The Way of Love | Beauty and Honor - 1 Corinthians 11 | May 12

Prayer

Hey family. Good morning. Good morning.

We’re going to get right into it, but before we do, let’s pray.

Father, we come in great need of You. We need you God.

Your word says that you resist the proud. You set yourself against the proud. But you give grace upon grace to the humble. And so Lord, we humble ourselves. We don’t want to set ourselves in opposition to you. We don’t want to stand over your Word with some false authority, but we want to sit under the authority of Your word. We want to be mastered by it.

We let go of our sin and foolish pride that your Spirit might change our hearts. By the power of your Spirit, by the truth of Your word, change us O Lord.

We don’t want to find ourselves in the same place as the Corinthians. We don’t want to be the cause of division. We don’t want to cause more harm than good. We want our gatherings to be filled with life and love. So help us Father.

We need You. May Your will be done in our lives. May you be glorified in our love.

In Jesus’ mighty name – Amen.

INTRO

Today is going to be a tough day. There’s just no getting around it.

This is one of those times in Scripture where there are just some things that are difficult to understand completely. Paul’s going to address several cultural items that might seem strange to us. He’s going to set up principles to point back to as he engages culture. Paul makes strange statements, like “because of the angels”, which some people have suggested interpretations for, but ultimately everyone kind of admits that this is the most confusing passage in all of Paul’s writings and no one really knows what it means.

It’s difficult because it is also a passage that has been used to justify all manners of abuse. And at the same time we can’t just change or ignore what Paul says because of this misuse or because we don’t like it. There’s a lot of baggage that comes with passages like these and it is so very hard to separate ourselves from this baggage.

It’s difficult because we in this room disagree with how these passages should be interpreted and applied. And while we love each other deeply, this is one of those topics that has with it the added weight of charged emotion.

We can’t avoid it either. Oh how I wish we could. But we are here. And what the last several months have taught me is that we can’t avoid what is difficult because it is hard. We must embrace what is difficult because that is how we grow.

I have mentioned how these last chapters form a repetition of literary units. So it is so tempting to group these three passages together and skip what is difficult for the sake of the greater lesson that Paul is trying to teach about the Way of Love. And maybe we should.

But we must remind ourselves that this is the Word of God. And all Scripture is good and for our good—even the parts we find uncomfortable. “We shouldn’t ignore or find a hermeneutical escape hatch for difficult passages, but instead humbly seek their true meaning and then joyfully submit to them.”

I will say that the argument that is given the most light within the church is probably the least controversial part of this passage, but we’re going to talk about all of it. And here’s how we’re going to do it; I am going to start with four principles that Paul repeats and upholds throughout his writings. These are principles that we should find as common ground, as a sure footing even though at least one of them is very counter to our culture, well more than one of them, but there’s one in particular that we have to wrestle with hard.

Then, after these principles, I will work through some of the more contentious parts and give interpretive reasons for where I land. All I ask is that we seek understanding from God’s word with humility. If ever we start with what we want the Bible to say or make a statement such as, “I could never believe in a God who would say or do that”, then we’re already setting ourselves up for disaster. So I pray we seek the Lord together in humility today and even in the way we disagree that Jesus would shine through. What a testament that would be to our world today which divides over everything.

BACKGROUND

But first, let me just remind you of where we’ve come from and what’s going on as we near the end of this incredible letter.

Chapter 8 begins a discussion of Christian liberty regarding food sacrificed to idols, and as we transition from the Who of Love to the Way of Love, we’ll see this conversation develop into a larger conversation about worship. The balance between freedom, the unchanging demands of God’s moral law, and concern for our neighbor recurs throughout each of these chapters.

So there’s a building that’s taking place. Paul is leading us somewhere. There’s a goal in mind. It’s not just a bunch of random questions or concerns he’s addressing. He’s got a point in mind that is woven through these chapters. When we get to chapter 14, he’ll start off by writing, “follow the way of love.”

