Peter broadly categorizes the gifts of the Holy Spirit under the headings of speaking and service. There are verbal gifts and non-verbal gifts. He then says anyone who speaks should do so “as one who speaks oracles of God”. That’s a high standard and a challenge for everyone who attempts to explain the Bible to others. Faithful exposition requires making the text understandable to the best of our ability as the Holy Spirit leads, interpreting scripture with scripture.
A problem: in most meetings of the church these days, the opportunity to ask questions during or after a sermon does not exist.
Two Methods
A Bible teacher who wants to make the text understandable must therefore either invite and respond to questions from his audience during or after speaking, or else try to anticipate the questions he is raising in their minds and answer them as part of his message. The Lord Jesus frequently did the former. Paul and other New Testament writers had to do the latter in their letters. Epistles are not interactive media, at least not in the short-term. So the writers played devil’s advocate with their own arguments in order to pre-emptively head off potential criticisms from contentious readers or clarify confusing aspects of their teaching.
Romans 3 is a great example of asking and answering questions bound to arise from the presentation of a complex argument. Paul poses ten different compound questions throughout the chapter and more in chapter 4. We are wise to follow his example when we can. The alternative is leaving an audience befuddled or else Googling the answers they are searching for. What they come up with that way may not be wonderful.
Anticipating Needs
In Sunday’s post, I observed that few younger speakers of my acquaintance anticipate even a tiny fraction of the questions their ministry raises. To be helpful, the speaker must bear in mind differing needs, thought processes and levels of maturity. I encouraged those who teach from the platform to try to put themselves in the shoes of those they are teaching, asking the questions they would ask if they could.
To show readers the kind of thing I have in mind, at the end of Sunday’s post I promised to pick a New Testament passage and list all the questions that came to mind about it. Here we are. I chose 1 Corinthians 11:1-16, the subject of which is the covering or uncovering of the head in gatherings of believers.
Hey, why make things easy on myself?
Less is More
I have tried to include questions that Christians of all different levels of maturity and backgrounds might ask. I’m not suggesting all these can or should be answered satisfactorily in a forty-five minute message, or that providing definitive answers to a few of them is even possible for most speakers. When we confront questions we can’t answer authoritatively, it is better to acknowledge that we don’t know what the text means than to take a wild guess, bluff or speculate. That fools very few and surely does not please the Lord.
I had originally planned to do an entire chapter of questions. Why? Because speakers, especially those doing sequential exposition, often attempt entire chapters in a single meeting, and I wanted to establish that speed-sermonizing makes for thin gruel. However, the first sixteen verses of 1 Corinthians 11 produced so many questions that introducing an even longer second subject would have made for an impossibly long blog post.
Hopefully, that makes my point for me: less is more. If you want to help people, don’t bite off more scripture than you can chew.
Questions from 1 Corinthians 11:1-16
1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
What does it mean to “imitate”? Is it only necessary to follow Paul to the extent he follows the Lord? If not, how can we tell when he is following and when he is faltering?
2 Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.
What does he mean by “traditions”? What’s the difference between traditions and the faith? Are traditions optional or compulsory?
3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
Wait, I thought Christ was equal with God. In what sense is God the head of Christ? What does it mean for a human to be another human’s head then? Does being someone’s head reflect on their worth? I read that the Greek word “head” in this passage really means “source”; is that incorrect? My translation reads “woman”, not “wife” and says “man” instead of “husband”. Which is it? Why does the man get to be head? What if he’s not saved, or a poor spiritual leader?
4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head,
But Jewish men wear little caps on their heads when they pray. Why is it different for Christians? Where is this teaching coming from? We don’t really prophesy anymore, do we? Why not? Does this passage apply to teaching then? I’m bald and find it embarrassing. If I’m not praying or prophesying, can I wear a ball cap in church? Is the head that gets dishonored the man’s own head or is it Christ that gets dishonored?
5 but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven.
So it’s okay if women pray out loud in church meetings? I thought Paul taught that women are supposed to be silent in church. Did prophetesses prophesy in church meetings in the first century? Which head is she dishonoring: literal or metaphorical? Is it wrong for a woman to shave her head? If so, is it wrong for a woman to have short hair? If so, how short is short?
6 For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head.
Is the teaching about a woman covering her head for all churches at all times or was it just for Corinth in the first century because of conditions there? If it was just for Corinth, how can we know for sure whether we should practice other things Paul taught? Perhaps these were only cultural issues too. If the head covering is not merely cultural, then why don’t women practice it in most churches I’ve ever seen? If the husband/wife relationship is a picture of Christ and the church, what about my single daughter: who is her head? Should she wait until she’s married to cover it or is she dishonoring her father if she doesn’t? Today it’s no longer disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head. Annie Lennox and Sinead O’Connor were quite hot. Does that mean we can scrap the whole thing?
7 For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.
How does glory come into this? What does it mean that woman is the glory of man? Is that a general statement about the sexes? Do only married men have glory?
8 For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.
Isn’t the creation account in Genesis mythological? How is that a reason for people behaving a certain way in church?
10 That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
How do angels come into this? I read that the word for “angel” in the Bible is the same word as for human messengers. Is it possible that’s what it means? Is it a symbol of her personal authority or a symbol of her being under authority?
11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; 12 for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God.
I’m not sure I understand his argument in these two verses. All men are born of women and have been since the creation. So how is that “in the Lord”?
13 Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered?
It seems fine to me, so can I do whatever I like? He says, “Judge for yourselves.”
14 Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, 15 but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.
In what sense is long hair on a man a disgrace? If the woman already has the natural covering of her long hair, why should she wear another head covering? Is “covering” in this verse the same word in Greek as in the other verses in this section? If not, why not? If so, does the difference in wording clarify Paul’s argument?
16 If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.
Do the words “such practice” refer to wearing a head covering in church meetings or to being contentious about doing it? Paul planted churches all over Europe, Asia and the Middle East amid many different cultures. If the practice was the same in all the churches, why do some people say the woman’s head covering is merely cultural?
General Questions Raised by the Passage as a Whole
What happens to me in this church if I don’t want to cover my head? Who makes the decision about how this passage is interpreted, and how do they enforce it? My husband doesn’t see any reason for me to wear a head covering. Should I obey him or should I obey Paul?
In Summary
Again, it is neither possible nor prudent to attempt to answer all such questions unless you are covering the material in multiple sessions. But it is important we acknowledge when scripture does not answer a particular question and when it leaves open multiple Christian options. And it is important to acknowledge a legitimate question exists rather than speeding past it, even if you are not going to take the time to answer it today. Somebody in your audience is considering it, I guarantee.
To be fair, few NT passages of similar length raise as many difficult questions as these sixteen verses generate, but unless your audience is made up exclusively of mature Christians, there will still be numerous areas of understanding that need addressing if you are to exposit any passage faithfully. Unless you are doing a survey rather than an in-depth study, it seems to me it’s rarely possible to do justice to an entire chapter of scripture in forty-five minutes or less.
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