“Head Coverings”
LAGRANGE BAPTIST CHURCH
February 18, 2007
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Thank you, Terry.
I want us to do just that, I want us to let the Word of God
speak this morning, so take your Bibles please and find 1
Corinthians, in the New Testament.
We are back walking our way through 1 Corinthians.
If you would like to find in the pew Bible, you can find it
on Page 958. Our text
this morning is one I want you to look at and see, and if you don’t
have your own copy or can't reach a pew Bible, you'll see the
scripture verses on the screen.
1 Corinthians 11, beginning with verse 2; we are going to
read through verse 16.
There's a dime on the pulpit this morning.
Now I don't know if somebody is telling that is what my
sermon is going to worth today or not [laughter].
I'm sure it has significance.
Charles Hadden Spurgeon in one of his churches was given a
note once as he approached the pulpit and it said, Fool.
That's all it said.
So the pastor calmly walked up and said, "I have received
many anonymous letters in my life with a body and no signature, but
this is the first one I have with a signature and no body."
[Lots of laughter]
Before we get to 1 Corinthians may God, the Holy Spirit,
open our eyes to it and teach us from it, but I want you to have a
full reaction to what we read, so I want you to be honest with your
reactions intellectually, psychologically, emotionally so we can
think this through together.
We are actually hearing God speak and this is God's word to
us today:
1 Corinthians 11:2
"2 Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and
maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. 3But
I want you to understand that the head of very man is Christ, the
head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
4Every man who prays or prophesies with his head
covered dishonors his head, 5but every wife who prays or
prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head--it is the
same as if her head were shaven.
6For if a wife will not cover her head, then she
should cut her hair short.
But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or
shave her head, let her cover her head.
7For a man ought not to cover his head since he is
the image and the glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.
8For man is not made from woman, but woman from
man. 9Neither
is man created for woman, but woman for man. 10That is
why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because
of the angels. 11Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not
independent of man nor man of woman; 12for as woman was
made from man, so man is now born of woman.
And all things are from God.
13Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a wife to
pray to God with her head uncovered?
14Does not nature itself teach you that if a man
wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, 15but if a
woman has long hair, it is her glory?
For her hair is given to her for a covering.
16 If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we
have no such practice, nor do the churches of God."
What was your emotional reaction to that?
Made you want to get up and walk out about half-way through?
You hope for a little bit of relief as you go along and don't
find any?
This the Word of God.
What do we do with it?
How do you deal with a passage of scripture like this?
And we can't say its for that day and time.
I say that all the time.
My day and time and our day and time does not effect how we
do things, but the heart of mankind has not changed since the time
he fell from the Garden of Eden.
So there are parts of God's Word that we will always have
trouble with and we have trouble with this one.
There are a multitude of difficulties in this passage of
scripture. It deals with
the roles of men and women, and I thought just yesterday how
appropriate it was for me to be preaching on this today.
I get an urge every now and then on Saturdays to cook, and I
like to cook, and I was just doing that, and I noticed….one of the
girls had a friend coming over, and Joie realized that and decided
that she would shovel the snow off the sidewalk. So, all at once it
hit me that I'm in here cooking and my wife is shoveling snow.
[Laughter] We needed to get that on video for tomorrow's
sermon.
But what is the immediate response to a reading like this in
our culture? Is it the
hair stands up on the back of our neck?
That it is so outdated there is no way to have an application
in our time? I just
don't like it so I'm not going to deal with it?
The difficulty of even translating from their time to our
time without changing the meaning and the intent of God's word is
extremely difficult here, so what can we do?
Here are some things I think we need to do before we walk
over this passage of scripture together.
Let's think through before we jump into this passage with our
preconceived notions.
You do know what a preconceived notion is?
Let me see if I can explain it.
Everyone of us here in this room is exactly the same.
Now, we don’t have the same notions, but we are exactly the
same because we're human.
You and I need to understand that everyone of us has lived
our entire life from the same and single perspective.
You only have one perspective in life.
Has anybody ever told you that two heads are better than one?
Why is that? In
making decisions, in consulting with one another?
Why is there safety in a multitude of counselors?
Because every person has a different perspective on life and
most of the time if you are trying to make a practical decision,
different perspectives shed a little more light, so we come to a
passage of scripture like this, with our upbringing, with our
culture, our education, with our psychological temperament, with
most of all our own perspective based on all of those things, and if
you see it about that wide.
