← Prophecy Watchers
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Welcome to studies with Stearman. Join us as we look deeper into the Bible. Strengthen your faith with us, even as we see the day approaching. And now here's Gary. They have written letters, the Corinthians have written letters to Paul saying, we live here in this city. It's a sinful city, it's a Gentile city. How should we behave ourselves? Because we're running into a lot of problems about our Christian witness and about our personal interaction with each other. And we need to know the answers to various questions. So he's been answering their questions. Now he comes to the question of dress, particularly women's dress, and also the question of the relationship between men and women. Now, the relationship between men and women is complicated. What can I say? Love makes the world go round. Sometimes it makes the world come to a screeching halt. What can we say about the relationship between women and men? Books, plays, movies, all kinds of literature about the way things are, the way things should be, the way they are, not the way people should relate to each other, behave themselves. Thousands of books have been written concerning this aspect of life. It's hard to know exactly what question they asked Paul, but as he writes back to them, he says, Verse 2. Now, I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances even as I deliver them to you. He starts out with a praise. Here he says, I've got some praise for you. In other places he doesn't praise them. In verse 17 of this chapter, he says, I praise you not. In verse 22 of this chapter, he says, I praise you not. But here he says, I praise you. I praise you that you remember me in prayer and that you keep the ordinances as I've delivered them to you. In other words, you keep the idea of the doctrine, the fundamental doctrine that I have taught you. And then there's a little but there in verse three. But I would have you to know. The head of every man is Christ. The head of the woman is the man. The head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesied with her head uncovered, dishonoreth her head. For that is even the same as the King James says, all one, as if she were shaved, had no hair at all. For if a woman be not covered, that is, if she doesn't have a head covering, let her also be shorn. In other words, if she doesn't cover her head while praying or prophesying she should have her head shaved. This is not literally followed in most of the churches that I'm aware of, otherwise there'd be a lot of bald headed women running around. Right, so we got an interpretational difficulty here. What are we talking about? Actually, it's very clear once you get into what he's talking about. And the application here is very pertinent, very meaningful, even necessary, because it tells us essentially what Paul wants the church to be doing. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn or shaved. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not cover his head forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. The man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. Now, whoa. You can see why we ought to just dance right on past this chapter, right? But we can't do that because we're going through First Corinthians. And as you'll see, this is not as strange sounding as you might at first think. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Whoa, the angels are watching. What should you show the angels? Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman. But all things of God judge in yourselves. Is it comely, is it appropriate, is it suitable that a woman pray to God uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it's a shame unto him? We'll talk about that. But if a woman have long hair, it's a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for covering. But if any man seem to be contentious, in other words, if somebody wants to quarrel about this, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. So you see how Paul ends up. He ends up by saying, if any of this bothers you at all, forget it. We don't have any such custom. So why did he mention it? If we don't have any such custom, why did he go to all the trouble here of outlining what could be very controversial? He says back in verse two, I praise you that you keep me in prayer. And in that context, we're talking of friends here. I just want to tell you that the head of every man is Christ. The head of the woman Is the man. The head of Christ is God. What are we talking about here? Prayer life. The subject of this chapter, though it ranges into the male, female relationship, into customs and mores and societal strictures, it's all about prayer life. That's what this chapter is about. And he says, I want you to know as you pray for me that the head of every man is Christ. The head of the woman is the man, the head of Christ is God. The head of every man is Christ. And that uses the universal term for man. The head of every man is Christ, Everybody. But it uses man as the federal representative of humanity, just as Adam was the federal representative of man. In sin, Christ is a federal representative of man. In redemption, every man's head is Christ, the head of the woman is the man. Now, this is fascinating because here man is generic. His head is Christ. The normal and correct order of things from the human perspective is for Christ to be the head of every man. Until a man is mastered by Christ, he's not a normal man. I've sometimes heard it said that man without God is not a man at all. He's an animal. And that's true. If you examine people who are outside of God, they become increasingly animalistic to the point that when they are completely without God, they are complete animals, beasts. Until a man is mastered by Christ, he's not a normal man. Some