When we were looking at this passage, we mainly dealt with it on the basis of the text, and we were examining the text. But tonight, we're going to look at it from the lessons that we can learn from this passage. Now, we were looking at last week to discuss whether women ought to wear head coverings in the church. And we saw that Paul, although he is suggesting here that women ought to wear head coverings, this was no rule for the church. It wasn't an ordinance for the church. And if we look at verse 16, he says, but if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom. nor do the churches of God. I'm not going to spend a great deal of time on that at the moment, but just take note of that. That it is a custom that Paul is dealing with here, it is a localized thing that Paul is dealing with here, and he is putting forward certain propositions that if they are true of us, then we ought to apply in our lives. But more than that, he's making and laying down some principles for us, some important teaching here that we need to understand and we need to apply to ourselves as the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're going to look at those principles now. But first, before we do that, just let me state this, that although head coverings for women are not compulsory, and Paul is not making them compulsory here, as we saw last week, he is not making them ordinance here, as I've just said. If a lady wants to wear a head covering, that's fine. and we have no objection to that. If a lady feels that she ought to wear a head covering because she wants to show that her husband has authority over her, if that's what she feels that she must do, then we will not stand in her way because we have no particular custom on this. It's not binding one way or the other on us. There's no right or wrong about it. If you feel that that is what you want to do and that you feel that that's what you need to do, then by all means wear a head covering. Again, if a lady feels that her hair is the glory of her head and that this is what she really delights in and this is what she really likes to preen herself with and make herself feel good with, whatever else, then if she feels that that is wrong coming before the Lord God, which it obviously would be if that was the case, in prayer and in worship, and she needs to cover her head, then we have no objection to that either, one way or the other. Because if that is not the situation with you, then there is no need to cover your head. But, You must make sure of two things. One is that you must be doing it for the right reasons and with the right motives. I've seen many women who have had their head covers. I've been to many churches where that is something that is compulsory or they expect their ladies to wear head coverings in times of worship. And I've observed a number of these ladies who definitely were the head of the home, and they wore the trousers in the relationship. And it was obvious, you know, speaking to them and speaking to the husband, and it was obvious that he wore the trousers in that situation. Now the head covering meant nothing. In fact, it was doing the very opposite with what the head covering was meant to do in this situation that Paul is talking about. And that is to recognizing a husband's authority over the woman. And in our circumstances, it really doesn't show that, does it? It doesn't really mean that anymore. People wear hats as a fashion accessory. People wear scarves because of other religious ideas that they have. It doesn't mean the same in our situation. And that's why it is not an ordinance for the church. It's a custom that Paul is talking about here. The second thing you must remember is this, that it must be a simple head covering. And again, I have seen ladies with the most elaborate scarves over their heads with gold braid in it and gems hanging from it. That's not what Paul is talking about here. He's talking about coming before the Lord humbly. And it's not a humble thing to do to come and to flaunt your wealth or the beauty of your headscarf before the Lord. Again with hats. Many ladies wear the most elaborate hats. And that is not what the Lord means. The Lord means a simple, and very modest head covering for those particular situations. So by all means, if you want to wear them, wear them friends. If you don't want to wear them, don't wear them. But if you're going to wear them, wear them for the right reasons, with the right motives. In all things we must have honesty and integrity in our worship and in our approach to our God. That's the important thing. Honesty and integrity before our God who knows our hearts and examines our hearts. We do not want to come to our God with a form of godliness. And this is what we're talking about when people make it compulsory to wear a headscarf. It becomes a form of godliness. It's the make something you do because you feel it makes you more right with God. We don't want a form of godliness. We want to know the power of godliness, don't we, before our God, which is honesty, truth, and righteousness in God's sight. So that aside, let's look at these lessons that we can learn here. And I have just picked eight out. You might find more. They're friends. But we'll see if we can get through these eight this evening. I will endeavour to. Some of them we've looked at in some detail last week. So I'm not going to spend much time on them. We'll spend more time on the ones that we didn't give much time to last week. And the first