So to pick up where we left off in our last post, if we can make an educated and thoughtful guess at what Paul meant by “because of the angels”, we would do well to notice that Paul immediately precedes “because of the angels” with God’s divinely designed ordering of roles, and submission/obedience to those roles. In other words, it seems that what angels are meant to learn through the practice explained in this passage has something to do with headship, submission, obedience to God’s design.
If we are going to “judge the angels” as Paul mentions earlier in this same letter (6:3), then we are reminded that even angels can sin and trespass the bounds set for them by God (sometimes I imagine angels as beings who are incapable of sin–not so!). The Deceiver, the devil, a fallen angel himself, at some point unknown to us in the course of time, chose to abandon God’s lot for him, arrogantly going his own way and working to turn as many as possible to his miserable way. And he has his own angels, according to Revelation 12:7 (where John writes of the archangel’s battle against Satan and his angels). Jude writes of their doom:
“And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling–these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.” (Jude 6)
Though details are unknown to us, we know that even angels can trespass! Satan somehow convinced angels to grow discontent with their “positions of authority”, their “proper dwelling”. And somehow Satan convinces us to do the same! From the beginning, this has been the devil’s tried-and-(un)true scheme–to sow discontent in the heart of another, causing him, or her, to trespass the bounds set for him, or her, by God. It worked in the Paradise of Eden, it works today in a fallen world, and it has worked even in the heavens among angels.
God has set for us bounds in various categories of our lives. Our gender roles are only one of those categories where an ordering exists. But it is a category which we could argue is under greater attack today than ever before. The world continues to suppress the truth by its wickedness even in an area which should be so clear–our gender! The prince of this world, the ruler of “this present darkness”, makes men and women to believe: “I don’t have to do, or be, anything I don’t want. I deserve the right to anything I desire. No one can tell me what to do or who to be. I am entitled to anything I set my heart after,” and other such beliefs.
But we who belong to God believe other truths. We submit ourselves to His words of truth. Does He have any opinion on one of the most basic characteristics with which He has, in His image, designed us–our distinction as male and female? If so, shouldn’t we “tremble at his word”, as we do with all words He gives us?
Before the Silver Cord is Severed 