Equality

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

               EQUALITY

1 Cor 11:11-16

11 In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. 12 For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God. 13 Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, 15 but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. 16 If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice — nor do the churches of God.

NIV

We are still talking about hair and how it has a meaning as to our place in the grand scheme of things. Yet throughout the ages there were times when men had long hair. We do not know if women ever cut their hair until more recent times and in fact, we have even seen woman cut their hair so short it appears to be as short as a man’s, or even shorter, almost like a shaved head. It would seem we pay little to no attention to this portion of the scripture, considering it to be meant only for those Corinthians and holds no truth for us today. As for this other issue of a woman not being independent of man, nor man being independent of woman, we need to consider how this plays out in the church today. How does this fit into the chain of command, so to speak, as the scripture is absolute in the fact that the man is responsible for his family and thus is accountable and due to this accountability has to have the ultimate authority? However, the fact still remains that all men come from the womb of women and so without the woman, there would not be the man. However, the fact also remains that the woman could not conceive any child without the man. This is by the design of God, that we are interdependent upon each other. Therefore in the sight of God, both male and female are his creation and equal although they each have an individual and different role as designed by God. The word of God also teaches us, men, to love their wives and that wives are to respect their husbands. However, there is also scripture that instructs older women to teach younger women to love their husbands and that husbands should respect their wives and be considerate of them as the weaker partner and heirs with us in the precious gift of life. In other words, in Christ, and thus in the church, and in marriage, there should be this quality of love and respect, therefore as Paul puts it, we are not independent of each other,  but equally dependent on God.