The trouble is that if that is the only perspective we ever
know, we think we are right, and ladies if you don't believe that,
just ask your husband.
Did you get that? Are you with me?
Does your husband ever just think he's right?
Does your wife ever just think she's right because that's
what she said? Aren't
you human? Of course we
do that. Have you ever
argued from a position simply because that's the way you saw it, or
that's the way you felt about it and you had no facts wherewith to
stand upon, just because that was your perspective.
So we better learn what God was teaching his church so we can
know what God is still teaching his church today.
Why was Paul writing to them about these things?
We also need to recognize all the issues of life this
passage of scripture touches on; it doesn’t address them fully, but
it touches on them. That there is a relationship between proper
worship and church order, culture pressures, that Christians as the
church's public witness, doctrinal truth and the honor of God.
All of those are touched on in this passage of scripture.
So, how do you approach a text of scripture like this? I hope
we approach it the same way we approach every other one.
We can't approach one passage one way and one another.
Either you believe this to be the Word of God, we come before
it, humbled before the alter, God the Holy Spirit seeking His
meaning.
R.C. Sproul's little booklet, "Five Things Every Christian
Ought to Grow" in his section on Bible study, he says he learned in
Bible study years ago when he would read through the Bible, he had a
particular color highlighter when he came to a particular passage of
scripture that made him very uneasy or he had an element of
disagreement with, he would underline or highlight that passage of
scripture, signifying to him that he had some changing to do to
become more Christlike.
That's a great way to study the Bible because it put him into the
assumption that God's perspective is right and his perspective is
wrong. So where I squirm
and where I don't like it, that means my resistance is a sign of
needed change, not from God but in me, my perspective.
The issue, male and female roles, has a field of tension ever
since Adam and Eve. And
I've noticed that even in the church, even in very conservative
evangelical environment of the church, positions are defended with
aggression, sarcasm and anger.
One of the things I did is I went through some old
illustrations this week.
This isn't an old one, it's a new one, but this represents how we
cut up about man and wife:
"He didn't like the casserole and he didn't like my cake.
He said my biscuits were too hard, not like his mother used to make.
I didn't perk the coffee right, he didn't like the stew.
I didn't mend his socks the way his mother used to do.
I pondered for an answer, I was looking for a clue,
Then I turned and smacked him on the head, like his mother used to
do."
[Lots of laughter]
Every marriage illustration I have has to do with the
tension with the husband and the wife, every single one.
Why is that? So
can we relax and approach this passage of scripture with an open
mind, an open heart to hear God speak, to learn God's ways?
Or, will our own prejudices, fears and pride, keep us from
being taught by God this morning?
Now, I'm going to put a lot of information on the board, and
I hope to lead you through it.
It is very important that I try to condense this teaching
down so we can handle it all in one session, because I think it is
best handled that way.
One of the things we have to see to understand this passage
of scripture is the overall structure of the passage.
To me, this is the most important issue in learning what God
is saying to his church today when we see the structure of the
passage. Sometimes we
need to…. You would not believe the pages upon pages, books upon
books, written on this passage of scripture.
There are books, studies, entire studies written on single
words in this passage of scripture.
It is a difficult passage but it is greatly simplified when
we see the simple structures; it holds itself in 3 ways, or it
divides itself in 3 ways:
First is a very simple commendation of the Apostle Paul.
We see that in Verse 2,
"Now I commend you" so the first thing we have to do is
realize that Paul is in the positive mode.
Now later in this chapter, look at verse 17, he says, but in
the following instructions, I do not commend you," so the
mood of the writer is, he is positive.
He has a brief commendation.
Then he has a very clear, but brief doctrinal truth.
That is essentially what he is teaching in this passage of
scripture and we find that in Verse 3:
"3But I want you to understand that the head of
very man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head
of Christ is God."
That's the doctrinal truth he is teaching.
The rest of the passage of scripture is an application to
that truth. When you
understand that, I think it helps us understand what God is teaching
us, so let's take a brief look at that commendation.
What did Paul say to them?
He said, "Now I commend you", [why?]
Because you remember me [was that because he was special? No.
It was because he was their apostle, he was God's spokesman to them]
And you maintain the traditions.