So as we have come through these various, potentially discordant subject matters we are arriving at a place to say what’s the use if we don’t love. That is what Jesus said would differentiate us in this world, how people would know we are His. Love is the mark of the true disciple. Jesus said, “35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). And Paul will write toward the end of this chapter, “16 If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.” We have no desire to divide, but a strong desire to love. So as we commune, as we worship, as we utilize our gifts, as we pursue Jesus for each other, we must love or else none of it matters.

THE HONOR OF BEING A WOMAN

With all that stored up in our hearts, here are the first few verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 11. “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

This is a very important verse to begin with. Some may say that it rightly belongs with the section we finished last week. And in some regards maybe it does provide a nice conclusion to what we’ve been talking about. After all, the chapters and verse numbers in our modern Bibles don’t exist in the original languages. So, at times, they may seem arbitrary. But maybe we can believe that just as God inspired the original authors to write these words of life, He can also guide and direct how these words are delineated with chapters and numbers.

And here is a very important and very famous verse of Paul’s tucked amongst some of the more confusing ones. “Paul has been speaking about the fact that he willingly gave up certain privileges that he had so that he might share the gospel to different people groups. And so he used himself as an example of showing love, so that, though I have the right to practice certain things, I withhold from that. And so he says, ‘Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.’”

He’s pointing back to his calling as an apostle and saying follow me–do as I do. “9 It seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. 10 We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! 11 To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12 We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13 when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment” (1 Corinthians 4:9-13).

Those are words that Paul wrote all the way back in chapter four and it seems as though he hasn’t strayed too far from the point seven chapters later. For all of the status, and honor, and glory that you are after. We are cursed, and persecuted, and dishonored–and we endure it with joy! I don’t seek my own good, but the good of others. I don’t lift myself up to positions of authority, but encourage and uphold others. And I want you to follow me in that calling. I want you to imitate this same style of life.

Let’s keep reading, “2 Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. 3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, 5 but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. 6 For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head.”

So, there’s a lot to unpack in these five verses. There’s a lot of cultural things going on, some we know, some we don’t. What is of utmost importance for us to understand first, and what Paul believes wholeheartedly, is that there is beauty and honor to be recognized as a woman. Being a woman is not something you should be ashamed of or a wrong to be corrected. It is honorable to be a woman.

“Men and women are equal before God. We are created in the image of God. It's not like man is in the image of God, and then woman came later on, and she is not. The Bible says "God created man in His image; in the image of God created He him; male and female He created them." So there was an equality in Genesis 1, all the way from the beginning.”

What Paul is doing, is something he’s been doing this whole time, he’s writing against culture and simultaneously he’s creating and upholding culture. The problem for us is that there were a lot of cultures in Corinth. Corinth we talked about a bit as being the Vegas of the old world, but on steroids. It was very hedonistic in the sense that there were lots of opportunities and very little restrictions.

Some of us heard Sean MDowell speak recently and he shared the illustration of speaking with youth who grew up in the Church, were from Christian families, and went to Christian school. He asked them their definition of freedom. And their response was that freedom was to be unhindered in doing whatever you want–being unchecked in your pursuits. And as he pressed into this question with these youth from Christian homes, he discovered that in the way they viewed freedom the only thing that God brought to the equation was consequences. Freedom is still doing whatever you want, but now if we add God we have consequences. Corinth culture was full of freedom.

Of course there was also Greek culture, Roman culture, Jewish culture, and others. So there were a lot of mores which Paul certainly had in his mind, which the Corinthians understood, and we don’t as much.

This whole idea of head coverings is one, where we can make some guesses as to what the distinctive was, because we have some modern references but we don’t really know for sure. What we can piece together is that a way that a woman would identify herself as a woman, especially as a married woman, was by wearing some sort of veil or head covering. It was a distinguishing feature to say I am a woman. And Paul is upholding this distinctive, why?

