Sermon Tone Analysis

Rev. David Wm.

Gibson

Sermon: Christian Marriage

First Corinthians 7:10-16

January 14th, 2007

Loving Order at Home and in Church 1St Corinthians 11:1-10

Today is the second of a two-part series on marriage and a specific practice of order that God has given to the family, to the church and to society.

We will use 1 Corinthians 11:1-7 to understand what the Apostle Paul is teaching us about the roles of men and women in the church.

We will determine together what is cultural, symbolic and applicable truth for us as men and women and members of the body of Christ.

But first we will look at where Paul derives his theological understanding of order in marriage, and the roles of men and women.

My hope is, women of PBC, that at the end of last and this week's sermon that you will desire what God has given us, that you will see its blessing to us, and its glory to God.

And men, my hope is that you and I will more deeply understand what it means to be a godly man and husband.

Lets take a look at the account of the creation of man and woman in Genesis 1:26-28:

26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

28 God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

In this account of mankind, we see three things shared by the male and female: they were created by God (in His image), God blessed them, and they were given joint dominion over every living thing that moves on the earth.

There is no doubt that those created male and female were created in equality.

But how doe we act this out?

How do we do this with order, because without order we'd look like the Three Stooges!

We'd be bumping into each other and knocking each other down.

So God creates order and we are going to look at that today.

For us to rule over creation, we were given different roles.

We are of the same essence in our creation, we are just given different roles.

Look at the trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit: three persons or roles, yet equal in essence- they are one God, just different expressions of God.

And there is an order in the function of these roles: The Father sent the Son (John 20:21) and the Son sent the Spirit (John 16:7).

Let's move along to Genesis 2:19-20:

19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.

20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.

This takes place prior to the creation of Eve.

Adam is given the task of naming all the living creatures, not just a task, but also an authority that Eve does not share in.

I say an authority because it is a Hebrew practice that the male name their children.

Remember the priest Zechariah who was to name his son John.

Remember God telling Jacob, "Your name will now be Israel."

Remember Jesus telling Simon, "Your name will be Peter."

Thus, Adam names Eve.

The ability to name someone is an expression of authority.

Culturally we express that, no doubt originating from this biblical practice, when a woman takes her husband's name in marriage.

I have a newspaper article here about a man who desires to take his wife's name as his new last name.

(Portions of article read here.)

And of course, he has enlisted the help of the American Civil Liberties Union because it is not a common thus not an easy thing for him to do legally.

Let's look at 1 Timothy 2:9-14.

Now this one may hurt or be uncomfortable, but we have to deal with what's in scripture.

1 Timothy 2:9-14

9 Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, 10 but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness.

11 A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.

12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.

13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. 14 And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.

Who is Paul saying was the first to sin?

It was Eve.

So, Paul is putting the priority of teaching on the man because the woman was the first to fall.

Let's go back to Genesis 3. We cannot return to the First Corinthians 11 without understanding Paul's interpretation of Genesis.

Moses begins the idea of male leadership when we look at the Hebrew word ?a·?am.

It is not only the name of Adam, but it is the word we define as mankind.

The word itself indicates to us the intention that man is to have the leadership role in the relationship.

When I was in Seminary, I saw the affects of the Feminist Movement when I had one of the first papers I handed in come back with the word "mankind" circled in red.

It came with a note from the professor saying that it was an "offensive" term and that as a developing scholar I was expected to use the word "humankind" or "humanity".

This is why the church is weakening.

Remember, as goes the seminaries, so goes the church, so goes the family, so goes society.1

Yet, I believe the word mankind can also teach us that, spiritually, in our essence, we are equal.

Paul tells in Galatians 3:28 that man and woman stand as one and the same before God in Christ.

So, we are equal in creation and redemption.

Galatians 3:28

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

However, something changed this co-leadership God intended us to share over creation, and it was the Fall.

Another indication of the leadership of man is that Adam was given the instruction regarding what trees to eat from, and which one not to.

This instruction was given to him before the creation of Eve.

I understand it this way: Adam was to teach Eve.

It was his responsibility to pass on and reinforce this instruction.

However, Eve questions God's teaching at the temptation of Satan, as we learned last week.

Yes, we need to recognize that Adam not only followed his wife into sin, but blames God for giving her to him (3:12)!

However, Eve was the first to sin.

And the co-leadership over creation was abandoned.

Genesis 3:16-17 (NASB95)

16 To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you."

17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.

Let's look at the second part of verse 16: "Your desire shall be for your husband.

And he shall rule over you."

This desire is not intimacy.

Intimacy in itself is not a punishment from God, is it?

No.

This desire will be woman's desire to rule over man... "but he shall rule over you."

And next we see that Adam is punished because he heeded the voice of his wife (v17).

However, none of this affects their equality as persons before God, and before each other.

God is describing the desire of the woman as a result of her sin.

Part of her fallen nature is going to want to lead her husband.

God is simply explaining that this is going to be a struggle, "You are going to want to lead your husband, when I have created an order that has him leading you, though you are both equal in essence before me and in my heart."

Then to Adam God says, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife and eaten from the tree I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it.'"

So, where Adam fell was not in listening to his wife.

It is not saying that we are not to share opinions and decisions with our wives.

It is nothing like that.

God put order in the relationship.

If it comes down to a split decision: the husbands says go left, the wife says go right, the husband makes the final decision.

But Adam followed his wife into sin, so he was in a little trouble there.

Now let's go to First Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 11:1-3

1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

2 Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.

3 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.2

Paul transitions from a teaching on Christian liberty with the instruction: