God made us different, but He didn't make one better than the other.
This is the LifeSpring One Year Bible Rewind, coming to you from Riverside, California.
I'm Steve Webb, your OG Godcaster podcasting since 2004.
This is the daily podcast where we read the entire Bible together in a year.
I'm really glad you're here.
Welcome.
You can always find all the LifeSpring Media shows at lifespringmedia.com.
Today is A.A. Milne's birthday.
Winnie the Pooh doesn't know what to do.
Got a honey jar stuck on his nose.
And since Milne is the author of Winnie the Pooh,
it's officially known, at least among the many Winnie fans,
as Winnie the Pooh Day.
Although I have to say that I'm kind of bummed that we missed Eeyore Day on January 8th.
Of course, he'd probably say something like,
Missed it, did you? Happens. Things usually do.
He's my favorite character in those stories.
How about you? Who's your favorite? Well, it's also Epistle Sunday. We'll read 1 Corinthians 11 and 12.
And then on this date in church history, we'll follow my comments on the reading and we'll have
a prayer. Let's begin. Our gracious and loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We
thank you for bringing us together here today. And God, we ask that you would teach us, that you would
give us something that we can take with us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
1 Corinthians chapter 11
Follow my example just like I follow Christ's.
I praise you because you remember all my instructions,
and you hold on to the traditions exactly as I handed them on to you.
Now I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ,
and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.
Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered shames his head.
Every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered disgraces her head.
It is the same thing as having her head shaved.
If a woman doesn't cover her head, then she should have her hair cut off.
If it is disgraceful for a woman to have short hair or to be shaved,
then she should keep her head covered.
A man shouldn't have his head covered because he is the image and glory of God,
but the woman is man's glory.
Man didn't have his origin from woman, but woman from man.
And man wasn't created for the sake of the woman, but the woman for the sake of the man.
Because of this, a woman should have authority over her head because of the angels.
However, woman isn't independent from man, and man isn't independent from woman in the Lord.
As woman came from man, so also man comes from woman.
But everything comes from God.
Judge for yourselves. Is it appropriate for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?
Doesn't nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him?
But if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? This is because her long hair is given to her
for a covering. But if someone wants to argue about this, we don't have such a custom,
nor do God's churches. Now, I don't praise you as I give the following instruction,
because when you meet together, it does more harm than good. First of all, when you meet together
as a church, I hear that there are some divisions among you, and I partly believe it. It's necessary
that there are groups among you to make it clear who is genuine. So when you get together in one
place, it isn't to eat the Lord's meal. Each of you goes ahead and eats a private meal. One person
goes hungry, while another is drunk. Don't you have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you look
on God's churches and humiliate those who have nothing. What can I say to you? Will I praise you?
No, I don't praise you in this. I received a tradition from the Lord, which I also handed
on to you. On the night on which he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread. After giving thanks,
he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this to remember me.
He did the same thing with the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup is the new covenant in
My blood. Every time you drink it, do this to remember Me. Every time you eat this bread and
drink this cup, you broadcast the death of the Lord until He comes. This is why those who eat
the bread or drink the cup of the Lord inappropriately will be guilty of the Lord's
body and blood. Each individual should test himself or herself and eat from the bread and
drink from the cup in that way. Those who eat and drink without correctly understanding the body
are eating and drinking their own judgment. Because of this, many of you are weak and sick,
and quite a few have died. But if we had judged ourselves, we wouldn't be judged. However,
we are disciplined by the Lord when we are judged, so that we won't be judged and condemned along
with the whole world. For these reasons, my brothers and sisters, when you get together to eat,
wait for each other. If some of you are hungry, they should eat at home, so that getting together
doesn't lead to judgment. I will give directions about the other things when I come. 1 Corinthians
chapter 12. Brothers and sisters, I don't want you to be ignorant about spiritual gifts.
You know that when you were Gentiles, you were often misled by false gods that can't even speak.
So I want to make it clear to you that no one says, Jesus is cursed, when speaking by God's
Spirit, and no one can say, Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. There are different spiritual
gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are different ministries, and the same Lord,
and there are different activities, but the same God who produces all of them and everyone.
A demonstration of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good.
A word of wisdom is given by the Spirit to one person, a word of knowledge to another according
to the same Spirit, faith to still another by the same Spirit, gifts of healing to another in the
one Spirit, performance of miracles to another, prophecy to another, the ability to tell spirits
apart to another, different kinds of tongues to another, and the interpretation of the tongues
to another. All these things are produced by the one and same Spirit who gives what He wants
to each person. Christ is just like the human body. A body is a unit and has many parts,
and all the parts of the body are one body, even though there are many.
We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jew or Greek or slave or free,
and we all were given one Spirit to drink. Certainly the body isn't one part, but many.
If the foot says, I'm not part of the body because I'm not a hand,
does that mean it's not part of the body?
If the ear says, I'm not a part of the body because I'm not an eye,
does that mean it's not part of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, what would happen to the hearing?
And if the whole body were an ear, what would happen to the sense of smell?
But as it is, God has placed each one of the parts in the body just like He wanted.
If all were one and the same body part, what would happen to the body?
