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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for collecting daily manna), make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Sunday, December 3, 2017
Today's Passage : Today's Passage: Subject:On what do we base our appearance? Bible Verse:1 Corinthians 11:13-16 (ESV) "Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God. " Message:
Paul says “judge for yourselves,” but is that what he really means? That is, does he really intend to say, “It’s up to your own judgment”?
O
ddly, that seems to be what he does mean, at least to some degree. He appeals to nature and social custom, not spiritual revelation, and he leaves the door cracked open for disagreement. His argument about hair, and the covering of heads during worship, should be taken seriously, but he does not mean to be writing an eleventh commandment, or even replacing the rigid laws of Moses with a new set.
The key to his purpose in writing Chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians can be gleaned from the puzzling last sentence. He wants Christian churches everywhere to adopt common practices, resembling those of Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus (where he was staying at the time), and other well-established Christian churches. It was the general contentiousness of the Corinthian church that led him to write this Epistle. The church was splintered into argumentative factions and was unable to focus on its mission and purpose.
In fact, in specific instances, men would stop cutting their hair as part of a religious discipline, such as taking Nazarite vows; and Paul supported the practice (Acts 21:17-26) and almost certainly took a Nazarite vow himself at one point. (Acts 18:18-19) John the Baptist likely did not cut his hair, although this is never made explicit, for he led his later life entirely as a Nazarite.
Think, too, of the practice of many nuns, who crop their hair close and always cover their heads. It would be hard to fault them. But in both cases, these are people who explicitly separate themselves from society in order to grow closer to God.
What Paul apparently seeks is a standard to prevent contention, dictated in part by nature (which comes, after all, from God). Women, who generally want fairly long hair anyway, are allowed the natural adornment of long and beautiful hair, but should cover it at worship as a sign of modesty. Men are not allowed this feminine vanity; their hair might get a bit long and shaggy, but to pay the kind of attention to their hair that a woman does is an unnatural imitation of femininity.
There is some irony here, for the common depiction of Jesus, where he is coiffed like a cavalier fop in the court of Charles I, is a breathtaking impossibility.
At any rate, the lesson to be learned here is the importance of agreeing upon, and following, a norm for worship and appearance that shows one’s dedication to God rather than seeking after individual self-fulfillment. In a word, acceptance. And who would not recognize that a woman, entering church with some sort of veil pinned to her head, was wearing it as a sign of piety and devotion rather than an attempt to beautify herself?
In others words, when it comes to personal appearance, Paul focuses less on what one does, and much more on why one does it. As in everything, we must seek to glorify God, and not our own pride, in how we present ourselves.
Meditation : Prayer : Let me not forget you as I go forth into the world this day, blessed Lord; may my every word be a prayer, and my every act be testimony to your love and truth, and may I know your presence every second of this day....Amen |
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