God is the Head (I Corinthians 11:1-16)

We are going to be in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, starting in verse 1.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

If you are able to, please stand for the reading of God's Word.

I love that I just said, if you are able to, and everyone pops up, they're like, oh, we know what we're doing here.

Why on earth do we do this?

Just be just because the word of God is worthy of respect and honor.

And we want to make sure that we have a way of showing that and a way of showing deference to that.

So that's just the reason why we do that.

So, alright, so we are in chapter 11, verse 1.

Imitate me as I also imitate Christ.

Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions as I delivered them to you.

But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.

Every man who prays or prophesies with something on his head dishonors his head.

Every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since that is the one and the same as having her head shaved.

For if a woman doesn't cover her head, she should have her hair cut off.

But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her head also be covered.

A man should not cover his head because he is the image and glory of God.

So too woman is the glory of man.

For man did not come from woman, but woman came from man.

Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man.

This is why a woman should have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.

In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, and man is not independent of woman.

For just as woman came from man, so man comes to woman, and all things come from God.

Judge for yourselves, is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?

Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair is its grace to him?

But that if a woman has long hair, it's her glory, for her hair is given to her as a covering.

If anyone wants to argue about this, we have no other custom, nor do the churches of God.

Lord, I thank you so much for this morning.

I thank you for your word, and I ask that you would be glorified as we study your word, that you would fill me with your spirit to teach rightly, that you would fill the listeners with your spirit to rightly divide, and that you would be glorified in all things.

In your name.

Amen.

Go ahead and have a seat.

What on earth?

Okay.

For those of you who may not be familiar, we go through entire books of the Bible, verse by verse, chapter by chapter.

And so we have been in 1 Corinthians all of this time.

And we took a quick break to do Palm Sunday.

And we took a quick break to do Easter, of course.

And now we are back in 1 Corinthians, and this is the next passage in that order.

Now, would I have chosen this passage to be directly after Easter?

No.

That is why we go verse by verse through books, because that way I don't get to pick what I want to do.

It's not about me.

So here we are.

I have faith.

This is where God wants us this morning, and we're gonna go with it.

So having that said, we have been in 1 Corinthians for a little while with that, and the big picture for the book is telling this church y'all need to act like a body with Christ as the head.

You need to take care of one another, you need to put others first, you need to give deference to one another, think about the other people's needs, and not just your own.

Because the church in Koran was very educated, they were very cultured, and they were very divided in their own structure, pecking order, trying to be the one who is the most holy, the most in charge, the most right, the most true, and all those different things.

And so he's saying instead of all being individuals fighting for primacy, we're all going to work together as a body to support Jesus as the head.

That is why this sermon is titled God is the head.

This is the one undisputable thing in this passage.

God is the head, God is in control, and we all follow him and submit to him as such.

And that is the beautiful thing.

So we can, if you take this passage out of all of that context, it's a bit weird, right?

Taking it in that context, it's really pretty normal because what Paul has been doing through this whole book is they have a question and he answers that cultural question and really addresses the underlying bigger topic that they actually need to know.

How many of you have kids or have had kids?

You know that the question they ask is not always the question they need answered.

Especially if that question is why.

So, with that in mind, there's a lot of different topics that have come up.

Whether that is uh should they marry at this point, should they divorce their spouse if their spouse has not confessed to Christ?

Should they eat food that may or may not have been sacrificed to idols?

All these different things are the specific questions in their context, and while he addresses that, he really addresses the bigger issue at hand that they need to know in order to act like a body.

So that's what we need to keep in mind in this.

So the first verse here imitate me as I also imitate Christ.

Put that in the context of what's going on here.

It is about caring for one another, serving one another, giving up one's rights for one another, loving one another.

So let's untangle this really quick here.

Super quick, and this is gonna be a little bit of an interactive process.

Bunch of yes or no questions.

Oh, some of you got real excited about that.

That's awesome.

Okay.

Should we imitate Christ?

Yes.

Nailed it.

Good.

If Paul is imitating Christ, would it therefore then make sense to imitate him?

