Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20010225.htm

1 CORINTHIANS: MINISTERING TO BELIEVERS WITH DEEP PAGAN BACKGROUNDS
Part XX: Gaining Contentment With God's Assigned Gender Roles
(1 Corinthians 11:2-16)
  1. Introduction
    1. The Bible teaches God created woman as an helpmeet for the man, Gen. 2:20-22; thus, the woman is not to teach or exercise authority over the man, but to be in submission, cf. 1 Timothy 2:12-13.
    2. However, this idea can really rub at times, for often a wife is more mature in Christ than the husband, and may even feel personally inhibited staying in the "submissive" role.
    3. Paul explains the gender roles of believers in 1 Corinthians 11, revealing how to be contented in them:
  2. Gaining Contentment With God's Assigned Gender Roles, 1 Corinthians 11:2-16.
    1. God has established an order of authority in the local church, 1 Corinthians 11:2-3:
      1. Jesus Christ is placed over male believers in the local church's authority, 1 Corinthians 11:3a.
      2. Men are placed over female believers in the local church by way of authority, 1 Corinthians 11:3b.
      3. God the Father is over Christ in terms of authority relative to the Church universal, 1 Cor. 11:3c.
    2. This order of authority has absolutely nothing to do with intrinsic value, maturity or personal essence:
      1. Jesus is not inferior as God to God the Father -- such a belief to the contrary would be heresy, cf. Philippians 2:6-7; Hebrews 1:1-3! Nevertheless, it is the order of God that the Father be over the Son in the working out of God's plan of history, cf. 1 Corinthians 11:3c with 1 Corinthians 15:28.
      2. In like manner, Christian women are not lower in value or equality of essence as humans to male believers, 1 Cor. 11:11-12 with Gal. 3:28. In fact, women provide the genetic structure in part so that men can be brought into the world by means of the natural birth, 1 Corinthians 11:12b.
      3. Thus, this order of authority in life is established solely as an arrangement of order that achieves the will of God in a world of disorder and sin!
        1. We know that Christ had to be subject to the Father to fulfill the requirements as a sinless human in the incarnate state so that redemption could be produced in the cross, cf. Galatians 4:4-5. Only by his obedience to the Father in this state could he qualify as our Redeemer.
        2. Hence, the submission of a Christian woman to Christian men fits the creative order God set up in Eden, and counters the insurrection brought on by sin as described in Genesis 3:1-6 etc.
    3. Applying this order of authority to life produces some practical, following behavior patterns:
      1. Since uncovered heads in Corinthian culture identified women there as prostitutes, it was necessary for them to pray or to prophecy with their heads covered with veils; also, long hair (longer than the hair of men) were in order, 1 Cor. 11:4-6, 15. (Note: Paul does not condone women speaking in prophetic utterances within the Church, for that would violate his commands about the conduct of women given in 1 Cor. 14:34-35. Paul rather deals here with individual conduct, not corporate conduct.)
      2. Since men tend to baldness, long hair for them was a shame, so men were to have shorter hair than women to reveal their acceptance of their roles as men under God's gender assignment for them, 11:14.
Lesson: Our gender roles have nothing to do with our innate worth or maturity or productivity before God. Rather, they are divine assignments to achieve God's will in His order, so the believer reveals his alignment to the Lord by working WITHIN his divinely ASSIGNED gender role!

Application: (1) If Christian WOMEN as did CHRIST view themselves as not being LESS in quality than men, but AS did CHRIST excel in their submissive roles, God will honor them in those areas of submission, cf. Luke 19:12-19 with Phil. 2:5-11. (2) Christian men are to heed their calls as responsible leaders, and fulfill their ministries as leaders, Col. 4:17; Rev. 3:1-2. They also will be blessed of God in proportion to fulfilling their responsibilities as they are called to do, Luke 19:20-26.

Illustration: Though Ben Johnson ran a 9.79-second 100 meter yard run in the Olympics, and though Jackie Joyner ran the women's 100 meter race in over 10 seconds, Jackie won a gold medal where Ben Johnson lost his medal! Why? Jackie ran in accord with the rules, and Ben did not! So it is in the Christian life -- we are rewarded according to how well we fulfill our ASSIGNMENTS in our ROLES!