Though Jesus was fully equal with the Father, he looked at the Father as his head. If it was not an assault on Jesus' dignity to do that, It's not an assault on you or me when we're in a relationship where we submit either. Submission is a Christ-like quality that all of us have to learn, and it doesn't imply inequality. Welcome to the Summit Life podcast with J.D. Greer.
We'll join Pastor JD in just a moment, but first I wanted to tell you about a free resource created to help you carry God's truth into everyday life. As Christians, we're called to live differently. But what does that actually look like in a world that often pulls us in the opposite direction? That's the heart behind our free resource, Alien Living, A Quick Guide to 1 Peter. This printable guide walks you through the book of 1 Peter with a chapter-by-chapter summary sheet that highlights the key themes, truths, and verses of each chapter.
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Now, today's teaching is in 1 Corinthians, and Pastor J.D. walks us through one of the most confusing and misinterpreted passages in the entire New Testament. Along the way, we'll learn just how relevant first-century head coverings are for the hot button questions about gender and gender identity that we're all facing here in the 21st century. And most importantly, we'll see that in Christ's service, Every brother and sister finds unimaginable grace and eternal purpose. Here's Pastor Jaden.
You have your Bibles. I want you to take them out and open them to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 as we continue our march. through Paul's first letter to the Corinthians today. Today is varsity level week.
Congratulations for being here. The following message is going to be one of the most difficult, yet I think most important messages that you've ever heard. I say that because you're not likely to hear what I'm about to say anywhere else besides a Bible-teaching church. You wonder where Christians seem like oddballs or where we are like aliens to the world. You're going to see it today.
I want you to remember that Paul's letter to the Corinthians, that we're just going through. I'm not picking the topics, I'm just taking them as he brings them up. Paul's letter to the Corinthians is divided into five major sections. Part one, that we discussed the first few weeks, Paul addressed divisions in the church. That was chapters one through four.
The second section were questions surrounding sex and singleness. That was chapters five through seven. Then we looked at Paul discussing how to navigate. Thirdly, controversies surrounded meat that was offered to idols. In the bigger picture, controversies in the church that keep them from reaching people and make them suspicious of each other.
Today, this weekend, we're going to enter into this fourth section, which begins in chapter 11. And I would just call this one corporate worship wars. And after we spend a few weeks here, we're going to hit the final section, which is the fifth section, which deals with questions. About the resurrection. This fourth section is a doozy.
So, for the next couple of weeks, I need you to put on your theological flack jackets because there's going to be a lot of shrapnel that's flying about, okay? The subject today is women and men in the church.
Some of the most confusing, misinterpreted statements found anywhere in the New Testament are in these verses that we are about to read. And because of some of these confusing phrases, there are a lot of people who just ignore this passage. I'm going to dare say that for some of you that have been in church most of your life, you've never actually heard a message on this passage. They heard it referred to, but never walked through it. The tragedy of that is, in so doing, they miss out on some incredibly timely and important things that the Holy Spirit is trying to say to the church in every generation.
I want you to listen, okay? Every single word of scripture is life, and it is all written for our good, even the hard to understand and the difficult parts of it. I want to know all of it, all of it.
So I'm going to teach you not just what this passage says. I also want to try to show you how to read a difficult passage like this one. You ready? You ready, everybody? Take a deep breath.
Okay, take a deep breath, not too deep, but here we go. Verse 2.
Now I praise you because you remember me and everything and hold fast to the traditions. Just as I delivered them to you. But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man. And the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ. Every man who prays or prophesies with something on his head dishonors his head.
Every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since that is one and the same as having her head shaven. Verse 6: For if a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, And let her head be covered. Verse 7, a man should not cover his head because he is the image and the glory of God.
So too, woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman came from man. Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman was created for the sake of man. This is why, verse 10, a woman should have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. In the Lord, however, woman is not to be independent of man, and man is not independent of woman.
For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman now. We're all born through a mother, and all things come from God. Verse 13, judge for 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 disgrace to him?
But that if a woman has long hair, that's her glory, for her hair is given to her as a covering. If anyone wants to argue about this, we have no other custom. nor do the churches of God. He said, What could possibly be confusing or controversial about this? Right?
Self-explanatory. Let's pray and let's go home. No, I told you. What are we supposed to do with that? I was last weekend.