men are mastered by the world, by passions, by the flesh, by drink, by money, power. You, name says the head of the woman is man. Now, there is no article in the Greek text. It doesn't say the head of the woman is the man. It says the head of woman is man. There's no article in the Greek, and nor does the Greek say the head of every woman is man. It's not given as an absolute. What Paul is referring to here is marriage. And as we have already seen everywhere Paul writes about marriage. He writes about marriage in its Christian perfection as the man's spiritual devotion to the wife and the wife's loving response to the man. So what Paul's referring to here is a marriage in which a woman responds to a man. Now, I'm going to make a statement that could get me in a heap of trouble here, but that's all right. If a woman can't look up to a man and respect him, she shouldn't follow him and she shouldn't marry him. I'm talking here about an unmarried woman, and that's a fairly definitive statement. You're going to say that? Well, yes, I'm going to Say that. That's what the Bible says. If a woman can't look up to a man and respect him, she shouldn't follow him, she shouldn't marry him. A real woman in a real situation in the New Testament setting, as given in Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians here in First Corinthians, responds with every fiber of her being to the man she loves. He in turn has the greater responsibility. He must be willing to die for her. That is spelled D, I, E. Husbands, love your wives. Even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, Christ was willing to die for the Church. Husbands should be willing to die for their wives. Period. Now, that puts a far greater burden on a man in a marriage than it does on a woman. All she has to do is respond to him. He has to love her to the point of giving up his life for her. Do you remember back in Ephesians 5, 22, which we looked at a couple of weeks ago, where Paul writes, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands. And remember what we said at the time. That's not a hammer to be used by a husband on the head of his wife. Because the word submit is in the middle voice in Greek, which means implied action. And the Greek word is hupotasso. And in the middle voice, hupotasso means self submission. It means not somebody else making you submit, but it means you yourself, by your own volition, submit, wives, submit yourselves to your husbands. There are a lot of Greek words that mean you submit because it's declared unto you, therefore you shall submit. That's not what Paul says in marriage. He doesn't say that the husband has a hammer to hit his wife over the head to make her obey. What he does is love her so completely and fully that she cannot fail but respond to him because of the magnanimous quality of his love. The unfailing, undying, never ending quality of his love. She simply submits herself to him with every fiber of her being. Now, of course, all marriages operate that way, right? Yes. Okay. But that's what the Bible says. I'm just telling you what's going on here. We're talking about prayer. And in the context of marriage, prayer life depends upon a smooth marital relationship. A marital relationship that is not smooth, that is contentious, can inhibit the prayer life and the effective spiritual walk of a couple. Although Paul is talking about specifics like head covering, he's talking about submission in marriage. He's talking about the principle of the flow of authority from Christ through the generic man down to the wife. What he's really talking about is the effectiveness of one's spirit life or spiritual walk. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head, for that's even the same as if her head were shaved. Why is this mentioned in the context of the headship of the man? What Paul is looking at here is a, let's use the big word, metaphysical truth about humanity. And as I read this, I have to confess I don't fully understand it. The angels are watching, as he says here, and we're to be a testimony to the angels. Well, if I'm a testimony to the angels, that's metaphysical truth. Those angels exist on a higher plane than I do and they judge reality by a different standard than I do. And yet I'm supposed to be some kind of a testimony to the angels. Men and women and their marriage are supposed to be that testimonial to the angels. By the way, what if a woman never finds a man who can master her? What if a woman just meets man after man after man and no man she meets has the spiritual qualities of leadership that produce this effect of causing her to follow him? What if she never finds somebody like that? Should she get married anyway, just kind of take second best? Well, the Bible's answer is no, she shouldn't marry him unless she expects to have trouble from that day forward. The head of Christ is God. Back to verse three. I would have you to know that the head of every man is Christ. The head of woman is man, the head of Christ is God. Now if you think you understand this, then you come and tell me about it afterward because I'd like to totally understand it myself. We're on a metaphysical level here. The head of Christ is God. And yet Jesus said in John 10:30, I and my Father are one. He regarded himself as equal with the Father, who temporarily divested himself of his glory to come to earth from for redemptive work until he went back to heaven. But then in John 14:28, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and he says, my Father is greater than I. So in one context Jesus claims equality with the Father. In another he says, my Father is greater than I. I think in one sense he's talking about his equality as it was throughout eternity. In another sense he's talking about having divested himself of his power in order to come to earth. But here, Paul, speaking