The Honor of God

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.719 Word to First Corinthians Eleven, if you would remained standing. Please remain standing, 2 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:20.350 if you're able. First Corinthians Eleven, versus one through sixteen. The 3 00:00:20.429 --> 00:00:27.179 Apostle Peter says in one of his letters that there are places in the apostle 4 00:00:27.260 --> 00:00:33.780 Paul's writings that are difficult to understand, that are challenging, and so if 5 00:00:33.859 --> 00:00:37.810 Peter can say that, I feel like I can say that too, and 6 00:00:38.289 --> 00:00:42.850 this is one of those. It is a really challenging passage for all kinds 7 00:00:42.929 --> 00:00:47.530 of reasons, exogetically, understanding how to interpret it and, of course, 8 00:00:47.570 --> 00:00:54.840 as with all of scripture, are challenging on our hearts as well. As 9 00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:59.479 we approach it, we will do so with humility and with honor and with 10 00:00:59.640 --> 00:01:03.560 reverence, and I'm asking, as we already have done, for the Lord's 11 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:07.870 Blessing. So let's hear God's word. First Corinthians Eleven, one through sixteen, 12 00:01:08.549 --> 00:01:12.750 be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Now I commend 13 00:01:12.829 --> 00:01:18.620 you because you remember me and everything and maintain the traditions, even as I 14 00:01:18.780 --> 00:01:22.739 delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of 15 00:01:22.859 --> 00:01:26.459 every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and 16 00:01:26.540 --> 00:01:32.180 the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his 17 00:01:32.299 --> 00:01:37.450 head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesied with her 18 00:01:37.489 --> 00:01:41.890 head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head 19 00:01:41.890 --> 00:01:45.849 were shaven. For if a wife will not cover her head, then she 20 00:01:45.890 --> 00:01:49.799 should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to 21 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:53.280 cut her hair, to cut off her hair or shave her head, let 22 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:57.159 her cover her head. For a man ought not to cover his head, 23 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:01.390 since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory 24 00:02:01.430 --> 00:02:06.349 of Man, for man was not made from woman, but woman from man. 25 00:02:07.109 --> 00:02:10.710 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. That is 26 00:02:10.789 --> 00:02:15.060 why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because 27 00:02:15.259 --> 00:02:21.259 of the angels. Nevertheless, in the Lord, woman is not independent of 28 00:02:21.419 --> 00:02:24.259 Man, nor man of woman, for as woman was made from man, 29 00:02:24.539 --> 00:02:29.219 so man is now born of woman, and all things are from God. 30 00:02:30.090 --> 00:02:32.889 Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a wife to pray to God with 31 00:02:34.009 --> 00:02:38.050 her head uncovered? Does Not Nature itself teach you that if a man wears 32 00:02:38.169 --> 00:02:40.490 long hair, it is a disgrace for him. But if a woman has 33 00:02:40.569 --> 00:02:44.960 long hair, it is her glory, for her hair is given to her 34 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:49.800 for a covering. If anyone is inclined to be contentious. We have no 35 00:02:49.960 --> 00:02:54.960 such practice, nor do the churches of God. Amen, you maybe see. 36 00:03:07.710 --> 00:03:12.590 So I want to start by just saying that I'm as I mentioned, 37 00:03:12.629 --> 00:03:16.340 it is a difficult passage and it's difficult for several reasons. One of them 38 00:03:16.620 --> 00:03:23.500 is that in almost every single verse, and in Sometimes Multiple Times in one 39 00:03:23.620 --> 00:03:31.569 verse, you have many reasonable choices, interpretive choices that can be made and 40 00:03:31.729 --> 00:03:39.330 as you read commentators, modern, past, reformed, non reformed, even 41 00:03:39.449 --> 00:03:46.199 within the narrow camps, even in places where there's a lot of theological agreement 42 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:52.960 and trusted scholars and people that you would normally look to, is your kind 43 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:58.669 of go to folks for help on these issues, you'll find that there's a 44 00:03:58.750 --> 00:04:03.550 lot of variation because there's a lot of different possibilities and as you take each 45 00:04:03.669 --> 00:04:08.590 possibility, it affects all the others. I've kind of been comparing it to 46 00:04:08.669 --> 00:04:12.539 a Rubik's cube in my mind. As you move one side, everything else 47 00:04:12.620 --> 