There are Greek and Roman cultural practices and historical events going on that perhaps Paul had in mind, but the most obvious reason is because of what we already know about Corinth. Corinth was a huge city set amongst hills. On one particular hill was a very large temple to aphrodite. Every evening the thousand or so prostitutes would process down the hill into the city to sell themselves and the only women that did not wear a veil or a head covering were typically prostitutes.

The Corinthians, we know, were already struggling to separate themselves from the culture they lived in. In their churches, there was a bit too much Corinth and a bit too little Christ-likeness. So there’s a tendency in the culture which results in confusion in the worship. Again, Paul is writing against culture. He’s clarifying worship.

There are these two ways a woman could identify herself. Paul is saying you don’t need to shave your head and look like a man, you don’t have to hide or be ashamed of your womanhood, in fact, that would be to your detriment, “15 [for] if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.”

It is glorious to be a woman. You don’t have to hide that aspect of your identity or be ashamed of it. Glory in it. You have so much more honor and value than to be used as an object of pleasure and desire.

Let’s skip down a few verses to verse 11, “11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; 12 for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God.”

This is a very important balancing point for Paul as we’ll see a little later, because the foundation of his discussion through this chapter is on equality. This will become much more evident as we focus in on God’s ordered existence. In the same way that God the Father and Jesus are equal, so too are men and women. We are not independent of one another. We need each other. There is, rather, an interdependence that exists across the genders and this distinctiveness should be celebrated and not eliminated. Men and women are inseparable and interdependent. We can’t step into God’s blessing without each other. We need one another.

John Chrysostom was the Archbishop of Constantinople in the fourth or fifth century and a father of the early Church. He wrote these words., “In the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. . . . Each one of the two is the cause of the other, God being the cause of all.”

We are all made in the image of God and given an inherent dignity, purpose, value and honor. Men and women are united and equal in Christ. Paul wrote to the church in Galatia, “26 [we] are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 [We] have been united with Christ in baptism [and] have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are [His] true children” (Galatians 3:25-29).

Paul’s not saying a new thing here. He’s not saying there’s no distinction between men and women. In the same way he’s not telling slaves to walk up to their masters and say we’re the same. What he is doing is repeating what we’ve already read in 1 Corinthians chapter nine, when he says, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23).

We are here together as men and women, different but united in our shared identity as in Christ. We are His sons and daughters. We are His children. Women, you are the daughters of the most high God.

This past week, we read with the kids the story of the woman who had suffered from bleeding for 12 years. As the crowds pressed in around Jesus, in her desperation, she reached out in faith and touched the hem of His robes and was healed.

Jesus stopped and turned saying who touched me. Well, lots of people were touching Jesus. But Jesus knew that there was power in this touch. He healed this woman in an instant because of her faith. And when she bravely stepped forward He said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace” (Luke 8:48).

This woman was more than sick. She was an outcast among the people. She probably wasn’t even supposed to be in that crowd according to the law. But in one act, He elevated her position and restored her dignity. He said I see you. You are valuable. You are not alone. You are not isolated. You are not a label. You are mine. You are a daughter of God.

There is beauty and honor to be recognized as a woman.

INTERMISSION

Can we just stop?

I’m going to have to apologize.

As much as I hate to do it, and I don’t want to disappoint you, but I’m afraid we’re going to have to put a pause on the rest of chapter 11 and save it until next week. We’ll just have to throw a “to be continued…” on the rest of our time. Don’t you just hate that? That’s why I could never get into the show “Lost”. At the end of every episode you were left with 42 new questions and no answers.

So, sorry. You’re going to have to come back to find out about the other three principles and the interpretive problems to overcome in these verses, because we’re going to stop there for the day and practice the principle that Paul has called us to by honoring our women and saying we see you, we lift you up as women that have been created in the image of God, we value you, we love you, and we are so blessed that you are here with us.