While Paul spends the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 7 talking about marriage, singleness, and related issues, he does not speak a great deal there about the actual relationship between husbands and wives. He does speak briefly about it in a somewhat puzzling discussion of head coverings in church:
But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God.
1 Corinthians 11:3-12
Apparently, in the church at Corinth were those who had taken the motto in 10:23, “all things are lawful for me,” as an excuse for the women to reject the principle of subordination to male leadership and also to throw off the symbol of their subordinate role, their head coverings. Paul argued that rather than elevating women, such behavior actually degrades them and dishonors their spiritual head. His concern wasn’t with the head coverings, per se, but with rebellion against the Lord, and he gave three arguments for why women should be subordinate to men in the local church: the divine order, the original creation, and the presence of angelic observers.
Paul describes the divine order when he says “the head of every man is Christ, the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.” Just as God the Father is the head of Christ, so Christ is the head of every man, and man is the head of the woman. In 1 Cor. 3:23 Paul had spoken of Christ’s subordination to the Father: “And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s,” and he would speak of it again in the 15:28, when he said, “then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” Clearly it is no dishonor for Christ to submit to the Father, rather it is part of the outworking of God’s plan for all of history that Christ will be made subject to the Father in all things. In the same way, Paul argues, the woman is to be subject to man, not seeking to liberate herself from his authority but covering her head as an outward demonstration of her submission of heart to the divine order.
Next Paul points to the original creation in v.7-9 when he says that man is the “image and glory of God,” and that woman is “the glory of man.” While Paul does not directly mention marriage here, he is definitely alluding to the creation account where Moses wrote, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’” (Gen. 1:26). Man was made to display the image of God, not as an individual, but as a complementary pair–husband and wife, and as Solomon observed in Prov. 12:4, “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband.” So Paul declares that the woman was created to complement man and serve as his ally in fulfilling his role as God’s representative and ruler on earth. As David Lowery put it, “If a married woman abandoned this complementary role, she also abandoned her glory, and for Paul an uncovered woman’s head gave symbolic expression to that spirit.” There is no room for an insubordinate spirit either in the church or in the home.
Finally, Paul says in v.10 that women should be subordinate to men in the church on account of the angels who observe how God’s wisdom is displayed through the church. Both the translation and meaning of this verse are highly debated and a wide array of solutions have been suggested throughout church history, none of which is without problems. While it is impossible to be dogmatic here, Paul seems to be saying that the church is supposed to display complete submission to God as a testimony to the angels (see Ephesians 3:9-10), and if the women are insubordinate they will mar that intended purpose for the church.
This teaching on the subordinate role of women in the church is certainly open to abuse, so Paul concludes by reminding us that men and women do not exist independently of each other. The woman owes her existence to man, since God made Eve out of Adam’s side; the man owes his existence to woman, since every man is born from a woman’s womb. The principle of subordination does not mean that women are inferior to men, but rather, that men and women are equal before God and find their source in him. And so Paul returns to his original argument, that God is the head over everything; our concern should be for his glory and to follow the order established in creation and displayed in the Godhead. If we learn to appreciate this truth, we will avoid our tendency as men to abuse our headship and as women to resent it and seek liberation from it.