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 as we join Skip Heitzing for today's teaching. Though Jesus is God, though Jesus is equal with God because He Himself is God, though distinct from the Father as a person, He is co-equal and co-eternal with God, with the Father. Yet, Jesus did make this statement, my Father is greater than I am.

I don't know why that throws some people because it's a pretty easy statement. Jesus didn't say my Father is better than I am, but my Father is greater than I am. That's this principle, submission, authority.

He's greater. You have bosses. Some of you work for people who hired you to do a job. Some of you are bosses, but let's just say you work for a boss. You may be much smarter than your boss. Some of you are nodding like, I am much smarter than my boss. That's why he hired me or she hired me. But your boss is still greater than you, not better than you, but greater than you.

If I encounter a police officer on the street who decides to write me up a friendly little notice of some kind, either a reminder or a fine called a ticket, I submit to that because the officer is greater than I am. He's not better than I am, but he is greater than I am. You see the difference. The President of the United States is not better than I am.

No political jokes. He's not better, but he is greater. He has a position. He has an office, just like a husband in a marriage has an office, just like the Father has an office in the Godhead, and just like Christ has an office in the Godhead, and just like Christ has an office in all the world over every man.

So it's that principle of submission and authority. Interesting in Genesis chapter 5, when it retells the creation of humanity, well, I actually marked it because I just thought it was an interesting addendum to this. It says, this is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them, who is them, Adam, male and female, and blessed them and called them mankind.

That's the English translations. The Hebrew translation is Adam. He made them male and female and called them Adam in the day they were created.

Not the Adamses or the Adams family. God called them Adam. So I want you to know the head of every man, he's bringing this authority structure, is Christ. The head of woman is man. The head of Christ is God.

Now continuing that, that's the general principle of authority and order. Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonors his head, but every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. For that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn, but if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered.

Now go back to verse five. Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered his head covered dishonors his head. Now most people read that and they think, okay, somehow if I put a covering over my head and I'm a dude, I'm dishonoring like my head.

Like I'm doing something bad to my head. No, it says the head of every man is whom? Christ. So if the head of every man is Christ, I think what he's referring to is this. When for a man in that culture, during that time period, were to cover his head when he prays, he's dishonoring his head, Christ.

So this begs a little bit of explanation. It seems that Paul is referring to a practice that really didn't become a wholesale Jewish practice until about the third century A.D., but there were already leanings toward it at this time. And that is when men were to pray, they would pray today. If you go to see people in Israel, men pray with a talit, a prayer shawl. Men cover their head or they put a kippah on their head and then they cover their head with a shawl if they're an orthodox man when they pray. And the talit, the prayer shawl, has something called tzitzit on the end of it. Those are the little fringe knots that remind them of the 613 commandments. So you've got the talit with the tzitzit. And it sounds like a rap song almost, right?

It's like I'm going to do something with that. But that was never a Jewish practice until it became codified around the third century A.D. As I said, there were already leanings toward that during this time that people were saying, you need to cover your head when you pray to God. Well, Jewish men never did that, as I said, until this movement came into and that was a more of a Talmudic movement. There's no biblical directive for men to pray with their head covered anywhere in the Old Testament. This came from the idea that when Moses came down from the mountain and received the commandments, he put a veil over his face and covered his face. And so they said, just like Moses covered his face, out of reverence for God, honoring the glory of God, so men should cover their heads. So keep that in mind, right?

You got that thought, that explanation? Go forward to 2 Corinthians. Just flip a few pages. Just go right down the street until you come to 2 Corinthians, chapter 3. Now watch this, verse 7. But if the ministry of death written and engraved on stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because of the glory that excels.