I was at the Duke Miami game last Saturday night when Duke lost a heartbreaker right at the last second. They were down by two, and you thought for sure, because Duke had the ball, that they were going to hit that last shot, because they always seem to do that. And the guy had an open look, but he just missed. And when he missed, the place went from absolute pandemonium. If you've ever been in Cameron Indoor Stadium, it went from absolute pandemonium.
To just dead silence. It was like a UNC fan's dream of heaven. As Coach K walked out of the arena, he was not far from where I was sitting. As he walked out of the arena, being escorted by police, he had his head kind of cocked back like this. He wasn't saying anything.
And you could just tell the expression on his face was, I'm way too old for this. That is how I feel with this passage right here. There are a number of interpretive challenges in this passage. For one, we're not sure if by head covering, Paul means an actual covering, like a veil or a shawl, or if Paul is talking about just having long hair. Paul seems to imply both things in this passage.
What's he really concerned about? Second, we're not exactly sure why he is concerned about women wearing a shawl. Is it a modesty thing? Is it a gender distinction thing? Is it a show of respect thing?
He seems to pivot back and forth on that too. Third, what does it mean that the man is the head of the wife? Or the man is the head of a woman. If you are familiar with biblical scholarship, you might know that that question has killed a lot of trees. You see, Kephalai, the word in Greek that Paul uses for head, it usually means authority, like head of school or head of the staff.
But in some contexts, Kephalai can mean source, like the headwaters of a river.
So, which does Paul mean here? Is he talking about man as the source of the woman or man as the authority over the woman? Fourth, even after we figure all this out, we're not quite sure how to apply it in our context. Is Paul saying in this passage that women ought to wear shawls or veils in church? Is it a sin for a woman to come in here with a bobbed haircut?
Were my independent Baptist forefathers correct in saying that based on this passage, long hair on a man is sinful? How many of you grew up in a church where this verse was quoted to say that men should not have long hair? How many of you? Anybody remember the song that went with it? This may be just me, but if your hair is too long, there's sin in your heart.
Get it cut today, make a brand new start. Right, you'll live a life of fear and dread with that tangled mess upon your head. Is that a minute? We knew the song. Is that what this is saying?
One more reason that this passage is particularly challenging. is we get understandably sensitive when we talk about gender issues in our society because there's been so much misinformation and confusion and stereotypes and quite frankly, oppression around these topics. Maybe you've seen women subjugated or disrespected and oppressed. Maybe that was especially in the church. Maybe you grew up in a church where men were the only ones who ever really did anything.
They said that women were equal. They taught that, but their role in the church, women's role in the church, was basically to make coffee and copies and organize the potluck suppers. They didn't really have any input in decision making. They weren't really treated as people that had a lot to contribute to ministry. Men did all those things.
Right, so that's one side, and the other side, we now live in a culture that says that all gender distinctions.
Well, they're just sociological constructs. You can be biological sex he, but gender-identified her, or non-binary, they, them, them. And if you insist on saying gender is a real thing, Well, you can lose your job. I just asked J.K. Rowley.
If it helps encourage you, the context that Paul was writing in was perhaps. even more contentious than ours is. On the one hand, you had the Jews in Paul's congregation who were uber-traditional and very patriarchal. On the other side, Corinth was one of the most, we've seen this already, sexually confused societies in history. Remember, I told you that the word Corinthianize in Greek was actually used in the Roman Empire as a verb.
To Corinthianize somebody meant to sexually corrupt them.
Well, they got Corinthianized. Sexual promiscuity was rampant in the city. Historians tell us there was a really large gay and lesbian community there. Transgenderism was a big deal down there, too. Cross-dressing was common by both genders.
There was even a division of the gladiator games that were hosted there where women would shave their heads and, let's just say, conceal their femininity and enter the arena and fight as if they were men. That's the context into which the Apostle Paul says these things.
Now, he's speaking into this. He's correcting both audiences at the same time. Keep that in mind. I got four questions for this passage. First.
We're gonna look at what does it mean when Paul says that the man is the head of the woman. Second, isn't that just a cultural thing? Haven't we moved on past that? Wasn't Paul just making an accommodation for an ancient people, something no longer applicable to us? Third, what's the deal with the head coverings?
And fourth, what does that mean for us? That's what we're going to do this weekend. Number one, what does it mean for the man to be the head of the woman? All right, another deep breath. Here we go.
