A. We have a shift in the letter as we begin this portion. Up to this point in time, Paul has been dealing with a tremendous amount of personal relationships within the body and how important unity is in the church family. The shift begins here to discuss the collective worship of the early church in Corinth.
B. Let me say that I am very happy to not restore the messed up worship they had prior to this letter. But even though we read about what was not working in the church, we get the best view of first century worship in this book versus any another book. Therefore this is a very helpful study for us today. It calls us back to the right priorities and focus in worship. When you look at verses 2 and 16, we hear Paul tell them this is about the teachings he has given the churches of God. That makes these passages very important to us today. If this is God’s teaching for His church, then time and culture have little to do with teaching. In this case, we start a teaching about women’s role in the church, and that same thought is brought out near the end of this section in last part of chapter 14. I want us to study the topic of the line of authority within the body and how women are viewed in the lesson today. We will examine what women can/cannot do in worship when we reach chapter 14.
C. When you read verses 2 and 17, you see a strong contrast between what Paul praised them for, and what Paul had no praise for. We want to be praised by God in our worship and teachings. The argument by some who study these passages is that these are traditions and practices of the early church, not strict doctrine by God as to what should take place within the collective worship. The problem with such a view is that you could make that argument for everything in scripture and simply take away all doctrine and let man’s wisdom determine what God desires. That is simply fighting the authority that Paul desires to teach us in this lesson. So let’s examine authority in worship.
I. Women in Culture
A. When you examine the culture of Corinth, you find that the prominent god to be worshiped is a goddess – Aphrodite. Women played a major role as priestess in this temple. In Ephesus, they worshiped the god Dionysus, the god of wine, but again, it was priestess that played a major role in the temple worship. But it is said that the most popular deity worshipped in private, in the entire Mediterranean world, was the goddess Artemis, whose temple was also housed in Ephesus.
B. Don’t tell me the culture of the time limited women in worship. If anything, the Greco-Roman world used women as the main leaders of their idol worship and all the lewdness that went along with the pagan worship services. It is to this culture that Paul comes to say to men and women, let’s come back to God’s view of worship, authority, and a person’s place within the collective worship. He is combating the outright sinful nature of the pagan worship that was creeping into the Christian worship of Corinth.
C. A second cultural setting we need to understand is that Christian worship was different than either Jewish or pagan worship. The Jews had synagogues and the pagan had temples, the Christian worship was often done in personal homes or outside. It centered on assembling together, not making a building a holy place of worship in which a person wore or did not wear a hat. Paul is not dealing with buildings, but with people who come together for the purpose of worshipping God in the name of Jesus. In that setting, Paul says, let’s talk about authority in worship as it pertains to men and women.
II. The Line of Authority
A. Read verses 3. Here is the statement of authority. God is the absolute head; Jesus came in submission to the father in the form of a son even though he once had equality in the divine aspect of his being. In this line of authority you have God, the submission of Jesus, who is the head of every man, and man who is the head of the woman. Here begins the bigger discussion of the battle of the sexes. In order to begin that discussion we must first deal with the word “head” and how it is used in the context of Christianity.
B. Headship. When Paul writes to the church in Ephesus or Colosse, and says that Christ is the head of the church, we understand that headship as the authority of the church. Whenever the word head is used to describe Jesus or God we understand it as one who has the authority. So it only stands to reason that we apply the same understanding to this passage. Therefore, the authority of man is Jesus, the authority of woman is man, and the authority of Jesus is the Father. When headship is discussed within the NT, we see that it is always a sacrificial headship, not dictatorial and self-pleasing. We are not talking about who is great, but the about the accountability and the responsibility of headship.
C. So look at the passage again, read verses 4-5. While one cannot deny that some form of veil was used as literal head covering, Paul is teaching that when we warp the teaching of responsibility and base culture as our reason, we go against the teachings of God. If the purpose of the veil was to show submission, the teaching is that in the church and in the family, the man and the husband is to not shirk his responsibility as leading people to Jesus. If I give up my role as a man within the church or as the husband within the family, I hurt the church and the family because God has ordained a line of responsibility and authority.
D. Paul then comes back to say that in society and in order of creation we see this teaching clearly about the role and responsibility of man. Paul makes it very clear in verses 11 and 12 that he is not seeking to diminish women, but to help all of us see that culture cannot determine the line of authority, but God alone. And when culture seeks to destroy God’s role for men and women, we must become counter-cultural and not cultural sympathetic
Conclusion:
A. Examine from the beginning, God’s teachings of how he desired worship and leadership. Adam created first; because of Eve’s sin her husband will rule over her; God is always given a masculine grammatical ending for who he is; the priesthood was male leadership oriented; Jesus was male and chose men to be his apostles and leaders and teachers of the church; elders are male and given the shepherding of the church; and the list could go on.
B. Paul’s teaching – vs. 16 – here is the practice of the church of God. Period. He will outline it again in chapter 14 where women again seem to become an issue in worship. The goal is to focus on God and not on us. The desire is for men to set up and become the servant leaders God desires and not abdicate that role to women. The goal is for women to encourage their husbands and men to be spiritual and spiritual leaders with the family and church. While at the same time understanding that spiritual gifts were given to men and women in Corinth and all were encouraged to use them for the betterment of the body and the glory of God.
C. If we do not give Him the glory we dishonor our head who is Jesus. Let us not be guilty of letting culture dictate our roles, but the submission we all have to God and one another.