00:04:15.259 changes, and then you change this and everything I'll change. You kind of 48 00:04:15.259 --> 00:04:17.740 have to solve the puzzle all at once. You have to kind of keep 49 00:04:17.899 --> 00:04:21.779 every single verse of all of its choices in your mind find at the same 50 00:04:21.819 --> 00:04:30.009 time and and that's difficult to do. That being said, what I want 51 00:04:30.009 --> 00:04:33.170 to say, then, is that my goal today is not to run through 52 00:04:33.370 --> 00:04:40.480 every possible choice and tell you why I've come to every single conclusion that I 53 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:47.000 have. We'd be here for weeks. I will not also try to recount 54 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:57.589 the history of various interpreters and quote lots of authors. And if you're interested 55 00:04:57.670 --> 00:05:00.350 in a particular question, in a particular verse, how things fit together, 56 00:05:00.389 --> 00:05:05.829 I'm more than happy to talk to you about it and point you to places 57 00:05:05.870 --> 00:05:11.339 where you can do some work on this in your own my goal today is 58 00:05:11.459 --> 00:05:18.899 to present very clearly and simply my best understanding of this passage, and my 59 00:05:19.100 --> 00:05:25.329 hope is that it is faithful to the Lord and compelling to you as the 60 00:05:25.410 --> 00:05:33.889 word of God, with that throat clearing, as they say. In writing. 61 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:42.279 I want to begin with this. There's this universal truth that we human 62 00:05:42.360 --> 00:05:48.000 beings express ourselves in our clothing. Find this across cultures, across time. 63 00:05:49.509 --> 00:05:56.509 Now, this varies a lot from place to place. If you go and 64 00:05:56.790 --> 00:06:02.550 you can look up an article on the history of clothing in and then you 65 00:06:02.670 --> 00:06:09.180 name the country, any country, you will find all kinds of fascinating things, 66 00:06:09.660 --> 00:06:15.500 varying from even within the same region, from time and place. There's 67 00:06:15.500 --> 00:06:21.649 a lot of variations, regional variations, variations in time, culture, political 68 00:06:21.810 --> 00:06:28.649 environments, all kinds of things. Clothing change it a lot, but it's 69 00:06:28.810 --> 00:06:32.879 true, even though the outward forms of clothing changes in there are some consistencies 70 00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:42.040 here there, that we express ourselves through clothing, sometimes very intentionally, sometimes 71 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:46.550 not so intentionally. Sometimes it's just what is sort of clean, sometimes it's 72 00:06:46.589 --> 00:06:49.990 what you can afford. Sometimes you have a lot of choice, sometimes you 73 00:06:50.149 --> 00:06:55.670 don't have a lot of choice, but as a general rule this is a 74 00:06:55.829 --> 00:07:01.540 true thing. It's also true that as we express ourselves, as one of 75 00:07:01.540 --> 00:07:04.660 the chief ways that we express ourselves, there's a lot of things that go 76 00:07:04.980 --> 00:07:10.620 into those choices that we make, and this is will be saying what you 77 00:07:10.699 --> 00:07:13.819 already know to be true. But just to meditate on this for a moment, 78 00:07:15.259 --> 00:07:24.529 in our clothing choices we often express things like class, wealth, age, 79 00:07:25.970 --> 00:07:31.000 time of year. I'm seeing a little less red and green still still 80 00:07:31.079 --> 00:07:36.720 there, but right there's certain maybe neckties or or dresses or things that we 81 00:07:36.839 --> 00:07:41.160 bring out certain times of the year and other times we put away. Right. 82 00:07:41.319 --> 00:07:47.069 So, seasons warm, hot, cold, our frame of mind. 83 00:07:48.589 --> 00:07:54.189 Am I feeling sad today? Am I feeling happy today? Am I grieving? 84 00:07:55.949 --> 00:08:01.860 My excited? Our frame of mind, our gender, which is one 85 00:08:01.860 --> 00:08:09.420 of the considerations that comes up here in this passage. An event. Right, 86 00:08:09.500 --> 00:08:13.370 we dust differently when we were going to the gym than we do when 87 00:08:13.449 --> 00:08:18.009 we're going to church. Then we do when we are going to a funeral 88 00:08:18.329 --> 00:08:22.569 than we do when we're a police officer, and so on and so forth. 