The Divine Order: Illustrated by Custom

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11:3 that life works best with Christ in authority over man, a husband in authority over his wife (cf. Ephesians 5:22) and God in authority over Christ. This is the divine order. Now the apostle Paul knew that some of the Corinthians would get the wrong idea about the divine order, so he gave them five illustrations to make his meaning clear. In this post we'll look at his fifth illustration.

Illustration #5: Custom

Paul wraps up his teaching about the divine order in 1 Corinthians 11:16 where he writes, “If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.” By “we” Paul means all the other apostles. Paul is saying: All the other apostles (i.e. Peter, James, John, etc.) all teach the same thing - that God has instituted a divinely established order that we ought to recognize and fall in line with.

For example, the apostle Peter taught the same thing as Paul. Peter writes in 1 Peter 3:1, "...you wives must accept the authority of your husbands." Then in v.7 he says "...you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life." You see - men and women are equal but they have different roles according to God's divine order. So Paul's point is - I'm not the only guy teaching this! This is what all the apostles teach because this is what the Bible teaches so don't give me a hard way to go on this.

In light of the divine order being illustrated in 1) the Trinity, 2) Creation, 3) the Angels, 4) Nature and 5) Church Custom and Practice we ought not to rebel against God's divine order, rather embrace it and abide by it, for the Bible teaches it's the way life works best.