[Now as I understand it, the way he is using the word,
traditions, here is not the traditions of a man passed down to a
man, but of God, or the Lord Jesus Christ passed down to his
apostles, given to the Apostle Paul to give to the church.
These were non alterable, non optional truths that the church
was maintaining. I know
when we think of
So, he commended them for maintaining the traditions.
He goes on and says this.
"Even as I delivered them to you," so that is just how they
got them. So, it is at
this point that Paul was not fussing or correcting, he was
commending. So we need
to remember that. It
helps us see that he was in a positive mode, not in a negative mode.
Second, is the doctrine or the truth that he wanted them to
know. This is where it
kind of gets a little on the difficult side.
We'll see how difficult in a few minutes because scholars far
brighter than I am struggle here.
This is the core of the passage.
The core of the passage is found in Verse 3.
I want you to look at it and see that core.
Paul says:
"3But I
want you to understand that the head of very man is Christ, the head
of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God."
That is the truth he wants us to know.
When he said it in verse 3, he said it this way, "But I
want you to understand.." the word he used for want, it
means that he would have them understand; it meant he
desired for them to understand.
His purpose in writing this was that they understand.
He wanted them to take pleasure in understanding this truth.
This was important to Paul because it was absolutely vital
to the church's life and the glory of God.
Dr. Tom Schneider, who is a great writer on this subject, by
the way he is a local man and Professor at Southern Seminary, said
this, and I quote:
"1 Corinthians 11:2-16 has some features that make it one of
the most difficult and controversial passage in the Bible,"
and after studying it for about 3 weeks all I can do is say,
"Amen." There are some
great and grand difficulties here in the words.
But when you see the structure of the passage, when you
understand the flow of what Paul is doing, the meaning is not hard
to get to at all. So, he
wants us to know that truth, and this truth holds two foundational
stones of Christianity.
That's why he wants us to have this groundwork truth.
The first one is the person of God.
We learn about God in this.
We learn as the Holy Spirit is inspiring Paul to write that
Paul is referencing God the Father, and God the Son, and how they
relate to each other in what we call the economy of the trinity.
He is showing us something of this God, that we know as God,
one in three persons, God co-equal with God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit, but he says here that God is the head of
Christ. Does that mean
that God is greater than Christ?
In no way. But,
it does mean there is a way in which they operate that says in a way
God the Father is the head of Christ and we find that later again in
1 Corinthians 15. All
things are wrapped up in Christ's kingdom under God the Father so
that God will be all in all.
That's real deep, but what does this mean?
What can we do with this?
Basically God wants us to understand that, first, he wants
us to know that God is honored in and how man and woman relate, or
God is to be honored in how man and woman relate.
He wants us to understand that God has a design for humanity
and his design is that when humans are male and female, you say
'this is not rocket science here.. I understand this.'
That's exactly what Paul wanted you to take joy in.
He said, I want you to understand that the head of every man
is Christ, the head of every wife is her husband, and the head of
Christ is God. Now, in
all honesty, the word for wife and husband, those words could be
translated woman and
man, some translations have that.
They are a bit ambiguous in the Greek language, but the
context with the whole of scripture and this passage is best, I
think, to say wife and husband¸ because just because I'm a
man does not put me in a position over other women in the world. It
might as being pastor and those who are in my church, but as a
husband I'm in a position with Joie as I relate to her and love her
as Christ loved the church and she respects, and yes, I can use that
word, submits, to me in the Lord.
And when submit causes hair to rise on the back of our
necks, it means we don't understand it the way God would have us
understand it. All he
wants us to do is operate like Adam and Eve were supposed to do in
perfection. It's what we read into it that makes it not so good. So
God is to be honored in how man and woman relate. So God had a
design for humanity. It
is male and female.
Third, he wants us to realize the roles of the distinctions
between men and women must be kept or we are breaking the very order
of God.
Now let me just ask you three questions.
Can you think, just off the top of your head this morning,
any problematic issues in our current
society that are directly related to the confusion of the
roles between men and women?
I hear some snickers…. It's not the candy bar.
I see a few smirks on your face.
Do we have any disruptions in society or any dishonoring of
God because of the business of erasing the distinctions between male
and female? Some of
those issues are at the very core of the disruption of our society.
God is only teaching us common sense and that he made us a
certain way, and when he makes things a certain way, as we'll see as
we move toward the end, with nature and revelation show us plainly
in common sense that things are to be a certain way, if we believe
God we ought to be very cautious in changing them, because we might
find ourselves fighting against God Himself.