89 00:08:22.649 --> 00:08:26.569 We have uniforms, we have all kinds of things. Now again, 90 00:08:26.319 --> 00:08:30.639 we can pick all these things out for ourselves in our time, even without 91 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:33.840 our families. There might be certain customs. This will vary a lot depending 92 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:39.320 on your own personal circumstances in the culture we live in, and that's true 93 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:43.750 for the Corinthians as well as it's true for all people in all time times, 94 00:08:45.190 --> 00:08:48.990 in all places. And so what this passage will teach us at its 95 00:08:50.149 --> 00:08:56.299 core, without laying any specific burden on us regarding our clothes or our specific 96 00:08:56.340 --> 00:09:01.139 clothes, is that what we wear in worship and in general, but particularly 97 00:09:01.340 --> 00:09:05.059 in worship, which is the focus here. It matters and it ought to 98 00:09:05.100 --> 00:09:11.690 be decent not to be honorable to the Lord. That's the main point. 99 00:09:11.809 --> 00:09:15.730 That's the thing, the law, the thing, that part of God's will 100 00:09:15.850 --> 00:09:18.049 that we ought all to take away. But we think, what does God 101 00:09:18.169 --> 00:09:22.690 want me to do? That's what God wants you to do. He wants 102 00:09:22.730 --> 00:09:26.320 us, when we join for worship, to be about honoring and glorifying him, 103 00:09:28.200 --> 00:09:31.440 not ourselves, not one another. There might be a time to dress 104 00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:35.279 to the nines and put on lots of fancy stuff and and go out and 105 00:09:35.399 --> 00:09:41.350 show yourself off. There's a time in a place for that, but it's 106 00:09:41.389 --> 00:09:46.669 not when we're here to worship the Lord. It's not when we're here for 107 00:09:46.830 --> 00:09:52.980 him. That's the main thing to take away, without laying any specific burden 108 00:09:54.059 --> 00:09:58.460 on us regarding our specific clothing choices. Now the first now, the Corinthians 109 00:09:58.580 --> 00:10:03.779 were in a specific time and place and did have very specific choices that they 110 00:10:03.820 --> 00:10:07.690 were making, some that were good and some that were not good, and 111 00:10:07.769 --> 00:10:11.929 we'll talk about this for a minute so we can see some of the specific 112 00:10:11.929 --> 00:10:16.769 a fix of the text. The specific issue that the Corinthians were dealing with 113 00:10:16.370 --> 00:10:24.360 related to distinctions and clothing regarding honor and dishonor generally focusing around men and women, 114 00:10:24.759 --> 00:10:30.559 but not entirely because, as you see it's translated here, some of 115 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:35.629 the women are specifically wives. It's not addressing, likely not addressing all women, 116 00:10:37.350 --> 00:10:43.990 but wives in particular. In Rome at the time, and remember Corinth 117 00:10:43.190 --> 00:10:48.269 is a Roman colony, also very influenced by the Greek world, but very, 118 00:10:48.309 --> 00:10:56.299 very very Roman, there were very specific rules and laws and customs practices. 119 00:10:58.299 --> 00:11:05.889 I'm surrounding clothing women. Married women were supposed to wear a very specific 120 00:11:05.970 --> 00:11:13.289 type of garment, a kind of cloak or not a head covering. So 121 00:11:13.529 --> 00:11:16.690 sometimes it says veil here, but it's not over their face. It's something 122 00:11:16.730 --> 00:11:22.360 that would be pulled up over the head and that would mark them as a 123 00:11:22.759 --> 00:11:26.559 married woman, kind of like wearing reading wedding rings sometimes does for us today. 124 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:33.830 I'm perhaps you've seen in a movie or read in a book a scene 125 00:11:33.909 --> 00:11:37.470 where, maybe you know, a guy walks into a guard takes his wedding 126 00:11:37.509 --> 00:11:39.990 ring off and slides it into his pocket it before he slides on up to 127 00:11:41.070 --> 00:11:43.750 the counter. Why? What's going on there? Well, we all know 128 00:11:43.870 --> 00:11:48.019 what that means, right. It means he's making himself available even though he's 129 00:11:48.139 --> 00:11:52.500 married. He doesn't want it to look that way. He wants to say 130 00:11:52.620 --> 00:11:56.779 to everyone there at that bar that he is he's available, he's looking. 131 00:12:00.379 --> 00:12:03.690 A similar thing was happening here in Rome. Now, Rome had a very 132 00:12:03.850 --> 00:12:07.809 double standard when it came to men and women, which was not right. 133 00:12:09.330 --> 00:12:13.129 A men were basically allowed to do whatever they wanted. There's some qualifications on 134 00:12:13.250 --> 00:12:18.480 that, but generally men could do whatever they wanted regarding a sexual practices, 135 00:12:18.519 --> 00:12:22.200 and that was not true of women. Women were expected to be chased and 136 00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:31.110 modest and various in their various relationships. The double standard was bad. I'm 137 00:12:31.190 --> 00:12:35.230 not the requirement on women. So it was not that women shouldn't have had 138 00:12:35.429 --> 00:12:39.750 that restriction on them, it's that men needed a restriction on them. Yes, 139 00:12:39.909 --> 00:12:46.100 the unfairness was