Gender issues remain a talking point within today’s society, and the blurring of gender roles can be of great concern to Christians today. As we reflect on the Creation account, we may want to ponder what it means to be made in God’s image, ‘male and female’ (see Gen 1:27-28, Gen 2:20-25, 1 Cor 11:8-12). How is this reflected nowadays? Lis Goddard says of 1 Cor 11:2-16, ‘The key thing to take from this passage is the importance of gender differences and how we honour one another within the kingdom of God.’ (Lis Goddard, ‘The Gender Agenda’) We cannot deny the differences between male and female. We need to acknowledge that whilst both male and female are made in the image of God and are equal in terms of worth and value, ‘equal’ does not necessarily mean ‘the same’: ‘We can see that in the different ways in which they are created: Adam from the dust and Eve from Adam, and they are given different names and roles.’ (Clare Hendry, ‘The Gender Agenda’) Gender equality is ‘the view that all genders should receive equal treatment and not be discriminated against based on their gender,’ but it is necessary also to understand the different functions God has given to both male and female; ‘While women and men are clearly created equal in worth, they are created to be distinct in function.’ (Clare Hendry, ‘The Gender Agenda’)

Paul, in this passage from 1 Cor 11:2-16, echoes the Creation account: ‘man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man’ (1 Cor 11:8), going on to stress the interdependence of the genders:  ^‘Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.’ (1 Cor 11:11-12) So often, women have been seen as subservient to (less important than) men and it has to be admitted that Biblical texts have been used to propagate male domination. Nonetheless, in today’s society, some feel that the pendulum has swung the other way and, with a blurring of roles, that we forget sometimes to celebrate the unique differences of the sexes. We do well to reflect on the wonder of being created in God’s image, male and female, and to seek to serve each other in love, for just as the Son is co-equal with the Father but chose to submit Himself to the Father’s will (Heb 10:6-10, John 6:38, Luke 22:42), so we are called to understand that submission does not imply superiority or inferiority or greater or lesser worth, but is part of a divine order which shows us we must seek to love God and others with all our heart, to serve and not be served. (Mark 10:42-45)

1 Corinthians was written to address various problems within the Corinthian church which gave rise to disputes. Paul deals with both theological and practical problems, addressing serious doctrinal disputes and moral sins as well as problems in Christian living, including (in 1 Cor 11-14 in particular) ‘disorderly conduct in worship.’

In the previous section (1 Cor 8-10), Paul has been trying to help the Corinthians understand what gospel freedom means and has given us key principles:

• Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. (1 Cor 8:9)
• No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. (1 Cor 10:24)
• Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. (1 Cor 10:32-33)

‘It is this mutuality and self-giving love which sums up the dynamic within the Trinity and which is to be the bedrock of relationships in the church.’ (Lis Goddard, ‘The Gender Agenda’)

In Corinth, it appears that the exercise of freedom was leading people to behave in ways that were both culturally unacceptable and inconsiderate. The Dionysiac celebrations in Corinth meant that men and women would exchange their clothes as a ritual act; female prostitutes would shave their heads and male prostitutes would wear their hair much longer, flouting the conventional rules to which Paul refers in this passage. Nowadays, when hairstyles are seen as a matter of personal taste, it’s hard to understand these cultural references, but ‘for a Christian woman in the church to appear in public without that covering, let alone to pray or to share the Word in worship, was both culturally offensive and from Paul’s perspective, confusing to nonbelievers who were trying to understand what this new community of faith stood for in terms of values and relationships.” (Keith Krell, bible.org)

“It seems that some of the women in the church were discarding their veils, something that only pagan temple prostitutes or other rebellious women would do. For a woman to come to church without her veil would be dishonouring to her husband, as well as culturally confusing. By the same token, for a man to wear a veil or to somehow have his head covered during worship was not culturally acceptable in Corinth.” (GotQuestions.org)

Thus, for a woman not to wear a veil at this time was ‘a mark of a woman with loose morals. It outraged the proprieties. It is no part of the life of the Christian needlessly to flout the conventions.’ (Leon Morris, P 151) Wearing a veil may not have the same connotations today, hence many churches no longer require this practice. The fundamental principle behind Paul’s words is that of consideration of others: the principle behind Paul’s words is that “the Christian should always act in a seemly manner.” (Leon Morris, P 156) He goes on to say, “The principle is of permanent validity, but we may well feel that the application of it to the contemporary scene need not yield the same result…In other words, in the light of totally different social customs, we may well hold that the fullest acceptance of the principle underlying Paul’s words does not require that in Western lands women must always wear hats when they pray.” (ibid.)