Yes.

Does every single aspect of every single thing that Paul does imitate Christ?

No.

So what we should be imitating him in is the ways that he imitates Christ.

So hypothetically, putting it in our cultural context, do we imitate Paul in his, or do we imitate the leaders in their devotion to the Lord?

Yes.

And they're submitting to the Lord.

And they're following after him, and they're working together as a body.

In their personalities, in their own little conspiracy theories about different things, on their favorite sports teams, on their perfect specific sense of humors, on their identities.

No.

Imitate as they imitate Jesus.

It is an example of pointing to Jesus.

And that's what this is about.

And we'll talk about that more in a little bit here.

Continuing on, he flips things a little bit.

Normally he deals with the cultural topic and then the underlying topic.

Here he's gonna hit the underlying topic, lay the foundation, and then hit the cultural topic.

So, in verse 2, now I praise you because you remember me and everything, and hold fast to the traditions just as I delivered them to you.

This is funny to me, because some people actually believe this is Paul being straight up sarcastic, because we've already seen in this book how there's divide divisions based on who's in charge and who the leader is, whether that's Paul, whether that's Apollos, whether that's Peter, and that there's a division back and forth with that.

And then if you read 2 Corinthians, they straight up don't listen to him.

And he's basically calling them on it and going, like, look, what's your deal?

What have I done to you?

I preached the gospel to you, you got saved, and now you don't like me.

And you don't actually want to listen to me anymore because this person is fancy.

So some people believe he's being a little bit snarky here, saying, I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold fast to the traditions just as I delivered them to you.

Of note, this word traditions is used 13 times in Scripture, three times as of the church practices that they have there.

Here, 2 Thessalonians 2, 15 and 2 Thessalonians 3.6.

The other 10 times refer to the Jewish customs and rituals that they have added to Scripture.

So it is a tradition, a practice, a manner of doing things he's talking about here.

And then he launches into verse 3.

I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ.

Everybody good with that?

We can just move forward?

No.

Okay.

We need to unpack this quite a bit, obviously.

So I'm going to try to give you a ton of information in a little amount of time as possible, because there's this whole other section in this to go through.

But if you skip this, then the rest of it doesn't make any sense either.

So, with that in mind, what on earth did he say?

Christ is the head as every man, the man is the head of the woman, God is the head of Christ.

Undisputed fact here, God is the head of it all.

Right?

We can trust in that part.

No other interpretation needed, right?

God is God.

A equals A.

Good?

Okay.

So I have some slides to facilitate this because I'm going to go through a bunch of passages to highlight these concepts.

It is not exhaustive because when the font gets to a certain size, no one can read it.

So, the first one, God being the head.

Right?

We see in Psalm 24, 1 through 2, the earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord.

For he laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers.

And this is quoted multiple times in the New Testament as well.

Everything belongs to God.

God made everything, and God can do with it what he wants.

That's what that means.

And then we see in Ephesians 4, 4 through 6, there's one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope at your calling.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all in all.

Very relevant to what we're talking about here.

That there is one God, He made everything, everything is made for Him, and everything exists through Him.

So that's the top piece here.

God is above all.

Two pieces about Christ here.

Christ is the head of every man, God is the head of Christ.

Okay, let's address these in two different pieces here.

So we see Christ being the head of the church here on the next slide, buddy.

Ephesians 1, 20 through 23.

He exercised his power in Christ by raising him from the dead, seating him at the right hand in the heavens, far above every ruler in authority, power and dominion, every title given, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

He subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fits all things in every way.

So God has appointed Christ as the head of everything, particularly the church as well.

And then Ephesians 4, 15 through 16.

But speaking the truth in love, let us grow into every way into him who is the head, Christ.

From him, the whole body fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part.

So the head here is Christ, and the we function as a body, with him being the head of that.

God is in charge of everything.

He has exalted Christ to be above everything, especially the church.

Other verses about that as well are Colossians 1.18, Colossians 2.10, and Colossians 2.19.