I'm getting way too old for this, I promise. As I mentioned, the word for head in Greek is Kethalae, and it can mean either authority, like the head of the staff, or source, like the headwaters of a river. It is pretty clear in this passage that Paul means both. and that one of them for him implies the other. According to Genesis, Eve was created out of the side of man.
He was her source, so to speak, right? And that order has some kinds of implications. According to verses 8, 9, and 10, there is a flow of authority, even a flow of glory. And how God set up the relationship of men and women. While they are a complementing pair, both being made in the image of God, there is a sense in which woman comes from the man and was created for the man.
That is not true in the reverse. He, the man, was created first. She was created from his side. She was called the Edzer Kenegdo, the helper. In other places, Paul directly connects this idea of headship to submission.
In Ephesians 5, for example, Paul is going to say this: verse 22: Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. Because the husband, see this, is the head of the wife. The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Christ being the head of the church implies a submission. The man deemed a head implies a submission in certain relationships as well.
The writer Hannah Anderson, from whom I've learned a lot, she puts it this way: at its most basic, scripture makes two claims about the ministry of men and women. First, that men and women are equal image bearers worthy of equal honor and value. Second, that men and women hold different roles with men exercising a headship. that corresponds to a particular kind of authority in the church. and in the home.
Now, if there were ever a loaded concept to talk about in church, headship and submission would be it.
So let me stop and tell you a few things that headship does not mean. Number one, male headship does not mean, or just say letter A. Letter A. Male headship does not mean the inferiority of the woman. The book of Genesis that Paul quotes from is clear that both men and women are made in the image of God differently, yes.
Each revealing God's glory and character in different ways, complementary ways. Differently, yes, but equally. Paul, in another place, Galatians 3:28, is going to say that there is no distinction between male and female in Christ. And what he means is that it's not that we're not gendered anymore, it's that we both have equal value in our identity in Christ. Even in saying verse 7 that the woman is the glory of the man, Paul is not demeaning her.
Right, she was created as a glorious complement to the man, in many ways, better. I remember one time in our family devotions, my family, we were discussing this. And I pointed out how when the writer of Genesis describes the creation of Adam and Eve, the writer uses two different words for create. For Adam, the creation of Adam, he uses the word bara, which just means create. He uses a different word for the creation of Eve, uses the word bana, which means fashioned or designed.
The man was just created, the woman was designed. Our daughter Allie, who was seven years old at the time, said, Oh, it's like Adam was God's sloppy copy. Before he made it prettier with Eve. And I said, I guess you could probably see it that way. Andrew Wilson, the British theologian, uses this illustration.
He says, The apple is the glory of the apple tree. The tree is the source of the apple.
So, which is better? Neither. But apples shouldn't act like trees, and trees shouldn't act like apples. They're both good and useful, but they have a unique relationship with one another that is good and right and should not be muddled. To muddle this relationship is to say that God's design is not good.
Men and women can play different roles in relationships without implying the superiority or inferiority of one or the other. Here's how I knitted that. You see what Paul says in verse three? Paul says in verse 3, he says, but I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man. And the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ.
God is the head of Christ. God, there, by the way, means Father. God exists eternally as a Trinity, which means there are three distinct persons in God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father's not the Son, the Son's not the Spirit, but there's only one God. Jesus, of course, being the Son of God, is not any less than God because He's made of, we're not made, but He is of the same essence of God.
He's the same essence of the Father, which means that he is fully equal to the Father. But when Jesus came to earth, he submitted to the Father. And so when he was on earth, he said things like, not my will, Father, but yours be done. Though Jesus was fully equal with the Father, he looked at the Father as his head. That was not an assault on his dignity, nor did it reduce his equality with God.
The point is: if it was not an assault on Jesus' dignity to do that, It's not an assault on you or me when we are in a relationship where we submit either. Submission is something that God commands of all of us in various capacities. Submission is a Christ-like quality that all of us have to learn. All of us have to learn, and it doesn't imply inequality. Think of it this way: one of our elders here at the Summit Church is a policeman.
Which means that when we're doing church stuff, When we're doing church stuff, I'm his head. I'm his authority. But the moment we step out on the road. He becomes my authority. Because he has the blue and red lights of headship.
Being in submission to me in here does not imply his inferiority or vice versa. That's the first thing it doesn't mean. Secondly, male headship does not imply the subservience of the woman. As if my wife exists as a serf in my house. House.