not right, but the solution was not to release the 140 00:12:46.220 --> 00:12:50.220 women to do whatever they wanted to do. But that's exactly what some people 141 00:12:50.259 --> 00:12:54.059 were saying. There was a movement at the time, sometimes referred to in 142 00:12:54.139 --> 00:12:58.330 the scholarship as the new women, and these women were saying enough with this, 143 00:13:00.250 --> 00:13:01.450 I'm going to do what I want, I want to live what I 144 00:13:01.610 --> 00:13:05.049 want. I don't want to be chased, I don't want to be modest, 145 00:13:05.090 --> 00:13:09.889 I want to be like the guys. And so they would take their 146 00:13:09.769 --> 00:13:15.360 head coverings off as a way to symbolize and mark themselves as somebody who was 147 00:13:15.679 --> 00:13:18.320 a free woman, a new woman. And of course, as often happens 148 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:22.840 with these things, it was also a class thing. Usually you don't get 149 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:28.110 to make these kinds of choices and have this kind of freedom unless you're politically 150 00:13:28.230 --> 00:13:31.429 connected and wealthy and those kinds of things. And so there was not only 151 00:13:31.549 --> 00:13:39.870 a sense of releasing yourself, marking yourself as released from these obligations in a 152 00:13:39.950 --> 00:13:43.259 certain kind of morality, but it was also way of expressing yourself. Is 153 00:13:43.340 --> 00:13:48.940 connected with, you know, the cool people, right the the people in 154 00:13:48.059 --> 00:13:54.259 power, the people with money. You're you're you're marking yourself as being a 155 00:13:54.460 --> 00:14:00.490 part of this new emerging cool thing. Now, this happens, of course, 156 00:14:00.610 --> 00:14:03.049 in all kinds of cultures and cross time and crossplay. So that's what's 157 00:14:03.090 --> 00:14:09.049 going on here. When they did this, though, it was, Paul 158 00:14:09.129 --> 00:14:13.759 says, a dishonorable thing, just like the man who takes his wedding ring 159 00:14:13.799 --> 00:14:16.320 off and slips it into his pocket. It goes in the bars, like, 160 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:22.799 what are you doing? You're dishonoring your wife, you're dishonoring your relationship, 161 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:28.070 even yourself and your own morality. What do you what are you doing? 162 00:14:30.269 --> 00:14:35.950 She was doing a similar thing. Not also talks about men who were 163 00:14:35.990 --> 00:14:41.379 dishonoring themselves, and there's a couple possibilities here on one possibility is that men, 164 00:14:41.500 --> 00:14:48.340 by covering their heads, I'm we're trying to act like some commentators think 165 00:14:48.379 --> 00:14:52.460 that they were trying to act like I'm Jewish priests or something like that, 166 00:14:52.620 --> 00:14:56.370 and there was a judaizing tendency here. I think that's not likely. Another 167 00:14:56.490 --> 00:15:03.409 possibility is that they were acting like like Roman priests, adopting certain practices that 168 00:15:03.490 --> 00:15:07.600 were going on in the time to sort of again look like the culture, 169 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:11.080 look cool, that kind of thing, and so they put on men would 170 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:13.679 start we're starting to put on these head coverings, and the and the other 171 00:15:13.720 --> 00:15:22.789 our third possibility. It was perhaps a sort of a gender bending kind of 172 00:15:22.950 --> 00:15:26.990 thing that was going on, where they were trying to look like the women, 173 00:15:28.590 --> 00:15:33.230 the married women, who would wear these head coverings. It's not totally 174 00:15:33.389 --> 00:15:37.620 clear which of these options it is, but the it seems to probably be 175 00:15:37.860 --> 00:15:43.740 related to the third. The bottom line is this. You have two groups 176 00:15:43.779 --> 00:15:50.409 of people. You have men and married women. Unmarried women would not wear 177 00:15:50.809 --> 00:15:56.850 these having head coverings. In fact you couldn't, according to Roman law, 178 00:15:56.730 --> 00:16:03.919 not allowed to. There were even these, I'm trying to figure out how 179 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:10.919 to translate, like women, law enforcers, people, officers of the Roman 180 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:15.639 government, who would go to especially festivals, parades, things like that, 181 00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:22.669 and make sure that the women were addressing appropriately. If not, they could 182 00:16:22.710 --> 00:16:26.389 take your clothes, they could tear your clothes and dedicate them to one of 183 00:16:26.470 --> 00:16:33.620 the Gods. This was a big deal. There was it was very important 184 00:16:33.139 --> 00:16:40.740 established in law it self that honor be protected, that men and women dress, 185 00:16:41.539 --> 00:16:47.690 I'm properly. But, however, this was not happening in some cases 186 00:16:47.850 --> 00:16:53.289 and Christians, converts to Christianity, were coming into worship and bringing some of 187 00:16:53.370 --> 00:17:02.000 these these new cultural movements into worship with them. And this isn't the first 188 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:04.680 time we've seen this. This is, in fact, been the recurring theme 189 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:11.240 over and over and over again in Corinth, whether it's dealing with class or 190 00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:17.390 food, sacrifice to idols or wealth or parties. Are All kinds of things 191 00:17:17.789 --> 00:17:22.990 you see the church and Corinth struggling to be the church, struggling to keep 192 00:17:22.029 --> 00:17:26.869 Christ at the center, struggling to keep God and his glory as the first 193 00:17:26.910 --> 00:17:34.619 and most important thing, and instead bringing in Prett controversies and and I'm questions 194 00:17:34.660 --> 00:17:45.609 about leadership and public speaking and dress and and a government and money and all 195 00:17:45.650 --> 00:17:48.609 these other things, bringing those things into worship and bringing them into how they 196 00:17:48.730 --> 00:17:52.410 related with one another. And over and over again Paul saying stop it, 197 00:17:52.529 --> 00:17:59.599 stop it, stop it. We are here as one body, United Together 198 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:06.240 under Christ for the glory of God. What's Paul? What's Apolois? What's 199 00:18:06.279 --> 00:18:08.440 all these divisions? It's not about that, pulse says at the beginning, 200 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:14.269 all these people that think they're well the and wise and honorable. God chooses 201 00:18:14.390 --> 00:18:18.789 what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, what is weak in 202 00:18:18.869 --> 00:18:27.900 the world to shame the strong. And so God calls the men and women 203 00:18:29.099 --> 00:18:34.299 within the Church and Corinth to do what, and this is paraphrasing the passage, 204 00:18:34.619 --> 00:18:40.380 what you know you ought to be doing anyway. He says this in 205 00:18:40.420 --> 00:18:44.970 a couple ways at the beginning, or at the beginning and end of the 206 00:18:45.009 --> 00:18:49.569 chapter. Notice this is one of his arguments for why these women should undressed 207 00:18:49.650 --> 00:18:53.210 like women, like married women, on those who are married, and why 208 00:18:53.450 --> 00:19:03.279 men should dress like men, and one reason he gives is example, his 209 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:07.599 own example. On he says in Verse Sixteen, if anyone is inclined to 210 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:11.230 be contentious, we have no such practice, and here he's probably speaking of 211 00:19:11.309 --> 00:19:17.430 himself and Sosthenes, who is also a writer of this letter, perhaps his 212 00:19:17.509 --> 00:19:21.950 other colleagues and people who are with him. He also says of the Churches 213 00:19:21.990 --> 00:19:25.259 of God. None of the Churches of God are doing this. This is 214 00:19:25.339 --> 00:19:30.619 not how it's practiced among God's people. Corinth, these practices that you're bringing 215 00:19:30.700 --> 00:19:37.059 in from your culture, you're bringing in from Rome, and your desire to 216 00:19:37.059 --> 00:19:41.450 be a part of them is not right. This is not practiced in the 217 00:19:41.450 --> 00:19:44.289 Church of God. It's not practiced by us. And you remember, back 218 00:19:44.289 --> 00:19:48.009 at the beginning of the chapter, he says the imitators of me, as 219 00:19:48.049 --> 00:19:52.720 I am of Christ. I commend you because you remember me and everything and 220 00:19:52.920 --> 00:19:59.839 maintain the traditions, even as I delivered them to you. So Paul's own 221 00:19:59.880 --> 00:20:03.680 example, the example of the Churches, and remember the Paul's example is connected 222 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:08.269 with Christ. He says, be imitators of me, not just because of 223 00:20:08.470 --> 00:20:14.309 some other reason. It's because he has he represents Christ to us as Christ's 224 00:20:14.349 --> 00:20:22.819 apostle. He also tells them that this is appropriate according to custom. On 225 00:20:22.980 --> 00:20:27.099 the word nature in verse fourteen has many different possible meanings. I think likely 226 00:20:27.220 --> 00:20:33.339 it means here on what is naturally so, according to the environment that they're 227 00:20:33.380 --> 00:20:37.130 in. Does not this teach you that if a man wears long hair, 228 00:20:37.210 --> 00:20:40.329 it's a disgrace for him, if a woman has long hair, it's are 229 00:20:40.609 --> 00:20:44.930 her glories like? Look around you, there is a distinction between men and 230 00:20:45.009 --> 00:20:47.609 women here. This is how we mark it, this is how it is. 231 00:20:48.369 --> 00:20:53.079 Why are you trying to deny these distinctions now again? I've said this 232 00:20:53.119 --> 00:20:57.720 already, but to emphasize it yet one more time. Long and short our 233 00:20:57.799 --> 00:21:03.920 relative terms, and they depend on all kinds of times and places and cultures. 