Next, the idea of God being the head of Christ.

There's a lot of nuance to this, but for this time, we got enough problems this morning.

So we're going to give you this much here.

First, we see Christ submits to the Father.

In 1 Corinthians 15, 24 through 28.

Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he abolishes all rule and authority and power.

For he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet.

The last enemy to be abolished is death, for God has put everything under his Christ's feet.

Now when it says everything's put under him, it's obvious that he who puts everything under him is the exception.

When everything is subject to Christ, the Son Himself will also be subject to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.

And then we see here this idea that Christ has submitted himself.

We see that specifically in Matthew 26, 39, in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he's praying, Father, if it's possible, take this cup from me, but not my will, but your will be done.

Multiple other times in the Gospels you see that he has submitted himself to the Father.

And here he has done his work here, and the last enemy to be abolished is death.

He's done his work on the cross, and everything is submitted to him, and he submits to the Father.

And God exalts him in Philippians 2, 15 through 11.

Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.

Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity.

And when he has come as a man, come as a man, he humbled himself by coming obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross.

For this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him the name that's above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

So Christ has submitted, Christ the Son has submitted to the Father and has done the work that God has called him.

As a result, the Father has exalted him above all things.

So you have this synonymous relationship in that as we had, he has given us salvation through his perfect sacrifice, which we celebrated last Sunday at Easter, and his resurrection from the dead, and as a result, God has exalted him.

The submission and an exalting that happens there.

God the Father, Christ the Son.

Good so far?

Dragon so far?

Cool.

Then we have the man is the head of the woman.

First.

Continuing forward, it does not say the man is the head of every woman.

Important point about that.

We'll get back to that.

The man is the head of the woman.

Here's what Scripture says about the marriage relationship between husband and wife.

Not all exhausting, but big picture here.

So for husbands, husband is the head of the wife in Ephesians 5.23b.

Because it says the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church.

What is he to do?

Husband is to love and give himself for the wife.

In Ephesians 5.25 and 28, husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.

And in the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself.

Colossians 3.19, husbands, love your wives and don't be bitter toward them.

In 1 Peter 3, 7, just in case we think this is Paul's axe to grind, here comes Peter.

Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker partner, showing them honor as co-heirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

So here we see in the marriage relationship, the Lord has established that the husband is ultimately the head in here, and he is to use that to love his wife, to give himself for her as Christ did for the church.

That, by the way, looked a whole lot like crucifixion and dying to self and giving up rights and freedom.

And to honor them.

And so that is the husband to the wife.

There is a headship, which we'll talk about in a moment, and a responsibility that comes with that.

Okay, continuing forward.

Wives.

The wife submits to the husband in Ephesians 5, 22 through 24.

Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church.

He, Christ, is the savior of the body.

And as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything.

Colossians 3.18.

Wives submit yourselves to husbands as is fitting in the Lord.

1 Peter 3.1.

In the same way, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands.

So as the husband is the head of the wife and has therefore a responsibility to honor, to cherish, to give himself in this way, the wife has a responsibility here to ultimately submit to their husband and such.

And so when it says here that the man is the head of a woman, there is a mutual relationship there, there is a headship, there is a submission, and there are responsibilities that go in that.

In a marriage relationship, right?

Well, what about just in a Christian living relationship and sense?

Does the wife grow in the Lord through her husband?

Or does she answer directly to the Lord?

Directly to the Lord.

It is, yes, see, thank you.

When you put the answers on the big screen, you should have that's good.

So ultimately, there is no middle person between a woman and God.

And so here we see in Galatians 3, 27 to 28, for those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.

There is no Jew or Greek slave or free, male and female, since you are all one in Christ Jesus.

So as Jesus has made us new creations, he has made us new creations with direct access to God, regardless of gender, regardless of nationality, regardless of societal status.

And so that is the beautiful thing in that, that this is not saying at any point in time that the woman is to go through their husband to the Lord.

That'd be scary.

So instead, there is that relationship as well.

So very important point as we talk about these things.

