Chain of Command

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

THE CHANGE OF COMMAND

1 Cor 11:3-10

3 Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. 5 And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head — it is just as though her head were shaved. 6 If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head. 7 A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. 8 For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; 9 neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 For this reason, and because of the angels, the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head.

NIV

There is more to this instruction regarding the man and the woman and hair and authority or headship, but we need to stop here for a moment and consider this portion alone. There were some cultural issues here that we in the post-modern church pay no attention to at all. This idea about a woman covering their hair simply does not fly in our culture and faith. However, in other cultures and faiths, even in our country, women must not only cover their hair but their whole head, including their face. But the issue goes deeper than hair, for throughout the ages, and even today, men have worn long hair and today many women have short hair. Again, we might say that this idea of who was created for who may seem to have gone by the way of many other issues that we pay little attention to. Although if we jump ahead to the rest of what Paul says regarding this issue of who is for who and how that all came to be, we might see more equality shown, or at least a more co-dependence concept, but let us wait on that in order to get a handle on this first principle. God established the order of things for his creation. First, we recognize that God created man and breathed life into his nostrils. As God looked at all his creation, each species having a male and female and having given all authority to man over this creation, he found that man did not have the counterpart, or mate, that suitable helper, the female. So he caused his first man, to fall into a deep sleep and took a rib from him to make the woman, thus as Paul puts it, man did not come from woman, but woman from man. So we see this organization of God. God is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of man, and man is the head of the woman. Once again, it would seem this principle has gone by the wayside in our current culture of equal rights. But we cannot be equal with Christ for He is still the head of the church. If we were to say that we have equality with God, we would be so full of wrong thinking, yet it would seem in the world, that is just how they think. There is this concept that we can destroy this world and that we can save it by our doing. Only God controls the world for He created it and He will destroy it at some time of His choosing. We in the church do not think like that, for we know God is the head of Christ and that Christ is our head. He is the one we submit to in all things, or at least we are supposed to. However when it comes to this man and woman issue with the man being the head of woman, we have fallen far short of the mark in seeing this as the truth of God. The thinking of the world has infiltrated the church and it has influenced how women see themselves with respect to men, and this includes in the marriage scene. Men have been given fair warning as to not to think they have any authority at all over women, and that we are all equal in the eyes of God. This is true, as we will see in the next statement of Paul, regarding a co-dependence of both not being independent of the other. Yet the chain of command has not been forsaken or broken, as far as responsibilities. Christ is responsible for the church, therefore, has authority over it. God has man responsible for his family and therefore has given him authority over it. Let’s see how this chain of command ends as we continue.