For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament because the veil is taken away in Christ. So there was already this movement starting where Jewish men would wear shawls on their head to cover their head because, according to Paul, it was a misunderstanding of Moses who covered his head. What Paul is saying is Moses didn't cover his head to honor God's glory. Moses covered his face because the glory that was evident in the shining face of Moses was fading away, and he didn't want people to see that fading away, departing. So if you pray with your head uncovered, you are dishonoring your head, Christ, because, according to Paul, the veil is taken away in Christ. You don't need that tradition.

You just come as you are, just the way God made you as a man. You don't have to cover your head. If you do, he is saying you are dishonoring your head.

That's what I believe it's in reference to. But, verse 5, in contrast to that, every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, her head in this case being her husband, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. In those days, in those days and in that culture, women, married women, good women, all would walk out of the house in public with some kind of head covering. The only women that did not wear a veil or a head covering was typically a prostitute. During the Greco-Roman culture, there were two things going on. You know that in Corinth, there was a lot of prostitutes because of the temple of Aphrodite.

I've told you that on a number of occasions, the thousand priestesses on the Acropolis. They would come down not wearing a veil, but their head would be out, their head would be uncovered because they're showing off the goods. The idea of covering is that I am not exposed to anyone except my husband. That's the idea of a veil is that you cover things up. It's very typical today, if you go to the Middle East, there's a modesty standard that goes without saying. In fact, American tourists are told in certain places that men need to cover their knees, women need to cover their shoulders in the very least. But in Islamic cultures, women cover their heads, a hijab, and then the religious also will cover their faces as well, a nakib, to cover their face.

And the idea is that I am sheltering myself, and the only one I will expose myself to is my husband. That same kind of culture existed 2,000 years ago in these parts of the world. Now, I'm convinced if Paul was writing to a Western modern culture, he wouldn't have the same directives because the wearing a veil that made a statement back then or not wearing a veil that made a statement back then is not making the same statement today. So verse 6, if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. So get this, there was not only the idea of prostitutes not wearing veils, but there was in Rome, in Roman culture, and in Greco-Roman society already a feminist movement where women in that era, and you can read the history books on this, how that even in Rome, they all shut themselves, the women shut themselves in the Colosseum in protest on one occasion against almost like a suffrage movement. But women would cut their hair very short, and the statement is, I am equal to a man, I don't have to wear a veil. And so in the 60s, women would burn their bras back in antiquity, they would burn their veils or throw their veils away. And the idea was equality.

So Paul knows that this is a tendency in the culture, and there's confusion in the worship assembly, so he's trying to just sort of make things easier for them when they get together. So verse 7, For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man.

Now he's speaking chronologically. God created Adam first, and then used a portion of the side of Adam, and created Eve, and brought the woman to the man, and says, I'm going to make a helper suitable for him, and that was Eve. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, and this is interesting, because of the angels. Now what does he mean by that, because of the angels? He means one of three things, I believe. You can take your pick.

I'll tell you which one I lean to. Number one, some think he is referring to Genesis chapter 6, when it talks about a group that some scholars believe are angelic beings, where it says, The sons of God looked and saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and there was a cohabitation between these angelic beings and human women. According to the rabbis, it was when these spirits saw the women's long hair that that's what tempted them. So some believe that Paul is referencing that, that the angels fell because of the angels. You know, they didn't keep their authority structure and submission to God.

They fell in Genesis chapter 6. That's one interpretation. Interpretation number two is it's a reference to Isaiah chapter 6, where he gets a vision of God, the glory of God, and there's the angels worshiping before God, and it says the angels had six wings.

With two they would cover their faces, with two they would cover their feet, and with two they would fly. So these angels cover themselves as an act of submission to God. Likewise, it should be that way among women in the church of Corinth.

Interpretation number three. Paul could be just referring to the fact that when we worship, angels are present. Angels join in. Angels observe. We know that they do observe, that they look into, they have a desire to look into the things of salvation. We interest them. The fact that God is so gracious to us is very interesting to angelic beings. It's like they study us. So that when we worship, they're present. So it could be, and I sort of lean to this interpretation being just the simplest, that, you know, you might come to church and say, well, I don't care about pleasing anybody else. At least you ought to care about the fact that angels are present and they're scoping you out.