Full stop, no asterisks, no disclaimer.

At no point, at any given point, is this a license or an allowance or a toleration of abuse.

At any given point, for any reason, full stop.

All human beings are created in the image of God.

We call that the Mago Day.

And when abuse happens, it is a violation of such and it angers the heart of God.

So that was loud.

So must be said as we talk through these things that both men and women are accountable directly to God for themselves and are worthy of honor, respect, and the protection and dignity involved as such.

Very important point.

So here is the big picture topic we see here.

That Christ is the head of every man, the man is the head of the woman, God is the head of Christ.

Remember when I said the title here is God is the head?

This is what I see him setting up in Scripture.

He gets to make those rules.

And so there's a lot of involved in that.

That's the technical theological term, by the way.

And yet, that is something that gets worked out between us and the Lord, and between us and our spouse, if applicable.

If not applicable, then it's very, very simple in that.

And you're, you know, obviously answering to the Lord in that.

But in the home, there is a level of responsibility that the husband has, and a level of responsibility that the woman has, the husband to lead and to love, the wife to submit, and how that works together.

And that is a Road that you must navigate together.

Because here's the beautiful thing.

You ready for this?

One of the most consistent things that we see throughout all of Scripture is the Lord puts people in a situation not because they are qualified, but because it brings Him the most glory as we depend on Him.

So depending on where you may have come from in this topic, in this discussion, it is very possible that as a man, if you hear it that way ahead, you'll get a little puffed up in that.

Let me disabuse you of that topic because you're put in there because you're not qualified to be there.

Christ is qualified to be there, and it is your dependence upon him that makes that successful, and your lack of dependence upon him that makes things a train break.

Wise Christ has called you to this, God has called you to this role, not because it is natural, not because it is something that you are naturally adept to, hopefully, but rather that it's something that glorifies the Lord in that and is your dependence upon the Lord that actually makes this fruitful.

And together, when those two people are doing that, fueled by the Holy Spirit, it works together well.

And when it doesn't, it's every it's evident to everybody.

So this is the body topic we're talking about.

How do you function as a body?

How do you support one another?

How do you act as different body parts with different strengths and weaknesses, skills and abilities, different callings together to support who?

God.

Christ is the head of the church.

So that is what we're talking about here.

And in that context, it's pretty simple.

You pull this verse, this section out of its context, and you go, wow, this is super weird.

But here within it, it's a continuation of that topic that our goal and our desire and our inclination as people can be to make our own agenda the most important thing and to promote ourselves, which is what we see the Corinthian church.

And he's saying, How about you guys actually give up your rights for the other and serve the other and take care of the other, all fueled by the Holy Spirit?

That is in the relationship, that is in the home.

Well, what about in the church?

Not everybody agrees on this topic.

I am responsible for this church.

So the church down the road ain't my problem.

That's the nice thing.

They don't even know who I am, so that's a beautiful thing with that.

But for us as well, we hold to what is called a complementarian view of this.

Two different views.

Complementarian, egalitarian.

So you may go, well, why do we need to know these fancy theological words?

Aren't we more holy if we don't know that?

I'm pretty sure when you're talking about gravity, you don't talk about the folly force that happens.

Right?

If you're talking about medicine, you don't talk about the thing that makes me less sneezy.

You actually use terms.

Terms are not a bad thing, guys.

It doesn't make you more holy to eschew terms and such.

It actually makes it better and easier for you to communicate with other people.

We don't call magnetism the stinky force and the pushy force.

Right?

So having that said, egalitarianism is the belief there is no distinction in role within the church or the home, that there is equality and absolutely no distinction whatsoever.

Complementarianism, which is what this church holds to, is that, give that definition, God has created men and women equal in their essential dignity and human personhood, but different and complementary in function with male headship in the home and in church.

So the complementarian view is that there is different shades of this, different nuances with this, but ultimately that men and women are equal in their dignity, in their value, in their worth, and in their personhood, and in their equal dignity, they have different roles in the church specifically.

And what that specifically means for our church is that the role of the elder is reserved for men.