So that's what Paul wants us to know, what he wants us to
understand. How in the
world does he apply this? This is where we run into trouble.
Some resist the application of this passage with a vengeance.
Others read into this passage things that do not belong.
Again, when we disagree with what makes us uncomfortable in
the Word it is not a sign that God needs to change, but a sign that
I need to change. I need either clearer understanding or maybe I
need to change myself, or possibly I'm just in rebellion, and may
God enable us to now come humbly before his Word and learn from him.
How then did this truth guide the church at
First of all, this has to do with public worship.
Paul has entered a section, whether they wrote and asked him
about this we don't know, but he is dealing with an issue that
didn't come up while he was there.
He is dealing with this issue of worship, he is dealing with
the Lord's Supper, he is dealing with tongues and prophesying in
worship all in 11-14, so I think the context tells us he is dealing
with issues in public worship.
I found, oddly enough, even among conservative scholars, [I'm
conservative, but I'm not a scholar, I don't think] but we all will
read into this passage of scripture what we would like to be there.
Some are inhibited about the fact that this was an
abnormality that women had been praying and prophesying in public
worship because Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 14 that women mustn’t
be silent in the churches; that this was totally wrong for them to
be doing that. I don't
think that's in the passage of scripture at all.
Paul is not condemning, he's commending.
He just mentions that women are praying and prophesying in
church. It is not
that they were doing was wrong, it's how they were doing
it and how the men were doing it who were wrong.
As a matter of
fact, I don't know if the men were covering their heads or not, it
almost insinuates that they were.
If they were, Don Carson tells us, that in the isms of their
day, the pagan religions, some of the priests wore headdresses to
set themselves apart as being superior to those around them, and, if
a man wore a head covering in worship, he was trying to set himself
above the other people, and that would dishonor not only his head,
but also his head, Christ, because Christ was the one to be honored
in worship and not the man.
Then there's another issue dealing with the women, but let's
look at what he says that men should do.
We can break down the passage of scripture, as we read in
Verse 4:
"Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered
dishonors his head," so in the word about men, men in worship, men
pray and prophesy in church, then he must not do it with covered
head, because that would dishonor his head.
That's exactly what Paul is saying.
"Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered
dishonors his head," Now
we can fight back and forth about this, whether this is his own head
or the head of him, who is Christ.
I think it means both and we'll see why in just a minute.
I think it means both also for the woman.
So, what's the application for women?
That was the application of their day.
Men you pray and prophesy in church.
You must not do it with your head covered because doing it
with your head covered dishonors your head.
Women, [look at verse 5] "But every wife who prays or
prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head--it is the
same as if her head were shaven.
For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut
her hair short, but since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off
her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head." What is he
telling us?
Three things:
Women pray and prophesy in worship, he did not say anything negative
or positive about that.
He is in a state of commending them.
He is making a comment about their worship.
I think this happened in public worship in the early church.
If they did that, they were to do it with their head covered.
Why? Because
being uncovered dishonors their head. How is that?
It reflects in three ways; it reflects on the woman, it
reflects on God and it reflects on the church.
It is a 3-way reflection:
1.
The Romans, in a
Roman province or colony, made a woman shave her head if she
disgraced her husband by committing adultery and that would be true
in
2.
When a woman
uncovered her head, she would be regarded as one who refuses to
recognize her relationship with her husband.
A covered head was a recognition of that relationship with
her husband being her head, and to pray that way uncovered in the
church says, "I don't have any relationship with that guy and I'm
not going to display it so."
3.
The reflection on
the woman and on God, one such woman would then be a disgrace to God
whom she was there honoring.
One of the biggest dilemmas in this passage of scripture is
that we make it a deep passage.
We look at it, if we are a man, and we think, Hey this is
good, I'm on top. I'm
the head of the household here.
I get to tell people what to do.
EHHHH! Wrong! The
women look at it and say, "Oh, this is bad.
The woman is under the man.
The man is directly under Christ.
This has to be a bad thing."
The issue at stake is the honor of God, and God is not
honored when we do not follow his created and his revealed Word.
So, a word of challenge or a word of encouragement, what is
this passage of scripture?
Here is what's happening.
