1 Corinthians chapter 11, and let me begin by reading the last
few verses of chapter 10. It says, Whether therefore ye
eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offense, neither to
the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God, even
as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit,
but the profit of many, that they may be saved, or that they
may be delivered. Be ye followers of me, even as
I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that
ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I
have delivered them to you. And I would have you know that
the head of every man is Christ, the head of the woman is the
man, the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying,
having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. But every woman that
prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoreth her
head. For that is even all one, as
if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered,
let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman
to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed
ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image
and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. For
the man is not of the woman, but the woman is of the man.
Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for
the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her
head because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is the
man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in
the Lord. For as the woman is of the man,
even so is the man also by the woman. But all things are of God. Judge
in yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair,
it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair,
it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. But if any man seem to be contentious,
we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. Now in this
that I declare unto you, I praise you not, that ye come together
not for the better, but for the worst. For first of all, when
you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions
among you, and I partly believe it. For there must also be heresies
among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest
among you. When you come together, therefore,
into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in
eating, every one taketh before other his own supper, and one
is hungry, and another is drunken. What, have ye not houses to eat,
to drink in, or despise ye the church of God, and shame them
that have not? What shall I say unto you? Shall
I praise you in this? I praise you not. For I have
received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that
the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took
bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said,
Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do in
remembrance of me. After the same manner also he
took the cup, when he had sucked, saying, This cup is the New Testament
in my blood. This do ye, as often as ye drink
it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread,
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.
Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup
of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood
of our Lord. But let a man examine himself,
and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he
that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation
to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many
are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would
judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged,
we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned
with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when
ye come together to eat, tarry one for the other. And if any
man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together under
condemnation. And the rest will I set in order
when I come." Now, there are a lot of things to cover in this
chapter, take a few verses of it and look at it. Of course,
keeping in mind that the main thing that Paul is teaching throughout
this book of Corinthians is the unity of the church of God. That is, the unity of the people
of God in the church of God, and that we are not islands unto
ourselves. We don't just take what we like
about one another and the meeting, but we are all one unit. We're all together. And when
one member suffers, we all suffer. And when one member is in trouble,
we're all in trouble. We ought to be mindful of one
another's need, as he said, bear ye one another's burden and so
fulfill the law of Christ. Now, a lot of people get all
hung up about keeping the law, and if you're going to keep the
law, then that's it right there. He said so. You know, you will
fulfill the law of Christ if you bear one another's burdens.
That is, if you have empathy one towards the other and you
are concerned for the well-being of your brethren. That is to
keep the law according to the New Testament. Love one another
as he has told us. And so he said that he did not
seek his own things. And he said, every man, do not
let every man seek out what he wants, but let every man seek
out what is a profit to others that all may be delivered. And then he says, Be ye followers
of me, as also I am of Christ. Now Paul is not making a blanket
statement here saying you do everything I do. But he gave
much of a modifier here. He said, Be ye followers of me,
even as also I am a follower of Christ. Now if he said, if
I'm not acting like a follower of Christ, he didn't say to emulate
him, did he? We don't have men as our guide,
but we do have men as our example as they walk in Christ. And so
that is part of the reason that the Lord put men together in
the church is so that we might see the demonstration of Christ
working in His people as He works in our lives day by day and He
teaches us things and He causes us to be mindful of one another's
needs and we have concern for one another, and that is indeed
to be a follower of Christ. And so he says here, Be followers
of me, even as also I am a follower of Christ. He says, I praise
you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the
ordinances as I have delivered them to you. Now some people
make a big deal out of what this word ordinance is here. The word
literally means tradition. Now, that covers a lot of ground,
and a lot of people say, well, the ordinances are the Lord's
Supper and baptism. You'll hear that a lot of times.
Somebody will say, well, this is the ordinance. Well, it is
an ordinance. There's no doubt about that the
Lord's Supper is an ordinance, even as baptism is an ordinance,
but loving one another is an ordinance also. I mean, that's
a tradition that God's people pass on to one another. That's
something that He says, I'm teaching you. And I want you to keep the
ordinances as I have delivered you. And then He starts talking
about something here that's very important. It is an unfortunate thing that
many of the lessons that are taught in the Word of God made
into their carnal illustration, and the carnal illustration becomes
the thing that is most important rather than the thing itself.
