Welcome to the defender bible study, a weekly encouragement to equip the body of Christ through the study of scripture and prayer to manifest the gospel to orphans and vulnerable children around the world. This podcast is a ministry of Lifeline Children Services where we believe that defending the fatherless begins by being rooted in God's word. It's Monday, March 4th, 2024, and I'm coming to you from Birmingham, Alabama. Well, today, we are continuing our study on the book of 1st Corinthians, and specifically, we'll be looking at 1st Corinthians chapter 11 verse 2 through 16. Well, this passage presents us a stellar reason to be in a Bible believing, theology rich, and doctrinally sound church.

This is one of those passages, that if you want to know what did Paul really mean, I'm going to ask you ask your local pastor for what it means in the context for which you worship. You know, last week, I thought I was getting sick, and so I actually asked pastor Chris to switch, and he instantly sent me back a message that said, sure thing, glad to do that. But I will tell you that this passage is a lot easier than next week's on head coverings. So today, we are talking about head coverings. And while I'm certainly not going to get into the reasoning or how this would apply to you, I do think because God's word is living and active that this passage really does have something for us today.

And we're actually gonna see 5 takeaways from this passage, and how we can apply this passage. As awkward as it is about head coverings and shaved hair and long hair, what it means for us in 2024. You know, my scholars agree that this is one of the most confusing passages to determine. It's one of the most often misunderstood, and sometimes it's one of the most abused passages in the New Testament. So with that grand introduction, this is Paul's letter to the church at Corinth as recorded in 1st Corinthians chapter 11 starting in verse 2.

Paul says, now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of a wife is her husband, the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered, dishonors his head. But every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, dishonors her head. Since it is the same as if her head were shaven.

For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is great disgraceful for a wife to cut her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. For a man ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of god, but woman is the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.

This is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, in the lord, woman is not independent of man nor man of woman. For as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman, and all things are from god. Judge for yourself. Is it proper for a wife to pray to god with her head uncovered?

Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is disgrace for him? But if a woman has long hair, it is for her glory, for her hair is given to her for a covering. If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice nor do the churches of God. So a few thoughts about this passage that can help us. And, again, I wanna remind you, if you wanna know about all these long haired men, short haired women, head coverings, ask your local pastor.

But what we do see from this passage, 5 takeaways, are things that I think really can help us, that can help us as we live out each and every day and are great reminders for us. And the first reminder or takeaway is this, we need to be humble and submissive to the Lord. Verse 3 says, but I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. You see, we see from verse 3 that everyone is commanded to be submissive and to submit, but ultimately, we all submit to the Lord our Father. So first, we also see we we need to submit to authorities.

Hebrews 13 :17 says, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. We submit ourselves to authorities. Obviously, we do so as long as it does not conflict with our worship and devotion to the Lord. Think of Daniel from the book of Daniel when king Darius, made an edict to pray to no one but himself.

Daniel continued to pray to God, But he did so in a respectful, humble, and submissive way. He didn't thumb his nose or act disrespectfully, but he did so humbly. As a matter of fact, he he he didn't stop. He didn't completely submit because to completely submit would have meant he was disobeying God, and it would have interfered with his relationship with God. Instead, he continued to pray but he didn't go out and do it in the middle of the street.

He didn't do it to in front of the king. He went to his home, he opened up his windows, and he prayed. But if you wanna even see the evidence of Daniel's submission and humility, after being found alive in the lion's den, Daniel 6:21-23 reports. The king asked if Daniel is still alive. And it says that Daniel said to the king, oh, king, live forever.

My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth, and they have not harmed me because I was found blameless before him. And Daniel says, also before you, oh king, I have done no harm. And then verse 23 says, the king was exceedingly glad, and he commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him because he had trusted in his God. The king would not have been exceedingly glad that Daniel's life was spared in the lion's den had Daniel not been a humble, submissive servant to authority.

So we must be submissive and humble even to rulers and authorities we do not agree with. But the 2nd place we find we need to be humble and submissive is obvious. It's the lord. James 46 through 7 says, but he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and the word says he will flee from you. When we submit completely to the Lord, the promise is even the devil will flee from us. We fight evil by humbly submitting to the lord. When we fully submit to the lord, it leads us to submit ourselves to one another within the body of Christ.