234 00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:08.950 In the point isn't particularly about hair length. It is about it is 235 00:21:10.069 --> 00:21:15.150 about making these distinctions appropriate. The NAZRITES, for example, in the Old 236 00:21:15.150 --> 00:21:18.339 Testament, had long hair. We have other examples of Theo of men with 237 00:21:18.500 --> 00:21:22.259 long hair and women with short hair, people who are holy and right, 238 00:21:22.740 --> 00:21:27.420 and this again depends on time and place. The point is the distinctions that 239 00:21:27.539 --> 00:21:33.450 God has made in the world, these distinctions that are exhibited in our cultures 240 00:21:33.569 --> 00:21:40.130 and which vary from culture to culture but are nevertheless there. Do we blow 241 00:21:40.289 --> 00:21:42.250 past them, do we deny them, do we say they don't matter at 242 00:21:42.289 --> 00:21:48.079 all, or do we respect them in the world that God has made? 243 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:52.119 So that's three things. Are Two, two or three things so far? 244 00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:57.359 He says this is important for the example that he sets, for the practice 245 00:21:57.400 --> 00:22:06.069 in the churches, the the nature of the situation that they are in. 246 00:22:06.910 --> 00:22:11.589 As a third one, he also says because of the angels. Another interesting 247 00:22:14.509 --> 00:22:18.019 verse, in Verse Ten, he says it's because of the angels. There's 248 00:22:18.019 --> 00:22:26.019 a couple possibilities here. On one possibilities he's speaking of the immaterial beings right 249 00:22:26.140 --> 00:22:30.569 in the heavenly places, in the spiritual realm, the the angels from. 250 00:22:30.690 --> 00:22:34.049 Some think it might refer to demons or something or other, but I think 251 00:22:34.089 --> 00:22:38.609 if it is to be meant the spiritual beings, he has in mind the 252 00:22:38.809 --> 00:22:45.880 good angelic angels of God. What would he what could he mean then, 253 00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:48.960 if he says he says because of the angels? How are we to understand 254 00:22:48.039 --> 00:22:53.359 the reason behind that? One possibility is he wants us to remember a truth 255 00:22:53.480 --> 00:22:59.190 that is placed another portions of scripture, that when we come to worship, 256 00:22:59.230 --> 00:23:02.789 we not only come to worship with one another, but we come to worship 257 00:23:03.269 --> 00:23:07.150 in a company of angels. When we are in Christ, we are in 258 00:23:07.390 --> 00:23:12.900 with him in the heavenly places. And when we think about the hundreds of 259 00:23:14.019 --> 00:23:18.740 millions of angels that surround the Throne of Christ, that are honoring him and 260 00:23:18.940 --> 00:23:23.339 glorifying him and praising him, some of them who are covering their faces and 261 00:23:23.460 --> 00:23:27.890 their feet and who are showing all kinds of honor and submission to God, 262 00:23:29.289 --> 00:23:32.769 who are calling out as praises, are we going to just waltz in and 263 00:23:33.210 --> 00:23:37.529 well, I'm going to do what I want today. Can you imagine walking 264 00:23:37.609 --> 00:23:42.640 into a King's throne room? Right? Imagine all of its gold and it's 265 00:23:42.720 --> 00:23:48.079 precious things, everything, and it's perfect spot, every cordier, every person, 266 00:23:48.599 --> 00:23:52.240 exactly where they're supposed to be, wearing exactly what they are supposed to 267 00:23:52.279 --> 00:23:56.750 wear. And then you walk in and Oh, sorry, I drop my 268 00:23:56.869 --> 00:24:00.309 thing and I can't find my you know, and it's not about you. 269 00:24:03.029 --> 00:24:07.829 We're not there for you. This is about the king and his glory and 270 00:24:07.950 --> 00:24:15.099 his honor and reflecting on the angels helps us to remember that that's true and 271 00:24:15.180 --> 00:24:18.339 if that's what Paul means here, that's a really good thing to remember. 