While the command that is given to her to submit to me as the head, well, that's the command given to her. The command given to me is to lay down my life for her. to love her like Christ loved the church. I would very humbly suggest that I have the harder of the two commands. I have to get up every day and think: how do I lay down my life for Veronica today?
How do I put her first? Where do I need to suffer so that she can thrive? If I am obeying this command, by the way, it means that I will lose 95% of the disagreements in my house voluntarily. Because in every situation, in every argument, I'm putting her needs and her interests above my own. Yes, I've been given some authority to lead, but it is not an authority to get done what I want to get done.
this authority to help her and the family flourish. Like Pastor Tony Evans says, spiritual headship for the man is not license to do whatever you want to do, it is empowerment to do what you ought to do. which is to lay down your life for your wife. Guys, if you as a man are not regularly asking your wife, how can I serve you? And if you're not losing about 95% of the disagreements, you are not fulfilling your role in your marriage.
So forget about submission for a while. You focus on God wants from you. And you might find that submission from her begins to come a lot more easily. Number three. Or letter C, male headship does not imply independent decision making on the part of the man.
God gave to each gender a different set of filters through which they see situations, and they work best when they're leading together. Listen, ladies, even though God always refers to himself as a he in the Bible. He often compares himself to a woman. You ever notice that? There are certain qualities of his character that are better revealed in women than in men.
For example, he often talks about how he relates to his people in terms of a mother. A brokenhearted mother. In Isaiah, he says that he's more attentive to his children than a doting mother. In Matthew, he says he cares for his prodigal child Israel like a brokenhearted mother. Women in general have a stronger relational sensitivity and a stronger nurturing instinct than men do, and that is by design.
Those instincts bring invaluable perspective into every decision in the family and the church. Churches or families where men make all the decisions alone are going to end up in trouble. No, saying that man is the head and that the wife should submit to the husband does not mean that women are absent from decision-making. It just means that in a tie, The man bears the weight of making the final decision. Tim and Kathy Keller.
Use this great example in their book, The Meaning of Marriage. I would commend that book to all of you. He talks about the decision they made back in the early 90s to move to New York City. He was a small pastor or a pastor of a small church in Hopewell, Virginia. They had a very comfortable life there, loved the people, and people loved them.
But he was feeling like, man, there was this opportunity in Manhattan to go plant a church. And he was feeling like, I think we should do this. She, after praying about it, felt like the answer was no. For about six months, he said they were just stymied and they could not. He felt strongly yes, she felt strongly no.
The time had come, the do or die moment, to make the decision. They couldn't put off the decision any longer.
So he said, I conceded. He said, okay, if you don't want to go. We're not going to go. I love this story. His wife, Kathy, said, oh, no, you don't.
You coward. You are not going to make me bear the weight of this decision. You got to make it. He had to make the decision after getting her input and wrestling with it. for what God wanted for the family.
Again, spiritual headship is not licensed to do what you want to do. It's empowerment to do what you ought to do. I will tell you the number of times this has actually happened in my marriage, I can count on one hand. It's not Austin. But there are times that, yes, I get the tie-breaking vote.
So headship in the whole means that in a tie, The man has to cast the deciding vote. In the church, the headship of men means that they bear the weight of occupying the office of pastor or elder. In several places here in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy, Paul makes clear that the office of pastor-elder, by the way, in the New Testament, those are the same office. It's not pastor-elder, they're the same thing. There's no distinction.
And that office, he says, which carries the weight of the official teaching ministry of the church. the governance and the guidance and the guardianship of the church. That office sits on the shoulders of qualified men because that's how God designed it. Which is why here at the Summit Church, only men serve in the capacity of pastor or elders. That's going to lead me to D, and this is a really important one.
Male headship does not mean that women cannot teach and lead in the church. Notice in this passage, Paul assumes that women are praying and are prophesying publicly in the church. Verse 5, women, when you stand up. and pray. Not if, but when.
When you stand up and prophesy in the church service, when you deliver a spirit-given word from God like Mary did in the Gospel of Luke or Deborah did in the book of Judges or Huldah did in 2 Chronicles or Priscilla did in Acts or Phoebe did in the book of Romans, when you're proclaiming God's message, do it in a way that doesn't overturn God's design for the genders. That is, don't do it in the capacity of an elder or pastor. For many people, the book of Revelation feels mysterious, confusing, and maybe even a little intimidating. It's filled with vivid imagery, difficult passages, and questions about the future that can leave us wondering where to even begin. But what if Revelation wasn't meant to leave us fearful or confused?