And this is a true thing about this particular passage of Scripture
here. Now I will tell you this, and
it is my conviction, and if somebody has a different concept of it,
I certainly would not fight with them about it. Paul is not talking
about cloth. He is not talking about straw. He is not talking about any matter
of physical device that somebody might put upon their head when
he is talking about let the women be covered. That is not what
he is getting at. Now I understand that some people
read this Scripture and they come to the conclusion that it
is proper for women to wear a physical covering upon their head. And
I certainly respect that for any woman who is so convicted
by the Spirit of God and she reads the Word of God that that's
what she ought to do, I certainly would not tell her not to do
that. So it is not about us deciding what somebody must do or what
they shouldn't do in this matter. But it is necessary to understand
what the apostle is getting at, because you can wear the thing
on your head, a piece of cloth, you can put it on your head,
you can paste it on there with bobby pins, or you can do it
however you want to do it, and you may still be uncovered insofar
as what Paul is talking about right here. And now that's just
like a lot of churches, some churches, believe. And when the Lord gave the example
of washing the saints' feet, that He was literally teaching
that we ought to perform this task with bowls of water when
we come together. And I certainly, again, I would
never in a million years fight with somebody over that. And
if somebody is convinced and convicted that they need to do
that, I certainly would not disapprove of it in any way. But a person
may take a bowl of water and may wash one another's feet in
that bowl of water and still miss what it is that the Lord
Jesus was teaching His disciples when He washed their feet. So we need to keep these things
in their proper perspective. And we're not trying to teach
men to do something or not to do something in that realm. But
we are seeking by the grace of God to get at what it is He is
talking about here. Because it is vitally important
that we understand what it is He is talking about here, rather
than thinking, oh well, this is it, just some lighthearted
consideration, we're going to start doing this, and now look
at us, we're all doing this, because we're being obedient
to the Scripture. Well, maybe we're not, you know,
because we do such things. So let's look at what He's saying
here. Now He said, I would have you
to know that the head of every man is Christ. The head of every
man. That is the one who is in authority
over every man. Now the Lord has made a hierarchy
in the earth. He has put authority in the earth. And He has demonstrated that
He is the absolute authority in no uncertain terms. There
is no other head in the strictest sense of the word other than
Christ. He's the head of all things.
He's the one who's the ruler over all things. He is the head
of every man that is born into the world. Now, he uses this
illustration and he sets forth this order that he has put into
the world. And we disregard it at our own
peril. And he has demonstrated in this
fashion. He has made Christ the head of
the man. The man is not his own authority. He has an authority that he answers
to. And it is Christ. The woman,
he said, is the head of the woman, is the man. Now that, in our
society and in the eyes of the women's lib idea is that that
is somehow some great burden that is put upon women. But this
is not about a burden. Is it a burden for Christ to
be our head? I mean, is that a burden? No,
that's a glorious thing. And in the same fashion, as a
woman would submit herself unto the Lord, it's a glorious thing.
to have her head to be her husband, even as the Scripture gives the
illustration that Sarah called Abraham Lord. Now, does that
mean that we are going to go around and demand that our wife
call us Lord? No, but it is setting forth a
proper relationship so that Men understand not, that the purpose
of this is not to subjugate women. The purpose of this illustration
is to show us that we're all subjugated unto Christ. Now that's
the purpose of it. But the practical outflowing
of it, just like marriage is a demonstration of the union
of Christ to His church as a man and a woman come together, so
that's illustrated. It's a very imperfect illustration,
is it not? Wouldn't you say? I mean, when
you look at what marriage is, especially in our society, it's
a very poor imitation. But nonetheless, it is the illustration
that the Lord has given. And so in the same fashion, He's
setting forth this illustration of Christ being the head of the
man, and He's illustrating how Christ is the head of the man
by showing the relationship of the wife and the husband. You
know, if there is any woman who takes issue with what Paul says
here, all I can say is, take it up with Paul and the Lord.
Don't take it up with me because I'm just telling you what the
Scripture says. Now what you do with it beyond
that is between you and Him. But this is what the Scripture
says. It says that the head of the woman is the man. And the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying,
having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. Now, does that mean
that if I've got a baseball cap on and I pray, that somehow or
other that disqualifies my prayer? Well, maybe so. Of course, that's not what he's
talking about here, is it? Now, he's using that as an illustration,
and of course, it's an amazing thing. I thought, you know, about
this. The Jews, they always wear that
little cap on their head, and I've never studied into that
to see why it was, but Paul said, if a man has his head covered...
Now, I don't know, you know, what he's got reference to, okay,
in the practical sense, but I know what he's teaching here. Okay? And so he's saying that a man
shouldn't have his head covered because who's his head? Christ. Christ is his head. And so he's
not covering his head. His head's uncovered because
Christ is all in all. And so his prayer is that way. Now, in this sense, the man represents
Christ, In the illustration of the man and the woman, the man
represents Christ in the marriage, does he not? He's the bride,
she's the bridegroom. And so in this fashion, it says
here that every man praying or prophesying having his head covered
dishonoreth his head. But every woman that prayeth
or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoreth her head,
for that is even all one as if she were shaving." Now, I know
it has become kind of vogue in some circles today for
women to shave their head, but by and large, by and large, most
women do not want to go around with a shaved head. You know,
I mean, that is a natural thing, is it not? I mean, you do not
have to teach a little girl to be proud of her hair. I mean,
most little girls like their hair. You know, I know my little
granddaughter Lily. I mean, she's not hardly even
out of diapers much, and that's really important to her, you
know, about her hair. And so that's just the way that
it is. And so he's saying here that
if a woman should have no honor unto her head, then it would
be the same as being shorn. Now who is the head of the woman
in this illustration, this beautiful illustration that he's setting
forth as he sets forth the order in which God made the world?
