Laughing at your religion is all about taking doctrines that are causing oppression and bombing them with the truth of the word. It’s called Hermaneutics… Her-me-neu-tics; herme’n(y)oodiks/ noun; the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, especially of the bible or literary texts. When you’re reading scripture, there are basic questions you really need to be asking. 2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” So if there is a right way to interpret scripture, there is definitely a wrong way. There are some basic questions you should ask yourself when reading the bible to make sure you’re interpreting the scripture the right way.
- Let
scripture interpret scripture, read the chapter before and after help you
determine the definition.
- Who is
speaking?
- Who are
they talking to and what are they talking about?
- 2 or 3
witnesses are needed to define a meaning – you cannot make a doctrine out
of one scripture.
- What is
the culture of the people being spoken to – Who is the scripture being
written about?
- Are you
reading the passage considering the finished works of the cross?
(Guidelines courtesy of Creflo Dollar – “Questions
to ask when reading scripture” http://www.creflodollarministries.org/Watch-and-Listen?slug=Questions-to-Ask-When-Reading-Scripture&returnUrl=%2FWatch-and-Listen%3Fslug%3DQuestions-to-Ask-When-Reading-Scripture-Part-2%26returnUrl%3D%252FWatch-and-Listen%26type%3DVideo%26page%3D1&type=Video&page=1
)
1 Corinthians 11:3 is one that has been an
oppressive verse to wives for far too long.
“But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the
head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
Let’s establish this first principle, that God’s
words never change. Matthew 24:35 says “Heaven
and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Understanding this is key. In the beginning, we go back to the very creation
of woman, and the blessing that God spoke over Adam and Eve. Genesis 1:27-28 says “So God created man in
his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created
them. And God blessed them and God said
to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have
dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over
every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Do
you see that? God said to both man and
to woman – be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the earth. This was God’s original plan for man and
woman to be equal. But then the fall
came. When Adam and Eve fell, God cursed
the both of them saying “Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall
rule over you” Genesis 3:16 So if God
cursed man, then we can easily compare Genesis 3:16 to 1 Corinthians 11:3. Because in these two comparisons, we are
dealing with living under the curse. Now
to apply the questions to the scriptures as I outlined above, we need to look
at several things.
1.
Allowing scripture to interpret
scripture, we know the following things, Paul, the author of Corinthians is
speaking to the Church of God that is in Corinth. In the previous chapter, Paul warns against
idolatry. What is idolatry? Putting anything in higher ranking than God.
2.
Paul, is a Jew. Jewish tradition has over 100 laws against
women. In Jewish law, a husband was the
head of household. Women were very
oppressed in Jewish law. While the men
were allowed to have many wives, they were allowed to divorce a woman if she didn’t
please him. Women were never allowed to
divorce a husband in Jewish law or to even be educated. In the context of the
Corinthian culture, Corinth was known as a city full of prostitution. Corinth was located in Greece. At the time, Greek mythology was the “religion”
of the region. Polytheism was the norm,
and Greek goddesses ruled the land. The
basis for temple prostitutes, was because the goddesses ruled and taught within
the temples. When a man became good
enough and earned status with the goddesses, they earned rights to sleep with
the goddesses. Shaving heads was a sign
of a prostitute – so to continue on in 1 Corinthians 3 where it talks about
covering your head, it was a time when Christianity was spreading in the
region. Covering of women’s heads was a
way to reduce the judgement of the prostitutes so that all could hear the
preaching of the word without judgement.
(On a side note – this is also why women were told not to speak in the
temple – not only did they not want the wrong doctrine taught)
3.
We have a second witness for 1
Corinthians 11:3 by looking to Genesis 3:16.
Going for a third here, I am looking at the blessing of Abraham found in
Deuteronomy 28:13 “And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and
you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord
your God. Under the new covenant, the
obedience is fulfilled by 1 John 3:23 “And this is his commandment, that we
believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he
has commanded us.”
4.
Reading these passages through the
finished works of the cross, we need to understand that Jesus took every single
curse upon himself. 1 Peter 2:24 “He
himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and
live to righteousness.” Our
righteousness is found in Jesus Christ 1 Corinthians 1:30 “And because of him
you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and
sanctification and redemption.”
So to rightly divide the scripture that puts women
underneath the authority of the husband is wrong, and sets women up for
unhealthy and very unsatisfying relationships. We were made to rule and reign
with our husbands – to be the head and not the tail. To have dominion over the earth together and
to equally submit ourselves to our husband Jesus. We as the church are his bride. We are one in Christ. When we are married, we become one
flesh. “Therefore a man shall leave his
father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become on flesh”
Ephesians 5:31. So if we are together
one flesh – husband and wife, then the only husband we are under authority to,
is Christ.
This
is the freedom that Christ came to bless us with – this is the freedom in
Christ. The oppression and pain women
have lived under, trying to follow the twisted doctrine of being submitted to
an authoritarian husband is not Gods original intent. It’s time we all got a grasp of what the
heart of God really is concerning marriage and allow our partners to be
free. Men don’t need the pressure of
being the breadwinners – women – you are free to be educated and be an equal
plowshare in your relationships. There
is no need for one to be above the other, when the two of you are happily
submitted to the Lord.
Some other great resources out there for
understanding womens rights throughout the bible are from Kris Vallotton
Fashioned to Reign, and The theory of empowering
women.
Be blessed, thank you for reading, and please –
leave some comments – we’d love to hear from you.
