The Subordination and Equality of Women
1 Corinthians 11:2-6
I Corinthians 11. I tried to delay it as long as I could, but-- (Laughter) Here we are. It has to do with the subordination and equality of women. I Corinthians 11. In our ongoing study of I Corinthians--and I know some of you are going to think that this is, you're going to be sitting there thinking, "Boy, does McArthur love this. I can just tell. He's just all lit up, and he's really eating up every thought here." I want you to know that I recognize that this is the kind of subject that becomes intensely practical. You're going to be wrestling with your own self all the way through it.
I'm not so concerned that it be a wonderful homily with all kinds of beautiful points and subpoints and that it work out in that manner. I'm only interested that you understand the importance and the meaning of the section from verse 2-16 of I Corinthians 11. We'll not be able to cover all of it this morning. It's a lengthy section. There are many things in it.
There are some very, very difficult aspects to this particular Scripture. The amount of time invested in this will probably not be reflected in what comes out just because I'm going to try to simplify it as much as I can, but it is a very difficult portion. You're dealing with a cultural situation that is hard to reproduce.
To try to understand exactly what the situation was in the city of Corinth secularly, what it was in the church of Corinth in terms of the spiritual life, what was going on in the mind of Paul and push all of that up into the modern day is not easy. We don't have a lot of background.
Then to distinguish between what is cultural and what is fact in terms of God's divine and universal principle becomes the real issue in the passage. We're going to endeavor to do that today and next Lord's day and to kind of tuck away this 11th chapter and the first 16 verses, anyway, into our minds of understanding.
Let me begin with some thoughts to help you understand why we need to deal with this so very, very carefully. The roles of men and women have become a battleground today. I think all of us are aware of this. We are constantly hearing about the battle for women's rights. I'm sure if it goes far enough, we'll have a men's lib to try to gain back some of the ground that's been lost, just because society tends to always want to equalize itself.
I think Satan is feverishly involved in upsetting the divine order any way he possibly can. It's clear, as you study the Bible, that God has a divine order in society related to man and woman. Of course, that is manifest in marriage. It's manifest in the church. It's manifest in every dimension of human life. God's basic pattern is there are two factors in society--authority and submission. God has designed that men be given the position of authority and women the position of submission.
It is generally then true that a man, whether he be married or single, must think of himself as someone who has been given by God a responsibility for authority in one sense or another. A woman, whether she is married or single, must recognize the fact that in general, as a woman, she must have a spirit of submission to all men.
Now we don't want to carry that too far. You'll get yourself in a lot of trouble, but the idea is that the spirit of a woman is the recognition is that she is in the position of subjection to men, whom God has given authority in the world.
Now if some of you are all ready to bail out, stick around, because there is a lot more to say. What I'm going to do is not give you opinion. If I have you my opinion on the subject, I couldn't live with myself. I'd have to duck for the next six months. (Laughter) Rather than give you my opinion, I'm going to just share with you what the Bible says and let you know that this is not anybody's opinion. This is God's authoritative statement on the subject.
What has amazed me, however, is that the women's liberation movement has found its way into the church. In general, for the most part, the church is stupid about the revelation of God. It doesn't know the Scripture, so it tends to want to jump on every bandwagon. If there is any kind of a movement in the world, just wait, and it'll get into the church.
It's no different with the women's liberation movement. We now have Christian feminists--whatever that might be--Christian feminists who are advocating the fact that there is only in Christ equality. They wave the flag of Galatians 3:28, that in Christ there is neither male nor female. On the basis of that and on the basis of I Peter 3:7, that a husband and a wife are heirs together of the grace of life, they postulate the fact that there is no such thing as authority and submission between men and women either in marriage, in the church, in business, in education, or in any other dimension.
In fact, there are many people who definitely and strongly feel that Paul was nothing but a male chauvinist. Believe it or not, there are even some so-called Christian people who write books and say that, in essence, that whenever Paul got on this subject, he in his background had a bad relationship with his mother or been burned by some lady or something, and so he was-- Whenever he comes to this subject, he stops giving revelation and fires out his opinion. So they arbitrarily would exchange the revelation of God for the opinion of Paul every time he talks on this subject, which is rather handy if you want to get rid of it. Maybe someday in history, people are going to see Paul for who he is, the great emancipator and protector of women, as God used him to show that though there is--and mark this--though there is a divine distinction in the roles, there is no distinction in spiritual life. There is no distinction in the essence. There is no distinction the person. There is no distinction in the worth of the person. There is no distinction in the emotion or the intellect or the will or the mind or the capacity or the ability between men and women in terms of what they can accomplish or how they can relate themselves to God. There is only a distinction in the role that they are assigned within the framework of society.