He's saying, don't dishonor your husband. Now remember what he's
going to go on to tell these Corinthians. He said, you know,
if a woman has a question, Let her ask her husband when she
gets home. Now, does that mean that she's
got to be quiet? Not specifically, although the
Scripture does say let the women keep silence in the church, but
it doesn't. I don't believe he's speaking
there in an absolute sense, but he has reflection under what
he's talking about here. She's not to embarrass her husband
by asking questions that he could answer for her. In other words,
it would be like a slight to her husband if she sought advice
from somebody else before she sought advice from her husband.
I mean, that's just what the Scriptures are setting forth
here. And so it says here, every woman that prayeth or prophesied
with her head uncovered, that is, that she is not in a subjection
to her husband in the scriptural sense in which that is set forth,
she dishonoreth her head, or she dishonoreth her husband.
And she is even as one that was shaven. If the woman be not covered,
then let her be shorn. If it be a shame for a woman
to be shorn, then let her be covered, that is, be in subjection
to her husband. Now what is the purpose of this?
For the man indeed ought not to cover his head forasmuch as
he is the image and glory of God." In this relationship, in
this illustration that is set forth here, the husband is even
as Christ. But the woman is the glory of
the man. Does Christ have regard to His
bride? Of course He does. She's the
apple of His eye. She's that one in whom His greatest
delight is. He finds great comfort in her. He loves her. And so in this
way, the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of
the woman. In other words, the Lord didn't
create the woman first. Now, He could have. If it had
pleased Him to do so, He could have made Eve And then he could
have taken Adam out of her side, but that is not how he did it.
Now once again, I didn't make that up and I didn't set that
down, but that's just the way that it is. The Lord made the
man and He took the woman out of the man. Neither was the man
created for the woman, but the woman was created for the man. Those are things that can't be
denied. I mean, that's just the way it
was because the Lord said to Adam, I will make thee and help
me for thee. I'm going to make you a wife
that is particularly suited to the exact need that you have.
And the Lord made the woman for the man. For this cause ought
the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. That is a way of saying that
this is a spiritual matter and that she ought to have this consideration
that the woman ought to have power on her head, that is, she
ought to give glory to Him in this spiritual way on her head
because of the angels. There may be some other meanings
behind that, but I haven't discovered them. And it certainly is not
introducing heavenly creatures here that they're somehow walking
around and looking to see if a woman's got coverings on her
head or if she's in submission to her husband. But because these
are spiritual matters, she ought to have power on her head. That
is, her head ought to be covered as she is in submission to the
man. Now listen to what he says here.
Now he has set this forth, has he not, that in no uncertain
terms the man is the head of the woman. But then he says something,
nevertheless, even though that is an absolute fact, nevertheless,
neither is the man without the woman. The man is not complete
without the woman. He is not fulfilled without the
woman. And he is without the woman,
neither the woman without the man in the Lord. In other words,
we have a symbiotic relationship, and it is that which is designed
by the Lord. Nevertheless, neither is the
man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in
the Lord. That is, independent of one another.
For as the woman is of the man, that is, the woman came forth
from the side of the man in the creation, as the woman is of
the man, even so is the man also by the woman. How's that? Because every man other than
Adam was born of a woman, was he not? In fact, the Scripture
often says, born of a woman. Because a woman has a very high
place of honor in God's creation. And she is the one who is the
mother of all mankind. She is that one who brings forth
men into the world. So again, this is not meant to
be some sort of a burden or some curse that's put upon the woman's
head that she has to be in submission to her husband, but rather in
order to demonstrate the submission that the church has to Christ,
that's the purpose of the woman being in submission to her husband. Judge in yourselves. Is it proper,
is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? He's saying now, having said
all that I've said here, does that seem to be the thing that
you ought to do? And of course, it's a rhetorical
question. The answer is in the question.
And the answer is no. She ought not to pray with her
head uncovered. Doth not nature itself teach
you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame to him? Well, wait
a minute, Paul. What are you talking about? You are getting
off of the subject here. No, he is on the subject. He is on
the subject because he is using another illustration. And he
is showing the natural covering that the Lord has given to women.
