“But there is one thing I want you to know: The head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God”
1 Corinthians 11:3 NLT
Question 1. What is the order of headship that God has established according to 1 Corinthians 11:3 NLT?
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The Corinthians had written Paul and asked him how men and women should conduct themselves during their local church services. It's possible that the Corinthians were over-exuberant in living out their freedoms in Christ in this area, too, and were living like the differentiation of gender roles were irrelevant. Paul corrects their misunderstanding in his letter.
1 Corinthians 11:3 lays out the proper structure and roles within the Godhead (God the Father and God the Son), marriage, and the local church. We see headship (God the Father is the Head of Christ, man is the head of woman), but that headship does not indicate superiority. Instead, it demonstrates a difference in roles and responsibilities. Jesus was not inferior to the Father, yet He did submit to the Father's will as He assumed the role of our Redeemer. Likewise, women are not inferior to men, but their willing and joyful submission to their God-ordained head is a picture of the gospel.
As we saw yesterday, the angels saw submission perverted when Lucifer rejected God's authority and attempted to ascend to the throne of God (Isaiah 14:12-14; Luke 10:18; Revelation 9:1).
The angels saw submission perfected in Jesus, as He lowered Himself to die on a cross in total surrender to God the Father. For His obedience, God the Father exalted God the Son, Jesus, to the highest place.
1 Corinthians 11 teaches us that God’s ordained structure and roles within marriage and, more broadly, in the local church is that man is the head of the woman, just as God is the Head of Christ. The world at large objects to this truth and seeks to deny or reverse God’s revealed order.
We can hear the hiss of the serpent in the teaching that domineering men wrote the Bible, so women should reject the yoke of submission and assert their authority at home and within the local church. Satan’s goal has not changed through the years: he still wants to usurp God’s authority or, at the very least, mar the picture that God has created through marriage and the structure of the local church.
With their abandonment of gender distinctions, were the Corinthians evidencing that they believed the gospel and the structure God established? Were they displaying the disobedient independence of Satan or the obedient submission of Christ? And how about us? When we are thinking through structure and roles within marriage and the church, these are good questions to ask ourselves for clarity.
Paul takes the Corinthians back to the beginning of time and the created order of the first humans to make his point. In going back to the beginning, we see that God created man, and then at the proper time, Adam was put into a deep sleep; God opened Adam's side and made Eve from Adam's rib. Submitting to His Father, Jesus became a man, and at the proper time, He was placed into the "deep sleep" of death on the cross, and from His opened side, God brought forth Jesus' Bride, the Church.
Many believe that some elements discussed in 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 are specific to Corinth - for example, few churches today expect women to cover their hair during services - but we should not ignore the vital truth Paul is teaching. Believers should not lay aside the distinct gender roles and appearances that God has established in the name of Christian liberty. Just as with every area of life, we submit our freedom in Christ for the sake of the gospel. So as not to be an offense to anyone and not hinder them from hearing the gospel message, we submit to the order and distinctions that God established in the beginning.
The display of the cross is what is of utmost importance. Men and women who have come to treasure the cross in their hearts, who have been cut and healed by its love and power, will eagerly desire to reveal the beauty and power of the cross in every way possible.
Men should follow Christ as their Head by sacrificially leading in love. They should not live in superiority but rather serve women in love, humbly meeting their needs and treating them as co-heirs of salvation together. And women, by their conduct and appearance, should display joyful submission to their Head, willingly laying down their lives to reveal the cross.
Question 2. Why is it imperative that believers hold to the authority structure God established in the beginning? Please share your thoughts.
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