I Corinthians 11:2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
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.
4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
The apostle Paul began these verses with some words of praise. The saints were remembering the apostle Paul and they were remembering the ordinances that he had delivered unto them. In spite of the many sins that God told Paul to address in that church, there was hope there. The foundation of the church in Corinth was sound. They were building on the right foundation. They were not building properly on that foundation. That is what Paul was told to address. The difference here was that this was a true church and thus God exposed the sins and told them they needed to address those matters. Jesus addressed 7 churches in Revelation 2&3. He cared for them but also for all people. God wants people to know the truth. He hates it when a true child of God lies about Him. People cannot be saved if they believe in a false god. Christians cannot grow when they are being lied to.
Today there are many false churches that are not built upon Jesus Christ and thus they remain in their sins. They have normalized sin, rather than condemned it. God never changes. His Word never changes. Lost people have developed false doctrines and built religions on that. Catholicism is a good example of this. Catholicism was never right. It was never built upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a cult that has the pope as its head and then they have a hierarchy that they have developed and they run on that. They talk about God and Jesus but their god is not the God of the Bible. Their jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible. Their God accepts evolution. Their jesus needed the help of his mother to save people. Their religion believes that Mary is the mother of God.
There are other religions that once had the truth, but they abandoned it. Jesus addressed 7 churches in Revelation 2&3. Those churches all had the truth at one time. However, they eventually rejected the truth and died. A saved person cannot lose his or her salvation. However, saved people have unsaved children. If the parents are carnal like those in Corinth, they will not hold to the truth properly and they will accept unsaved children into the membership. There will be fornication and idolatry and fighting over leadership, etc.
Paul was addressing the saved members of this local church. They needed to get back to building on the right foundation. God would not allow them to continue to try to corrupt the foundation. The building must reflect the foundation.
In verse 3 Paul reminded the saints of the order that God has designed, and He has never changed that. The head of every man is Christ. Every saved man is under the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be taught that. No Christian man can branch out and develop his own religion; not a true Christian man. The study of church history is very interesting and also important. Every true church needs to constantly be examining its position and be sure it is not straying from the truth. Every thought I have is not necessarily a right thought. In II Corinthians 10:3-6 the apostle Paul addressed the matter of our thoughts.
The head of every woman is the man. Every Christian woman needs to understand that she cannot be independent. God has never called a woman to be a pastor. The woman is to be under the protection of her husband. The unmarried woman is to be under the protection of her father. That is God’s design. God also told Paul to remind the saints that the head of Christ is God. Remember in verse 1 that the command is to follow Paul as he follows Christ. Christ shows us what true submission looks like. Jesus Christ is God. He is the Creator of all things. Yet He submitted Himself fully to His Father. That is the challenge for every saint. You will never find even a hint of disobedience between God the Father and God the Son.
Based on the basic truth of verse 3, Paul now talked of how we approach God. During the time of the apostle Paul there were still prophets. The Scriptures were not yet complete. God still used prophets at that time. When the Scriptures would be completed, there would be no further need for prophets. Men like Kenneth Copeland and Joseph Prince are frauds. They are deceived and they are deceiving others. There are no prophets in that sense today. The word “prophecy” can also refer to the proclamation of God’s truth. In that sense, I am a prophet. However, I am not given any new revelation of God that you do not have. The Bible is complete and there is no new revelation.
Paul was told to address the symbolism of a head covering. We need to remember here that the head of every man is Christ. When a man covers his head to prophesy, he dishonours his head. Symbolically, the uncovered head demonstrates that open communication with Jesus Christ and with God. The Bible makes it clear that all prayer is to be directed to God the Father in Jesus’ name. Jesus is the mediator between God and man. The saved man needs to understand that he needs to be open to communicate with his Head at all times.
In verse 5 Paul contrasted the man with the woman. The godly woman needs to have her head covered. God will define the covering further in this passage. For now, we see that the woman is to be under the man. She does not sidestep the man and do what she wants to do. She submits to the man and trusts him to follow God, and thus lead her in the right way.
We see in verse 5 that if the woman does not want to cover her head, she might as well shave her hair off. Thus we are seeing here that the covering is not some type of a kerchief or cap. It is her hair. In verse 6 we see further the importance of long hair on a woman. There are women who want to have short hair like a man because they say it is easier to look after their hair that way. Hair is not about convenience. It is there for a covering before God. We learn in verse 6, that it was a shame for a woman to have short hair. If she wanted short hair, then she might as well be shaven. There are men who go bald. Some of them are ashamed of that. They have a wrong understanding of hair on a man. Some women lose some of their hair and it thins out. They cannot help that, but they can help cutting it short.
In verse 7 we are further told the man should not cover his head. The man is the glory of God. God tells us further in this passage that even nature shows us that it is a shame for a man to have long hair. I know there are rebellious men who want long hair. I was one of them at one time. God spanked me for that. The world had infiltrated many churches in my youth. Long hair on men was promoted greatly by the hippies. That was a promotion of rebellion. Most churches did not know how to address that sin and so they just let it slide. I was lost in the ’60’s. After I was saved, I needed to understand that long hair has no place in the Christian man. In Israel God taught the law of the Nazarite. That was specific to Israel and only for certain men. It was not the norm.
Paul reminds us here that the woman is the glory of the man. She is a reflection of her husband. An aggressive and pushy woman is a shame to her husband. Some women are impatient and they push their way into the lead. They think their husband is not acting fast enough on some things. Some men are too slow in acting. The solution is for the local church to teach how the man and the woman need to behave. The solution is for the man to learn to be a man and for the woman to be reminded of how to be a woman.
In verse 8 we are reminded that the man did not come from the woman. God made Adam first. God put Adam to sleep and took one of his ribs and made the woman with that rib. The woman came from the man. Now, we know that all men since creation have been born of a woman. That is not what God is talking about here. He is talking of the order of creation.
Verse 9 helps us to see this. The man was not created for the woman. In Genesis 2 we read:
Genesis 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
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.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
God did not create the man for the woman. The man was created first and he needed an “help meet for him”. In verse 10 we are further reminded of the order of things. The woman needs to have long hair as a reminder of the fact that she is under the authority of her husband. She needs to be an example to the angels. The modern unisex mentality is not of God. The woman that wants to have short hair is not honouring God. No godly woman should have short hair. Again, if she loses her hair that is different. If she deliberately cuts it off, that is wrong.
God wants us to get away from the hair dressers who want to experiment with different styles. They interfere with God’s design. Godly people are not in a fashion fight. They want to glorify God. They want to help others to know Him. They are not trying to draw attention to themselves. Thus in relation to hair, they keep their hair neat and tidy, but they are not trying to have that “knock out” look. They want to glorify God. More to come.
Pastor Bartel
