Wednesday in the Word

What does Paul mean when he calls Christ the head of every man, the man the head of a woman, and God the head of Christ? 

In this episode—the first of two on “headship”—Krisan Marotta turns to Genesis and the broader sweep of Scripture to unpack this much-debated word in 1 Corinthians 11:3. She argues that Paul is not teaching male superiority, but describing an asymmetrical set of responsibilities within marriage: husbands assigned primary responsibility for the marriage and family, and wives called to be strong, capable helpers alongside them. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• Why any talk of hierarchy grates on modern ears, and how Paul can speak of God–Christ–man–woman without denying the full equality and shared image of God in both men and women
• The three broad positions in today’s debate (hard complementarian, soft complementarian, egalitarian), and the crucial common ground they share: men and women are equally made in God’s image and equal in worth
• How the cultural clash in Corinth—men uncovering their heads to honor God, married women covering to honor their husbands—sets the stage for Paul’s instructions about head coverings in worship
• The idea of “asymmetry” rather than superiority: why a wife has two relationships to consider (Christ and her husband as head), while a husband has one (Christ as head), and how that shapes Paul’s counsel
• A careful walk through Genesis 2 and the creation of Eve as a “helper suitable to” Adam—equal in nature and dignity, yet given a distinct role tied to the responsibility first entrusted to Adam
• Why Krisan prefers the term “husband headship”: not male rule in general, but a specific assignment of responsibility for the marriage and family, with the wife as a fully capable partner and helper
• Examples from the fall and from everyday life (dish-washing children, homework help) that illustrate how someone can bear responsibility while still deeply needing and valuing another’s help
• The many abuses falsely justified in the name of headship—and why Scripture never authorizes domination, selfishness, or treating a wife as less gifted, less important, or less called than her husband
• What genuine helping looks like: offering wisdom, insight, and honest disagreement; then, when a couple cannot reach unity, allowing the husband to act according to his conscience before God
• How headship and help can play out very differently from marriage to marriage (think Ronald Reagan and Denis Thatcher), without dictating who must work outside the home or whose career “matters more”

After listening, you’ll have a clearer, more nuanced grasp of “husband headship” and why Paul’s language about “head” is rooted in Genesis rather than in cultural superiority or personal preference. You’ll be encouraged to see marriage as a shared calling that shifts life from “I, me, my” to “we, us, ours,” to resist both dismissive caricatures and heavy-handed abuse of headship, and to consider how responsibility and help might be lived out in your own context with mutual honor, courage, and love before God. 

Next: 31 What does Paul mean by head, 2? 

Series: 1 Corinthians: Pride & Prejudice in the Church

Is 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 about a timeless command—or about cultural symbols that no longer mean the same thing today? 

In this episode, Krisan Marotta steps back from the text itself to explore the cultural world behind head coverings in Corinth, explaining why this passage is both unusually difficult and often misunderstood, and how we can take Paul’s reasoning seriously without insisting that his exact practices are binding in every time and place. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• Why 1 Corinthians 11 is one of the more complex passages in the New Testament and why it calls for humility, patience, and a willingness to admit we may be wrong
• The crucial reminder that, whatever this passage means, it is not a salvation issue and how that frames the way we handle disagreements about it
• How Paul can appeal to creation, Genesis, and “nature” while still addressing a question that has a strong cultural component
• The “wedding ring and Martian colony” thought experiment: a vivid illustration of how eternal biblical principles can be applied through changing cultural symbols 
• Why it’s so hard to reconstruct the situation in Corinth: overlapping Greek, Roman, and Jewish customs, and conflicting evidence about who covered their heads when and why
• Different options for understanding Paul’s concern about men covering their heads and women uncovering theirs and why Paul knew cultural nuances we no longer see clearly
• How Jewish practices about men uncovering their heads in prayer and married women covering theirs as a sign of loyalty to their husbands may lie in the background of Paul’s instructions
• The likely “clash of symbols” in Christian worship: women now praying and prophesying publicly, torn between honoring God in the same way men did and honoring their husbands according to cultural expectations 
• Why Paul asks wives to preserve the symbol that spoke loudest in their culture, while grounding his answer in unchanging truths about marriage, creation, and the gospel
• How this passage still speaks powerfully today by teaching us to care about what our visible practices communicate in our own cultures, even when the specific symbols have changed

After listening, you’ll come away with a clearer, more thoughtful framework for asking whether 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 is “just cultural” or “fully universal”—and why that either/or is too simple. You’ll be encouraged to hold your conclusions with conviction and humility, to distinguish enduring biblical principles from time-bound symbols, and to seek practices in your own context that honor both God’s design and your brothers and sisters, even when faithful Christians disagree about the details. 