Now that's not a complete answer.

Reserved for qualified men.

Our XY chromosomes do not make us qualified to be elders.

But that is a topic for another sermon when you get to qualifications of elders in this.

But ultimately, that's the important thing because we usually go, well, male qualified to be an elder check.

It's like, no, qualified men, once vetted, are able to be elders.

And so, and that is the one thing ultimately that in this church is reserved for that.

So there are very many different shades of this and different strengths of what this looked like, different intensity intentionalities with that.

That ultimately is what we hold as the one thing that there is a distinction.

So we we I'm not aware personally of any other uh gender distinctions in that.

So, but having that said, as a home, there ultimately is a headship and a working together in that sense.

In the church, there ultimately is a headship and a working together in that.

You guys are like, we're in first three.

What are we gonna do?

Okay, this picks up a lot more because this was, if you remember me saying, he they're asking a specific cultural question, and he is answering the bigger topic they needed to know, right?

We just answered the bigger topic they needed to know.

And now we can address the cultural question, which actually goes pretty quick.

So, having that said, the local application, verse 4 every man who prays or prophesies with something on his head dishonors his head, but every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head.

Since that's the one the same as her having her head shaved.

For if a woman doesn't cover her head, she should have her hair cut off.

But if it's a disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her head be covered.

Pretty cut and dry, right?

Good?

Good?

Okay.

Let me submit this to you.

A few weeks ago, we talked about whether or not the food being sold at the meat market was sacrificed to idols, right?

Who got bent out of shape about that and went home and decided to change where they shop at in the groceries?

Anybody?

Nobody?

Yeah, right?

Because ultimately, that really isn't something that applies to what we do.

We don't really do that.

We don't have a temple where, in our culture, where food is sacrificed to an idol, and you have to figure out if eating that or buying that is the same as worshiping that.

That's just really not part of our culture.

In other parts of the world today, that is a very important part of their culture, and that is very, very practical in that.

Where we are right now, it just really isn't.

Okay.

In other parts of the world today, the topic about head coverings, veils, things, and such, about long hair, short hair, and such, is very relevant and very important as part of their culture, right?

That's just really not something we do or worry or stress about.

And looking around, not seeing a big conflict here.

And here's what I love to say.

Uh Pastor Ed from Shoreline in Morrowand, he taught, he, they're our ascending church, and he taught uh about a month ago, maybe two months ago.

Oh my goodness.

And one of the crazy things when you talked about him as they lived in Kenya for a while, is they had to figure out, boots on the ground in real time, how to navigate polygamy.

Where we live right now, we really don't have to deal with that.

Like, please tell me we don't have to deal with that.

I am not emotionally prepared to deal with that today.

So it's just not really part of that context, right?

So, but for some reason, because this passage just triggers us so much as it is, tend to be usually, and because it's so strange, we're like, no, no, but this is the one thing that we really, really need to settle.

And then suddenly, for some reason, I feel this overwhelming expectation to somehow be the expert on ancient church practices as it pertains to head coverings.

And then I give you lots of random information, like you know, in ancient cultures, it's very clearly this thing that I probably made up.

And then we're all going, what do we do with this?

How do we know?

Guys, this is the topic that was burning in the church of Corinth.

The big topic that we're dealing with, how do we deal as a body, as men and women in the church, to love one another and serve one another as Christ has called us to.

So, having that said, there's a lot going on here that we're really not going to dive into great detail here, not because it's not important, but ultimately because as I'm looking around, clearly nobody has a very specific conviction about this that's being applied.

So, there are some important things to point out here.

Verse 5, every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, dishonors her head.

Hold on a second.

In all of the chaos, did we mention that it is very, very normal in here and important in this context, that men and women are permitted to prophesy in the church in this context.

So it's not like they're not allowed to talk at church, right?

Clearly, there's a lot more nuance than we understand to this, and a lot more quality of how things play out.

And when we get to chapter 14, we'll see more of that.

That's called me punting.

So, with that in mind, the concern here is how do we honor and dishonor one's head, which ultimately is.