Moving on from discussions about meat sacrificed to idols, Paul goes on to tackle the subject of ‘propriety in worship services’ in the next chapters of 1 Corinthians (11-14), with 1 Cor 11:2-16 looking at the subject of head coverings, a passage which has proved remarkably contentious over the years since it looks at the age-old debate of gender issues as well as propriety in worship. For centuries, this passage has provided the basis for how men and women dress in church meetings, with women encouraged to cover their heads (with veils, shawls or hats) and men encouraged not to wear anything on their heads. Movements such as ‘The Head Covering Movement’  continue to support this reading of the text, believing that a literal understanding of this passage is the best way forward. Yet in many Western churches, it is unlikely that women will be found wearing head coverings anymore and we have to dig deeper as to why this should be. Is it just because wearing hats is no longer fashionable in our society? Have our biblical views of women gradually been eroded by the modern feminist movement that has infiltrated the Church, as R. C. Sproul believes? What is this passage really talking about?

Polarised views on this passage abound, as they do on so many other passages of Scripture. Paul makes it clear to Timothy that ‘all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work’ (2 Tim 3:16-17), so we cannot simply dismiss portions of Scripture that are hard to fathom on the grounds that they’re difficult, nor should we necessarily apply a literalist view to everything we read unless we’re prepared to be totally consistent in that interpretation (and I’ve not met anyone who’s literally gouged their eye out or chopped off their hand, despite Jesus’s words in Matt 5:29-30.)

In the past fortnight, I’ve read countless commentaries on this passage, written by Christians from a variety of denominations, some of whom are absolutely convinced of the rightness of their interpretation and some of whom are unyielding in their denunciation of anyone who does not agree with them. In these, I’ve been condemned for having short hair and made to feel utterly inadequate for praying with my head uncovered on the one hand, and made uncomfortable by some commentators’ simplistic dismissal of Paul’s arguments as ‘obviously merely culturally relevant to Corinth’ on the other. I’ve wrestled with the notion that I am rebellious and unfeminine on the one hand and squirmed when people are adamant that we can ignore chunks of Scripture solely on the grounds that these don’t square with our current notion of gender issues on the other. As always, both extremes of interpretation leave me uncomfortable. Surely the truth cannot lie in either extreme?

John Stott reminds us that ‘there are two hermeneutical principles which are important when seeking to understand a biblical passage and to apply it to today’s situations.’ (see 1 Timothy and Titus in The Bible Speaks Today series (IVP, 1996), pp 74-81). These are ‘the principle of harmony’ (whereby when interpreting a passage, it is important that we view it in the light of the whole of the Bible, not taking it in isolation) and ‘the principle of history’ (seeking to understand the cultural context and times for which it was written, since the Bible ‘contains eternal truth which is universal and normative’, but which also has a cultural presentation which is ‘local and changeable.’) He writes, ‘The challenge is to be able to distinguish between the two and decide what teaching is universal, normative and applicable to today, and what is cultural and so not relevant to our day.’ This is not as easy as it may sound, as the extremes mentioned above make clear. We all bring our own world view to everything we read; as Clare Hendry points out, ‘The challenge is to keep an open mind and not let one’s own agenda overly influence one’s reading of the passage.’ (‘The Gender Agenda’, Lis Goddard & Clare Hendry)

In previous chapters of 1 Corinthians, especially 1 Cor 8-10, we have been looking at the whole question of how to exercise Christian freedom without leading others into sin and have been searching for Christian principles which can shift cultures and time frames without being unfaithful to the Biblical text. Paul’s mantra has been the need to use our freedom to serve others (1 Cor 8:9, 1 Cor 10:24, 1 Cor 10:31-33); his emphasis is that although we may be free in Christ, ‘we have significant responsibilities towards one another.’ (Lis Goddard, ibid.) In many ways, I believe this is the key to understanding this passage. How we behave towards one another, in this instance in circumstances which reflect gender issues (again, highly topical in today’s society), is fundamental to our gospel message. ‘When our relationship with God is restored, it inevitably affects relationships within the body of Christ.’ (Lis Goddard, ibid.) Men and women bring diversity to the body of Christ and have differing gifts and roles, but the overarching message of the Gospel is ‘so in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.’ (Gal 3:26-29)