generally in General terms, says the head of Christ is God. In other words, there is this flow of power and of authority in the spiritual world that we should attempt to emulate. There was a break in that flow when man sinned. And we still don't know everything that happened. We read about it. We try to understand it. The woman who was made for the man to be a suitable helper for him took it upon herself independently to take a course of action that led to the fall of that first couple. And they are the federal representatives of all mankind. Adam basically took the responsibility. You could say he took the hit in a way, and it upset what should have been a divine and perfect relationship, so that what has characterized the world ever since has come to be called the battle of the sexes. And if you don't think the battle of the sexes is real, think again. It is. It's in all the literature, it's all over tv, the entertainment media, books, novels. Somewhere in the thread of every significant dramatic discourse is the battle of the sexes. One of Shakespeare's greatest plays is a comedy, and it's all about the Taming of the Shrew. You've probably heard about it. Petruchio, or Petruchio, is a nobleman looking for a wife. And he comes to a particular court and finds this woman, Kate, who is probably the nastiest woman. Her name's Catherine, but everybody calls her Kate. She is the nastiest woman you ever heard about. She ties up her sister because she doesn't like her sister because her sister's too much of a goody goody, and she does all kinds of bad stuff, you know. And Petruchio decides, you know, I think I could tame this woman. I believe that I could become her master, and I believe that I know just how to do it. Well, he develops several strategies by which he is finally able to. To marry her and to master her. And in the end, she realizes she has been mastered, and now she willingly gives herself to Petruchio because she realizes that he's worthy of her. In other words, he can beat me down to the point that I am submissive at last. Nobody was ever able to do that before. So I am now going to give myself completely to this man. Well, that's Shakespeare, but in another sense, it's 1 Corinthians 11. Because the whole theme of 1st Corinthians 11 is to restore the spiritual flow that was broken when man sinned back. Prior to that time, there was a natural order, and it was the head of every man is Christ. The head of the woman is a man. The head of Christ is God. There was a natural flow. It was broken by sin, and it must be restored in a Christian marriage. Now, let's take some specifics here, and let's get into head covering. And there are some people who take this quite literally. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonor with his head. In other words, you got to pray with your head uncovered. Men, no kippahs, no prayer shawls gotta uncover that head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoreth her head. It's the same as if she were shaved. Men in those days had the tradition of head covering. If you go to 2nd Corinthians 3:13, Paul talks about this a little bit, and he's talking about the Ministry of Christ. 2nd Corinthians 3:12. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech, and not of Moses, which put a veil over his face. The children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end that which is abolished, but their minds were blinded. For until this day remaineth the same veil, untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ? But even to this day, when Moses is read the the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. The story, as originally given in Exodus 34, is that when Moses came down from the mountain, his face glowed. He glowed with the glory of God, and he covered his face. We find out from Paul's commentary that Moses began to cover his face because the glow was receding day by day, diminishing. And he covered his face so that people wouldn't see that the glow was diminishing day by day. Now, this is fascinating to me because this became the ordinance of the prayer shawl. The ordinance of the prayer shawl became a symbol of judicial blindness. Because in the New Testament, the veil is taken away. And on that basis, then Paul writes in First Corinthians 11:4, Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. Verse 5, Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoreth her head. Now, what that verse tells us is that it is acceptable for a woman to pray or prophesy publicly, but she should have her head covered. Why? And what about this business of being shaven? For if a woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. For if there's shame For a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. In Corinth, in that day, there were a lot of women running around on the streets with their heads shaved, and they were all Temple prostitutes. They were women of the street and women of shame. It was very common for women to be shaved if they were in temple service or in other kinds of service on the street, and occasionally to wear wigs or other very fantastic headgear. But to be shaved, this custom came from the Egyptians, by the way, who considered bodily hair to be absolutely unclean. They would shave themselves completely and wear a linen headdress or a wig on occasion. It came into the Greek culture as part of the hieratic observances, and a woman in that condition was considered to be a woman of shame. On the other hand, in the synagogues of the day, including all those throughout Greece, Asia Minor, women entered the synagogue by a separate entrance, and they had their heads covered. In fact, women who were considered to be in a condition of religious obedience, whether Gentile or Jew back in those days covered their heads. It was considered to be brazen for a woman to walk about