Yes, and then continues forward as that.

Christ who submits to the Father, who is the head of the church, the husband who is the head of his wife, and who loves and cherishes and gives himself for her, the wife, who submits to the husband and supports, and then also answers directly to the Lord in her own faith and ability, all for the purpose of cherishing and valuing and honoring.

Continuing onward with here.

Verse 7 man should not cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God.

So too, woman is the image and glory of man.

And we're like, what is he talking about that?

Does that mean that women are not made in the image of God?

No.

Go back to Genesis 1.27, very clear in that, that created them in his own image, male and female, he created them.

So, with that in mind, man did not come from woman, but woman came from man.

And some of you who may not have as much Genesis fluency is like, I don't think that follows biologically.

What do you mean by man did not come from woman, but woman came from man?

Looking back at Genesis, and looking back at that topic in Genesis 2, 18 through 24, you have man in the garden with the animals, and God says, This isn't good.

You need a helper comparable.

And he looked at all the animals and said, Nope, not gonna make it.

Put Adam in a deep sleep, yanked out a rib, made a woman from it, and the first thing that Adam does is honor and cherish her and saying, This is my helper comparable, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.

That is the wife.

And then they could and with that idea, that's what they're talking about when it says man do not come from woman, but woman came from man.

She was designed as such to be a helper in what God has called the human race to do and to help, support, and honor in that.

And the man's first thing in that, in a perfect identical state, is to show her honor and value and dignity.

So, continuing onward, this is why in verse 10 a woman should have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels.

No questions about that, right?

We can just move forward.

There are a variety of different ideas and beliefs on what on earth that means, ranging from the most tame to the most sci-fi and everything in between, right?

This is what I will leave you with today because I truly think this is the most important thing he is saying with that.

Because he does absolutely nothing to explain what that means, right?

So it's not like this is the biggest point he has, but he did say it for a reason.

And what I love about that is that if this was me, which is not, praise the Lord, he would say, it's this idea of just leaving that little tidbit there to let them know there is a lot more going on in this conversation than you may think or realize than you.

In other words, it's not all about you.

Not only is it not all about you, because that's the big problem we see in the Church of Corinth, but it's not all about you guys, not all about your specific church, not all about what's going on here.

There is a whole lot more going on than we realize or understand.

And so, therefore, we need to follow our head, God, in what he sees that we do not see, that we do not know or understand.

So, with that, he just kind of drops that little in the midst of that, and like you're wondering if they're reading this, because they they got this letter and they just read it in their church, right?

And you can see the guy reading it, or the people reading it, and everyone being like, wait, what?

And then he just keeps reading.

So, in that sense, there's a lot more going on in the universe than we give credence to, thought, or understanding, especially in the spiritual realm.

And you know who knows what all that is?

God.

And so, our job is not to be fluent in all of those things that we see like a little peephole, but rather to follow the one who knows all in what he says.

So, continuing on, in verse 11.

In the Lord, however, man is not independent of woman, and woman is not independent of man.

For just as man came from woman, sorry, for just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman.

All things come from God.

Here is pulling this full circle here, that yes, we see in creation in Genesis that God created a helper for the man, and then she turned and he turned and showed her honor and that.

But then also, where do babies come from?

Everyone woke up real quick, didn't they?

Ultimately, uh, childbirth happens through women.

So just as that founded this way, also, just a reminder, guys, every guy came from their mommies.

Pretty sure they're covering the same thing in case you want to pick up your kids really quick.

No.

Just kicked.

So there is an a big important word here is interdependency.

Because they are a body working together, serving one another for the sake of the glory of the head.

Who is God and the head of the church who is Christ.

Body parts here, different functions, same purpose.

And he's gonna get to that in the very next chapter when he talks about different ideas, like, you know, and this is not exactly what it says.

I am paraphrasing for the sake of time.

If you're like a leg and you just wake up one day and go, I don't want to be a leg no more, I want to be an I.

Number one, why?

Number two, you can't.