You always have that audience. So for this reason, women ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. So you take your pick as to which interpretation, any of those three, or you might have another one I don't know about, but whatever. Nevertheless, neither is man.

I like that he balances it out. Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man in the Lord. We are interdependent. This is why I see a value in men's groups and a value in women's groups, but I really see a supreme value when men and women get together and share with one another in the same assembly. There's an interdependence. For, verse 12, as woman came from man, even so man also comes through women, but all things are from God.

You understand what that is? The first woman came from man. Eve came from Adam, but that was a one-off. After that, since then, every single man came from woman. We were born from our mothers.

Men cannot bear children. I know, unfortunately, you get in trouble saying words like that today. I'll get letters. Oh, don't you know? Yes, I do know. So, verse 13, judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, it is glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering. Now, here I do see an ancient thing that Paul is talking about, a local tradition in a Greco-Roman culture that it may not spill over into today, but this part does. This part does because whether it was a Greek culture, Roman culture, or Jewish culture, in most every culture, most men have shorter hair than women, always has been.

Today, it's not a big issue, but I'm just saying in most cultures, and here's why. It's just part of nature. Women have fuller, thicker, longer hair. It grows more easily. There's three stages to hair growth.

Growth, resting and fallout. And men, because of the presence of testosterone, get to phase three much quicker and more regularly. Women, because of estrogen, lock into phase one longer. So, they can grow hair.

Men, after a while, it tends to just sort of level off. So, that's nature. Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it's a dishonor to him? I remember back in the Jesus movement, the hippie days in California, when this became a huge issue. And pastors in our local area of Southern California used to really climb down on us and our pastor for allowing people like me to come to church with long hair. You know, I grew my hair, well, quite long back then. And what's interesting is that the one who was defending us was a bald man. That was Chuck Smith. So, it was just, it was an interesting moment in church history. And he did defend us because when people would say, well, you know, the Bible says it's a sin for a man to have long hair. Chuck would say, the Bible didn't say it's a sin, it just says nature says it's a shame, not a sin or a dishonor, just by the nature of things. But then he would say this, what is long? I mean, how do you define long hair?

Would you say, what would you say about George Washington, George Washington, our first president, who had a ponytail and it wasn't a wig he wore, it was his natural hair? Anyway, verse 16 kind of concludes it, more I could say, but if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God. And some people do want to be contentious. They want to argue over this and let them argue, but Paul is saying, we don't have any such custom, nor do the churches of God. It's just not a big deal. It's an issue there in Corinth. It's an issue there in certain parts of the world and the churches that Paul started around the empire.

I am convinced if Paul were writing to a modern Western culture, he wouldn't write these same kinds of issues because they're not the same kind of cultural mores or signals that were back in that day. If anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God. So all of that to say this, we have no rules on how you should dress when you come to church, except you should be modest. And you should never dress to draw attention to yourself.

And some people, some gals will want to dress in a provocative way, and they seem to be saying, it's very important to me that you look at me, check me out, because they dress in a provocative way so as to direct attention to themselves. So when it comes to the issue of what clothes to wear or what kind of haircut to have, understand this, the real issue is that your old nature needs a haircut. Circumcised the foreskin of your heart, the Bible says. That's really the issue, the inward man, more than the outward man. Man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series of The Bible. Skip Heitzig's message from the series, Expound First Corinthians. Now here's Skip to share how you can keep these messages coming your way and connect others around the world with God's truths. God's truth is the best foundation you can build your life on.

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800-922-1888. Thank you for your generosity. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares how God can use your past to guide you in the present. If your relationship with God is only a past tense experience needs to be brought into the present tense. This is the covenant.

It is a present reality. Your Christian life should be and all of your experiences of the past should never be a hitching post only a guide post. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast your burdens on His word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.