Daily Devotional
The Headship Of The Family

January 19, 2017

First Corinthians 11:3 says, “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” What is Paul talking about here? First, let me tell you what he’s not talking about, and that is superiority or inferiority. Instead, Paul is talking about headship.

Football provides a great analogy about this issue. Years ago, I was a quarterback on my high school football team. And if you know anything about football, you know that the quarterback calls the plays.

Now, does that mean the quarterback is the best player on the team? Well, I certainly wasn’t. But I can tell you who probably was. His name was Ned and he played fullback. Now, he was an incredible athlete. But, I tell you something—Ned did not call the plays.

What I’m trying to say is this: somebody has got to call the plays. A team can’t run two plays at one time, wouldn’t you agree? Well, I guess you could, but it wouldn’t work. You’ve got to have somebody call the play! If the quarterback calls a good play and you score a touchdown, everyone cheers. If it’s a bad play, the quarterback gets blamed.

Now, I can hand the ball off to a fullback, but it’s still my responsibility as the quarterback to call the play. It doesn’t mean that I am superior. It just simply means that there is leadership. In the same way, God has ordained that there be headship in the family.