And number three, why don't you just want to do what God called you to do and what God made you to do and to do so joyfully and lovingly and servingly?

So it's in our nature to push back against that.

But ultimately, the beauty in this is there is an interdependence.

Very important in that, to remember, there is an interdependence.

Now, why do I say that?

Um in our particular veins, most people don't necessarily have in our specific little church body, in our particular cultures, most people don't have a huge problem with what I said so far because it's been taught in various shades.

There's a lot more to understand than that.

You remember when I said that as men we should remember that God put us in that role, not because we are capable of doing that, but rather because we must depend on Him to do that.

That God called a woman in that role, not because she is naturally capable to do that, but because it requires His work to do so.

One of the problems when we talk about all these things, in the worst case scenario, is that in a married relationship, the husband gets a little puffy, and the woman gets a little shrinky, and it gets a little tough in that.

So, just something to remember in that this should never puff us up.

I'm talking specifically to the guys here.

This should never make us feel like, yeah, I'm the head, I'm in charge, what I say goes, and all those different things.

And I will go further and I'll say this as gently as humanly possible, which is not my nature, and just say application boots on the ground, something to think about.

It is possible.

The thing that frustrates you the most about your wife, that drives you absolutely crazy, is the very thing you need.

And the very thing you need that because it shows our own personal lack and inadequacy, we tend to callus that over with something called pride.

And so whenever that gets poked, we don't go, wow, I really need my spouse and their strengths and their wiring to help me in this role to work together.

Instead, we just get angsty about why God made them that way.

So just take this away and chew on it.

Oftentimes the thing that's most frustrating as men about our spouse is the thing we should probably pay the most attention to.

And it could be the Lord telling you, you have growth to do in that area.

I'm gonna watch my back as I get to the parking lot later today.

Moving in the same way, if this causes us, you to feel uh squashed, if this brings, I'll put it this way, if that brings out fear, there's a lot more behind that that should be explored and worked on in that that may not be the Lord, but may need some healing to be done in that.

And also, it is very possible that 90 sitcoms has taught you that your husband is a bumbling idiot who doesn't know what they're doing and you need to fix them.

Uh, that is also not what God is saying here.

Working, if we are not working together, fueled by the Spirit, honoring one another, there is an issue in that.

So I am young.

We got married in 2006, so we've been married that amount of time, which I'm terrified that I don't want to get that answer wrong on the spot here.

But we've been married for a number of years, almost 17 years.

It took well over a decade to learn that truth.

That the thing that frustrated me the most in that situation was my problem that I needed God to work on me with.

Anyway, having that said, exhortation and interdependency in the body working together.

Last little chunk here, verse 13, judge for yourselves.

Is it proper for women to pray to God with their head uncovered?

Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it's a disgrace to him, but if a woman has long hair, it's her glory, for her hair is given to her as a covering.

And again, we're talking about what they're dealing with in that current situation.

And here's what I think is important.

And I stole this from another uh preacher in this sense.

Does not nature itself teach you if a man has long hair, it's disgrace?

Okay.

If you have A man and you have a woman and you let their hair grow, does it grow at roughly the same rate?

This should not be a hard question.

Yeah.

Right?

God did not build us in a way that one of them has short hair naturally and the other one has long hair naturally.

If you think back for a second though, you look back at not only in the culture we've seen at this point in time, but also just think about like the Roman statues.

You think like back in the day, they all kind of have short hair at that sense.

I don't see that as much.

Samson's a weird exception in the Jewish culture.

But they also tend to have their, they're specifically told in that culture not to cut their beards, so that's growing long.

Ultimately, what I'm saying about it, this is not about hair length, even though it is about hair length in their culture, it is about what is honoring and what is shameful.

And what the point is here, if we took that cultural context, jammed it into our own, it would be shameful for a man to look like a woman.

And the other way around.

So here is the hard, ultimate truth that we need to understand in this is that if one of us, and I'm not even telling you who's teaching next week, so that you can't imagine this, but if one of us showed up next Sunday in a dress, you might have some questions, right?

