1 Corinthians 11:3

              How do we live in marriage in a fallen world?  It depends on who your god really is.  Are you a follower of Jesus Christ?  You will live His way.  Are you a person who picks what you think is best from this way and that way?  Then you will be your own god and make your own decisions.

              Making our own decisions, being our own person, following our own dreams is a popular mantra in society.  The focus on self and self-fulfillment, self- actualization and self-dreams is at war against the focus on Christ, the focus on God, the focus on doing God’s will, all which are the emphasis highlighted in the Bible.

              So why do we struggle?  Because we are sinful people and sinful people clash with God and with each other and even within themselves.

              So what happens when things come to a head?

              Have you ever thought about that expression, “Comes to a head?”  It speaks about when things build up inside and then a little bubble, we call it a head, appears at the top.  When the bubble let’s go things get wild.

              Unless you have the right head.

“3 Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.” 1 Corinthians 11:3, NIV.

              The theologians debate the meaning of the word “head” in this an other passages.

              The Greek world in Paul’s time would have seen the word “head” mean “source.”  For example, we talk about the head of a river.  It is the source, the beginning point.

              Let’s look at this passage and see how it fits.  Christ created man, so that works for the first phrase.  Women were made from man, so that works for the second phrase.  God made Christ, that doesn’t work for the third phrase.  Jesus Christ is eternal.  He has no beginning or end.  God is not the source for Jesus, he did not create him, so the Greek idea, though prevalent at that time, does not work.

              The Hebrew idea is of authority, like the head of a country or what we call today the head of state.

              Let’s run that through the grid.

              Christ has authority over man.  That is true.  Man has authority over the woman.  Let’s leave that for the moment.  God has authority over Christ.  That is true.  Jesus said, “I have not come to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.”

              As this is so controversial in our generation, to say that the woman is under the authority of the man, let’s look at the bigger picture.

              First, and this comes at a point of spiritual warfare, what is it that the church and the world are focusing on, the woman’s submission to the man?

              Almost every conversation I have had, almost every article I have read, almost every secular book that has discussed this issue has made the submission of women to the man the central point of the controversy.

              I submit to you that the central question all along should have been, “Men, why are you not submitting to Christ?” 

              I am passionate about this.  I see that much of what happens in many churches is done by women.  Praise God and I don’t want to detract from that.  The contribution of women is enormous and needed.  But where are the men?  Where are the men who are submitting to Christ?  Where are the men whose goal in life is to do the will of God?

              If you take the first layer out, a man’s submission to God, then you have man as god.  He is not under authority.  This explains why in the history of the world, men have resorted to violence to make their women obey.  Christ was not the head of the man, which made man the god in the home.

              I believe the reason that we do not see books and seminars dealing with the issue of Christ is the head of man is because we are fallen.  Satan would have us go to the second level rather than focus on the first level.

              What would it mean if Christ were the head of man?  Our imaginations could run wild at this point.  Think of all the changes that many of us men in the church would have to make if Christ were truly our head.

              But I want to focus on just one area this morning, one that I believe is foundational to many of the others.

              I believe that if Christ were truly the head of man, then we men would have doing the will of God as our first priority.

              Remember Adam was created to do the will of God.  For him it was working in the garden.  Adam picked up the ball and ran with it. 

              We go to the third phrase, the head of Christ is God.  Jesus said, “3For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” John 6:38, NIV. 

              The issue for Jesus was always, what does God want me to do?  And when he knew, he did it.

              When a man is not interested in doing the will of God, then the whole family will experience the consequences of that action.

              So what does it mean that the man is the head of the woman? 

              Look at where Paul goes.  He does not go back to the fall of man, he goes back to before the fall.  He goes back to when Eve was created.

              What does he say?  The man was created first, the woman was created out of man and for man.

              What does this mean, for man?  Paul says this again in 1 Timothy 2, the woman was created for the man.  What does it mean?

              The woman was created to be a helper fit or suitable for the man.  The woman was created to work with the man to do the will of God.

              So here is the picture Paul puts forth.  The head of the man is Christ.  Man is to do the will of Christ.  The head of the woman is man.  A woman is to help the man do the will of Christ.  The head of Christ is God.  All that is happening is under the will of God.

              As men can become abusive, women can stonewall the spiritual life of the man and the family.  She can resist spiritual things.  She can deny prayer, support, encouragement, the use of her spiritual and natural gifts.  She can keep her own vision, her own life, her own direction.  Instead of being a team, she can create an environment where two individuals are living in the same space.

              The outcome is predictable, isn’t it.  How can two walk together unless they be agreed, Amos says.  You will not be walking together.

              The age old question, “Who is in control” is not answered by “God is the head of our home.”

              If Christ is not the head of man and if following Christ is not the desire of the woman, than that couple is building their house on the sand.  It will stand, until the winds come and the waves rise and the storms hit.  The house on the sand will fall.

              I’m reminded of Joshua, when confronted with the choice said these words, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

              I pray that you men will let Jesus rule in your hearts.  That you will let him head your life.  I pray that you women would work with your husband, work with the men as a team building the kingdom of God. 

              I pray that we all may say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”