the street showing off an incredibly elaborate hairstyle or to be shaved. And so in that social context, we see something happening here. The unveiled woman of Corinth was the lowest sort of woman, and the unveiled woman of the synagogue was considered to be a lower sort of woman. And so Paul says in this context, to set yourselves apart from the women of Corinth who brazenly go about with uncovered heads, I want you to cover your head, to set yourself apart in a spiritual way. This is only the introduction to a very big subject. Let's continue and then look back at these verses in a minute. For if a woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. For it's a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. This is very complex. And again, as I said a moment ago, it's metaphysical. We're talking here about the flow of power properly understood from God through man, and in particular within the Christian faith family. It's fascinating. If you go to the Middle east, the thought about head covering that persists even to this day is that a woman should be covered, and even men cover their heads. And I'm talking about Islamic Men, Jewish men, they cover their heads ritually in certain ways. If you've seen the Arab sheikhs and the princes and so forth, they have particular types of head covering. And it's considered to be very poor taste to appear openly without, without a head covering. This is for men and women as well. So we're talking about a cultural convention here that goes back thousands of years among the Arabs, among the Jews. Now let's throw a little wrinkle in here because this is Roman society we're talking about. What was the Roman hairstyle? If you've ever seen the statuary, the busts that were carved of Romans back in the day 200, 300 year period from say 100 B.C. to about 200 A.D. in every case, those men are very, very carefully coifed. For example, all the busts of Caesar, he had the little bangs, you know, that come down about this far. The side of his head would be very close, cropped high and tight, almost a little bit in the back, but not long at all. Because the Romans considered it to be really poor taste for a man to have long hair. The Jews, on the other hand, had the custom of keeping the side curls. So a Jewish male would allow his side curls to come clear down to his collar, but would cut the back of the hair so that it wouldn't be overly long and his head would be covered. So he'd have what we would call by our standards, long hair and a head covering. The Romans would go bareheaded and have close cropped hair. Roman women, on the other hand, went to unbelievable difficulty, trouble to arrive at the most outrageous possible hairstyles, sometimes 2 and 3ft tall. There are stories of women in the Roman Empire who had long, elaborate beehive style hair with jewels and ornaments woven in, and in some cases bird cages with live birds in them woven into the hair. I mean, they went to incredible lengths to show off the hair. Why? Well, it was appeal, it was sensual appeal, sex appeal, it was the appeal to the man. And believe me, there's so much that could be said about Roman society which we'll just leave unsaid. But they were very overt when it came to their social mores in this setting in Greco Roman society. And in light of the fact that most of the early believers to whom Paul is writing had been Jews and we're now trying to grapple with becoming this new type of person living outside of the law, they're writing to Paul saying what's appropriate? How should we wear our hair, how should we comport ourselves among these Gentiles in order to properly represent Christ. And what's the proper relationship in marriage anyway, if we're free in Christ? To what degree does a man have authority over a woman? To what degree must a woman submit to a man? They had all these questions. This is all a brand new deal. And you've got to confess, if you read 1 Corinthians 11, Paul is just walking a knife edge here. He really is. And he's led of the Spirit as he does it, because he's talking about the metaphysical relationship with God through Christ that originally came down to the man, through the women, through the children. The family was a unit through which the Spirit flowed properly. Sin broke that unit. And in Christ that family unit can be repaired and can run smoothly. And only in Christ can it run smoothly. And it runs because a man is to exhibit the love of Christ, the woman is to respond to him in the same way that she would respond to Christ. A man ought not to cover his head. He's the image and glory of God. That's revolutionary and radical stuff to be spouting to Jews who have received Christ. Hebrew Christians, take off your kippah, Throw it away. Fold up your prayer shawl. Don't need it anymore. But, but, but, but, but. That's tradition. Forget it. Throw it away. The woman is the glory of the man. What is this about hair? Well, nothing makes a statement like hair. Nothing. And remember the famous musical of the 60s, hair? It was associated with, and I don't remember exactly when it came out. It might have come out in the 70s, but anyway, that's immaterial. Hair, the musical, it was all about rebellion. It was about casting off the old social mores and becoming as outrageous as you wanted to be in order to state who you were as a person. And there are a lot of songs and the libretto and the book of this thing is just loaded with references to hair as an expression of personal power. And so it is. 1 Corinthians 11. Hair as an expression of personal power. The man created by God is to be maintained in a state that gives glory to God. The woman, on the other hand, her hair is what? It's the glory of the man. And you say, well, that's weird. But I ask you, have you ever seen a shampoo commercial? Ever hear about the Bracket girl? Of course you've seen a shampoo commercial. There's shampoo sold by the megaton. And if you look at the history of advertising, what is a woman's hair? It's her glory. It is that which she shapes and forms carefully to frame her face and to present herself in such a way that she's going to just bowl everybody over. Not just men, but all the other women who are going to envy her hairstyle. In other words, it becomes the way she projects herself. Okay, and who's she aiming that at? Who is she aiming that at? She's aiming it at the man. Am I wrong? Can you think of a young lady and a young man is courting her and he's coming over and is she going to work on her hair or not? Ho, ho. For probably up to six hours or maybe six days. Hair. It's the glory of the woman. Now, sex appeal, there is a certain sensuality attached to this. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. And I'm going to be very delicate and gentle. And if we were in another kind of a group, I could be more forthright. But Paul is working up to a point here. He's working up to a place where he's about to drop the big bomb. And we haven't gotten there yet. He says, verse 7. The woman is the glory of the man. And indeed she allures the man. And she appeals to the man. Man, you know what I'm talking about. And women, you know what I'm talking about. And neither was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. A woman has a certain kind of appeal, personal appeal, that a man does not have, a normal man does not have. A woman has a level of what's commonly referred to as beauty, for want of a better word than a man does. And she can use that for good or for ill. Believe me. She can use it for evil purposes. The whole world is full of that story. In fact, the majority of novels have that right at their centerpiece. For this cause ought a woman to have power on her head because of the angels? And the word power here in verse 10 is exousia. Authority. The woman ought to have power on her head. Now, that's a curious expression. But what it really means is a woman needs to take authority over her own personal appearance. Because of the angels. Wow. I'll bet none of you envy me right now standing up here and explicating this. I mean, you're saying, I'm glad it's him up there and not me, right? The angels are watching. And what are they watching? I'll tell you what they're watching. And Peter says this, too. We are an exhibit to the angels, basically a fallen group of Beings restored to relationship with God through Christ, groping our way back, imperfectly feeling our way along, trying to understand what the Lord wants us to do, and stumbling and falling about half the time. And the angels are watching. Paul says, for this cause, a woman ought to have authority. She ought to take authority over herself. Her hair is her appearance. Instead of using it for sensual purposes, she ought to use it to glorify God. Now, I think everybody here knows what I'm talking about. And I don't have to sit and individually speak to anybody about what glorifies God and what glorifies self. I think you all know where that line is. And I think you all know that the natural order of fallen woman, and let me just talk about women for a minute, is to want to present themselves at the sensual level in a very attractive and appealing way, the way that the world dictates. It's a very natural thing for a woman to want to do that. And I see nothing basically wrong with wanting to be attractive. But on the other hand, and you know where the line is crossed, on the other hand, you can go all the way and you can become a vamp, to use the old term. You can be out there in a very seductive way. And when you cross that line, you cease to glorify God. There are some people that take the rigid position here. They put the doily on the head. They wear the black dresses that come all the way to the floor and say, we're going to cover up. We're going to try to be as ugly as we can. The Bible doesn't ask you to do that. Women. The Bible asks you to have authority on your head. That is to be using your personal appearance to glorify God and not yourself. That's what this is talking about, verse 11. Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man. In the Lord, the power of a woman is to hold her man because she's a woman. The man holds his woman because he's a man. He loves her, and she responds to him. This is the marriage relationship as God ordained it. And when this relationship doesn't exist, God's ideal is just gone. The 12th verse. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man by the woman. But all things of God, they are inseparable. God has designed men and women to be not a sphere, but a hemisphere. Man is one half of the sphere. Woman is the other half of the sphere. There's a lot of talk about liberation. You know, like we should liberate Ourselves from these old mores. Women should be able to get out there and do whatever they want to do. And they should be able to compete in the marketplace. And they should be the absolute equal of men and in fact, in some cases, dominant over men. And who needs men anyway? And you've all heard that kind of talk, but in fact, God's ideal is that men and women are designed to work as a functioning unit in the Lord. Man needs a woman, woman needs a man. It's the glorious relationship of marriage. Look at the 13th verse. Judge in yourselves. Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? What's he talking about here? Is he talking about head covering? No, he's talking really now about the authority the woman takes over her appearance. The way I interpret this, a woman is to be attractive but not seductive. I don't know of a better way to say it. You cross the line from attraction to seduction, which is what the world basically teaches you to be, and you're in trouble. Everything begins to go out of balance. Judging yourselves. Is it comely for a woman to pray unto God uncovered? Here's the bottom line. A woman should not employ sex appeal when she's speaking for the Lord. I don't know of any plainer way to say it. I don't know of any plainer way to say it than that. And you probably know what I'm talking about. A woman can teach a Bible class. A woman can pray in public. I have personally seen women dressed to the nines made up in a very worldly way, in a way that I thought to myself, wow, that's a bit much, praying in public. You've seen that. Are we talking about putting the thumb of authority on women? No, we. Absolutely not. But what we're talking about here is a right relationship with God, which results in the smooth flow of the Holy Spirit of God. Woman should not use sex appeal when teaching a Bible class. When praying in public, should we enforce a head covering? So say if a woman stands up to pray or to sing a song, maybe a hymn, should she have her head covered? Yes. By her own authority, she is to take authority over herself because the angels are watching. That's what it says. She should have authority on her head because the angels are watching. In other words, she should be a good testimony. The Romans had short hair heads uncovered. The Jews had long hair heads covered. Everything was backwards. Ever hear of a Nazirite? Remember Samson the Nazirite? From the time he was a young boy, his parents dedicated him to the Lord. He never cut his hair. And his strength was in his hair. Do you know how long your hair would be if you'd never cut your hair all your life? Do you know that was considered to be a great shame among the Jews. It was to be unshorn, have your hair just flowing everywhere was considered to be a very great shame. And a Nazirite like Samson was considered to be in a condition of shame for the Lord. In other words, he was sacrificing the beauty of his body by carrying around a load of hair for the Lord. And remember, Paul took a vow not to cut his hair until he got back to the temple in Jerusalem after his third missionary journey. And when he got back, his hair probably was very long and scraggly and woolly. And then he got back to the temple, he cut his hair. The Jew took the long hair on a man to be a mark of shame. And if you took a vow before the Lord, in essence, you were proclaiming yourself to be in a condition of shame until you got back to make your vow good at the temple, at which point in time you removed the shame hair. Wow. I mean, who can imagine that hair could be so spiritually weighty a matter. We're not talking about hair at all here. I hope you've come to realize by this time, we're not talking about hair. We're talking about spiritual authority and the flow of the Holy Spirit within the society of man and within a family. Verse 14. Doth not even nature teach you that if a man have long hair, it's a shame unto him? A disgrace, says the Bible. Now who decides about that hair? Well, I'm not going to go around with a yardstick being like a Taliban hair measurer and deciding whether you're in a condition of disgrace or not. I'm not going to do that. That's between you and the Lord. But it is a factor. On the other hand, verse 15, if a woman have long hair, it's a glory to her. You've seen the TV commercials. You know how they sell long hair that's perfectly colored and textured, you know, and when she flings her head, the hair just moves like waves of water. And I mean, everybody's looking at her, saying, wow, man, did you ever see anything so beautiful in your life? And she says, I did it. They're all looking at me. Well, that's not of the Lord. She's glorifying her personal self, not God. This is the issue. And Paul makes it the issue by saying, if any man seem contentious, we have no such Custom. Even at churches of God, we don't go around measuring hair, he says, because I'm not talking about hair length. I'm talking about making yourself a representative of God publicly properly comporting yourself. And you know when you're doing that, your heart will tell you whether you're doing that or not. We have no such custom. We don't cover the head here, don't uncover the head here. If there are any women here who would like to cover their head, feel free to do so. Got any men here who'd like to cover their head, feel free to do so. But Paul said, hey, you, don't cover your head, uncover it, stand up, glorify God. I think the rule here is that if you begin to involve yourself in a fetish of any sort, you're in trouble if you begin to try to glorify yourself rather than God. Now, having thoroughly blurred that subject, let's move right along to the next one. I hope I made that clear, because this is not legality. Paul is still speaking about liberty here, but liberty within the culture. And he was speaking to a culture that was very strange by our reckoning. The Corinthian culture was just completely wild, particularly when it had to do with hair. Verse 17. Now, in this I declare unto you, I praise you not. He has opened the first part of this chapter 11 by saying, I praise you that you remember me in all things. The subject is prayer. He says, I praise you that you're remembering to pray for me. Now let me tell you a little something about prayer. You ought to pray in the proper mode, and when you do, your prayer will be much more effective. That's why he launches into that whole thing about hair. Not to get people to adopt a particular hairstyle, but to give a lecture on how the Lord views one's personal presentation of oneself. That's what he's really talking about here. And later on in this chapter, he says, you know, if you're in the proper position relative to God, your prayer life is going to be enhanced. That's all there is to it. Well, he turns now to the Lord's Supper, the 17th verse. Now, in this, that I declare unto you, I praise you not. Got something