But as it is, there are many parts but one body.
So the eye can't say to the hand, I don't need you,
or in turn, the head can't say to the feet, I don't need you.
Instead, the parts of the body that people think are the weakest are the most necessary.
The parts of the body that we think are less honorable are the ones we honor the most.
The private parts of our body that aren't presentable are the ones that are given the
most dignity. The parts of our body that are presentable don't need this. But God has put
the body together, giving great honor to the part with less honor, so that there won't be division
in the body, and so the parts might have mutual concern for each other. If one part suffers,
all the parts suffer with it. If one part gets the glory, all the parts celebrate with it.
You are the body of Christ and parts of each other.
In the church, God has appointed first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles,
then gifts of healing, the ability to help others, leadership skills, different kinds
of tongues.
All aren't apostles, are they?
All aren't prophets, are they?
All aren't teachers, are they?
All don't perform miracles, do they?
All don't have gifts of healing, do they?
All don't speak in different tongues, do they?
All don't interpret, do they?
Use your ambition to try to get the greater gifts, and I'm going to show you an even better way.
Well, beloved, I've got thoughts on chapters 11 and 12 today.
Let's talk about chapter 11 first.
I'll address what he wrote about men and women and head coverings for women.
But first, I think it's most beneficial before we get into this discussion that we look at what
Paul said near the end of his talk on the subject of men and women. In verse 11 he said,
Woman isn't independent from man, and man isn't independent from woman in the Lord.
As woman came from man, so also man comes from woman, but everything comes from God.
It looks to me as if Paul is giving equal respect to both sexes in this, wouldn't you agree?
There are other places in his letters where that attitude comes through as well.
Some have made the charge that Paul didn't like or respect women, but I don't see that when I look at the totality of his writings.
The difficulty lies in cultural bias.
Today, the women's equality movement that began in earnest in the 1960s tries to make the assertion that there are no differences between men and women.
Of course, that isn't true.
God made us different, but He didn't make one better than the other.
He just made them different.
And this is what Paul is saying in chapter 11.
Men and women have different roles. One is not better than the other, but they're different,
and that's a good thing. Remember back in Genesis when God said that it was not good for man to be
alone, so He made a woman for the man. Men and women complement each other. They complete one
another. And then, after God looked at what He had made, He said something that He did not say
when He completed the previous elements of creation. At those times He looked at what He had made,
and he said, It is good. But when he had finished creating man and woman, he said, It is very good.
We should remember that neither men nor women are to abuse their positions, just as Jesus did not
abuse his position. Jesus, as God, has the right to do as he wishes with his creation,
and what he chooses to do is to love us. And this is how we should treat each other.
So Paul laid out the different roles of the sexes in the Corinthian church.
Men had a role. Women had a role. There should be order in church, not chaos. That was his basic
message. But what was happening in Corinth was not order. And Paul's answer was that if the sexes
adhered to their proper roles, there would be order. And if they treated each other as Jesus
treats us, there would be love. So let's move on now to the issue of covering the head and hair
length. To us, today, the whole discussion seems kind of foreign to us, doesn't it?
In today's American culture, especially among Protestants, we don't make a big deal out of
head coverings in church or hair length for either male or female. So, based on 1 Corinthians 11,
are we mistaken? Is it really important to God? Let's take a look. As is usually the case when
studying the Scripture, the first thing we should consider is context—what's happening in the scene.
The recurring theme in verses 13-16 is order, or the hierarchy of authority. Paul says in verse 3,
Now I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man,
and the head of Christ is God. Now, in the Corinthian culture, a woman who wore a head
covering was showing her submission to the authority of her husband, and consequently her
submission to God. Lest we take umbrage at this concept, consider that submission does not mean
that we're implying that one who submits is less than the one who's being submitted to.
Do you doubt that? Well, consider this. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are
equal parts of the one united triune God, are they not? Yet the Son submits to the Father,
and the Spirit to the Son. They are equal, yet there is an order. The relationship of the husband
and the wife is a picture of this relationship. In the Corinthian culture, a woman's long hair
and the covering of her head was an outward show of her agreement with the God-established order.
A man's short hair and lack of head covering was the same. Now, we know that what God considers
important is the condition of the heart, right? Yes, what we do is important because our actions
often flow from our heart, but in our culture, where head covering and hair length has little
or nothing to do with our marital status, God doesn't care about hair and covers, but He most
certainly cares about our submission to His authority and the order He set out for husbands
and wives. Christ is in submission to the Father. The husband is in submission to Christ. The wife
is in submission to the husband. No one has his or her thumb on the other. This is a love
relationship with respect and reverence. I deeply love the lovely Lady Leanne, and I'd give my life
for her, just as Christ gave Himself for me. I don't lord it over her. Her well-being is my most
important priority, other than serving and loving God. She responds to the love I show her by
respecting and loving me in the same way. We're equal partners, and at the same time, there is
the order that God laid out. And not surprisingly, it seems to be working. We love each other more
today than the day we got married nearly 32 years ago, which, by the way, we'll be celebrating that
32nd anniversary this coming New Year's Eve. You'll hear more about that later. The point is, every
year our bond is stronger in every way possible. And if she were here right now, she'd tell you the
same thing. So no, God doesn't care today in our culture what is on your head. He cares about your
submission to Him. That's it. Now, in chapter 12, Paul is addressing another issue that's bringing
this argumentative Corinthian church another cause for divisions. And unfortunately, the division of
a church over disagreements about spiritual gifts doesn't end with them. When I was a teenager,
I gave my heart to the Lord when I was attending a very traditional Southern Baptist church.
