DEVOTION
THE 1ST
LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS
ACCOUNTABILITY AND
AUTHORITY
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
Here is something that we need
to realize, although it would seem that it does not appear that some of what we
must realize is not applicable to our modern-day culture, at least in our
country. We have come to a time when equality is at the forefront of the
minds of hearts of people. But let us examine what how this should be worked
out according to the truth of God. The first and foremost truth we need to come
to grips with is that Christ is the head of every man. We understand that there
has seemed to be this concept that man was designed to be the hunter/gatherer
person whereas the woman was supposed to be the nurturer/supporter of the
relationship. What we need to see is if the man is the head of the household,
which means the woman, then he is also held accountable to God for his
authority in the family. Therefore, the man must recognize that Christ is his
head, or that the man comes under the leadership and authority of Christ. This
means men cannot make their life decisions without the consent of Christ.
Although it is true that we have been given the right to choose, or as it has
been stated, we have free will, it behooves men to submit that will to Christ
seeing Him as their head, their Lord, their authoritative person in their
lives. It is only through living with Christ as the head of the man that it gives
man the position of being the head of woman. We understand that the
equal rights moment in the world, at least in our culture has become a reason
for so much turmoil in the relationship between men and women. Although this
first emerged in the business world, or the workplace setting, it began to have an influence on marriages, and that thinking has infiltrated the church. What
we have witnessed because of this worldly thinking regarding equality is
that many men have abdicated their authority or headship in the marriage and in
doing so might well have given up seeing Christ as their head. Whether men realize
it or not, Christ is their head and has authority over them and they will have
to give an account of how they live under this truth. What we should see is that
because Christ is the head of man, Christ is accountable to the headship of
God, who would be the Father. The Father gave the Son the responsible to act as
the redeemer of man, to reconnect man to the Father through the cross. Because
of this accountability of the Son to the Father, all authority has been given
to the Son. This is the reason that when man becomes accountable to Christ, he
is given all authority in the world, or even as unpopular as it is in today’s
world, all authority over the woman. It is only through accountability that is there
authority or said the other way, there is only authority because of
accountability to God.
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