one is we find in verse 1, imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. And remember last week I made this point that we should be imitating those who imitate Christ. And we shouldn't, and that's where it should stop. When we see brothers and sisters in Christ, or those who profess to be Christians, who we respect, but not imitating Christ, if we see them falling short of Christ, then we should not follow their example. We should not say, well, this is the pastor of my church, he does this, so I do it, and I think I should do it. This is a godly person. I respect this godly person and I'm going to copy what this godly person does. No, we shouldn't do that. It's not a carte blanche. We don't say, irrespective of what their lives are like and how they meet up to the scriptures, we are going to follow such and such a person. They are going to be our model. They are going to be the person that we imitate in our lives. No. It should only be as far as they are imitators of Christ. And of course this goes further, doesn't it, into the ordinary world too. We don't want to be imitators of the world. We don't want to fashion our lives on people in the world. I know some Christians, and I'm sure a husband is a Christian, not sure about the wife, but I know these Christians who have got a favorite pop singer, and they have called their children after this pop singer. Now this pop singer is disreputable, absolutely disreputable. And you have to ask yourself, why would they want to call their children after somebody who is so worldly and so utterly debauched? Yet they have done that. You have to ask yourself, what was in their mind when they did this? What are they wanting their children to grow up like? What are they wanting their children to imitate when they learn who they have been named after? I think it's a great mistake, isn't it? So we must be careful too. Yes, there's good things in people and we want to We want to respect that, you know, strengths and abilities that people have. We want to respect that. But are we going to imitate their lives? People do, don't they? They want to fashion their lives after people. They want to dress like them. They want to talk like them. They want to have the same lifestyle as them. No, friends, we are the imitators of Christ. And that's our standard, our gold standard, Christ. And anybody falls short of Christ, we don't follow them in those areas that they fall short of Christ in. That's very important in these days. When people are willing to follow their popular preacher on the web, or their popular writer, and they're willing to forgive them anything because they like certain writings, or they like certain things that they say in their preaching, and they like their style. Again, it comes down to what Paul is dealing with here, doesn't it? How these people are being factious and diversive by choosing their popular preachers and fashioning themselves after them. The second one is this. We must strive to keep all the ordinances and all the principles of the Word of God. Look at verse 2. Now I praise you brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. So the traditions there, as I said last week, are not traditions in the sense of rules handed down by our forefathers. We don't add rules that are handed down to us by people and add them to the scripture or make a supplement to the scripture of the rules and things and traditions that have come down to us from people of the past, do we? we have the scripture. And what Paul is talking about here when he says traditions, he means those things that have been given to us from the word. Ordinances, that's what he means, that's what this word means, those ordinances of the word of God. We must be those who keep the ordinances, whether they are in rules and regulations, the commandments of the word of God, the commandments of Christ, or whether they are the principles and precepts of the word of God. Let me remind you again, principles and precepts are for the changeable things of life. Things that change from society, things that change from time to time. Those principles are laid down for us. They are rules in the sense of a statement that we must follow and we must apply in our situation today, whatever that situation is, whether it's what we wear, how we go about certain things, these are principles for the movable things of life. The ordinances, the rules and regulations, they are for the unchangeable things of God. They are for his laws, they are for his morality, they are for instructions for his people that they must do and they must adhere to. We must keep both. We must keep the rules of the principles and apply those rules of the principles and we must keep the commandments. and the regulations of God. We must keep both. So we must be those people who apply ourselves to keeping the Word of God, keeping those things that God has given us and his people have given us in the Scriptures. Here they are. We know what they are. We don't have to wonder what they are. They are here. All that God wants us to know for life and for our faith and walk with him. It's in the word of God. That's what we have to go by. Number three, we are getting through them, aren't we? Number three, verses three to six. But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of every woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head uncovered dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. For that is one and the same as if her head was shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. And again, remember, as we saw, this is not a rule, or else we would be taking people out and shaving their heads, wouldn't we? We're not going to advocate that, are we? And Paul makes sure that we know that this is not a rule, because he says, if It is shameful for a woman to be shorn. If, there's a question mark there, isn't it? If in your society that is the case. You see, that's what Paul is talking about here. He's talking about those customs, verse 16. Those customs, he said, that are not binding upon the church of Jesus Christ. So what can we learn from this? What is Paul teaching us here that is a principle for us to follow? It is this, that we are all subject to someone, aren't we? We're all subject to someone, and we must remember that, and we must acknowledge that. Look, verse three. But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. See, this is not just talking about whether women should wear a hat, or whether they should wear a scarf, or whether they should wear some other head covering. Don't know if there is any others. But anyway, he's not talking about just that, is he? He's talking about our relationship with our God. here and that's what we must grasp and that's what we must understand when we come to this section but i want you to know that the head of every man is christ so in a in a relationship in a husband wife relationship we have this situation that the man of the house has a head that he answers directly to for every decision that he makes and takes. He answers directly to Christ. And when he makes those decisions, he must remember that. That he is answerable for every decision to Christ. Not to his wife, but to Christ. But the head of every woman is the man. And in that relationship that Christ has given us, The ladies of that relationship must remember, too, that they answer to their husband. And their husband, in the last case scenario, in a discussion, when a decision has to make, he has the casting vote, if you like. because he has the responsibility to Christ to make sure that everything is done according to Christ's will and for his glory. So what we're talking about here is not privilege, we're talking about responsibilities, aren't we? You see, I know people, I know Christian men who take this passage and lord it over their wives, as though they are the head of everything, and their decisions are sacrosanct. But that's not what Paul is saying here. He's cautioning us to remember this, that yes, a husband has this position, but that position is answerable. and he will answer for all, all the decisions that are made in the household. So it is a very responsible position, isn't it? And the wife must be there to help him to make those decisions and to make them well, so that we, both husband and wife, are following Christ's example and rules. So that's what Paul is saying here. And the head of Christ is God. Why does Paul say that? He says that because he wants us to know that everybody does have a head. And when Christ came in his human form, when he came to this world and lived as a man in this world, he came as a servant of God. He humbled himself, Philippians 2. He humbled himself and made himself in the form of a servant, we are told. He came to serve his father. He came to do his father's will. And he did that so that we would understand that we are all answerable, finally, to him. all answerable to our God. So we are all answerable to somebody. We are all ultimately answerable to our God. And in a relationship, whether it's a family relationship in the church, or whether it's a husband and wife relationship, we must remember that those people who have a position of authority have a position of responsibility. And that responsibility is heavy, because they answer for everything to their Lord. Number two. Number three. Number four. Seven to nine. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God. But a woman is the glory of man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for woman, but woman for man. So what can we learn from this? Well, Paul is teaching us a very important thing, that we must always remember and respect God and God's order in all things. how God has made us, how God has created us, how God has set up his church, we must always remember and we must always respect God's order in all things. And a great deal of harm is done when we do not respect God's order in all things. For instance, let's just come away from this situation here. When we apply that to the church, what has God given us in the church to bring about His will and to serve Him with? He has given us a church, a local church, which is a local expression of the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's what we are. We are a local church, a local family of God that is part of that universal family of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he has not given us anything else. to do his will with. He has not given us all these parachurch organisations. He has given us this. And when we go beyond that and we start making parachurch organisations, then we go beyond his order. So when we start making things like missionary organisations that act like churches, then we'll go beyond what God has given us, because he has given us the church. That's what he has given us. Now, if anybody wants to argue with that, they need to go to the word of God and they need to say, well, where are these other organisations in the word of God? Where is the