Paul is merely stating facts of the created order, let me
read it:
Verse 7: "For a man ought not to cover his head, [why?] since he is
the
image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.
[Simply put she was made after him and from him.
Paul extrapolates that in verse 8]
"For man is not made from
woman, but woman from man.
Neither was man
created for woman, but woman for man."
Boy, that stings.
Why does that sting?
All Paul is doing is telling how things happen, and that God
did it for a purpose. He
goes on and writes this:
"That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on
her head,
because of the angels."
If it weren't confusing enough already, why did he have to
go and say that? [Laughter]
Tonight we are ordaining Jeff Mayfield to the gospel
ministry. He did very
well at his ordination counsel last week.
Because of that and the study of this passage, I was reminded
how important it is to know the word, and how important it is to
take out difficult passages like this and help people understand
them, and, in doing that I came across a humorous report of a pulpit
committee and I thought at this point it might be good to tell you
why it is important to explain to you what God really says.
A pulpit committee was interviewing a young minister and
asked him many questions.
The chairman asked, "Son, do you know much about the Bible?"
The young preacher said, "Yes, sir, I really know the Bible."
The chairman asked, "Well, what parts of the Bible do you
know?" He said, " I know
it all; I know the Old Testament, I know the New Testament."
By the way, this is not what Jeff did.
The chairman said, "Well, if you know so much of the Bible,
why don't you tell us something about it? Do you know the story of
The Good Samaritan?" The
young minister replied, "Sure I know the story well." The chairman
said, "Well, tell us the story of The Good Samaritan."
He said, "Well, there was a man of the Pharisees named
Nicodemus. He went down
to
Now the chairman said, "Fellows, I believe we ought to call
him. I know he is young
and inexperienced, but he really knows his Bible."
[LAUGHTER]
When it comes to understanding God's design for men and
women, do we really know the Bible?
When it comes to issues of creation, revelation does it
matter to us if we
really aren't asking any of the whys.
You see the divine mind, his wisdom is unsurpassed and
without flaw. He created
us male and female. Does
that matter? Or do you want to throw her down from the wall 70 times
7? Sometimes we treat
the Word of God as in certain areas it carries no weight.
I don’t need experience to tell me that when you obey the
Word of God you are living right and there are certain blessings
that follow. I'm not
talking silliness about earning God's blessings, but for 26+ years
Joie and I have had a commitment to Christ as the No. 1 in our
hearts and in our homes, and she has sought to fulfill her role as a
feminine Christian submissive, supportive wife.
I have sought to fulfill my role as a masculine, leading and
loving husband. And I can promise you that if we could bottle what
we have and give it out to the young couples during premarital
counseling, we would in a minute!
It is not because we are successful people, we were just
simple minded enough to bow our heads before God and say, "We'd like
to do it Your way." She
doesn’t resent her being a woman and I can tell you I don't!
[Laughter] I'm glad. As
one pastor use to wisely say, 'His wife was infinitely superior to
him at being a woman and he was infinitely superior to his wife at
being a man.'
This passage of scripture has nothing to do with superiority
or inferiority. It has
to do with honoring God in the way he made us.
Paul is simply stating facts of the created order.
He is not arguing superiority or inferiority.
He is only reminding us that God made us, that he made us in
a certain order, he made us for certain reasons and that our God
does not do things randomly or without
reason.
He is reminding us that each sex of God-given design and
dignity must be respected and maintained.
He is teaching us, this is important, to be aware of God's
hand in everything around us, because life is built upon the
Creator's divine reason.
And the more we see that in husbands and wives, men and women, the
more we will love and respect them.
Now, what about that confusing issue with the angels?
Well since Jeff is being ordained, I'm going to let him
explain that tonight at the ordination counsel.
No, there are really three possibilities, if you look at the
text, I'll show them to you very quickly.
He says that is why, in Verse 10, a woman ought to have a
symbol of authority on her head because of the angels.
There are three possible things, according to those who write
about this, and I think only one is the best possibility:
1)
The angels present
were fallen angels lusting after the women, having imperfect
thoughts after the women, they should have a symbol of authority on
their head.
2)
The word
angelos, angel, also means messenger, and possibly these
were messengers sent to observe what was going on in worship.
3)
These were elect
angels, not fallen angels, perfect angels who had never done
anything wrong and therefore, there had never been any
insubordination to God in their created order, and it would be bad
for them to do such in the worship of God.