Series: 1 Corinthians: Pride & Prejudice in the Church

Paul’s teaching on head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 is often experienced as confusing, controversial, or even hurtful—but this episode approaches it with patience, humility, and a clear focus on what Paul is actually doing. 

Krisan Marotta walks through the whole passage as a unified argument, showing how Paul connects creation, marriage, cultural symbols, and worship practices in Corinth to answer a very specific question: should married women uncover their heads when they pray or prophesy in public worship? 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• Why 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 is unusually difficult and why sincere, Bible-loving believers reach different conclusions, calling for humility, not name-calling or suspicion of motives
• How this section fits the “now concerning…” part of the letter, and why Paul’s relatively gentle tone suggests confusion more than rebellion in Corinth
• What “traditions” means here—not the gospel itself, but culturally shaped worship practices like dress and decorum, and why that matters for interpreting head coverings
• Why Paul is speaking specifically of husbands and wives (not all men and all women), and how that shapes the reading of the passage
• A working definition of “head” that emphasizes responsibility and accountability, not dictatorship or superiority, grounded in Christ’s self-giving headship and the creation story in Genesis 2
• The cultural collision in Corinth: men uncovering their heads to honor God, married women covering theirs to honor their husbands—and the dilemma this creates when wives publicly pray or prophesy
• Paul’s reasoning that, in their culture, an uncovered head on a married woman sends the louder message of disrespecting her husband, even if her intent is to honor God
• How shaved heads, long hair, and veils functioned as cultural symbols of honor or shame, and why Paul appeals to what “nature” and propriety communicate in that setting
• An explanation of verse 10 that takes “because of this message” rather than “because of the angels,” and sees the covering as a visible sign of honoring the marriage relationship, not a mark of inferiority
• Paul’s balance in verses 11–12: husbands and wives are mutually dependent, equally made in God’s image, and joined in a partnership of love—even while their roles in marriage differ
• Why “judge for yourselves” signals we are dealing with a wisdom issue tied to cultural symbols, not a timeless moral absolute like “do not murder”
• The key takeaways: women can pray and prophesy in public worship; head coverings themselves are not morally binding; and believers must always ask what message their behavior sends about the gospel in their particular culture 

After listening, you’ll come away with a calmer, more coherent understanding of this challenging passage. Rather than feeling trapped between rigid traditionalism and dismissing Paul altogether, you’ll be invited to see how his counsel honors both creation design and cultural context. The episode will help you think more carefully about headship, marriage, gender, and symbols in worship today—and to approach disputed questions with humility, charity, and a shared desire to let Scripture, not cultural pressure, have the final word. 

Series: 1 Corinthians: Pride & Prejudice in the church

Christian freedom is never an excuse to flirt with idols or to ignore how our choices affect others. 

In this episode on 1 Corinthians 10:14–11:1, Krisan Marotta traces Paul’s conclusion to the whole “idol meat” discussion, showing that the real issue is not just what we’re allowed to eat, but which table we belong to and what our behavior says about the God we claim to worship. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How 1 Corinthians 8–10 hangs together, and why Paul’s “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry” is the capstone of his whole argument about knowledge, freedom, and love 
• The rich meaning of koinonia (sharing, participation) in the Lord’s Supper, Israel’s temple sacrifices, and pagan temple feasts—and why religious meals are always saying, “These are my people; this is my god.” 
• Why Paul can say both that idols are “nothing” and yet warn that pagan sacrifices are offered to demons, making it impossible to drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons
• How the Corinthians may have been using their “sophisticated” theology to justify dabbling in temple life, eager to stay in good standing with the powerful social elite of their city 
• Paul’s practical guidance: buy whatever you like in the marketplace, eat what is set before you in a neighbor’s home—but abstain when someone identifies the food as idol meat, for the sake of their conscience and the message your choice sends
• What Paul means by “all things are lawful, but not all things edify,” and how he keeps returning to the same question: not “Is this allowed?” but “Does this build up my neighbor in faith?”
• The call to do everything—eating, drinking, and ordinary life—to the glory of God, giving no unnecessary offense to Jew, Greek, or church, so that nothing blocks others from hearing the gospel clearly 
• How Paul’s own pattern—limiting his freedoms, pleasing others where he can, seeking “the profit of the many, so that they may be saved”—grounds his invitation: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”
• A thoughtful application of “flee idolatry” today: how good gifts (community, success, beauty, security) become competitors to God when we look to them for life instead of receiving them from his hand

After listening, you’ll come away with a sharper sense of what it means to belong to the Lord’s table in a world full of rival loyalties. You’ll be encouraged to examine where you may be sending mixed messages about whom you serve, to weigh not only what you’re free to do but what your actions communicate, and to pursue a way of life where everyday choices—public and private—reflect God’s glory, love for your neighbor, and a wholehearted allegiance to Christ alone. 

Series: 1 Corinthians: Pride & Prejudice in the Church