And I would, if I was in that situation, I would feel uncomfortable, rightfully so.

Right?

Whereas if that's not the case, like if we just did so as we normally do, you don't feel that way.

There are certain things that even in a natural state make somebody feel shameful or somebody not to do so.

That's what nature is teaching us is that when we go outside of our uh more of our roles, even if our cultures look a little bit different in that, that brings about a feeling of shame.

And thriving within that brings about a feeling of honoring the head and such.

So that's the important thing in here.

It is less about if a man has longer hair, it's that's a serious problem and a sin.

Because if that's the case, number one, how long exactly?

Is it like kind of sinful?

A little sinful.

Oh, we got a problem now.

And then on the other side, if it was, you know, if a woman has long hair, if she has longer hair, is even more glory?

Do you get even more in that sense?

There's a lot that clearly we don't do.

But what we do understand in this is that if we are living within the roles and the expectations that God has called us to, it brings about glory and honor to self, yes to self, but more so to the head.

And if we decide to reject those and go with ourselves, it brings about shame.

So we can rejoice in the role that we're called in that sense.

So bringing it around here, first of all, he says, if anyone wants to argue about this, we have no other custom, nor do the churches of God.

I love in this situation what he does is he takes them outside of their little bubble and goes, look, I know this is a hot butt topic for you.

The world is a bigger place than you realize.

Paul has done a little bit of traveling, seeing things.

And he's telling them, I understand in your bubble.

This is what you think Arab thinks.

Step outside the cave.

This is very, this is what is normal and normative in these practices within the churches.

You can say, look, I've been to a few different places, what you're doing and arguing about, you may be really convinced in your own little spot, and all of your friends may think the same thing and say the same thing, but it's just it's just not the case here.

So bringing it around to a close.

Who is the head?

Yes, who is the head of the church?

Who made Christ the head of the church?

And we can glorify him, and we can honor one another and we can serve one another by living as he has called us, by doing so fueled only by his spirit, and not by our own desires and inclinations and things, and to care for one another as such, and to remember that we all give an account ultimately to who?

And there is nobody else that's going to be standing there advocating for us in that moment apart from Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

And as such, continuing forward in this topic, we are a body.

The body supports the head, glorifies the head, who is Jesus, and we do so by doing what he says, and doing so joyfully in honoring one another.

And if we are not honoring one another in such, that's the first big red flag.

If we're doing it for our own ambitions, that's the second big red flag in that.

So working together in that.

So when Paul says, Imitate me as I imitate Christ, in the sense that he is following the Lord, Christ emptied himself, took the form of a servant, submitted himself to death, even death on the cross.

He gave up everything for us on the cross.

God glorified him as a result.

He did not glorify himself, but rather was focused on doing what he was called to do in that.

And that salvation that he offers us comes through the death and the resurrection of Christ alone.

And faith and belief in that and following him.

So that is the beauty of that.

We covered a whole lot of ground this morning.

Talked about a whole lot of things, and ultimately, the beautiful thing in this is we are a we who have uh confessed Christ are a part of a church body, and we can trust our head Jesus to be good and to lead us well.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for this morning.

I thank you that you are good and trustworthy and right and holy and just.

And most importantly, I thank you that we can trust you to take care of us.

I ask that you would give us wisdom to love one another, to support one another, to function as a body together, one another.

That we would be willing to take up our cross and follow you in that sense as well.

That we would be willing to surrender ourselves, that we would be willing to honor one another in honoring you.

Jesus, I thank you so much for your sacrifice on the cross that you would, in your innocence, take on our guilt, that we could take on your innocence before God.

I thank you that through faith in you we have freedom from sin and death ultimately.

That we have a hope, that we have access into your family and into your body.

And I thank you that you are good and we can trust you.

And as we navigate all of this and topics that may be touchy, Lord, I ask that you would heal where healing needs to happen, that you would correct where correction needs to happen, that you would encourage where encouragement needs to happen, that you would bring about growth and peace in them.

And be glorified in all these things in your name.

Amen.