wrong with you, that you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it. For there must also be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. Wow, that's an amazing Statement. There must be heresies among you when you come together, therefore, in one place. This is not to eat the Lord's supper, for in eating one taketh before another his own supper. One's hungry, another is drunk. What? Don't you have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this, I praise you not. Now he's being critical. Because they had a custom back in those days, the love feast, in which the church would gather together, potluck. They would gather, praise the Lord, they would pray, they would have fellowship, and at the end of that time, they would break bread and drink the cup in commemoration of the Lord's Supper. That night, before the day of Passover, they had that custom. We don't have that custom today in the churches when we have communion, we generally take it as we will here in a moment, as an independent act. They combine a supper, a love feast, they called it, with a communion. And Paul says, you know, some of you people who are wealthy and have a lot of food are eating in front of other people who don't have anything to eat. And some of you who've got good wine are getting drunk. And some of you don't even bother to fellowship with each other. You segregate yourself on the basis of your wealth, which part of town you live in, your society, and so forth and so on. And he says, in this, I praise you not. And he goes on then to give that recitation of the Lord's Supper. We're going to take the Lord's Supper and communion in just a moment. But before we do that, I want to say something. In 1118, Paul says, first of all, when you come together in the Church, I hear that there are divisions among you. The Greek word for divisions is schismata. Schisms. He says, I partly believe it. For there must be heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. You know, in the 12, we had that very thing happening. The 12 gathered to take that last supper, and one of them was a devil. There was a heresy even in Christ's inner circle. Heresy. A heresy. And we're going to talk about this next week. Heresy comes from the Greek word heresis, which means to choose for oneself. And what it really means is choosing a way to worship God that pleases you, but which may or may not be in conformity with Scripture. That's a heresy. Paul says, you know what? There must Be heresies among you that they which are approved, that is, those who have passed a test or a trial may be made manifest among you. That's a sad truth about the Church. One of the reasons for the existence of the Church is purification of the body. There are going to be some who will hold to the word Lord. There will be some who say, no, I think I know a better way. And they'll separate themselves and go out. And you yourselves know about the cults, the isms, the denominations, the this and the that's, and all those separations. Paul said way back in the first century, he said, there must be these heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest. And we'll expand on that next week. The point about the Lord's Supper is it is a monument that looks to the past, that which Christ has accomplished. It looks to the present, that which Christ is doing right now. It looks to the future when he returns for us. And it's a monument not in gold and silver and precious stones and marble and bronze, but it's a monument in perishable things. Grape juice and bread. That's the Lord's Supper. It's a metaphysical thing. It's just like that business of hairstyle. The angels are watching. Things are going on up where we can't see, and we take part in those by our behavior, and that's the Lord's Supper. When we take the Lord's Supper, things are happening that are far beyond our eyesight. Oh, you can argue, as people have in transubstantiation, the bread and the wine become the body and blood of Christ, or consubstantiation that in some symbolic way the body and the blood are represented in the bread and the cup, or in symbolism, that the bread and the cup are symbols of Christ's redemption. Hey, there are way more than symbols. They are a monument. They are a metaphysical memorial about something that's happening right now. And you cannot see it with your physical eyes. You can only see it with your spiritual eyes. And so let's partake of the Lord's Supper. At this time. If you'd come forward, gather the elements, take them back to your family. We will celebrate the Lord's Supper in the knowledge that the angels are watching and they're watching something happen that's far beyond human explanation. We are the body of Christ. There's no separation. There is no one here who lords it over anyone else. We are all in this thing together. He's the head, we're the body. This is something you have to realize by faith. This is what Paul is grappling with in Corinthians to convince people of the metaphysical reality of what is happening. That's why he referred to the angels watching. And I'm sure they're watching right now. We are in every sense a part of Christ. And he's a part of us. First Corinthians 11:24. When he had given thanks, broke the bread, said, take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Let's break the bread. This is a commemoration. It's a communion, and it's a commitment. He's coming again. His blood is our covering. It's called the New Testament, the New Covenant. It is absolutely indescribable. I wouldn't even attempt to describe what he did and what he's doing right now. But we're a part of it. We are bonded to him in ways that cannot be described in words. Let's drink the cup. When he had taken the cup, he said, this cup's the New Testament of my blood. Just do as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me.