11:1
This verse seems to clearly belong with the previous section, and you will find the text broken up this way in most versions, though those who originally assigned the chapter divisions thought differently for some reason. Paul calls on his readers to follow his example, as he follows Christ. We are meant to be leaders and teachers by example. This does not mean we are perfect, for none of us are, but there should be some aspects of life where we are making progress in being imitators of Christ. If there aren’t then we are not worth listening to!
11:2
It seems that among the many things that the Corinthians had asked Paul about was the conduct of public worship, and there are going to be a whole series of questions related to this matter. Paul commends them because they look to Paul for guidance in these matters. He is commending them not out of any vanity, but because the Corinthians are looking to learn, not just to do their own thing. Evidently Paul had passed on various traditions to them regarding the conduct of worship.
11:3
We now come to a rather awkward section, and one that has bearing on the whole role of women in the church issue. We need to understand something of the cultural background. One aspect is that it was common for women to be veiled. It seems that some women were taking the veil off as a sign of their liberation in Christ, but such a woman would be considered to be a “woman of loose morals”. Moreover, it was normal for men to be “in charge”, and again it may be that some women were flouting this cultural norm. There are a number of interesting points that come out of this. One is that the gospel was a liberating message, especially for women. Those who say the gospel is patriarchal or even misogynist have no idea what they are talking about. A second point is that Paul does not just ride roughshod over all cultural norms. Thirdly the cultural norms had some foundation in God’s creative order. So we have a mixture of culture and theology in all this, and the two are not separate. This makes it difficult to interpret this passage, and the passage in 1 Timothy 2 about women not having authority over men. Why is it difficult? Well, one of the key questions is which instructions are cultural, and so do not necessarily have a direct application today, though the underlying principles would still be relevant. And which instructions are for all time, and so need to be applied today. In 1 Timothy 2 Paul refers back to Genesis and creation when giving his instruction that a woman should not have authority over a man. Here, Paul again refers back to Genesis when talking about head coverings. Now, one could say that since Paul refers to Genesis in 1 Tim 2 women should not be allowed to have authority over men, and some churches do follow this line. However, Paul also uses Genesis to support his head covering instructions, but very few churches consider this to be applicable today. So it is very difficult to come to a definitive position on the matter.
Anyway, let’s look at the text as we have it here and work through the argument. Head here is usually taken to mean authority, though some take it to refer to honour. Ie Christ derives His honour from God. Authority seems the more likely. Jesus lived His life under the authority of the Father. So a man should live his life under the authority of Christ, and a wife should respect her husband and is under his authority. Now there are a few things we need to note immediately, especially in our society. The first is that we tend to regard being under authority as being inferior to. This is not the Biblical concept of authority. In fact we see this most clearly with Christ. He lived under the authority of the Father, yet He is God. So a woman is no less than a man. Next, living under proper authority is not restricting, but is enabling and empowering. Look at the life of Jesus! He is the most effective man who ever walked the earth. Why? Because He lived under authority. So a man having authority over a woman does not belittle her in anyway, and will enable her to fulfil her potential, not restrict her. Finally, while here Paul talks about man being first, later on he will talk about man coming from woman (v12).
No comments:
Post a Comment