justification for anything outside of the local church other in the word of God? It's not there, is it? We have made these organisations. Now some of them are just there to facilitate the church. They have no authority in themselves. They have no set up for worship, no set up for governing in the sense of authority over those who are there in their organizations except as an organization. a job, doing a job, and their job is to facilitate the work of the church. Once they go beyond that, once they have an entity and a life of their own, once they start to operate in any way as a church, then they go beyond their remit. They are now going beyond God's order, aren't they? And that's what Paul is laying down for us here. It's a far-reaching principle that is not just talking about men and women, but talking about God and how we relate to our God. Do we respect him? Do we really believe that he is wise? Do we really believe that what he has given us in his word is what is right and good for us? Does God really know what we need? Does he? And the answer must be yes, of course. and therefore we must respect his order in all things. Even if we sometimes don't understand the full reason for it, we still must respect it because it's from our God and it's what he has given us. Now in the relationship of a man and woman, That relationship was laid down at creation. Now remember, it was not laid down at the fall. It was laid down at creation. Look what he says here in verse seven. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God. But a woman is the glory of man. So here's the principle. For a man is not from woman, but woman from man. At creation, that's exactly what happened, wasn't it? God created man first and Eve was made out of the rib of man, of Adam. So that's what Paul is stating there. That is the order of creation. Nor was man created for woman, but woman for man. That is exactly what happened. Adam lived, and he saw all the animals of the field, and he named them all, but within that vast array of animals, there was nobody, nothing that Adam could relate to. because none of these creatures were made in the image of God. None of these creatures were anything more than instinct. That's all they were, they're creatures. So God gave Adam a helpmate. Now remember, the helpmate that he gave him was somebody who was compatible to him and his equal in every way. Or else how could she be his helpmate? How could she be his companion? How could they have a meaningful relationship of any worth if she wasn't his equal in all things? That was the situation at creation, wasn't it? But because of God's order in creation, Adam was made first, Eve second, Adam was made in the image of God, and for the glory of God, Eve was made out of man for him, then That is the order that we must respect. Now it doesn't mean that Eve is not in the image of God. Of course she is. Because she is Adam's companion. Adam's equal. Of course she is. It doesn't mean that she wasn't made for the glory of God. Of course she is. Adam's equal in all things. But she has to respect God's order. We all have to respect God's order, do we not? In all things. So when we come to situations in the church and we read that women should not teach or have authority in the church, are we going to respect God's order? We must do, mustn't we? And there are good reasons for that order. There's good reasons why God has made that so. But the order is this, and that's what we must respect in all things. So we must respect that order in everything. We must respect that order in discussions, where ladies must give men the opportunity to speak and to make the decisions, the final decisions. It doesn't mean that you don't have an input. And it doesn't mean that you don't have a say. And it doesn't mean that your input and your say is in any way inferior or less worth than those of the men. It just means that the men have that position and that responsibility to the Lord to make sure all things are done for Him and for His glory in His church. It's the same in prayer meetings. Do we allow the men to speak first? Or do we take the opportunity to jump in at the first opportunity? You see, there's an order. There is an order. And we must respect God's order. Okay, number five, verse 10. And we did spend some time on this. For this reason, a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. And we saw that there are two really good explanations for this. The one that I favor is that the angels here are not speaking about the angels of heaven, but are speaking about those who are God's servants to the church. So primarily it's the pastor, and we see that in Revelation, to the angel of the church, it says to each one of the seven churches. John is not writing to an angel, he is writing to someone in the church, someone who God has put over the church. and his servant in the church. So it's the pastors of the church. But it also includes those who are in positions of authority in the church, because he talks about the angels. So he's talking about church officers. He's talking particularly about the pastor here. And we must remember them in all the things that we do too. How do we remember them? We remember them because in understanding they have a very responsible position and they have a job to do and that is to make sure that everything in the church is done decently and in order. They must make sure that everything is done right in the church of Jesus Christ according to what he has laid down. Now