What if its primary purpose is to help us see Jesus more clearly? That's the heart behind Pastor J.D. Greer's newest Bible study, the Book of Revelation. In this 12-week printed study, you'll walk through one of the Bible's most talked about books and discover a powerful message of hope, endurance, and confidence in Christ. Rather than focusing on speculation or trying to decode every symbol, this study helps you understand the big picture of Revelation and why its message matters for your everyday life.
You'll discover how the book of Revelation encourages believers to remain faithful in difficult seasons, stand firm in a changing culture, and trust that God is still in control no matter what is happening around them. Most importantly, you'll gain a clearer vision of Jesus, his power, his presence, and his ultimate victory. Whether you're studying on your own, with a small group, or alongside your family, Revelation will help you fix your eyes on the one who is sovereign over history, faithful in suffering, and victorious in the end. We will mail you a printed copy of the Book of Revelation Bible Study when you give a gift of $45 or more to support the ministry of Summit Life. Give us a call at 866-335-5220.
That's 866-335-5220. Or go to jdgreer.com and request your copy today. Here at the Summit Church, we believe that women, we believe scripture teaches that women are given access to all the spiritual gifts. that men have access to, including teaching and leading. And they can and should develop those gifts and use them in the body of Christ at the highest levels.
We have women that lead teams here. They teach, they speak into decision making and just about everything else. But we respect what God says in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy and don't have them do that in the capacity of pastor or elder. Bible teacher Jen Wilkin, who has spoken here at the Summit Church, says, The challenge, the challenge of those of us in church leadership. Of those of us in church leadership is to consider whether.
We are creating, crafting a church culture that permits women to serve or one that pursues women to serve. We want to be the latter here. And where we have not been that, I would ask your forgiveness. Finally, on this, letter E: Male headship does not mean that women cannot lead in society. A lot of times passages like this get overapplied.
To say that women shouldn't have jobs outside the home. or they shouldn't leave men in any context like the government or the workplace. That is far beyond the scope. of what Paul says here. Paul's main arena for application is the home and the church.
Beyond that, we should not make any rules because God doesn't make any rules. The paragon of the wise woman in Proverbs 31 clearly has a robust, high responsibility job with lots of people working for her. Deborah in the book of Judges was a ruler at the highest levels of national leadership.
So was Queen Esther.
So let's not over apply this. That's our first question. What is headship? Secondly. Isn't the whole concept of male headship, isn't that just a cultural accommodation for an archaic society?
Isn't Paul just making a cultural accommodation for backwards people, one that's irrelevant to us?
now that we are so enlightened and we've progressed so far no for two reasons Paul says, first reason, that the divine order is rooted in creation itself. Not in Corinthian culture, but in creation. In verses 12 through 14, Paul says, these things are true because of how God created men and women. In verse 14, he says, nature itself teaches us these things. Other places that Paul talks about headship, he does the same thing, like Ephesians 5.
He points back to the created order as the pattern, not to a contemporary situation. If Paul was just talking in one particular situation, he would not have pulled all the way back to creation because creation applies to all cultures. By the way, when he references creation, he references pre-fall creation. Before the human race fell into sin. I point that out because some people say that gender distinctions are the result of the fall.
And once you come to Christ, all gender roles and distinctions are removed. But that's just not true. Whenever Paul talks about headship, he appeals to the pre-fall design. Creation as God originally intended it in paradise. The second reason we know this is not a cultural accommodation is that Paul ties this role-playing.
to the demonstration of the gospel itself. He says that how men and women relate in the church and in the home gives a picture to the world of the gospel. We are in our marriages and in the church, we are reenacting the gospel. Men, their role in that play is to give a picture of Christ by leading and laying down their lives for their wives like Christ did the church. Women give their role in that stage play, that drama is to give a picture of Christ and how they submit to and serve and bring glory to the man.
So that's question two. It's not just a cultural thing. Paul ties it to created order and gospel demonstration.
Now, I'm going to do these last two questions together, questions three and four. What's the deal with head coverings? And how in the world does it apply to us? Verse 4. Paul's application of honoring male headship is to say, Every man who prays or prophesies with something on his head dishonors his head.
