Shelby Foote was a Civil War historian. Whenever he spoke, it was like the event happened yesterday. You could smell the smoke, hear the gunfire. He made history come alive with the most wonderful southern accent…straight out of Mississippi.
I have a teacher who does the same with Bible passages. The citizens of Corinth in the first century, worshipped Aphrodite in a temple on a hill outside the city. The main form of worship was having sex with a temple prostitute. You could identify them because they shaved their heads. Needless to say, they ran the show.
Paul is speaking to the church in Corinth, calling them to separate from the culture they lived in. They were called to be holy. They needed to do things differently. They had been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. They were different….he challenged them to act like it so they could be light in a dark world.
Knowing this makes all the difference in the world when you look at 1 Corinthians 11-14. Veils, the admonition to cover the head, length of the hair….the point was that when they came to worship, there needed to be a difference in the way they looked and the way the temple prostitute looked. There needed to be a difference in the way they did church.
Paul is addressing disorder in the church and offers correction to enable the church to function in the way God planned. So often, God gets bashed about how Christians live their lives or do church when neither remotely resemble his original plan.
Paul says the chain of command is God>Christ>man>woman. It has nothing to do with intellect or ability once you get down the chain to men and women. It has everything to do with… that’s just the order he wanted them in.
One of my sons is a Marine, a first lieutenant. The officer in command over him is probably not in that position because he’s smarter. He’s just been in longer. My son commands men ten years older than he is with tons more experience than he has. But he’s the officer and he runs the show for his platoon. That’s the way the military is set up. No one votes on whether they think it’s a good idea or not.
And God’s smarter than the military. And his motives are pure.
I read these chapters in a whole new light this time. I personally think God’s telling these men to man up, be a leader…fulfill what I’ve called you to do. You have to be married or have been married to understand where I got this.
When I got my first car, my dad gave me a little book to record when I had the oil changed and the tires rotated because…you were supposed to do that every 3000 miles and every 5000 miles. Must have been true…my dad said it.
Then I got married. My odometer rolled over another 3000 miles and I said, “Honey, I need to get my oil changed, I’ve driven 3000 more miles.” His response was, “So?” “Well, you’re supposed to get your oil changed every 3000 miles.” “Says who?” “My dad.” “Oh, well, I don’t change oil but once a year and then only if it needs it.” He was dead serious.
I’m sitting there looking at him like you’ve got to be kidding only he wasn’t.
So I said, “Well, I think it needs to be changed.” And he said….. “Well, ok. Then you take care of it.”
I didn’t want to take care of it. I wanted him to take care of it and do it every 3000 miles, not once a year!
After 35 years, I’ve found that’s how it works though. “Honey, I don’t really agree with the way you’re handling the finances.” “Ok, you take care of the finances.” “ Honey, I don’t really like the way you’re mowing the yard.” “Ok, you mow the yard.” They are perfectly happy letting you take care of the oil, the finances and the yard. And my guess is those first century women probably didn’t like the way the men were doing church so the men probably said, “Ok, ya’ll do church.”
This is all conjecture. But doesn’t it stand to reason that if women were running the show in church it’s because the men abdicated their positions? And God is saying, no, no, no….YOU need to be involved and take leadership at church….I have other things for her to do, buddy. You need to be the role model for your kids. You need to raise the bar, show them how to have a relationship with me, worship me, give honor and glory to me. They need to see their DAD doing that, not hanging out in the parking lot shooting the breeze.
Think women would just love that? Think we have enough to do that we could roll with that? We’re working hard, teaching these kids all week.
But Paul doesn’t stop there. He throws in chapter 13. Let me show you how I expect a real man (in this case, although he’s talking to women too) acts in leadership.
He is to be loving and in case he’s fuzzy on what that looks like, this is it.
“Love is patient. Love is kind.
Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
Love does not demand its own way.
Love is not irritable and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.
It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance.” (NLT)
Could you follow a leader like that? Think a leader like that would honor you, consider your thoughts and feelings on the subject, respect your expertise in areas he is deficient in? Absolutely. And that’s the model God set up, the bar he set in this instance , for the men he’s calling to lead. We’re squashing them when we take over!
If you go on down to 14:34, you’ll find another verse that makes the hair stand up on the backs of women’s necks.
Why verse 34? This might give some insight. Over the years, my husband and I have gone to Bible classes both together and separately. On Sundays when we’ve gone separately, it’s because we were both teaching. I know he taught because I would look through the glass in the door and see him standing up in front of people…and he was talking….about the Bible…because we were in church.
Whenever we’ve gone to a class together he is absolutely mute. Not one word. Know who talks? Me. I always think it’s great stuff, I always have an opinion, I always am excited at whatever they are studying! But my husband? Sealed up tight.
Know why Paul said this? If we would shut up, maybe they would become engaged, join in, express themselves. Maybe if we asked them, “Honey, what did that verse mean? When you read it, what did God say to you?” And then shut up…reckon what they’d say.
God has called men to come under Christ’s authority. They are not to shoot from the hip any more than my son’s staff sergeant is to shoot from his hip. Everything the sergeant does has to either originate with or be approved by my son. So we have every right to say, “Have you prayed about this? Is this what God is telling you to do?” And then we need to shut up and look at him expectantly. “Whatever He told you honey, then that’s exactly what we need to do.”
It changes the whole dynamic of the conversation doesn’t it. Works with kids too. I said that to one of my sons who said he wanted to go to college at Travis County Junior College in Austin, Texas because they had great country music. What??? So I said, “Did you ask God about this?” “Yes ma’am.” “So what did he say?” Blank look. “Ok, when He tells you what he thinks, you let me know what he says.” He never mentioned it again.
We do not naturally do this. Or I don’t. I have it all figured out plus five different alternatives if that doesn’t work. So who am I trusting? Me! I really have to trust God if it’s once removed, don’t I. Brings trust to a whole new level.
We need to remember that God is a good God. He wants to grow men up to reflect his character as well as women and this is something he wants to use to accomplish that. We need to quit pulling out random verses and jumping on God.
I have walked away today with a smile!
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