272 00:24:18.700 --> 00:24:23.809 There's another, very different possible interpretation. I realize I'm maybe going into the 273 00:24:23.970 --> 00:24:26.730 weeds a little bit more than night and intended to at the beginning, but 274 00:24:27.609 --> 00:24:33.450 here we are. Another possible interpretation of this is the word angel also means 275 00:24:33.609 --> 00:24:38.279 Messenger and, as I mentioned before, there were people within their society who 276 00:24:38.279 --> 00:24:41.799 were very keen to find out not only what the women were doing but what 277 00:24:41.880 --> 00:24:47.279 the Christians were doing. There were laws about how often you met, about 278 00:24:47.359 --> 00:24:52.680 public assembly, about how what happened in those meetings. The Roman government was 279 00:24:52.839 --> 00:24:57.069 very concerned to control things and keep things peaceful. Imagine how they might feel 280 00:24:57.109 --> 00:25:03.029 if there were groups of people gathering together to worship a king whose name was 281 00:25:03.150 --> 00:25:10.019 not Caesar. This is a big, big deal, and we know this 282 00:25:10.220 --> 00:25:12.700 not only from the natural implications of what I just said, but in the 283 00:25:12.819 --> 00:25:18.420 writings in these first few centuries we see the Christians being very explicit in their 284 00:25:18.460 --> 00:25:26.089 apologetics, speaking to their neighbors and saying we still submit to Caesar, we 285 00:25:26.250 --> 00:25:33.609 still submit to Caesar, but Jesus is our ultimate king and we see them 286 00:25:33.650 --> 00:25:37.559 explaining this and talking about this, even in terms of clothing and food and 287 00:25:37.720 --> 00:25:41.160 all kinds of other issues. I was very much on their hearts and minds. 288 00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:45.599 What what goes on there? And it was very much on Rome's minds 289 00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:49.589 and hearts. Who? What are these people doing? What are they doing? 290 00:25:51.509 --> 00:25:56.309 And so there is put the potential concern that Paul has in mind that 291 00:25:56.470 --> 00:25:59.630 there are people, and he talks about this and other portions of scripture, 292 00:25:59.910 --> 00:26:06.740 there are people sometimes who slip into Christian assemblies pretending to be one thing but 293 00:26:06.859 --> 00:26:11.380 are in fact another. This word Messenger is sort of a broad way of 294 00:26:11.460 --> 00:26:15.859 speed, of relaying messages. We might according to this interpretation, we might 295 00:26:15.900 --> 00:26:22.329 translate it more like spy, right, somebody who communicates not a message to 296 00:26:22.569 --> 00:26:27.970 them but about them to someone else. And so here the the sense, 297 00:26:29.170 --> 00:26:33.359 if that's what he means. The sense, is that the world is watching. 298 00:26:34.880 --> 00:26:38.599 You have a witness. What are you about? What are you doing? 299 00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:44.400 Are you going to shame and honor and disgrace yourselves in front of a 300 00:26:44.519 --> 00:26:52.829 watching world, in front of people who are already antagonistic against you? Don't 301 00:26:52.869 --> 00:26:59.390 do it, he says. He doesn't mean that our job is to appease 302 00:26:59.430 --> 00:27:03.180 the spies or to always being worried about what the world thinks. But he 303 00:27:03.259 --> 00:27:07.339 does want us to be moral, much like Peter Talks about. Don't fall 304 00:27:07.500 --> 00:27:12.819 into disgrace and suffering because of immorality. That's not the kind of suffering the 305 00:27:12.900 --> 00:27:18.529 Christians are supposed to experience, the suffering that we experience. If we experience 306 00:27:18.650 --> 00:27:23.930 shame, it's because of Christ, because of Christ who, the Scriptures say, 307 00:27:25.089 --> 00:27:32.079 despised the shame and went to the cross. Jesus said, dishonored me, 308 00:27:32.440 --> 00:27:36.920 disgrace me, strip me of my clothes, my my dignity, hang 309 00:27:37.079 --> 00:27:41.279 me on a cross, do it you feel must needs to be done. 310 00:27:42.160 --> 00:27:47.509 Why? Why did he despise the shame? Why was he willing to endure 311 00:27:47.589 --> 00:27:53.990 all of that so that he might glorify and honor us in him? So, 312 00:27:55.109 --> 00:28:00.539 whether it's before the watching angels or the watching Roman government, Paul is 313 00:28:00.619 --> 00:28:07.220 saying, I believe we need to be aware of our witness here. We 314 00:28:07.339 --> 00:28:11.779 need to be aware that if we choose to go against to go against the 315 00:28:11.859 --> 00:28:15.849 practice of the churches and the practice that is known in our in our culture, 316 00:28:15.849 --> 00:28:21.529 about what distinguishes men and women, you are bringing disgrace on yourselves. 