Sermon

1 Corinthians 11:1–16 — God’s Good Gift of Gender

March 16, 2003

Expositional preaching calls us to examine and be examined by difficult texts from scripture. It speaks a word from beyond us. It speaks a word that is counter-cultural. Today we come to one such difficult text. Difficult because it directly addresses a topic that has become controversial in our age–the relationship between men and women.

I titled this message, “God’s good gift of gender,” because I think Paul was inspired to tell us here that men and women are fundamentally different, with different God-designed roles, that display the splendor and glory of God’s good creation. Our culture is largely in rebellion against that idea. In the name of equal rights we have come either to deny that there are any differences between men and women or to argue that those differences are completely the result of sinfulness. The Bible, however, affirms that men and women are radically equal in the eyes of God, as both have been made in the image of God (Gen 1:27), but they are not the same. In fact, they are wonderfully different, and this difference is not the result of sin, but it is the result of God’s good design for us. And this design should be reflected in the home and in the church.

1. Words on worship (vv. 1-2).

In chapter 11 Paul begins to address a new set of concerns among the Corinthians centered around what constitutes authentic worship. This will be a theme in what is to come. Paul will address the proper observance of the Lord’s Supper (11:17-34), the proper exercise of spiritual gifts (ch. 12), and the exercise of prophecy and tongues in worship (ch. 14). Apparently one of the issues that divided the church in Corinth, even as it does our churches today, was the proper role of men and women in worship.

In v. 1, Paul begins by urging the Corinthians to follow his example (literally to become his imitators or mimes) as he follows the example of Christ.

Then in v. 2 Paul praises the Corinthians for two things: First, for remembering him (in prayer) and then for holding on to the traditions (paradoka) as he had passed them on to them. Here Paul is talking about doctrinal truth.

Cf. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4:

1 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.
2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures....

And 2 Tim 2:2:

And the things you heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men who will be qualified to teach others.

The problem at Corinth was less an issue of lack of agreement on core doctrine (though in chapter 15 Paul does address those with an inadequate understanding of the resurrection) than it was about factionalism and petty disagreement. Paul stresses here the importance of passing on the right tradition (paradosis) about Jesus. This, by the way, gives us evidence that Paul and others were very careful in what they told about Jesus. We see this careful preservation and transmission of tradition in the gospels that are true and trustworthy in all they affirm. Paul praises the Corinthians for their glad acceptance of the truth. The most important point in a relay race is the passing of the baton. The baton of truth had been safely and securely transferred.

Nevertheless, there were contentions in the church at Corinth on peripheral issues in the church, like the proper conduct of worship (cf. 11:16). Again, one of the points of contention involved the participation of men and women in the gathered congregation of God.

2. Laying the theoretical groundwork: Beginning to understand the relationship between men and women by understanding the relationship between Christ and humanity and between God and Christ (v. 3).

In v. 3 Paul launches into his discussion. He describes three relationships, using the metaphor of headship:

The head of every man is Christ;
The head of woman is man;
The head of Christ is God.

What he says is interesting, because he begins his discussion about the relationship between men and women (point 2) by talking about the relationship between Christ and humanity (point 1) and concludes by talking about the rich internal relationship of the Father and the Son in the Trinity (point 3). Sandwiched in between is the relationship between men and women.

What Paul says here is not simply hierarchical, a top down model. If so, he would have said, in neat linear order, God is the head of Christ; Christ is the head of man; and man is the head of woman. But it’s more mysterious than that.

What Paul is saying is that there is the same quality of relationship in each of these pairs.

The relationship of men to women is first like that between Christ and humanity. Paul says this very thing in Ephesians 5:22-33. The model he suggests there for marriage–that the world loves to misconstrue–is of the wife’s intelligent submission to a godly husband who is willing to lay his life down for her. Paul says, “This is a profound mystery but I am talking about Christ and the church” (Eph 5:32). The model for marriage is the relationship between Jesus and the church. She honors him by submission, as he honors her by sacrifice.

As Christ is the head of the church, his bride, so a godly husband is to be the head of the godly wife. This is only true to the degree that he exercises that headship in the same way Christ does. That is, through servant leadership, through washing her feet, through putting her needs above his own, through self-sacrificial love for his bride.