Every woman who prays and prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, which in this context is the man. And that in turn dishonors Christ. In those days. Covering your head, whether by means of a veil, by the way, when I say veil, don't think like a Muslim, nothing but your eyes veil, but a shawl or a scarf. That was a sign of femininity.
It was a sign of modesty and respect. Historian Kyle Harper said. He says, Roman women in late antiquity were to be marked above all else by. I don't know if I can pronounce this word in Latin. Pudda sidia is how I would say it.
If you're a Latin teacher, don't correct me. And for a mature woman to wear her hair unveiled was one of the chief signs of sexual immodesty. It's what it communicated. I was dead. This is now.
Is that still what it communicates? That's the question. Because back then it communicated. either cross-dressing or sexual immodesty. Let me teach you something really important about Bible interpretation.
Because you can go wrong in one of two ways with a passage like this. You can either overapply it or underapply it. Paul and other Bible writers will sometimes teach a timeless principle. And then they will encourage their readers in that first audience. to apply it in a culturally appropriate way.
whatever makes sense in their context. the first way you can go wrong is to make their cultural expression normative for everybody. That's over applying. The other way you can go wrong is by failing to extract the timeless principle and dismiss all of what the Bible writer is saying as cultural, applicable only to that one group. That's underapplied.
The right thing to do is pull out the timeless principle and then figure out what it looks like in your context. Let me use a different biblical example to help illustrate what I mean. A few chapters later in this letter, 1 Corinthians 16, Paul's going to end this letter with this command. Greet one another with a holy kiss. In those days, kissing somebody on both cheeks was the common way to show friendship.
intimacy, warmth to the person that you were meeting, particularly if they were family.
Now, this is not what we do today.
So, you can take that verse literally and say, I'm going to obey literally what the Bible says and insist on kissing every Christian you encounter. Which is going to creep everybody out, get you fired off of our greeting team, and make you the kind of person everybody at this church avoids. That's just not a good thing to do with that verse. Or you might say, well, since greeting one another with kisses is just not what we do anymore, that verse doesn't apply to me. But then you'd fail to see the timeless principle that does apply to you.
And that is greet one another with the warmth and the tenderness of family. The right thing to do is figure out the culturally appropriate way of expressing that principle in our day. For us, that would probably be greet one another with a warm handshake. Or a COVID-approved fist bump. Or the patented Christian co-ed side hug, right?
You know, the Christian side hug, or if you're in the same gender, the Christian fist in the back bro hug. We're supposed to take the unchanging principle of greeting Greeting each other like family, we're supposed to put it into the changing expressions of our culture. You got it? Same is true in this principle of head covering and long hair. What communicates in our day?
what these things communicated in their day.
Well, what did head covering communicate in their day? That's the question we start with. First, Already said this, femininity. Verse 14, nature itself teaches you. That men and women are different.
And thus they should look different. And not try to look like each other. The point is not long or short hair. The point is, every culture has things that distinguish men from women. And we should not blur those.
In Corinth, men did not have long hair unless they were trying to cross-dress. Women didn't have short hair unless they were trying to look like men. And Paul said, don't do that. And that was their culture, but it's no longer true in ours.
So the question is, what does dressing in gender appropriate ways? that honor the distinction as nature look like in our culture.
Well, probably it would mean men not wearing skirts. Unless you're listening in from Scotland and that's common there. A bunch of Scottish people writing me angry emails right now.
Okay, I get it, that's different, but I'm thinking here. If you're a guy, it's probably safe to say you shouldn't be wearing a midriff blouse with lace and sequins and mom jeans. You shouldn't dress like David on Schitt's Creek. Right? God made you a man.
You dress like a man. What that looks like changes from place to place, and even within cultures. 50 years ago, a man with an earring may have indicated that he was looking feminine. That's just not true anymore. 50 years ago, a girl with a tattoo indicated that she's looking like a man.
That's not true anymore. I love what Kevin de Young says about this passage. He says, However, However, we apply this passage, we can assert without equivocation. That God wants men to look like men and women to look like women. Then what that physically looks like will vary from time to time and place to place.
The Bible here affirms an essential truth no longer obvious in our day. It is disgraceful for a man to appear to be a woman and a woman to appear to be a man. It is dishonoring to God to do things that mask. or confuse your gender.