317 00:28:22.609 --> 00:28:33.839 You are dishonoring yourselves. The thing, and I'll close with this, the 318 00:28:33.039 --> 00:28:38.720 thing that we have to remember is Christians, is that our glory, in 319 00:28:38.920 --> 00:28:45.509 our honor and our dignity does not come from US standing on our own and 320 00:28:45.789 --> 00:28:52.990 getting what we want when we want it. That's what Satan told eves she 321 00:28:52.150 --> 00:28:57.940 could have. That's what kings and princes and people all over the world are 322 00:28:59.059 --> 00:29:07.859 constantly trying to achieve and and promising to us as well, that independence, 323 00:29:07.980 --> 00:29:11.009 sense of I can be my own God, I can do what I want, 324 00:29:11.289 --> 00:29:15.130 no matter what other people say, no matter what culture says, no 325 00:29:15.210 --> 00:29:18.529 matter what the law of God says, no matter what the practice of the 326 00:29:18.609 --> 00:29:22.410 churches, that I can't do what I want because I feel like it, 327 00:29:23.480 --> 00:29:27.759 I will attain my own honor, my own glory and my own dignity. 328 00:29:30.359 --> 00:29:34.319 Others do it in another direction, which Paul doesn't mention here, but I'll 329 00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:38.549 mention it. Instead of going off a totally in our own way, doing 330 00:29:38.670 --> 00:29:41.710 what our own want, we decide that we are going to get our honor 331 00:29:41.829 --> 00:29:48.750 and dignity and glory through legalism, by looking at everyone else and saying, 332 00:29:48.789 --> 00:29:51.150 you are not doing it you are not doing it, and look how great 333 00:29:51.190 --> 00:30:00.099 I am by controlling and conquering, commanding. But the glory and honor that 334 00:30:00.259 --> 00:30:07.769 we receive in Christ is neither of these. They are simply given to us, 335 00:30:07.450 --> 00:30:12.730 bestowed upon us. They are not achieved by us. When we come 336 00:30:12.890 --> 00:30:18.250 to worship God in the Lord, when we come to worship God in Christ, 337 00:30:18.369 --> 00:30:22.000 who gave himself up for us, who despise the shame and went to 338 00:30:22.079 --> 00:30:29.000 the cross, we come not bringing gifts, but bearing like having the gifts 339 00:30:29.039 --> 00:30:37.950 of God placed upon us. Christ pours out on as so many blessings, 340 00:30:38.069 --> 00:30:42.349 so rich. He gives us eternal life, he gives us union with one 341 00:30:42.349 --> 00:30:49.819 another. He breaks down dividing walls in even worship spaces, where previously race 342 00:30:49.980 --> 00:30:56.940 and culture and and education and gender and all kinds of things would divide us. 343 00:30:59.259 --> 00:31:03.809 He brings us together in a common humanity, kind of Utopia. But 344 00:31:03.890 --> 00:31:10.450 the world is always promising and never delivers. Christ makes it actually happen. 345 00:31:11.769 --> 00:31:17.130 He does it do it by denying all distinctions and saying or saying anybody can 346 00:31:17.170 --> 00:31:21.079 do whatever they want. He does it by making us who he has called 347 00:31:21.160 --> 00:31:26.480 us to be, but as one body, distinct and different and is interesting. 348 00:31:26.519 --> 00:31:34.309 Various and diverse. Man and woman is one example here from our passage, 349 00:31:34.390 --> 00:31:42.589 distinct and different yet inter dependent. In the Lord, woman is not 350 00:31:42.829 --> 00:31:48.259 independent of Man, nor man of woman. Woman was made from the man, 351 00:31:48.460 --> 00:31:52.180 and now man is born a woman. We cannot live without one another, 352 00:31:52.980 --> 00:32:00.779 totally, totally mutually dependent on one another as one common a humanity. 353 00:32:01.289 --> 00:32:05.930 The world is always breaking these apart. We are always breaking these apart, 354 00:32:06.130 --> 00:32:08.890 and if we go against God's law and say we're going to do whatever we 355 00:32:09.089 --> 00:32:17.200 want to do, we disgrace ourselves and disgrace the name of Christ, may 356 00:32:17.240 --> 00:32:24.880 it never be instead, brothers and sisters, when we want glory and honor 357 00:32:25.400 --> 00:32:31.710 and dignity, would we want to enjoy both unity and diversity within ourselves and 358 00:32:31.829 --> 00:32:37.910 within the body, when we want to shine forth with true pleasure and true 359 00:32:37.990 --> 00:32:43.990 life and true beauty, we will find, and we must find all of 360 00:32:44.069 --> 00:32:49.420 those things in Christ, and in Christ alone. The first Adam, our 361 00:32:49.500 --> 00:32:52.619 first father, he failed in all of it. All of it broke apart, 362 00:32:52.740 --> 00:32:58.849 everything fell apart, every aspect of of our world, but in Christ 363 00:32:59.849 --> 00:33:05.250 it's brought together. In Christ there's wholeness in Christ, there's love in Christ, 364 00:33:05.730 --> 00:33:09.130 there's dignity. So let's put our faith in him and let's do that 365 00:33:09.289 --> 00:33:15.160 together, and when we come together from worship, let's do it honoring the 366 00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:20.480 distinctions that he has made, but trusting that he is the one who brings 367 00:33:20.519 --> 00:33:24.680 us of these things that we need and give him all the glory and honor 368 00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:30.029 and praise and not ourselves. Let's pray