Men, Women & The Trinity

This post attempts to answer a question perplexing some parts of the evangelical world, namely - should women lead mixed worship services?

A forgotten truth

Tucked away in the eleventh chapter of first Corinthians is a verse of profound, but neglected, significance for understanding the roles of men and women in the church:

"Now I want you to realise that the head of every man is Christ and the head of every woman is man and the head of Christ is God." (1 Corinthians 11:3)

Paul is drawing a deliberate parallel between the relationship that exists between men and women, and the relationship that exists between God the Son and God the Father. 

Order not hierarchy

An order exists between the Three Persons of the Godhead, not a hierarchy. God the Father is the "first" Person, God the Son is the "second" Person and God the Holy Spirit is the "third" Person. 

The Father sends the Son, but the Son never sends the Father. The Son does what the Father tells him, but the Father does not do what the Son tells him. 

Order.

And then both the Father and the Son send the Spirit. 

Order.

But all Three Persons are equal in divinity and glory. There is no hierarchy between the Three blessed Persons. The Father is not "above" the Son, Father and Son are not "above" the Spirit. The Spirit is not in the least "below" the Father. 

Order, but zero hierarchy.

This of course is a high mystery, but is not beyond our grasp: we can all comprehend the distinction between order and hierarchy, even if we cannot fully understand it. 

And this is an "insider truth," known and acceptable only to believers. The moment the world hears that one person - whether human or Divine - has sent another, or that one person obeys another, they immediately see hierarchy - and object.

Order between men and women

According to the Apostle Paul, the same kind of order exists between men and women. In 1 Corinthians 11, quoted above, Paul is not referring to marriage, where a different kind of order exists. 

In Christian marriage Paul draws a parallel between Christ's headship over the Church and a husband's headship over his wife. That isn't the order Paul has in mind in 1 Corinthians 11. 

There's a much more general order between men and women Paul has in mind here, parallel to the order between God the Father and God the Son and revealed in the way God created Adam and Eve.

Paul explains the way this intrinsic order was revealed in the creation of Adam and Eve, Genesis 1-2:

"For man did not come from woman, but woman from man, neither was man created for woman, but woman for man." (verse 8)

Man is not in the least superior to the woman for both were made in the image of God, but there is an order between them.

Lest a misogynist confuse order for superior independency, Paul goes on to say:

"In the Lord, however, 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." (11-12)

This order was also revealed in the way Adam was made first and Eve was made second:

"For Adam was formed first, then Eve." (1 Timothy 2:13)

In summary, there are two kinds of order between men and women. One particular order between a husband and wife (modelled on the relationship between Christ and the Church) and another general one between men and women in the church, modelled on relationships within the Trinity.

Order not eradicated by the Fall or Salvation

The married order between husband and wife was twisted by the fall, but it was not eradicated:

"Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." (3:16)

And the general order between men and women is not obliterated either by the fall or the Gospel. The full light of Gospel Day frees men and women to serve, but it does not erase or play down the divine order anywhere in the New Testament. 

That order would have been assumed by all the Jewish believers who possessed the Old Testament and it was left to Paul to explain to the Gentiles converted under his ministry, and to the rest of the Gentile world. 

Both kinds of order - the specific order between a husband and wife and the more general order between men and women are to be maintained by believers,  in Christian marriage and the church.

Both "order" problems at Corinth

At Corinth there were problems with both kinds of order. In chapter 14 there was husband-wife disorder. The details are obscure, the fundamental problem is not. In some way wives were speaking in the church in a way that upturned the order between them and their husbands. While women could pray and prophecy in the church, their contributions - perhaps over the heads of their husbands sitting there? - were now threatening the order of the gathering. 

In chapter 11, it is not the husband-wife order problem Paul has in mind, but the more general order between men and women.

Again the details are obscure to us, but the problem is as clear as day. Something about the way the sisters were dressing - or not dressing (hat/top bun/?) - was obscuring the differences between men and women - and here is the point! - therefore obscuring the divine order between men and women. The women were doing something / wearing / not wearing something which made them look like men. And in that way the divine order between men and women was being obscured. 

The angels are watching our worship gatherings says the Apostle Paul.

Application to Today

We live in an age of vast gender confusion. It's part of a wholesale attack on biblical anthropology, on God's created order. What is mankind? What is male and what is female? And how are they to relate to each other?

Tragically many parts of the protestant churches have followed the world as meekly as Mary's lamb.  

Equally alarming, in many parts of so-called evangelicalism this error is entering the church - indeed has already entered the church.

Women now lead church services in so-called complementarian churches, who say, at least at the moment, that they would not countenance a woman elder or a woman teacher. Women are leading at some conferences, too.

The moment a woman leads a gathering of believers, the divine order between men and women is turned upside down. Every impression is given that this church is led by women, that women are the head. We cannot ignore that impression. 

God's order is turned on its head, the angels are grieved and collateral damage is done to every other form of divine order.

Why this drift?

Why is the so-called evangelical church drifting in this way?

One reason may be the desire to be avant-garde, hip, cool, a pioneer. 

It may be ignorance of the whole-Scripture teaching of divine order between the sexes.

It may be strong women in the church who are influencing their husbands and Eve-like are leading them astray.

It may be simply a form of worldliness.

The effect?

The effect of women leading church services, I believe, could turn out to be a milestone on the road to other compromises.

For one thing women leading feminizes the church. Men, already on the backfoot in western culture, feel that the church is yet another space for women, not men.

What we need in our age is not weathervane leadership that cowardly follows the contours of every worldly twist in turn, but courageous leadership prepared to stand against the tide of a culture ever-more pagan in belief and in practice.