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An exposition
of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16
The Head Covering part 2
Peter DitzelNow,
let’s look at 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 one verse at a time. (By the way,
most commentators agree that 1 Corinthians 11:1 is the ending sentence of
chapter 10. Nevertheless, it is certainly not irrelevant to what follows.) Verse 2: Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all
things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. The
Greek word translated “ordinances” here is paradosis.
Elsewhere in the Bible, it is translated “traditions.” In 2
Thessalonians 2:15, for example, Paul writes, “Therefore, brethren,
stand fast, and hold the traditions (paradosis)
which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.” The
ordinances or traditions Paul has in mind are important. We are to hold them
and keep them as Paul delivered them. This
reminds me of Jeremiah 6:16: “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the
ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk
therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.” Will we, like the
people of Jeremiah’s time, respond to a command to walk in the old
paths, to keep the biblical, New Testament ordinances or traditions delivered
to us, by saying, “We will not walk therein”? Many,
if not most, churches are now of the opinion that Paul was addressing in 1
Corinthians 11:2-16 a social custom limited to a certain time and place. They
say it was a common social custom among the people Paul was addressing for
women to cover their heads and men to uncover their heads during religious
services. They also say that the Corinthian church, exercising its liberty in
Christ, dropped the custom. According to this theory, when church members
stopped following the head covering custom, their unconverted neighbors (and,
possibly, weak brethren) became offended, and Paul wrote these verses to tell
them to begin following the custom again. Therefore, according to this
theory, Paul was merely addressing a local custom of the times, and his
instructions do not apply to men and women in the western world today,
although the principle of wives being in submission to their husbands may
still be valid. We hear proponents of this view say such things as,
“Wearing a head covering no longer speaks to our culture.” But is
it the culture that the head covering is supposed to speak to, or someone
else? (Hint: see verse 10.) Also,
the question must be asked, How do baptism, the Lord’s Supper, or even
attending church speak to our culture? If our
twenty-first-century setting sees these practices as culturally irrelevant,
are we to give them up also? Or is the church to keep the meaning of its
symbols and the reasons for its practices alive through education? I must
also point out that the Bible never tells Christians to pattern their lives
after the world: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that
good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). I
must also ask, Why would the Holy Spirit move Paul to say and record in
Scripture for all time that we are to follow the traditions as he has
delivered them to us, if what he is about to address in the following verses
is merely a temporary custom? I can only conclude that this verse deals a
fatal blow to the idea that Paul is about to address something that applied
only to that time and place. Paul is about to tell, not only the
first-century Corinthians, but the It
is also important to notice in 1 Corinthians 1:2 that Paul addresses this
epistle not just to “the church of God which is at Corinth” but
also “to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,
with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ.” So,
Paul, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, is writing not just to the
Corinthian church of his day, but also to all saints everywhere. That
includes you, if you are a saint, and me today. I
would be negligent if I did not point out the verses that follow those we are
examining. While Paul chides the Corinthian church for its carelessness
regarding the Lord’s Supper, his instructions regarding the
Lord’s Supper are applicable to all churches (see 1 Corinthians
11:17-34). Why, then, should we see his instructions concerning the head
covering as any different? The Corinthians had become careless about it, and
Paul gives them, and us, positive instruction about it. Verse 3: But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ;
and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. Again,
if Paul is about to give instructions about a local and passing social
custom, he is starting out in a very odd way. Here, in verse 3, the Holy
Spirit leads Paul to reveal eternal truths concerning the relationship
between God, Christ, men, and women. God
is the head of Christ. This is not teaching an essential subordination of
Christ. After all, Christ is also God. But He voluntarily humiliated Himself
in His incarnation by adding a human nature to His God nature (Philippians
2:5-8). In voluntary submission, Jesus came to do the Father’s will
(John The
man is the head of the woman. Nevertheless, as Christ is God, so woman is
man; that is, Eve was taken directly from Adam and shares his nature (see 1
Corinthians 11:8). Yet precisely because she was second in the creation order
and made for man, and because the Bible teaches her to do so (Ephesians The
relationship between a man and woman pictures the relationship between Christ
and the church. The church is to voluntarily submit to Jesus Christ as Lord
(Ephesians I
want to make a point of stating that such profound truths are hardly an
appropriate preface to a mere social custom. Paul is not addressing a social
custom. He is teaching a symbolism that speaks important truth, much as do
baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The place where Paul says something
similar is Ephesians 5:23: “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as
Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body.” It
is followed in verse 24, not by a temporary custom, but by an instruction
that is as abiding as the institution of marriage:
“Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to
their own husbands in every thing.” We should, therefore, expect 1
Corinthians 11:3 to be followed by a similar abiding truth. We will not be
disappointed. Copyright
© 2006 wordofhisgrace.org |
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