I loved the people there, and I loved the pastor, but I don't remember ever hearing a word about
spiritual gifts. And when I first got married and moved away from home, I began attending a
little community church in the city of Mammoth Lakes, California. Now, this church had just
undergone a split over disagreements about spiritual gifts. I had no idea what they were
even talking about. But the new pastor, who had been brought in to replace the pastor who left,
preached a series of sermons about the various gifts of the Spirit. And he did such a great job,
backed up by scriptures like 1 Corinthians 12, that my own theology on the subject was shaped
then and hasn't changed a lot over the ensuing years. In a nutshell, Paul taught the Corinthians
that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to different people as He chooses. They all have value,
just as each part of the body has value. He taught them that it's silly to argue about what
part of the body is better, and it's silly to fight over what gift is better. Paul's analogy
of the church being like a human body is a good one. Each part has a purpose. When one part hurts,
the whole body hurts. The foot is as much a part of the body as the ear. When you separate a part
of the body from the body, it cannot continue to live, and the body suffers. So we shouldn't value
one gift over the other. We should just ask God to give us whatever gift it is He wants us to have.
and then celebrate that. What do you think? We'll begin the book of Exodus tomorrow with
the reading of the first four chapters. Here's the verse of the day.
The verse of the day is 1 Corinthians 12, 27. You are the body of Christ and parts of each other.
What do you think? What do you think? Tell Steve.
Yeah, so tell me what you think of the commentary today.
You can go to comment.lifespringmedia.com, or you can email me at steve at lifespringmedia.com,
or you can go to the Lifespring Family Hotline.
Where is that?
It's right here.
LifeSpring Family Hotline 951-732-8511
LifeSpring Family Family Hotline 951-732-8511
Beloved, the Lifespring One-Year Bible Rewind exists for you.
It's here to help you read through the Bible in a year.
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What about this show?
Listen to this boostagram that came in this morning.
He says, Jamie the Trucker, the OG show number boostagrammer with a 42,639 sat boostagram.
He continues, this is the sum of all the Sunday shows so far for season three,
even taking into account the fact that we had two show number 11s this season.
We did?
I'll have to double check on that.
If Jamie says it, it must be true, but I'm going to have to see what happened there.
I don't remember that.
Could be.
Anyway, he continues, and prays that I finally got this thing working.
Yes, praise for that.
He's talking about getting the boosts to go through properly.
Anyway, absolutely, Jamie.
I'm so glad that you got it working, too.
Thank you so much.
God bless you, my brother.
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Do it now.
On this date in church history, January 18th.
First, in 1815, Constantine von Tischendorf was born in Germany.
He would go on to become one of the most important biblical scholars of the 19th century.
His life's work focused on locating and preserving ancient manuscripts of the New Testament.
Most famously, his discover of the Codex Sinaiticus provided scholars with one of the earliest
and most complete copies of the New Testament ever found. That discovery reshaped modern Bible
translation and deepened confidence in the reliability of the biblical text passed down
through the centuries. And then, on January 18, 1830, in the South Pacific, a young Tongan chief
named Tufuahau was baptized by Christian missionaries. He would later become King George
Tupo I, the founder of the modern kingdom of Tonga. His conversion was not only personal.
It marked a turning point for the islands as Christianity became deeply woven into Tonga's
national identity, legal system, and culture, shaping a Christian monarchy that still exists today.
We don't have any prayer requests today, so let's just pray. Our Heavenly Father,
You are holy, you are good, you are righteous, you are just, you are merciful, and we worship you.
We praise you because you are worthy of our praise.
We ask that your will would be done here on earth as it is in heaven.
Forgive us our failures and help us to forgive those who have hurt us and who have wronged us.
I pray for the Lifespring family, Lord.
Thank you for bringing them here, and I pray that what they hear on the show is from you
and that they are helped by being here.
I pray for those that are sick and who need financial help,
and those who are hurting emotionally.
Comfort them, Lord.
I pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
When you send in your prayer requests,
I'll pray for you in my daily prayer time,
and I'll pray for you on the show so that we can all agree together
as we take our requests to God.
If you enjoy the show, tell someone.
Beloved, remember that no gift is wasted,
no role is unimportant,
and no believer stands alone.
In Christ, we are one body,
called to serve, love, and grow together.
Until tomorrow, may the Lord guard your heart,
shape your desires,
draw you closer to Himself,
and may God bless you richly.
Thanks for spending this time with me.
My name is Steve Webb.
Bye.
All the programs in the Lifespring Media family are made possible by your value-for-value support.
Thank you.
The Lifespring One Year Bible Rewind is a Lifespring Media production hosted by Steve Webb, the OG Godcaster since 2004.