And and that leads us to the 3rd place we submit, and that's to the body of Christ. Why do we submit to the body of Christ? Ultimately, because we submit to the Lord. Ephesians 5:20-21 says, Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Even as this passage speaks of head coverings and long hair and short hair, we must be humble and submissive to nonessential differences and distinctives within the body of Christ.

Instead of trying to rule over our liberty, we need to sacrifice our liberty for others within the body of Christ. For instance, in Africa, you don't wear shorts to a church service because knees are seen as, erotic. Now, I don't debate that a kneecap is a kneecap, and there's nothing that is is modest or immodest about showing a kneecap. Instead, I cover my kneecaps. Women cover their kneecaps.

We don't we don't argue, but we we we submit and we humble ourselves and we give up our rights. In the Middle East, if we go into a Middle Eastern context, the Muslims believe that women should wear a burqa. We don't fight that. We cover up to submit in in a humble way. Churches in in several parts of Asia do use head coverings for women.

Now we could argue and say, we don't think that that's necessary or we don't think that that needs to happen. Instead, we we humbly Why would we submit and try to fight that? Instead, submit. Humble yourselves. Be at peace with the body of Christ.

The question is, are we willing to be inconvenienced and to lay down our differences in rights? All things to all people that I can win some, Paul says. He says to the weak, I became weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people that all by all means, I might save some, 1st Corinthians 9 22. You see, beloved, we must die to ourselves and take up our cross.

Matthew 1624 to 25, it says, Jesus told the disciples, if anyone would come after me, he has to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Whoever would seek to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. You see, beloved, we are called to set aside our rights. We live today in a very fiercely independent time. We see it as our right to do what we want.

However, there should be unity and surrender of rights to Christ first, and then to the body of Christ, and then to others. We surrender our liberties. And I'm afraid too many times, even within Christendom, we flaunt ourselves. We assert our rights. We call anything we think is an an an unnecessary call to holiness, we call that legalism.

Anything we see as unnecessary, we call as legalistic. Instead of calling things legalistic, we need to have the humility of Christ. Philippians 2:3 through 11 says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but humility. Count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.

Have this mind among yourself, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God as something to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of God the father. You know Jesus even kept every ceremonial law when he was walking the earth. Not because it was necessary for him to be perfect before the father, but because he was doing it to reach even the Pharisees, even the religious.

We sacrifice our rights. We sacrifice our liberty in order to have humility and to submit to one another and to authority and to the lord. But then the 2nd takeaway that we have from this passage is that modesty is meant to protect. First Corinthians 6 19 through 20, Paul reminds this same church. He says, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God?

You are not your own, but you were bought with a price to glorify God in your body. As believers, we need to have modesty, and not just in how we dress, but also in how we approach one another. We need to honor one another with our speech. Ephesians 4:29 says, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such that is good for building up as it fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those that hear. We are living, beloved, in a pro fain day and time, where profane language, porn porn pornography out of our mouth is normalized.

The language that we are normalizing, it corrupts our soul. It tears down image bearers of God, and it grieves the heart of our father. You see, beloved, we are so quick to use our tongue to rip apart another image bearer. We are so quick to use foul language. We are so quick to speak of things that are detestable, and it has become normalized.

We we no longer blush when we watch a movie or show and there is a 4 letter word. We no longer blush when people talk of provocative pornographic things. We have forgotten how to blush. We've got to be modest in our talk, but we also need to be modest in the way we act towards one another. Mike Pence and Billy Graham both won't wouldn't go to lunch or dinner with a woman alone who wasn't their wife, and they were mocked and criticized for that.

Elizabeth Elliott wrote about purity and her commitment to never be alone with a man who is not her husband. Are we modest? Are we above reproach in the way that we treat one another? Yes. This passage, we may not understand the head and the the the the shaving, and we may not understand the the head covering.

But it says it is disgraceful. It uses words in verse 4 like dishonoring. It says in verse 5 that that it's dishonoring again, and then verse 6 that it is disgraceful. While we may not understand the head, we may not understand the coverings, beloved, how many times do we see modesty as something that's archaic as opposed to protective? And distinctively.