Now I think that
is the better of all the interpretations.
What's the why of Verses 4-10?
The why is that the way we relate to each other, as
men and women, and specifically as husband and wife, and the way we
worship is a direct reflection of how we think about the supremacy
of God. Let me say that
again. Remembering this passage is God-centered, not me-centered,
the way we relate to each other as men and women, specifically as
husband and wife, and the way we worship are both a direct
reflection of what we think about the supremacy of God.
This truth is to affect our lives, our church, our homes. So,
the truth about this passage, the teaching, the application for us
is simply this:
God created man and woman differently, we are different by
design and any attempt to lessen the divine differences both
dishonors God and disrupts society.
Okay, here's the question…"Does that men the women need to
start wearing head coverings in church?"
No. It
doesn’t mean that. Head
coverings were cultural expressions of the differences between men
and women. They were
cultural expressions of status.
We have different cultural expressions of what it means to be
a woman and what it means to be a man.
And when we do away with all expressions that show that we
are different we are wrong, very wrong and it is very dangerous.
The Apostle Paul was one who stood against outward forms of
righteousness. He is not
making the very uncovering of a woman's head a doctrinal position.
He is making the honoring of God and the created order a
doctrinal position for our good and for God's glory.
The fall has made those things competing between men and
women. Grace makes those
complimentary between men and women.
So when those basic essences
cause us to conflict with our spouse, we realize that either one or
both of us is not submitting to the Holy Spirit at the time.
I guess I should comment on one other issue, because you are
going to want to know.
Verse 11: "Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not
independent of man nor man of woman;"
There is a leveling factor to the truth; we are equal, it is
not inferiority or superiority, that does not limit our roles.
Verse 12 "for as woman was made from man, so man is now born
of woman." [Guys, the
point is you cannot get along without her, quit trying it.]
And all things are from God.
Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God
with her head uncovered?"
His advice then moves from the theological to the practical.
In their day they knew what a head covering meant.
And he asked this question, "Does not nature itself teach you
that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace to him, but if a
woman has long hair, it is her glory?"
Now I was in a church in college that loved passages of
scripture like that, because that meant all boys had to have short
hair and all girls had to have long hair.
Isn't that like all boys had to wear pants and all girls had
to wear dresses, no matter what you were doing.
In that church, a young man came forward one Sunday and was
converted and I believe he was truly converted.
He had long hair and was rather disheveled looking, and in
front of about 800 people, the pastor lovingly put his arm around
the boy and said, "We are so thrilled you have come to Christ and
you have been saved by grace through faith, and I am sure soon you
will want to get your hair cut to look like a Godly man."
Wrong!
What does that mean?
Nature teaches us what is masculine, what is feminine.
If you go through, by the way, if you just go through the
cultures of my day when I was young boys had short hair, when I was
in high school boys had long hair, from college on until about 7
years later it was short, now long hair is coming back in.
Is one culture more sinful than the other? No.
Be careful making hair the issue.
Nature is the issue.
When something in nature makes it plain for us that a man is
feminine and a woman is masculine we need to sit up and take notice
because we are crossing God's creation order.
Common sense, nature and also revelation of God, he teaches
through God's revelation and the order of creation of male and
female.
"But if a woman has long hair, is it her glory? For her hair
is given for her for a covering. If anyone is inclined to be
contentious, we have no
such practice, nor do the churches of God."
It is a simple practical application and if you want to be
different for difference sake, if you want to disrupt and disobey,
there is no such practice in the churches of God and you, my friend,
are out of order.
Contentment in God's design brings dignity and strength.
Are you content to be a man?
Do you know how to be a man?
Maybe that's one of the things the church needs to read up
on, its teaching what being a man really means.
Are you content being a woman?
Is that a badge of honor that God has chosen to design you
feminine and female? It
should be and the church can greatly help with that when we teach
the truth of God's design.
Desiring what belongs to the other is problematic.
One sex desiring what belongs to the other is problematic and
can, which we have seen, become perversion. The way God made us is
the way God wants us and when we fold or fall into what God has
designed us, we then are said to become all he made us to be, as
images, as married couples for our good and for God's glory.
A lot of your questions are unanswered, but we have a couple
of challenges, as we go home, "What does He want me to do?"
That's always the right question, never what does he want
somebody else to be, what does he want me to do?
Let's pray together. |
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