HONORING GOD
HONORING GOD
1 CORINTHIANS 11:2-16
Paul now turns to public worship.
Two further complications in the assembled congregation at Corinth needed a ruling which this section provides: first, the sense of proper order to be observed at public worship was much in debate; and secondly the liberation of women at Corinth created its own difficulty once it became customary for Christian women to share vocally in the congregational service. As a loyal Jew Paul takes his stand on the divine ordering laid down in Genesis (11:3,7; 1 Timothy 2:13-14); but as a Christian, priority in creation and in society is moderated by the reminders of mutual honor and interdependence (11:8,11-12). Ephesians 5:21-33 represents the full flowering of this teaching which the Christian church has been slow to receive and act on.
Paul has no qualms about the part which women may play in Christian worship. The functions of prayer and prophecy (defined in 14:3 as a rough equivalent of preaching) are fully granted; the sole proviso is the adopting of a proper head attire (11:5; the alternative of 11:6 is not always remembered!). But that alternative, offered in 11:6, is apparently withdrawn in 11:15, where a woman’s hair is part of her femininity, and the possibility of her being shaven in order to avoid wearing a covering (11:6) is regarded as contrary to nature (11:15). Paul cuts short any extended discussion (11:16).
A note should be added to relate this passage to 1 Timothy 2:11-12, which seems to take away any feminine participation in public worship (see 14:34-35). The prophetic gift may have included speaking in tongues (Acts 21:9) and that Corinthian women were abusing the gift; Paul is therefore warning against unseemly behavior in an assembly where public worship would quickly get out of hand—and the same restriction is imposed on the Ephesian community in 1 Timothy 2:8ff. There it is also a question of women taking office in the church as distinct from exercising a function (as in 1 Corinthians chapter 11). The former is forbidden, while the latter is permitted (with due safeguards of good order).