1 Corinthians 11:2

Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them unto you. But I would have 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... For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man... For her hair is given her for a covering. But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. (1 Corinthians 11:2–16)

A difficult passage about head coverings opens into the great biblical principle that submission to God-ordained authority is the path to redemptive blessing.

A Passage That Tests Verse-by-Verse Teaching

Passages like this sometimes make me question the wisdom of teaching chapter by chapter and verse by verse. There are times you think, "Let's just skip to the next passage." But I have no doubt I'd hear from a number of you: "Wait—what about that passage on head coverings?" It has caused much trouble in the church.

It's important to recognize that Corinth was a troubled church, dealing with all sorts of issues Paul is addressing. Beginning in chapter 7, Paul answers specific questions: "Now concerning the things whereof you wrote unto me." So the context of 1 Corinthians 11 is a question the Corinthians asked Paul about head coverings and submission to authority. He's addressing a specific issue in a specific cultural context—yet he gives a principle that matters for us 1,900 years later. Even though many say this passage isn't for us today, there is something here for us, and it's the principle of verse 3.

The Principle: The Meaning of "Head"

Paul says, "the head of every man is Christ, and the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God." This is the principle, and commentators have debated ever since what Paul means by "head." Is he speaking of the source from which something comes, or the authority given to one in a position of headship?

It's clearly not source. We could say Christ is the source from which man comes and man the source from which woman comes—Genesis 1 and 2 show that. But we cannot say it of the last statement, "the head of Christ is God." God the Father is not the source of Christ, for they are equal and coexistent, always have been in eternity past. So Paul is speaking of headship—of authority.

In 21st-century America, submission to authority is a problem. We don't like it in our flesh. And as we'll see today, there was even a part of Christ's flesh troubled by it. Notice Paul says the head of every man is Christ—not just those in the church, but all humanity, for He is the Creator of all things. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

Man's Rebellion and the Curse That Followed

Man rebelled against God's authority from the beginning. In Genesis 3, God gave one command: do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man and his wife ate, and God said to Adam, "Because you have hearkened unto the voice of your wife... cursed is the ground for your sake." The ground is cursed because of rebellion against God's authority, and fellowship between God and man was broken.

That rebellion continued. By Genesis 6—about 1,700 years after the fall—"God saw the wickedness of man, that it was great, and that every imagination of his thought was only evil continually." It grieved God's heart, and He destroyed humanity in a worldwide flood that science continually confirms even as it rejects the idea. Only eight survived: Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives.

After the flood, God commanded man to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. Did man obey? No. In Genesis 11, Nimrod gathered men in the Valley of Shinar to build a city and a tower into the heavens—Babel. God came down, confused their languages, and scattered them. Humanity has rejected God's authority since creation.

God Chooses a People Who Still Rebel

In grace, God chose one man—Abraham, in Genesis 12—a man rebellious like the rest, yet called along with his descendants to be God's people. Yet throughout their history Israel rejected God's authority. In 1 Samuel 8 they demanded a king "like the rest of the nations." God said to Samuel, "They have not rejected you, they've rejected me, that I should reign over them."

This rejection culminated in the rejection of the Messiah. John 1:11 says Jesus "came to his own, and his own received him not." They said, "We will not have this man to rule over us." But man's rejection of Christ's authority does not diminish His lordship. He is still Lord of all. There is a curse and a separation inherent in rejecting God's authority: those who die in that condition are under His wrath and separated from Him for eternity.

His Lordship Cannot Be Diminished

Man rejects the rule of God, but that does not diminish it. The earth is still His; He is still on the throne. Isaiah 9:7 says of the increase of His government there shall be no end. Psalm 2 pictures the nations banding together against God—and He looks down from heaven and laughs. I rather like that picture.

The Father has given all things into the hands of Jesus. The Great Commission begins, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18). John 3:35 and John 13:3 say the Father gave all things into His hands. David said, "You have put all things under his feet" (Psalm 8:6), and Hebrews 2:8 confirms it—yet adds, "we now see not yet all things put under him." We don't yet see it on the earth, but we will. That's why Jesus taught us to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess (Philippians 2; Isaiah 45). But if you're forced to recognize His lordship on that day, you abide under His wrath. Confessing Christ as Lord glorifies the Father—and it's the right thing to do, because He is Lord. Nothing can dethrone Him; His reign will only increase.