Women are not inferior to men in terms of essence, in terms of personality, in terms of thinking, in terms of anything other than role that they have been assigned. You work at a job, many of you men, and you are not in any way inferior to your boss. In your intellect, you might even be more intelligent. In your education, you might even have more. In your aptitude, you might even be superior. All he has over you is a different title, because he's been there long enough.
In order for your corporation to function, somebody's got to call the shots, and somebody's got to carry them out. In the church you have elders and deacons. Elders are not spiritually superior to deacons. They have a different function. We hope there is a spiritual equality in there.
The same is true with a man and a woman. Just because you are the head of the house doesn't mean that you are in any sense superior and she is inferior in essence or in person or personality, simply that you have be assigned distinct roles. I think God has accommodated the personality and the strength and weaknesses of both to those roles.
It's interesting to me that the people who've always used I Peter 3:7, "Heirs together of the grace of life," want to wave that banner, but they don't want to take the phrase before it in the very same verse, which says, "Honor the woman as the weaker vessel." How you can possibly just take what you want out of it and ignore the rest-- You've also got to conclude that Peter threw in his own opinion now and then, had the same problem. Several books have been written recently on the Christian Biblical feminist movement. I feel that the church is really going to have to face this issue.
There are many churches now that are battling the issue of should we or should we not have female elders? People ask me, "What do you think about women pastors?" I always give the same answer. "I never think about them." This desire to force into leadership in the church women simply because this is what's happening. The church wants to accommodate itself to society.
These books are coming out, written by women and in some cases by men, saying that whenever the Bible says this, it's either cultural, it's either Paul repeating his opinion, it isn't inspired by God, or we're misinterpreting it.
Those who listen to such writers are going to be confused. You're going to have to come up with the same conclusion that they do. In every case, they ultimately have to say, "Not all of what Paul said is the revelation of God. Some of it was his own opinion, and when he gave it, he was wrong."
In other words, eventually they must deny revelation. Once you've done that, you have really let the cat out of the bag. Then they become the judges of which part of Paul is inspired and which is not. Of course, that's a deadly, deadly attack.
Let me show you some Scriptures to reinforce concept that you're going to learn in I Corinthians 11. 1 Peter 3. I've mentioned it, let me read it to you. 1 Peter 3:1: "In the same manner--" That is, in the same manner that we are submissive to Christ. In chapter 2 he's been talking about that. "In the same manner that the church is submissive to the shepherd and bishop of her soul, in the same manner you wives be in subjection to your own husbands."
That's a simple statement. "Be in subjection to your own husbands." Verse 7 that I mentioned to you: "You husbands dwell with them according to knowledge." In other words, try to be understanding with your wife. It's important that you understand her. "Giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel." There is a key thing. "As being heirs together of the grace of life." That simply means as enjoying God's wonderful desire in marriage.
You see there's submission in verse 1 and a weaker vessel in verse 7. Now look at I Timothy 2 and see another Scripture that relates directly to this particular subject.
I Timothy 2:11, it says this: "Let the women learn in silence with all subjection." Women again are connected with subjection. Verse 12: "I permit not a woman to teach nor to take authority over the man but be in silence." A woman is to be in subjection, a man is to be in authority. There is that same duality. The man is in authority, the woman is subjection. He's talking here particularly and specifically about the church when it comes together in its assembly, its unified meetings such as you're experiencing right now this particular Lord's day.
Women are not to teach, they are to learn. They are not to take authority in the church and rule over men. That's very, very simple. It's very, very clear. Couldn't confuse anybody.
These people say, "Yeah, but that's just cultural. Paul is accommodating Timothy to the particular culture in which he had to minister." "Oh?" Verse 13 would end that, "For Adam was first born, then Eve." That's not cultural. God made Adam first and then He made Eve to be a helper for Adam. That's the way it's always been. Further, Adam wasn't deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. The woman is the submissive one by creation and by virtual of her weakness in the Fall that confirms her submissive role.
