1 Cor. 11: Lessons in Submission

Imagine the subtle weight of a hat upon your head. Imagine the awareness – something sits upon your head, causing you to move in a slower, more controlled fashion. As you glance up or to either side, you catch a hint of the hat in your periphery. Because I am doing this for only a few hours each Sunday, I experience heightened awareness of the presence of the hat every single time. I have not gotten used to it and the hats have not become a part of me the way other accessories have (like my wedding band). In essence, every Sunday I have been repeatedly distracted by the presence of a hat. At first, I really fought against this – aghast at my superficial concerns over my appearance. But then it occurred to me that my awareness was part of the point. I remembered the reasons of the head covering in 1 Corinthians 11. It states, “the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head.” So I asked God, “What do You want to teach me through this and what do You want me to dwell on as I feel the presence of this hat on my head?”

It was then, that God began the real dialog with me. I could almost sense Him chuckle with a “You asked for it” response. For the last few months since, He has been drilling home the importance of submission to my husband as my head. Here is a smattering of some of the challenges and thoughts I have encountered:

• Choosing silence, even when I know “I’m right” about something, thereby showing respect and elevating our marriage above my pride. (See Phil. 2:6-8)

• Agreeing to decisions I am not 100% behind, thereby trusting God’s ability to lead and direct David in matters that affect me. (Gen 12:1, 12:5)

• Keeping a tidier home as a way to honor David’s hard work and welcome him at the end of a long day. (Prov. 31:27)

• Making an effort to present myself to David as the blushing bride of his youth to honor his commitment to love me and long-after only me among all women. (SS 7:10)

• Looking for ways to intentionally encourage David in his leadership role.

• Making sure I am serving him as his true ezer kneged, or “strong partner.” Therefore I should do all I can to empower David to fulfill God’s purposes for his life. (Gen 2:18)

These lessons have taken weeks to implant themselves in my brain. I find I still need the weekly reminder to realign myself with their truth, because none of them come naturally to me. (In fact, I typically fight against them with fervor!) I also find God continues to add to the list, week after week. It is possible all these components of submission will one day be second nature (by the Grace of God), but until then, I will wear my hats in hopes to help me remember who I am, whose I am and whom I serve.

Little did I know how much richness waited me in my obedience to this one passage of Scripture. In my final post, I will share about how helping the angels has resulted in helping myself.

Covering My Head: A Lesson in Obedience

“When God has spoken on an issue, our job is to trust and obey whether we like it or not.”1 Allow me to add to this statement: “When God has spoken on an issue, our job is to trust and obey whether we like it or not, and whether we can completely understand it or not.”

Historically, my approach to ALL rules – whether established by God or man, has been to follow them only AFTER I understood why the rule exists in the first place and only AFTER I then decided I liked the rule. If I don’t understand or like the reasons for the rule, I kick and scream better than the best three year olds I know. Once I do understand WHY (and agree), I am “obedient” without fail. However, through the past few months, this is what God has said to me:

That is Not Obedience. It just isn’t.

Ouch. I have come to believe, through this experiment of mine, that True, Hard-Core Obedience is taking the reading of God’s Word literally and immediately; and the time for questioning and analyzing comes AFTER obedience, not before. Every single lesson God has taught me, everything He has revealed about Himself and about me, every bit of transformation I have experienced during these past few months would never have happened if I had taken a different approach. If I had first determined whether or not this passage said what it appears to say or not or if I had tried to see how it was a historical/cultural (and therefore irrelevant) application, I would have completely missed out.

This has made me sadly wonder how often I have missed out in the past! It has also made me question why I have felt the need to go about things all wrong. My defiant arrogance has been my downfall. I have not wanted certain passages of scripture to apply to me and I have gone to great lengths to make sure they don’t.

I have read this passage before and thought, “God can’t possibly be so superficial as to care about whether our heads are covered or not!” – but through the act of surrendering to His Word, I have witnessed once again, how much God’s “suggestions” and God’s “laws” are not to be judged so quickly. He didn’t create His guidelines for fun, or to frustrate us, or as punishment, or so as to elevate some while degrading others. He also didn’t assemble the Scriptures with certain passages meant for 200 AD and others meant for 2010AD. ALL of it is “God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:15) Every verse has value and can be applied today in some form. Our job is to respond with true obedience, listening to the Spirit and trusting God’s guidance. Sometimes that will mean doing things that don’t make sense to us at first, or doing something we don’t “agree” with or don’t like. But I feel confident that God will ALWAYS honor this level of obedience to his Holy Word.

Some will read 1 Corinthians 11 and surmise the lesson to be applied today is really about wives submitting to their husbands and husbands submitting to Christ and that wearing the head covering is really not the point. I can not agree or disagree with this application, because my decision has been based on personal conviction, and I reserve the right to realize God gives me permission to stop at any time, if He should choose to do so. However, in my next post I hope you will see how the very act of wearing a head covering has enhanced my understanding of submission to my husband in ways I never would have achieved had I not had the physical, symbolic reminder every seven days.

1. Brian Schwertley - see previous post, "What the Commentators Had to Say"