The Blessing of Submission

There is a curse for those who refuse Christ's lordship, but a blessing here and now for those who willingly submit. Romans 10:9: "If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved." The word "confess" is homologeo—to say the same thing, to agree, to profess. "Lord" is not merely a title; it's who He is—Master, the One with all authority.

"For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." The psalmist agrees: "For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon you" (Psalm 86:5). And Joel 2:32: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered."

So man's rebellion brought the fall, a curse, and a broken fellowship—but it can be restored as we submit to the lordship of Christ.

Christ's Submission to the Father

The willing submission of Christ to the headship of the Father is the very thing that brought about our redemption. Paul ends verse 3: "the head of Christ is God." This troubles some. We believe in one God existing in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—coexistent and co-equal in power and authority. And yet within the Godhead there is a willing submission of the Son to the Father, and apparently of the Spirit to the Son.

The Bible makes their equality clear. "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, all-powerful, all-knowing. The Jews understood He made Himself equal with God (John 5:18). Paul says He "did not think it robbery to be equal with God" (Philippians 2:6).

Yet He willingly submitted. The Father sent the Son (John 3:16). Jesus said, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do" (John 5:19), and "I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me" (John 5:30).

Gethsemane: Submission That Bought Our Redemption

This is most beautifully pictured in Gethsemane (Matthew 26). "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." He fell on His face and prayed, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." In His humanity He did not want the cup of God's wrath, yet He surrendered His will. A second time He prayed, "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done."

Paul says He "made himself of no reputation... humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2). The redemptive blessing extended to us is only available because Jesus submitted Himself to the Father's will and went to the cross. Do you see how important submission to authority is? Without it, none of us would have salvation.

The Hardest Application: The Headship of Husbands

Now let's boil it down. The headship of men over women—"Wait a minute, we live in 21st-century progressive Western America. How dare you imply such a thing!" Believers have no problem with Christ's submission to the Father, or with man's submission to Christ. But they will fight tooth and nail against a woman's submission to man. Either we believe the whole of Scripture, or we question every bit of it.

We're told this teaching is barbaric and obsolete. Search "the Apostle Paul and women" online and you'll find loads of articles from very intellectually superior people telling us Paul was a chauvinist who hated women, and that we can reject his teaching as merely his own self-imposed views. Is that true?

When Scripture says women are to submit to the authority God ordained for men, it does not say women are inferior, less spiritual—often they're more so—or less intelligent. Honestly, most of the time they're smarter; my wife is clearly smarter than me. If submission meant inferiority, then Christ would be inferior to God. But He's not.

How the Gospel Elevated Women

Paul laid this out very wisely. Women in the first century had little or no rights. The church—including Paul's teaching—changed that for the better. All the rights women enjoy in equality and liberty are ultimately tied to the gospel. Notice in verse 5 that Paul assumes women pray and prophesy within the church. That's huge—a liberty not afforded them in the synagogue or in Roman culture. Yet there's an order to be recognized. Liberty for all races and genders is ultimately the product not of the progressive era, but of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Curse of Rebelling Against This Authority

If there was a curse for man's rebellion against God's authority, is there not also a curse when this ordained order is rejected? I'm convinced many problems in modern Western civilization result from rebellion against authority—often imparted to children in their earliest development as they witness it between mother and father.

The late Guy Odom wrote Mother's Leadership and Success. I don't believe he was a believer, but he shows that civilizations on average fail after ten generations, about 250 years, and that a key to their downfall is the role of dominant women in society. He traced this 250-year cycle as beginning in America in 1763, predicting it would close at the end of 2012. His second book, America's Man on Horseback—available free online—predicted a figure who would lead America from republic to empire around 2012. It's startling. I contacted his wife after reading it; I'd missed him by a couple of years.

His work is prophetic because he studied history. Edward Gibbon's The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire charts how Rome rose to its height as a republic over about 250 years, ten generations, before being taken over by an emperor around 46 B.C. who destroyed the Senate. Time and again this happens. Remember the old saying, "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world"—from William Ross Wallace's 1865 poem. There's truth to it. So there is a curse in rebelling against this authority, and we're watching it unfold. Do you see an anti-authority kick in our nation today?

The Redemptive Blessing of God-Ordained Order

But there is a redemptive blessing in accepting God-ordained authority. Redemption came through Christ's willing submission to the Father; our experience of redemption comes as we submit to the lordship of Christ. And there is a redemptive blessing within the family—the foundation of civilization—when women follow God's order. Not because they're inferior, but because they recognize God establishes order purposefully, never capriciously.