The relationship between men and women is lastly like that between God and Christ. As Biblical Christians we believe in the Trinity. I met just the other day in my front yard some young Mormon missionaries, and I tried to explain to them about why I could not buy into their doctrine of God, because it denies the teaching of the Trinity. How can you understand this passage without the Trinity?

According to the Trinity, what does the Father do for all eternity? He begets. He gives. He orders. And from all eternity, what does the Son do? He obeys. He serves. He submits. And then to complete the picture, we have the Holy Spirit, who from all eternity, proceeds from the Father and the Son.

Now, in the Trinity, is God the Father more important and more valuable and more powerful than God the Son or God the Spirit? No. They are all exactly the same in essence. They are equal, but they play different roles. The Son does not beget the Father. The Father is forever the head.

See, Paul says there is an exact parallel in the relationship between men and women. They are absolutely equal in the eyes of God. Both are divine image-bearers. And yet they have distinct roles or functions. To say that the woman is the head of man is no more fitting than to say that Christ is the head of God. It just doesn’t fit.

3. Moving on to practical matters (vv. 4-10).

Now Paul moves on to practical matters. On the surface, the issue or question seems to be what was to be the appropriate dress of men and women as they prayed and prophesied in the worship services of the church. Should a man pray with his head covered? Should a woman pray with her head uncovered? Note the alternate translation of vv. 4-7 provided in the NIV notes that indicates the possibility that the covering was in fact the hair of the head. So, the questions would be: Could a man pray with long hair? Could a woman pray with short hair? V. 7 was a popular proof-text in conservative churches in the hippie days of the 60s to oppose long hair!

Here we need to ask two important questions:

What is the cultural context for Paul’s teaching?
What is the timeless spiritual principle that undergirds it?

The cultural context will shift and change; the principle will not.

The cultural context is that men and women were expected to dress differently. As with so many things, the Christians had borrowed a custom from the synagogue. After all, the first Christians, like Jesus, were Jews. Women wore long hair and men did not allow their hair to grow long. Furthermore, in the context of worship, women covered their heads with scarves or veils, while men wore their heads bare.

Why did they do this? Was it just an arbitrary custom? No. This cultural norm emphasized an important theological principle. It said that men and women are fundamentally different and God made us this way and it is a good thing. Cf. Deuteronomy 22:5: “A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone who does this.”

Do not be fooled into thinking that we are the first culture to struggle with tendencies toward gender-bending, cross-dressing, and blurring the lines between men and women. They just didn’t have “The Jerry Springer Show” to beam it to the world. It has been part of the pattern of human sinfulness since Genesis 3. The root of human rebellion is in our desire to overthrow God’s good created order with plans of our own (cf. Romans 1:18-32).

The cultural norm of dress that immediately distinguished men and women relayed instantly the deep spiritual principle, rooted in creation, that men and women are not carbon copies of each other.

In vv. 7-9 Paul takes us back to Genesis 1-2.

In v. 7 Paul says that man is “the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man.” Paul knows that both men and women are made in the image of God (see Gen 1:27). But he meditates here on the fact that man (ish) precedes woman (ishah) in the creation order. He reflects the glory of God; she reflects the glory of man. This is not a put down. Isn’t Paul again saying that man reflects the role of the Father while woman reflects the role of Christ (the son of Man)? This is not to subordinate the essence of one over the other, but to distinguish their unique roles.

In v. 8 Paul meditates further: “For man did not come from woman but woman from man.” Here Paul echoes Adam’s words in Gen 2:23 when he sees Eve and says: “This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.” The fact that Adam precedes Eve in creation seems to suggest that he bears a measure of responsibility that she does not. This is why, though both Adam and Eve sin, Paul lays the primary burden on Adam, as in 1 Cor 15:22: “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (cf. Romans 5).

In v. 9 Paul says, “Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.” Here Paul stresses the fact that woman was made by God to complete and complement man. He is not whole without her. She is his “helper” (Gen 2:18; ezer; cf. Psalm 46:1 when God himself is described in similar terms).

What is Paul saying here? Go back to creation. Go back to the beginning and lay claim as God’s people to what life was like before sin corrupted. Go back to the days when man and woman were not in competition with each other, when one did not usurp the role of the other, when they lived in harmony with the good design of God.

