Week two of our study of 1 Corinthians 11 has given us clearer understanding concerning the roles of men and women in church worship. In reading the first nine verses, we see God’s divine order of authority and leadership has less to do with who is better equipped for ministry, or who has a more devout heart for God, than it is simply the way God wants things done, and our willing submission to the way he has designed brings blessing, and peace, and joy.
We must continually remember that the design of God is compatible with our 21st Century world. Satan, the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, is continually working to dismantle God’s divine order as laid out in 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.
Business, government, everything in our day to day life operates contrary to God’s divine order of leadership. This is in direct relation to the curses brought upon Adam and Eve in the Garden in Genesis 3. In today’s world culture, women are not only demanding equality with men, but superiority to men through the demasculinizing of everything we are fed through the medium of television and movies. Women play the boss, or the authority figure, and the subordinate men have to give account of themselves and their actions to the female lead.
What we are studying in 1 Corinthians 11 has nothing to do with how the world does business, or how the world is homogenizing the vast differences between men and women into some soupy mix of a nongender specific culture. The Christian home and the local New Testament church are to operate by God’s design, not the world’s (and Satan’s, by default) goals and desires. This pushes us, as Christians, further away from our culture, just as it did in the first century in Corinth.
We spent our time in 1 Timothy 2:11-4 clarifying our current state of fallenness, as a result of one decision in the Garden of Eden, made by Adam.
1 Corinthians 11:3: But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
1 Timothy 2:11-14: Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Romans 5:12: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
The issue that we must clarify is that, because of the fall, and woman’s subconscious desire to have authority over man, she must subordinate herself to her husband, and in the church, to the leadership of the pastor and staff, concerning the direction of the church. It does not mean that women cannot teach, which we will see next week. It means that to willingly submit to godly male authority is to please God. There are all kinds of situations within the structure of the church, where women may teach and lead in ministries, and rightfully should. There are ministries that men should not be involved in, but should allow women their place of leadership in those areas, all under the authority of the church.
Please read the scriptures on the board in preparation for our discussion next week.