You can't say, "Well, it's only because of culture." It's because of creation. It is the way God intended it from the very beginning. I take you further to I Corinthians. We're there this morning. Let's look at the 14th chapter of I Corinthians in another particular context related to the assembling of the church, connected with prophesying and speaking in tongues.
I Corinthians 14:34: "Let your women keep silence in the churches. It is not permitted them to speak but to be under obedience as also says the law." What law? The law of God. It is not just creation, it is God's Old Testament law that women are to be submissive. This is God's New Testament standard as well. The law of God says that women are to be silent in the churches and not take authority. Here in this case not to prophesy or speak in tongues.
Now verse 35: "If they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it's a shame for women to speak in the church." That doesn't mean that a woman can't get up and give a testimony or make an announcement or something like that, but women are not to take the role of ruling the church, take the role of being teachers of the church. If they need to know anything, let them learn by asking their husband. The husband's part of the problem with women is they come and ask you, and you never know the answer. It behooves you, if they're going to be submissive, to make sure that you rule for God in your home by knowing something. Very difficult for a woman to do what she ought to do if you don't do what you ought to do, because she can't find any answers in the Biblical pattern unless you're obedient.
They'll say again about this, "Oh, that's just cultural again." Or else they'll say, "No, you see, here's where Paul wasn't inspired. He was getting a little upset here and just shooting off his opinion." Oh? Look at verse 37: "If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge the things that I write unto you are the--?" What? "The commandments of the Lord."
Either Paul's a liar or he's not. He has just made a statement about women in submission, and he says, "What I'm saying is a commandment of the Lord, and anybody who's spiritual, you'd better acknowledge it." I conclude that the people who don't acknowledge these truths as commandments of the Lord are not spiritual. If they're saved, they're carnal.
That's basic. The relationship of men and women whether in marriage, in business, in the church is founded on the very same principle, the very same revelation of God. The only way to get around it is to deny inspiration, and when you've done that, you've made Paul into a liar, because he specifically knew that might happen, so he said, "What I'm saying is indeed the commandment of the Lord."
Really. You can take the books that say that and throw them away, because they don't have an argument.
Apparently--going back to chapter 11 of I Corinthians--apparently they weren't clear on this concept in Corinth, and there was the potential of a woman's liberation movement. We don't know how involved it was, and there's been a lot of discussion, studying history, trying to figure out how far it had gone in Corinth, but at least it hadn't gone so far that they were smug and indifferent about it. At least they're asking the question here in chapter 11. They had asked Paul to answer this question undoubtedly, because is the second of I Corinthians where he is answering the questions they asked in the letter to him. At least they're open. We don't know how far--but apparently they at least had some kind of Christian feminist movement.
What it amounted to was this: In the society in Corinth, women who were proper, women who were modest, women who wanted to make a statement publicly and visibly about their submission to their husbands, women who were feminine, women who were genteel and wanted to take the role that was assigned to them in their society wore a veil as a symbol of their submission. That was the symbol--to be veiled.
That particular symbol varied from culture to culture, but in the Corinthian culture veils were the sign of woman's submissiveness. She was covering herself. She was leaving herself unexposed to other men by saying, "I belong to my husband. I want no other than my husband. I seek to attract no one other than my husband. I'm after nothing but what my husband provides for me. It is irrelevant that you even see me. I'm not interested."
That's how they stated that. We state that in different terms. By the way women dress today, they are either saying, "Look at me. I'm very interested in being looked at. Check me out." Even when they're married, they're saying, "Check me out. I either enjoy being checked out, or I may be looking for somebody else." Or you see a woman who's very, very modestly dressed, and it may be that she's making the statement--not always true--but it may be that she's making the statement, "I am already taken, and I could care less about whether you're interested or not."
There are ways in society in which we declare that, you see. It's true. In that society, the way a woman showed her submission to her man, the way a woman showed the simplicity, purity, and subjection--even single women who were submissive at that point to a father or whatever--simply in submission covered themselves. That was the feminine way.
But what apparently happened in Corinthians was sort of an abuse of Christian liberty. Some of the women, feeling that they were free in Christ, began to throw away their veils. It wasn't burn your bra, it was burn your veil. (Laughter)
Whenever you see a woman today who doesn't wear a bra or dressed in that manner, that woman is not a submissive woman. That woman is not radiating a dependence on a man. She is announcing something to everybody who sees her, and that something is, "Look at me. I'm interested in something other than what I've got." At least flirting with it.
