ORDER! ORDER!
1 Corinthians 11:1-16 (KJV)
Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
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.
Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
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.
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.
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.
For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
One of the great truths about God is that He is a God of order.
Look at all that exists around us.
· The order of the planets
· The cycles of the water system
· The order in nature
Even the ways the human body operates and you will see in it all, order.
The doctor can operate on a person and know that the heart will be in a certain location:
· the lungs,
· the stomach and
· so forth,
will all be found in a particular place in the body... because God created us with order.
And that God is not the “author of confusion.”[2]
God is a God of order.
In the first 16 verses of this chapter, Paul teaches us about that order in three particular areas:
1 Corinthians 11:1-2 (KJV)
Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
Paul's first statement is "Be ye followers of me as I also am of Christ."
The questions could be asked, "Why follow Paul as he follows Christ? Why can't we just follow Christ?"
The answer is one of order.
God never does anything in a disorderly fashion. God uses leadership and order as a part of His plan.
A. The church could not operate if each Christian did what they believed God wanted them to do, without any coordination and leadership
· Brother So and So says "I believe God wants me to do one thing."
· Brother This and That says, "I believe God wants me to do another thing."
· Sister Here and There says, "I believe God wants me to do something else."
Everybody is doing their own thing and no organized work is being accomplished for God.
B. In the Bible you will find that God always calls a man to lead God's people.
It is not that God could not talk to all people...
It is that God will not talk to all people.
Like a general in the military, he does not give orders to individual soldiers by going around the lower officers. It would create confusion. He gives the orders to the officers under him, who in turn give the orders to the individuals he is in command of.
God is a God of order and order cannot work without leadership.
1 Corinthians 11:3 (KJV)
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.
The order in marriage is this:
1. The head of Christ is God
2. The head of man is Christ
3. The head of woman is man
There is an important thing to see here.
God the Father is no more God than God the Son is. The order of authority then is not because one is better than the other, but just for order's sake.
It is just as important that there is order in heaven as it is in the home.
Jesus, although He is as much God as God the Father, never sends the Father, but the Father sends Jesus.
The Holy Spiritis just as much God as is God the Father or Jesus Christ. But Christ sends the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit never sends the Son.
It is not a matter of one being greater than the other, it is a matter of each submitting to the other for the sake of order.
In the home, the man is not greater than the woman, and should never consider himself better than the woman.
It is just that, in order for the home to function well, there has to be order and God has determined that the man be the head of the home.
The home works best, when
· The husband submits to the leadership of the Lord and
· The wife submits to the leadership of the husband
1 Corinthians 11:4-16 (KJV)
Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
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.
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.
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.
For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
One of the principles of the Bible is that we are to honor the gender God made us to be.
In our day this issue has become especially relevant as the post Christian American culture denies that there is any distinction between men and women – even that physical distinction with which we are born.
If you will pardon the crudeness of the phrase, today’s world actually claims, “Your gender is not determined by your genitalia.”
· It’s unreasonable
· It’s unscientific, but more than that,
· It’s perverse[3]
The man is not to dress and look like a woman, nor is the woman to dress and look like a man.[4]
Men should wear clothing that is distinctively masculine and women should wear clothing that is distinctively feminine.
The same is true with the way we wear our hair.
A. The woman's glory is long hair
1 Corinthians 11:15 (KJV)
But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
In the culture of the day, women always wore there hair long. Except for one very important exception,
The prostitutes in the temples always wore their hair short. That was how they advertised who they were.
Paul said the woman's glory was her hair.
It should be distinctively feminine.
Some of the "shorter" hairstyles of today are not disobedience because they are feminine.
Generally speaking, the woman’s hair should be distinctively longer than a man's.
B. The man's nature is short hair.
1 Corinthians 11:14 (KJV)
Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
Every once in a while someone will tell me that Jesus had long hair.
That is not true.
The Bible says here that if a man has long hair it is a shame unto him. Jesus did not wear His hair in a shameful fashion.
Most of the time, we get that idea from two sources,
First, the paintings we see.
Those paintings were all done by Catholic artists who lived 100's of years after Christ.
In the day of Christ, artists did sculptor instead of paintings. There is a bust of Jesus Christ dating back to the first century, which has Him wearing short hair.
The secondgiven is because Jesus was from Nazareth.
People incorrectly associate that with the Nazarites who did not cut their hair.
A Nazarite was a person who made a vow to God.
They would shave their heads at the beginning of the vow and not cut their hair until the vow was over. Usually the vow was not that long, 30 days or so, so their hair would not even be that long then.[5]
Jesus was a Nazarene[6]not a Nazarite.
We can be sure, He did not do that which was contrary to nature and shameful to man. He wore short hair.
C. Anything else is contentious
1 Corinthians 11:16 (KJV)
But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
· When a man wears his hair like a woman, or
· When a woman wears her hair like a man,
They are going against the teaching of the Bible and are being contentious.
From what I have read, the modern long hair on men and short hair on women originated in the hippy movement of the 60's.
· Men wore their hair long as a sign of their rebellion.
· Women cut their hair off as a sign of their rebellion.
I know that, now, some of that is not the case and what I am about to say is a generalization.
But it is quite possible to general feel for a person’s “bent” by the hairstyles they choose.
· The lesbian woman
· The gay man
· The neo-nazi even
· The woman pastor
Conclusion
God is a God of order.
· He wants order in the ministry.
· He wants order in marriage, and
· He wants order between the sexes
Anything other than order is contentious and hinders the work of Christ.
[1]1 Corinthians 14:40 (KJV)
Let all things be done decently and in order.
[2]1 Corinthians 14:33 (KJV)
For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
[3]The word means “Distorted from the right and obstinate in the wrong.
[4]Deuteronomy 22:5 (KJV)
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
[5]I can think of two men in the Old Testament with Long hair: Samson. Do we really want a testimony like him? And Absalom. His hair got caught up in the branches of a tree during battle, exposing him to his enemy and leading to his death.
[6]From the city of Nazareth.
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