we can make their job hard or we can make their job easy. It doesn't mean we accept everything they do. It doesn't mean that we go along with everything that they say, even if we think it's wrong and it's not right by the word of God, no. Because we have an ultimate responsibility to our Saviour individually. Of course we do. So we don't go along with everything. We do question things, don't we? And that's why we have church meetings, so things can be questioned, things can be brought out in the open, and things can be dealt with. But we must, in the church, remember those who are over us, who are set over us by our Lord. We must strive to make their job easy. by not being contentious, by not standing on our rights and our privileges, if we don't have to, by not stepping out of God's order. Once we start doing that, then we become a church like Corinthians. We become a contentious church. We become a divisive church. We become a church where people are looking out after their own interests rather than the interests of Christ and the interests of the church. So we must always respect those who Christ has put over us and the difficult job that they have to do and the responsibility they have to the Lord Jesus Christ. So that was number five. I hope I'm not going too fast for you. Number six is this, verse 11 and 12. Nevertheless, neither is a man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. For a woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman. But all things are from God. Great principle laid down here. That we are in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ all co-dependent. We all depend on each other, don't we? We all have a job to do for Jesus Christ. We all have a role to play. We all have an input in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ so that it functions as a family of God's people and so that it functions well for the Lord. We are all co-dependent upon one another, just like a man and a woman. A husband can't lord it over his wife, because he must remember this, that he is nothing without a woman. He would not be born into this world without a woman, would he? There would be no people in this world without women. In fact, there would be no people in this world if I was the person who had to populate this world by giving birth. Because I certainly wouldn't give birth. I wouldn't go through it. And I'm not a woman, am I? A woman who has a different view of that, and a different feeling about that, and a different ability to cope with that than I do. So we have to remember that, don't we? If I would be nothing without a woman, without my mother, where would I be? But also, women must understand that they would be nothing without men. Because where did they come from? Adam's rib. That's what Paul is saying there. We must always remember that we depend upon one another, that we are not self-reliant, that we can't do without each other, that we are dependent upon one another. It's being lost in the world, isn't it? There was an actress, Emma Watson, Emma Watson, isn't that her name? Yeah, I think it was. And I can't remember exactly the term that she used now, but she is self-partnering or something. Something like that, she says. And what she means by that is that she does not need a man to make her complete. She does not need a man in her life. In fact, she doesn't need anybody in her life. She only needs herself. An incredible statement. What a sad person that must be. If she can treat everybody else as though they are totally insignificant to her life, she'll find out, won't she? One day, how sad and miserable she has made her life in treating people the way that she treats people. But we must remember in the Church of Jesus Christ that we depend upon one another. that we work together in this, that we are together in this. And, as Paul says here, ultimately we all answer to God, don't we? Because he says here, nevertheless man is independent Neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man in the Lord. For as a woman came from man, even so man also came through woman. But all things are from God. And that's the overall lesson that we must always remember, that we are all totally dependent upon our God. We must respect his order, And we must respect Him and we must look to Him and rely upon Him for all things. And we must respect all that He has given us and all that He has taught us in His Word. Quickly then, number seven. Number seven is verse 13 to 15. Judge amongst yourselves, is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, it is the glory to her, for her head is given to her for a covering. Now what is the overall lesson here, friends? The overall lesson here is that we should never ever flaunt anything that we have or we are before our God. Never. Never display ourselves before our God. never act as though we have something special that we can flaunt before our God. In this situation, it's the woman's hair that Paul is referring to. If a woman does glory in her hair. She goes for very expensive hairdos and makes sure the hair is pristine or has lots of bangles from her hair and things like that because it is the glory of her head, it is the thing that she really glories in and some women do, don't they? I don't know, sometimes I read bits and pieces and I catch the idea that some women think it's their face or it's their nose that they fixate on and whatever else, whatever it might be. And I read one article where even men are doing this, aren't they? They