The Devotional - 1050 - Foot Steps in First Corinthians, ongoing

The Devotional – 1050 – Foot steps in First Corinthians, ongoing

It is amazing to me how we can be so very confident in life and yet be knocked off balance by areas life and living that we have not been challenged or taught in dealing with. We could not expect to operate an airplane if our expertise were operating a submarine. Even though some of the controls, switches and buttons may look alike. It would be dangerous if given the opportunity to push, pull or press something into operation when we have no clue of the result. Such is true when it comes to the Word of God. While all of the words of the Holy Bible are comfortable in our hands, what we perceive can be uncomfortable to express. Therefore in these times we need to seek out someone who has searched out the exegetical meanings of God’s Word. Such is the case of the section we are about to look at this morning.

CHALLENGES & COMMENTS – 1 Corinthians 11:2-16

The apostle begins in verse 2 of this section by saying that the Corinthian church family remember him and his teaching with respect to all things and the traditions as he delivered to them. We all bring our traditional and past customs into our church family when we come to faith in Jesus Christ. Some of these are obviously selfish and difficult to deal with so in the case of head coverings which seems to be a major complaint the apostle gives three responses.

Verses 2 through 6 Paul addresses the cultural structure of how God establishes His authority over man and man within the authority of church and family. I will not take this any further but on one’s own you can see as reading the headship and authority structure within the church from a cultural framework. Also this head covering is not a scarf, a hat or an ornament of fashion. It is simply a shawl over the head that covered these women whenever they were in the public eye, similar to the shawl that conservative Islamic women wear these days.

Verses 7 through 12 the apostle gives more insight to his subject by introducing the authority structure of Creation. Man is the glory of God’s Creation, woman is the glory of created man. Mankind, both male and female are created in the image of God and in this are equal. Yet the apostle shows that there remains an authority in creation to show the order of things created. This can also be why angels are mentioned. Not that the angels are seeking to look at a woman indecently; but to observe the created authority of God is in place. Angels are in that created authority of God as well and are above mankind in the structure of creation.

Verses 13 through 16 finally the apostle gives a recognized standard of nature and behavior; men are by nature taller, masculine and prone to shorter hair, while women are shorter, feminine and prone to longer hair due to the increased estrogen production in women. On the behavioral side, just because a man may decide to grow his hair longer or a woman to decide to have shorter hair is not an issue, what is the issue is that we are not to be contentious over head coverings and long or short hair. There are no set rules in the church of God. This information is not my own development, but is in part taken from Dr. Thomas Constable’s study notes on 1 Corinthians.