This blessing is pleasing to God and honors Him; it promotes blessing for your children; and it is right for society. If we reject it, we see a curse and a breaking of fellowship—and we see it in families. Let God's word be true and every man a liar. I'm convinced a key to an abundant marriage is a wife's loving submission to the God-ordained authority of her husband.

The Cross Is Central

How do we promote this authority? Should the man bark, "Submit, woman"? If you've ever said that to your wife, you probably hit the ground fast—either to duck what was coming, or because you didn't duck fast enough. That doesn't work. The cross is central to the whole thing. The cross reveals Christ's submission to the Father, reestablishes our submission to Christ, and rekindles a wife's submission to her husband.

Ephesians 5:22—the second most hated passage in our culture: "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church... as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing." There is Paul's prime teaching from 1 Corinthians 11.

Then comes the cross, verse 25: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." Husbands, you want your wife to submit to the headship God ordained? Then love her with a self-sacrificing love like Christ's. Wives, your submission to your husband is worship to God; you submit to him as unto the Lord. It is impossible to be submitted to God and unsubmitted to your husband—they go hand in hand.

Who Goes First? The More Mature One

You can't wait: "I won't submit until he loves," or "I won't love until she submits." One of you must stop. One must be Christlike. Husbands, if your wife isn't submissive, perhaps you're not loving her as Christ loved the church. Wives, if your husband isn't loving you, perhaps you're not submitting. Which goes first? I think Emerson Eggerichs is right in Love and Respect—whichever is more mature. Ouch. I'll be the first to confess I'm the immature one in my family. Ephesians 5:33: "Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband."

Alan Redpath said when you think of authority in the home, think of the cross, where Jesus brought us into submission to Himself and where we learn how much He cares for us. That is how He secures our love and surrender. A man who cannot exercise authority like that—who thinks he rules by stomping his feet—had better remain single. But a man who governs his house by sacrificial, Christlike love makes a perfect husband; and the woman who cannot submit to authority like that had better remain single too.

So, Should We Order Head Coverings?

Does this mean we should order head coverings—start a line of "Body of Christ bonnets" for the bookstore? Some in the church have taken this as a mandate. But I'm convinced this passage is a Corinthian-specific application, not a mandate for the whole body of Christ.

In Corinth, for a woman to walk through the marketplace with an uncovered head and her hair down was to confess to everyone that she was a temple prostitute, for sale. The Corinthians, gripped by "all things are permissible," seized their liberty: "In Christ there is no male and female; we can let our hair down." They did have liberty—but for the sake of love we lay aside liberty to honor God and others. By flaunting this custom they dishonored their husbands, their head, and dishonored Christ and His church.

So Paul says: maintain this cultural custom, because it honors your husband, honors God, and is a right witness in the community. If you reject it, you might as well have your head shaved—an open sign of shame and adultery. There are times we renounce our rights for the sake of our witness and to honor God.

The Enduring Principle

The main point is that Christ is the head of man, man has a God-ordained headship over his wife, and Christ exemplified submission to authority in His submission to the Father. The main teaching is not that women must wear head coverings. How can I say that emphatically? Nowhere else in the New Testament is head covering commanded—Jesus never spoke of it, Paul mentions it in no other letter, Acts does not record it as practiced, and Peter never mentions it.

This is a cultural application of a principle: submission to authority brings redemptive blessing to the family and society, and rejecting it brings a curse. Do we see that result in Western civilization today? We do. Can we step back and say, perhaps the Lord is right?

It is the mature Christian man who observes the authority of Jesus and submits to His lordship. And it is the mature Christian woman who recognizes the God-ordained authority of her husband and submits—not because she's inferior, but because she knows it honors God, honors her husband, and blesses her family and society. If we hold to God's word, we will see a great blessing come about.

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank You for the grace You've given us, and for the liberty we have in You. We thank You, Lord, that as worship we can restrict that liberty for the sake of Your honor and glory and for the sake of the witness You've given us. Father, plant these things in our hearts and minds this week; cause us to meditate on them and reason them out with Your word. We thank You that You've given us Your word to instruct us, to rebuke us where our lives are out of order, to correct us and show us the way of righteousness. Equip us for these good works, that we would shine brightly in this world. If we live like this under Your submission, it is a light to a culture that is totally opposite yet so desperately needs to see what it means to live under authority. Teach us this, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.