He caps off the argument in v. 10 by saying, “For this reason (the creation order of Gen 1-2) and because of the angels (the messengers of God) the woman ought to have a sign of authority (exousia) over her head.”

Now Paul was not just saying something here about the way women ought to dress in the church. That would just be addressing the cultural context. He was saying something about the way in which the believing women were to accept and encourage the headship of godly men in the church. The women were to accept the fact that their role in the church would not be the same as that of the men, nor would it be less important just because it was different.

4. A celebration of God’s good gift of gender (vv. 11-16).

Having stressed distinction in v. 10 Paul then proceeds to stress the radical interdependence and equality of men and women before the Lord. Let me tell you, the gospel is good news for men and women. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that the Bible is against women. It is a word of liberation to us.

Paul begins in v. 11 by saying that in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. Paul reminds us that we need each other. We complete each other. We fulfill each other. Cf. 1 Cor 7:4: “The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.”

In v. 12 he says that woman came from man (going back again to Gen 2:23; cf. v. 8), but he then makes the very logical point that every man comes from woman. Every man had a mamma to bring him into this life! But more importantly Paul says both men and women are dependent on God alone. “But everything comes from God!” We are interdependent on each other, but wholly dependent on God.

You know what we have to admit today? That many men, down through the ages, even many Christian men, have abused and twisted the scriptures to act in ungodly ways toward women. In their sinfulness men have used their physical strength to dominate women, to deny them education and equal opportunity. And many women, in their sinfulness have either passively accepted this and become doormats, or they have actively rejected it and become defiant haters of men and usurpers.

What do we come away from this passage with today? We come with the good news that Jesus has overcome the curse; that he is overcoming it; and he will overcome it. We long for the day when Revelation 22:3 is fulfilled: “No longer will there be any curse.”

For now we can make the following affirmations:

1. Men and women are radically equal in the eyes of God, and yet we have distinctly different and complementary roles to play in life, in the home, and in the church.

We are given suggestive clues in the way that men and women are to relate to one another in the way that Christ relates to the church and in the way that the persons of the Godhead relate to each other in the Trinity.

Women are no more inferior to men than Christ is inferior to God or the Holy Spirit is inferior to God and Jesus, because he proceeds from them. Yet men and women are no more the same than the Father is the same as the Son.

This difference is rooted in the creation order and is to be celebrated as God’s good gift to us, rather than rejected or ignored.

2. As Christian we ought to guard the visible, cultural cues that remind us of the differences between men and women. This means that men ought to dress and act like men and women ought to dress and act like men. We should avoid legalism in this, acknowledging that the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. I cannot say exactly how this will always work, but women ought to enjoy being feminine, and men ought to enjoy being masculine.

3. We affirm the full participation of men and women in the life of the church. Paul assumes in this passage that both men and women will pray and prophesy in the worship of the church (cf. v. 5 where Paul denounces not the fact that a woman prays or prophesies but only that she does so without the proper head covering). Women are not silent partners in the worship services of the church. In the Reformation spirit of “scripture interpreting scripture” we should use 1 Cor 11 to interpret passages like 1 Timothy 2:11-12: “A woman should learn in quietness and in full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” Indeed there is no contradiction in these passages.

4. In the church and home, however, we ought also to guard the visible cues of gender distinction in the assigning of leadership roles that remind us of the goodness of the created order. Men are not to shrink back from taking a role of servant leadership in the home and church and women are not to shrink from back from offering intelligent and glad submission to their headship (thus welcoming the “sign of authority” on their heads).

In 2000 there was outrage expressed in many corners when the article on the church in the Baptist Faith and Message was re-written to read: “While both men and woman are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by scripture.”

1 Corinthians 11 tells us of how women are to participate fully in worship, in praying and prophesying. But 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 tell us that the overseer or elder is to be “the husband of one wife.” There is no contradiction here.

Can we affirm the ministry of both men and women and yet also affirm that there are gender specific roles for each? Can this be a powerful witness to this culture that lives in such confusion as to who we are? Though it may be out of touch with our culture, are we willing to stand with scripture and say that God has made us different and this is a good thing to be celebrated, and enjoyed, and honored?

Jeffrey T. Riddle
Pastor, Jefferson Park Baptist Church

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