1 Corinthians 11:8-16
Ps Paul Cheng
~7 min read
Dear Bethelites,
Ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, there was the struggle for power - woman versus man. And one of the most devastating movements in our time that advocates this kind of power struggle is the feminist movement. It is not only changing the world but sadly, it is also changing the church. Church leaders and pastors have slowly given in to the pressure. Fundamentally, this movement traced its roots to the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden, where a rebellion against God’s order and plan for mankind took place.
The Apostle Paul wanted the Corinthians to know that there was an order for everything. If things do not function in an orderly manner, it becomes dysfunctional. God, in His wisdom, has ordained order in our relationships with one another as we live our lives in this temporal world; there is this authority and submission between the state and the citizens, church leaders and members, husbands and wives, parents and children, employers and employees, etc. Once there is an ordained order and plan, then one has to submit to it.
I. The creation
1 Corinthians 11:8, For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
Man was created first before the woman existed, and even before the woman was created, man already had a leadership function over creation. Genesis 2:19, And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. God brought the animals before Adam so that he could give them names which speaks of his headship and authority over that which God had created. And after God created the woman out of the man, it was Adam who gave Eve her name. Genesis 2:23, And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man….and Genesis 3:20, And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
1 Corinthians 11:9, Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. The woman was not only created from man, but she was created for man! Genesis 2:18, 22, And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him….And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
God is the Creator and He has ordained it that way!
II. The angels
1 Corinthians 11:10, For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
The use of head covering represented the woman’s submissiveness and respect for authority. In those days, no woman would walk into an assembly with her head uncovered because that would demonstrate her unwillingness to submit, and if she did that, she would have no right, authority or power to pray or worship God.
This respect for authority was something that angels had an interest in. The holy angels understood what it meant to submit to authority. The holy angels knew what happened to Lucifer who refused to submit to God’s authority, and that great rebellion led to the great fall from heaven (c.f. Isaiah 14:12-15). When one goes back to the origin of sin, one can see that it was an attack on God’s order and plan in regards to authority and submission.
But what has the woman submitting to the authority got to do with the angels, and why did the Apostle Paul use the phrase because of the angels? According to Job 38:7, the angels were present at creation, and they were witnesses of God’s unique design for man and woman. How could the angels not be offended if the women were to rebel against that God-given authority?
1 Corinthians 11:11, Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
In those days, the Greeks and Romans treated the women as little more than just slaves. They were the possessions of their husbands. In the Jewish communities, the woman’s situation was not much better. It was a sad reality that there were some men who were proud to be the head, the authoritative figure, and they treated the women badly.
Though the woman was created out of the man and to be his helpmeet, it was in a functional sense that she was to submit to his authority. She was never inferior to him; intellectually, morally and spiritually, she was equal to him. Women were just as important as men; their roles might be different in function, but they were no different in importance. There was a mutual dependence and need between the man and the woman. They were created to function as a team, to serve each other and together with each other. In this regard, Galatians 3:28 said, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Throughout church history, faithful women had played an important role in the life of the church. Immediately after the ascension of Christ, some 120 believers gathered in the upper room for prayers, and many of those disciples were women. In many of his letters to the New Testament churches, Paul ended those letters with commendations and praises for those faithful labourers, and many of them were women. In some unique situations, faithful women have kept the church alive with little or no support from the men. Some years back, I was speaking to an elderly lady from a church in Malaysia, and she shared with me that during the Japanese occupation, most of the men in her village were taken away. They had no men to lead the church, but the women rose to the occasion to do the Lord’s work, and faithfully taught in the Sunday school until the boys became men to take over the leadership.
1 Corinthians 11:12, For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
Every man, if not for his mother, will not be in this world. His existence is dependent on a woman. Whilst it is true that the first woman was created from the man, however ever since then, every man has been created through a woman. One theologian rightly said, “Women are not to be teachers of men, but they are usually the most influential shapers of men!” As mothers, they have a unique role in training and shaping their boys, from the time they were in their wombs, to their conceptions, infancies, teens, youths, adulthoods, the men are being shaped by their mothers in a most marvellous way. Ultimately, all things are of God, which means everything originates from Him!
1 Corinthians 11:13-14, Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
In other words, one should judge for himself whether it is proper for a woman to pray without her head covering. Although the head covering was a cultural practice, the primary emphasis was about authority and submission. The head covering was not Paul’s main concern; it was a symbol, and he was not focusing on the symbol, but rather what it symbolized.
The head covering was a cultural expression of an attitude. When the woman took off her head covering or shaved her head, it was a symbol of her rebellion to the authority. On the other hand, when the man put on the head covering or kept long hair, it was a symbol of his willingness to relinquish his authority, behaved like the woman, and reversed God’s order and plan. Doth not even nature itself teach you that there was the role of the man and the role of the woman that there was a difference between a man and a woman?
When a man allows his head to grow long enough that he could be mistaken for a woman, most cultures would understand that as a shame. In ancient times, after the Roman conquered a particular army, like the Greeks, they would build statues to depict the conquered army as having long hair, with curly locks, it was the Roman’s way of mocking and demeaning the Greeks. It was to say that their men were weak and they were like the women, they could not fight like real men. Some even said that they were making fun of the conquered army as being homosexuals because homosexuals were known to have long hair.
1 Corinthians 11:15, But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
I am not a hair expert, but I have enough problems with my hair falling out, to know that God created men and women differently, even in the development of our hair. I read an article that says, our hair develops in three steps, growth, rest and fallout. Somehow, men reach the third stage of fallout earlier than women, the women’s hair takes a longer time to go through the different stages. The truth is that God has made the woman in such a way that her long hair was given to her, as a glory to her. Whether it is her long hair or her head covering, they are both representing her submissive role.
Finally, verse 16, But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
Why do you want to be contentious, and fight over this truth? If it is wrong, it is wrong, no matter where you go to? The role for men and women, God’s order and plan in regards to men and women, authority and submission, is not just for this or that church, it is universal, for all the churches of God. The question is, “Are you willing to submit to God’s order and plan in your church, family and life?”
Shalom,
Pastor Paul Cheng
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