So first, men in every culture should look like men and women should look like women. Second. When women lead and teach in the church. They should do so in ways that demonstrate. Not attempt to subvert.
God's order. Like I said, here at the Summit Church, we believe. That women have access to all the spiritual gifts that men do, which includes teaching and leading. and that they can and should and must. Develop them for use in the body of Christ at the highest levels.
We have women that lead teams here, that teach, that speak into decision-making, cast vision, baptize, lead in communion, and just about everything else. But we believe based on this chapter in 1 Timothy 2 That they can and should do so in a way that shows that they respect the order that God has established. Having a woman wear a head covering when she's on stage no longer communicates that respect like it did in Corinth. But this is the reason, for example. We don't, at least for now, have women give the main message on Sunday morning.
Because in our context, people assume that the one who does that on Sunday morning is the elder pastor. That's not to say that women don't have a lot to say in the church.
Some of the people I learn from most in the body of Christ are women. Elizabeth Elliott, Jen Wilkin, Elise Fitzpatrick, Beth Moore, Hannah Anderson, Rosaria Butterfield, Rebecca McLaughlin, Jackie Hill Perry, not to mention the numerous women we have on staff here that I've gotten to work with over the years who have in many ways, not just influenced me, but some of them mentored me, like Bonnie Strum or Lori Francis or Lesrie Hildreth or Amy Whitfield or 15 others I can think of. And sometimes I want to bring them on stage and have them share with you directly instead of me just quoting them. But you'll notice that when we do that, we've chosen to keep me or another pastor on stage when they're here. It's not because we don't trust them or they're not capable, far from it.
We just know that in our culture, being alone in this spot communicates pastor elder. And what we communicate is important. Dr. Karen Swallow Pryor, who is a literature professor over at Southeastern, she said it well. She said that the reality of Christ being head of the church.
is reflected metaphorically in the appointment of men. as the source for the delivery of the word to the church. That is a biblical distinction we want to honor because the apostle said in 1 Corinthians 11. that not to do so was dishonoring to God. There are other ways a woman can communicate this submission and respect for divine order, like wearing a wedding ring, taking her husband's last name, how she dresses.
These can all be symbols that she recognizes and respects the order. that God has set up in the church.
Now, I know, I know some of you hearing this. might say well people Once this gets out, they're going to say that we're on the wrong side of history with all this. I get it. I really do. But I made up my mind a long time ago.
That it is much more important to be on the right side of the Bible than it is the right side of our culture's ever-shifting view of history. The wise man builds his house upon the rock of God's word, not on the shifting sands of cultural opinion.
So, you go ahead and be on the right side of history. I'm going to stay on the right side of Jesus. Amen? All right. I love I love Andrew Wilson's.
I love Andrew Wilson's conclusion of 1 Corinthians 11. We have to strive, he said, to display these two facts. Men and women are different. Number two, men and women are of equal value. Andrew Wilson says: if the way you're trying to show distinctions actually degrades one gender, That's a failure.
If the way you're trying to display equality actually erases a distinction. That's also a failure. That's what we strive to do here at the Summit Church. And we do so. with the knowledge that I started with that God's word is good.
His design is the best, even when it goes against culture. And we'd all do well to heat it. And maybe the other thing I want to leave you with is this. Ladies, we need more of you to sign up in leadership here. Forgive us if we have ever implied that what you bring to this church is less important than what a guy brings.
We need a lot more women leading and being developed than we currently have. Why don't you bow your heads? Let me pray, Father. We believe your word is good. We believe it not because we understand it, but because it comes from you.
I know my own marriage has been enriched. My own experience in the church has been enriched by people who sought to be faithful to. These kinds of things. God, make us countercultural in all the right ways. Summit church be a picture of Christ-like husbands who lay down their lives.
And Christ-like wives who Submit to serve and honor and bring glory too. Their husbands. Father, I pray that in the church, God, we would have a healthy culture of men and women. Sisters and brothers in the church who are focused on lifting each other up, laying down their lives. and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
We pray all this, God. We ask it all. We ask for your help in Jesus' name. We always want to be on the right side of the Bible's message rather than the right side of our shifting culture. What an important message here on the Summit Life podcast with JD Greer.
Don't forget to check out the brand new Revelation study at jdgreer.com. We'll see you soon. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries. Um