And the world would read a passage like this and think that it's it's it's machoistic, it's it's it's it's very much a male dominant culture that that it's chauvinistic. Instead, this passage is beautiful because it shows that men and women are equal and distinctive, but they're also dependent upon one another. Look at verses 8 and 9. It says, for man was not made from woman, but woman was made from man. And we know from Genesis that that that that literally a rib was taken from the man to form and fashion woman.

And verse 9 says neither was a man created for woman, but woman for man. But then if we skip ahead in verses 11 and 12, Paul goes the other way. Nevertheless, in the lord, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman was made from man, so now man is made of a woman, born of a woman. And then he says that all things are from God.

You see, based upon the nature of God, the three persons of the trinity are equally divine, and yet they are positionally different. It doesn't make one less than the other. Jesus shows deference to the father while Jesus is still fully God. And in the same way, men and women complement one another. Men and women have equal value.

Men and women have unique roles, and so we celebrate our differences. Woman was drawn from the rib of man and was made for man because man was incomplete without woman. The image of God was incomplete just being placed upon the the male image bearer, and so there needed to be a woman. Genesis 2:18 says that God said, it's not good. The first time we see the the opposite of good, it was not good that man should be alone.

And God said, I will make a helper fit for him. And what does He make? He doesn't make another man. He doesn't make another animal. He doesn't make something different.

He makes a woman. In Genesis 2/23, the man sees woman who's been made from the rib, and he says, this is at last bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, and she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. In God's perfect creation, men and women are complementary equal with distinctive roles, and distinctive gifts and distinctive ways that they bear the image of God. Oh, this passage actually does nothing more than draw us to the distinct differences, yet to the the equal worth and dignity of men and women. God's image was placed upon humanity, but his image is seen most completely in the union of a man and a woman.

Ephesians 531 to 32 says, therefore a man shall leave his mother and father and hold fast to his wife, and the 2 shall become 1 flesh. And this mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. God's grand drama of the gospel to save man is seen completely through this drama of marriage. Women image the nurture and the strength and the support, the grace and the enduring love of God. Proverbs 3125-2630 say, strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.

She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. Charm is deceitful and beauty is in vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Women, image God. His nurture, His strength, His support, His grace, His enduring love. But then men also image God's defense of the weak, his whole bold protective love, and his perseverance.

Also in Proverbs 31 verse 9, King Lemuel is instructed on how he should act as a man of god. The passage says open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and the needy. You see, god created man and woman with unique design, different from one another. Man is head and woman is helper, and God did this for a reason. And so we submit to God and to one another.

And that leads us to the 4th point, is that what we might see as degrading is actually meant to be harmony. What we may see as degrading about all the hair talk and why can't a man have long hair and a woman not have short hair, and why does a woman have to wear a head covering and a man doesn't have to? What we could today say, that's that's degrading. It was meant to be harmonious. Do not be contentious, verse 16 says.

If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no practice nor do the churches of God. Do not be contentious. The opposite of contentious is calm, peaceable, harmonious. While we could take the cultural take on this passage to understand head coverings and hair length, it really misses Paul's point. We could even take a headship route for marriage, but it misses the real point.

The point is that we are to live in harmony with one another. Life is too short to be at odds with a brother and sister in Christ, especially over secondary doctrines. We must seek to live with one another in an understanding way. Peter says it this way in 1st Peter 37. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing respect and honor to the woman as the weaker vessel since they are heirs with you of the grace of life so that your prayers may not be hindered.

The word Peter uses for honor here means a valuing by which the price is fixed. This means that God has valued women, and that value is fixed. No man can change her worth. As people who've been valued by the creator, as worth the death of his son, women are due a certain amount of respect and care. And part of the reason that wives are due special honor for their husbands is because they're a weaker vessel.

This phrase most likely refers to the fact that in general, men are physically stronger than women. It's possible that women would could be considered weaker in other ways as well. For example, women are more physically vulnerable to certain acts of violence due to the fact that they are the ones who bear children. They are also more physically vulnerable when pregnant. In many societies, even today, women do not enjoy equal privileges as do men, but rather than treat their wives as society would suggest, Christian husbands are to honor their wives, serve them, and protect them.