There are ways in our society that that statement can be made or not made. In that society, when a veil was on, a woman was taking the place of submission. She was honoring the sanctity of a woman's virtue and of marriage. We would even go further and to say it was the custom in the Corinthian society for a prostitutes to be unveiled, because their business was to make sure they got seen. How could they drum up business if they had a veil on? They would throw their veil aside.
There is another interesting historical note that we find in studying the Corinthian situation. Erdmann points this out. That is that there were women in the Corinthian society and in much of Roman society who were making statements against the sacredness of marriage. There was a feminist movement even on a broader base in the Roman Empire, and women frequently would take their veils off and cut their hair. The cutting of their hair to look like a man and the throwing away of the veil was a protest against the inequality of men and women, and it was a statement of their antagonism toward the sacredness of marriage.
What we're seeing today isn't anything new. It's nothing new at all. You can read it in history. In the Corinthian situation, the church was right in the midst of a society that was struggling with these very issues. The word that Paul gives to the church, simply stated, is this: "Look, whatever standard your society sets up as the way in which you manifest a submissive spirit, you abide by that standard so that society knows you are following a God-ordained pattern. If it's a veil, wear it. Don't throw it away. Last of all, don't throw it away in the name of Christian liberty."
This is a problem like meats offered to idols that we studied in the last few weeks. It isn't a problem today. You threw your veil in some drawer the day after you got married and haven't pulled it out since. That isn't our particular thing. We're not a veiled society.
Some people have made this to mean hats. The word "hat" doesn't even appear here. For many years, people thought it was a sin to go to church without a hat. That isn't what it's saying. You can go to church with a hat. That's wonderful. You can go to church without a hat. That isn't the point. In our society, that isn't saying anything.
In their society, a veil was a very, very important statement. In fact, it's true today in many places in the world. I know when I was in the Arab countries, particularly in Amman, Jordan, I saw many, many women--and also in Cairo--many women who were veiled. Eventually in Amman, I asked the significance of it. The significance was that it's a sign of modesty and subjection, I was told. A woman who does not want to flaunt herself. A woman who takes the role of submissiveness wears a veil as an expression of that submission and modesty.
That's precisely what was going on in the city of Corinth, and Paul simply says in this chapter, "If that's the custom, you do it, because it is important that you be submissive, and it is important that the world know that you're maintaining that stand, because it's a divine one."
You know as well as I do people that-- God has sent down a certain style of life that is going to radiate a believable testimony much more than what we say, right? When the women in the church there were throwing their veils away, all that would do would be open the door to misunderstanding.
Remember, dress is very cultural. We have to keep it in mind. What is proper in once place is not proper in another place, and you've got to make some adjustments. The principle here is that women should conform in matters of dress to that which society says is the mark of a modest, submissive woman.
Every time I see--there used to be a big deal on this--unisex. They used to have stores where you could buy unisex clothes. I just recognize that it's difficult--in fact, as I thought about this over and over again, I had a hard time trying to figure out a modern illustration, because we don't have much difference anymore. You can't tell from the back anymore because of the hair. You can't tell the kind of-- It's hard to tell. One good thing today is beards. (Laughter) I've been thinking about growing a beard just so there wouldn't be any confusion. (Laughter) Next thing you know is, all the men get beards, women will go out and buy artificial beards.
It's very difficult in our society to find an up-to-date thing, because the distinctions just aren't there. I've heard people say, "It's a sin for a woman to wear pants, because it says in Deuteronomy 22 that a woman should never wear 'that which appertaineth to man.'" But beloved, in Deuteronomy 22, men wore dresses. (Laughter) That doesn't make any sense at all. It's just that today it's very difficult to make a distinction.
There are ways. You know something, men? We'd better work on them and make sure there's no doubt, because we want the world to see the pattern that God has designed. Don't seek to look like a woman, men, and women, don't seek to look like a man. Maintain the femininity that God has designed. That's what he's saying there.
I'm just preaching. I don't know where I am in my notes here. (Laughter) Verse 2. That's where I'm going to start. "I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I deliver them to you."