That is the illustration of this. Now again, if you do not like
this, that is your business. And that's strictly, you know,
we're not about, this is not about hairstyles per se, but
it is setting forth how the Lord designed things. And He said
it's a shame for a man to have long hair. What does that mean
that if a man, that the Lord is, you know, He's set up a certain
length of hair that men are supposed to have and when it gets longer
than that they have to cut it off? I'm not saying that. I mean, you can have long hair
if you want to, but here's what the Scripture says. It says it
is a shame for a man to have long hair. Now, I didn't write
that. It's just what it says right
here, okay? Because there is to be distinguishing features
between men and women, and one of them is to have long hair. Whereas that distinguishes one
from the other. If a man has long hair, it's
a shame to him. But, listen, if a woman has long hair, it
is a glory to her. Now hold stop the presses because
this is very important. It says, "...for her hair is
given her for a covering." Now what is a woman's head covering? Her hair is her head covering. Now, again, I'm not going to
fight with somebody that wants to wear an additional covering
on their head. I'm not going to fight with them
for a moment about that. But I will say this, anybody
that would seek to bind the people of God with a piece of cloth, I'm going to bring this up over
and over again. Her hair is giving her for a
covering in the natural sense. Now the whole purpose of that
is to show that there is a difference between men and women and the
roles that they play in those things that God would set forth
as He demonstrates not whether or not women ought to have coverings
or men ought not to have coverings, but to demonstrate that Christ
is the head of all things and that He has set a proper order
under Him in all things according to His good pleasure and to His
glory. But we miss the whole point if
we don't see that glorifying Christ is the whole purpose in
whatever we're set out to do. And it comes back to what is
said here in verse 31 of the chapter that went before, whether
therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to
the glory of God. Because why? Christ is the head.
Christ is the head of every man. And so we learn these things.
But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither
the churches of God. Now, I believe he has reference
there to this very fact that if some believe they should wear
head coverings, or if some balk at the concept of wearing a head
covering, We have no contentious matter to set forth about these
things. He's not setting this forth so
we might fight about it. He's setting it forth because
it's just the truth. you know, can't handle that,
then that's their own problem. We are not going to divide about
it. We're not going to divide up
and to have, you know, one group that says, well, we're going
to wear head coverings, and the other group says, we're not.
We're not going to have anything to do with those that wear cloth
on their head and those that don't. You know, we're not going
to do that. He said, if any brothers seem to be contentious, We don't
have these customs. These are not the customs of
the children of God. They're just external things.
And whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord. But don't come
trying to make it an issue with others who might not see it in
the same fashion. He touches on that when he comes
to the matter of the Sabbath. Some people are very strong in
thinking in their concept of what it is to keep one day and
seven. And if that be their conviction
and their concept that they believe they ought to abide by, then
by all means, they should abide by that. But it's not to be a
matter of contention among us or a matter of pride to say,
oh, well, we do this, or we don't do that, because that's to miss
the whole point. Now, he says in this that I declare
unto you, I praise you not. And he's speaking about it, and
we're going to stop here. because we're getting into another
subject per se. It's really all the same subject,
but it's approaching it from a different way. He said, I praise
you not that you come together not for the better, but for the
worse. Now evidently, as the church was coming together, and
I believe this is a true thing, and I think that as you study
history, And as you look in the Scripture, it would appear that
when the church came together, it was their practice to eat
the Lord's Supper when they came together. In other words, it
wasn't a thing that it was kind of like they do together now
and then. When they came together, that
was the reason that they came together, to remember the Lord's
death until He came again. That was why they came together.
And so Paul said, this has become to you just kind of a feast without
consideration of what it is you're doing. Because, you know, as
people are, by nature, those things that we do often become
habits that we lose sight of what the reality of it is. It
kind of could be illustrated in this very thing of what we've
been talking about here about wearing a head covering. Now,
there are a lot of churches I've been in where women wouldn't
think of going in that meeting without the cloth on their head.
But if you stopped and asked, 90% of them couldn't give you
a good reason for why they're wearing that other than that
is the custom that they have, and that's just what they should
do. It's not that they have come
to that conclusion by their study of the Scripture. It's just kind
of a thing they do because they do it. Exactly. It's a habitual thing. So, you know, that's what had
happened here among the church here at Corinth, it appears,
from what Paul's describing. And so he is really setting forth
the same thing because if brethren had regard unto one another first,
then the thing that he's describing here could have never occurred,
could it? Because he said some of you, you brought your own
food and you sat over in the corner and you eat. And it's
not to eat the Lord's Supper, you're just eating. You've lost sight of what it
is. So may the Lord give us a heart and mind to contemplate these
things and to be reminded that Christ is the Lord, and that
He set forth marriage and the relationship of husbands and
wives in the earth to be typical and to illustrate that relationship. And it's a glorious thing, and
it goes both ways. You know, it's not all the advantage
of the man, it's not all the advantage of the woman. It is
for the benefit of both. And may the Lord help us.