As we continue to pray for salvation in 2016, our prayer topic for March focuses on our Easter outreaches:

• the ‘Churches Together’ Palm Sunday procession at Phoenix Park on Sunday 20th March (leaving church at 10 a.m., meeting for prayer at Houghton Road Centre in Thurnscoe at 10.15 a.m. and then meeting at Phoenix Park at 10.50 a.m.)
• the ‘Churches Together’ March of Hope through Goldthorpe on Easter Saturday (26th March), leaving our church at 10.15 a.m. and returning for a light lunch
• Easter services at GPCC on Good Friday (25th March) at 6 p.m. and on Easter Sunday (27th March) at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Pray for good conversations with people as we are out on the streets; we’ll be giving out ‘goody bags’ with leaflets and Easter eggs and are looking to God to connect us with people who are ready to hear the good news of salvation.

Speaking of Easter, a new film called ‘Risen’ is due to be released in the UK on 18th March. This has been produced by Affirm Films (makers of ‘War Room’, ‘Courageous’ and ‘Fireproof’) and is being distributed by Sony Films. It aims to tell the story of Christ’s resurrection as seen through the eyes of a Roman soldier (played by Joseph Fiennes) who is given the task of solving the mystery of what happened to Jesus in the weeks following the crucifixion, in order to disprove the rumours of a risen Messiah and prevent an uprising in Jerusalem. Pray that this film will have an impact on all who see it and that it will cause people to ponder again on the tremendous truths of Easter.

Yan also spoke about 3 barriers to evangelism:

1. Sometimes we feel that evangelism is ‘not our calling’ and therefore we are not equipped to do it. William Booth used to say that it was not a question of not being called, but a question of not hearing the call. Whilst we may not have the gifting of an evangelist, we are all called to share our testimony and witness to God’s saving grace.
2. Sometimes we feel that the church is not ready, but we will never reach a state of complete readiness! The church which does not evangelise will fossilise. The Word of God clearly tells us that we are to commit to reaping the harvest that is ready (see John 4:35) and we need to pray not only for those who will actually evangelise but for all who will hear and respond to the gospel message.
3. Perhaps the most common barrier to evangelism is the feeling we have that we are not qualified to do this; a sense of our own inadequacy often holds us back. Jesus is able to change us, however: His first disciples were fishermen whom He changed to become ‘fishers of men’. All we are required to do is tell what God has done. This is the task of the whole church; we have received from God and need to give freely. Josh 3:5 reminds us that all God requires is our consecration to Him; He is the one who will then do amazing things.

Yan Hadley spoke on the subject of effective evangelism tonight, reminding us that evangelism must not be forgotten in our everyday busyness; it needs to be our highest priority.

Four essentials in evangelism are:

1. clear vision (where there is no vision, people perish; Acts 26:19-20 reminds us that we must not be disobedient to the heavenly vision God gives.) Matt 13:3 reminds us that the sower went out (see also Luke 14:23) and we need to be involved in our community, for the Great Commission is a command to be obeyed.
2. creative imagination (as our Bible studies have shown, we have to use all possible means at our disposal; we need to seek God for the ‘how’ relevant to our particular situations, such as the South Korean woman who moved to a high rise flat and asked God for how to evangelise, to be told to ride in the lifts for two hours each day as a means of getting to know people!) Door-to-door evangelism and street ministries can still be effective, even today.
3. compelling message (we need to be attractive, not awkward, in our presentation of the Gospel; Acts 4:13 reminds us that people recognised the apostles had been with Jesus, and we need that same attractiveness in our demeanours which can only come from a personal relationship with Christ. ) We have a testimony to share and a story to tell; we need to use both word and deed in our evangelism. We also need to pursue the power of God as validation of our testimonies (in Acts 2, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit led to 3000 being saved; in Acts 3, the healing of the lame man led to 5000 being saved and in Acts 9, 2 whole villages were saved.)
4. consuming motivation (for Jesus, the ‘zeal for Your house consumes me’ and we too must be consumed by zeal for God’s honour, not evangelising out of a sense of duty but because we are so thrilled by our own amazing discovery of salvation that we want to share this with others. John 4:39 reminds us that the woman at the well wanted to tell everyone about her encounter with Jesus – we should be the same!)