A husband is called upon to esteem his wife and care for her even to the point of laying down his life for her. So whatever the head covering really means, we know that scripture does not contradict and that women and men are equally and distinctively affirmed as image bearers of God in complete harmony. And then last but certainly not least, 5th, we live for the glory of God. Even with a confusing passage, we see that our lives are an echo to the praise of the glory of god. Revelation 411 says, worthy are you, our lord and god, to receive power and glory and honor.

For why? You created all things, and by your will, they existed and were created. All things are created for the glory of God, and ultimately, our lives reflect his glory. May we always be more interested in the glory of God rather than in the praise of man or in the independence of our desire. 2nd Peter 13 through 4, his divine power has granted to us all things that provide that pertain to life and god godliness.

Through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and great promises. So that through them, you may become a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of the sinful desire. Beloved, may we glorify God with our lives in all things. And then you thought that was last, but there's a bonus number 6. So I said 5 things, but let me give you a bonus number 6.

And it's in verse 10, and it's because of the angels. Yeah. Have no idea why in verse 10, Paul throws in because of the angels. But you know what I do know? The Bible says that the angels long to look into the mystery of the relationship we have with the God with God of the universe.

It says that that what we do will be wisdom to angels. It says that that that we are are greater than the angels. So please ask your pastor and church leaders about this passage, but do remember that God's act word is living and active, sharper than any double edged sword. Even strange passages, which are hard to decipher and understand, can teach us important truth. So we need to humble.

We need to be humble and submissive. We must be modest. Men and women are equal and distinct and made in the image of God. The Lord wants his church to live in harmony so that we can live for the glory of God because of the angels. Thanks for joining us for the Defender Bible Study.

This week, we are praying for our Hong Kong program and specifically for orphans and vulnerable children in Hong Kong as well as the the the government of Hong Kong. So let's pray for the people, the government, the children of Hong Kong, and for Lifeline's partnership there in Hong Kong. Father god, we just truly do ask that the gospel will continue to spread in Hong Kong and that local believers will manifest the gospel to vulnerable children and families. We pray for our partner, Mother's Choice, and her leadership, and that they would be convicted to be uncompromising in their Christian values. Even in a, an impressive at times regime, we pray that they would be uncompromising in their faith in Christ.

We continue to pray for continued favor with the Hong Kong social welfare department, and the social welfare department and Hong Kong government would understand the urgency of placing these children who are waiting and languishing in homes with families. We pray even that these departments would would use urgency when reviewing families' paperwork. Pray for the staff at Mother's Choice to have endurance and stamina as they tirelessly work on behalf of these children. We pray for the mother's choice team as they are going through many transitions with team members when we pray these transmit transitions would go smoothly. We pray for more families who are open to significant special needs to enter into the Hong Kong program.

Oh, god, we pray that you would provide loving, stable caregivers for these children while they wait. And, father, we just also pray that you would be with the government, that you would help them to streamline their process so that children would not have to wait unnecessarily. But, Lord, also, we just pray that you would bring your gospel to bear in the administrative district of Hong Kong. Lord, as well, we pray for our families who are currently experiencing long wait times. We pray that they would know that you are sovereign over their process and that our team would be able to serve them well.

We also pray for those families who've already brought children home from Hong Kong that are transitioning. Would you give them grace? Would you give them endurance? Would you give them the ability to do what you've called them to do? And for those families who may be called in the future, would you equip them?

Would you prepare them? Would you bring in them a heart, not only for children from Hong Kong, but for the people of Hong Kong as well? Father God, we love you. We praise you. And we ask all of these things in your great name, the name of Jesus.

Amen. Thanks again for joining us for the defender bible study. If you enjoy making this podcast a part of your weekly routine, we'd love for you to take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review the defender bible study to make it easier for more people to find. For more resources and information on how you and your church can partner with Lifeline, please visit us at lifelinechild.org. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter by searching for Lifeline Child.

You can email us directly at info at lifelinechilddot org. We look forward to seeing you again next week for the defender bible study.