have favorite bits of their body that they think are really special. Oh, it's their six pack, or it's their, I don't know, whatever, whatever. But we mustn't flaunt it. Cover it up. Cover it up, Paul says. That's what he says. Don't you dare come before the Lord, flaunting anything before him. It might be expensive clothes. Don't come a-flaunting that before our God. It might be your money. Don't you dare flaunt that before your God. What does Paul say? Your money perish with you. whatever it might be, friends, your intellect, your Bible knowledge, whatever it might be, friends, don't flaunt it before your God. The order of the scripture is this, that we must humble ourselves before our God and let him exhort us in his way, how he pleases and how he chooses to lift up our head. But we must not dare ever to flaunt anything before him. You know it can even be humility. People are so proud of being humble. Doesn't equate, does it really? Doesn't really, doesn't really. But people can be so proud of being humble. Again, I've seen families in some churches where they all come and they dress down. They don't dress down in the sense of jeans and jumpers and things like that. No, the men still come in a suit and the women come in a dress and whatever else they feel is appropriate before the Lord. But it's, It is all dowdy. It's all lifeless. The clothes that they wear have no shape. The men's suits look as though they've been handed down from their grandfathers. And the women's clothes look as though they made them yesterday from leftovers, whatever else. Because they're trying to put over that they are so very humble before their God. That's not what the God is asking for. Honesty. Integrity before our God. That's what he asks for. Humility, always, in all things, before our God. Remembering who he is. And lastly, very quickly, verse 16. But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor does the churches of God. And the principle that Paul is laying down there is this. Customs are not binding. They are not binding. And we should not be laying those customs as binding rules on other people. And certainly not upon our brothers and sisters in Christ. We may follow customs, There may be a necessity in certain situations, like Paul is talking about here, to follow certain customs in certain situations, but they are not binding upon the people of God. They are only men's customs. So we can't say, well, we've always done this, always done this. It doesn't matter whether you've always done it or not. Is it the Word of God? Is it binding upon us in the Word of God? If it is, then we must do it. There's no excuse for not doing it. It is the Word of God. But if it is not, if God does not bind it upon us, then we have no right to lay it upon others as though it's binding. We may request it. We may say, well, we would really like it if... Let's say a situation that I know about. Let's say, we might say, we would really like it if ladies never did come in trousers to a service. We might say that. But there might be a need. There might be, you know, a work day. It's sensible, ladies coming in trousers, isn't it? It might be a need for other reasons, ladies coming in trousers. Anyway, there's ladies' trousers now, isn't there, that are so different from men's trousers, that they are ladies' clothes. They are not men's clothes. And if men put those trousers on, they would look very odd. in ladies' slacks and trousers, wouldn't they? But vice versa. If a lady's put on men's trousers and men's suits, they look very odd. They look as though they're trying to be men, don't they? So we know where the differences lie. But you can't make that a rule. You can't make that a standard in your church, as I know they do in some churches. When we went to the Metropolitan Tabernacle in the 70s, the ladies used to wear dresses. And this, I think, meant to a Bible study. Was it a Bible study in trousers? And I know that this was spoken to by the elders. You can't do that, friends. If the scripture does not lay it down as a binding rule, then you can't lay that down upon somebody else, can you? If a lady is wearing men's clothing, then of course you can. Absolutely. Because that's the word of God. We should not be trying to copy, not be trying to blur the differences between the sexes, should we? As the world does, we should be very distinct Very distinct. But you can't lay down hard and fast rules about things that the scripture does not lay down for us. We lay down the principles, of course, and we stick by the principles. but we can't lay down hard and fast rules. If they are just customs, if they're just things that we do, or like, or prefer, we can't do that, friends. It's either an ordinance of the Word of God, it's either a principle of the Word of God, or it's just what men do. And what men do is not binding, but word of God is, all of the word of God is, whether it is a principle, a precept, an order, or a command, binding upon the church and upon his people. Let's pray. Our gracious God and our loving Heavenly Father, we come into your presence and we do praise and thank you, Lord, for your goodness to us, for the teaching of your Word, for the instruction that it lays down for us, for the help that it gives us. Oh Lord, for all of it. And we do pray that you would help us to be people of your Word, to be people who love it, Keep it, bind it in our hearts and in our minds and live by it. If we ask these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen.