“What’s That On My Head?” Head Covering
Judges 13:1-5 Acts 18:1-18: 1 Corinthians 1:1-16
Genesis 1:27-30 Genesis 2:18-23
How do the instructions Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 11 on head coverings apply to us today in the church and what was the point of the discussion?
Let’s talk about football for a moment. On November 21 at 8:15pm the Cleveland Browns play the Pittsburgh Steelers. If you don’t mind I want to say a prayer for the players. (Put on a Cleveland Browns Hat) Lord, bless the players on the Cleveland team, protect them from injuries and help them to do their best.
(Put on a Steelers hat) If you don’t mind I want to say a prayer for the Steeler players. Lord, bless the players on the Steelers team, protect them from injuries and help them to do their best. Now did I sin in praying the same prayer for both teams?
We have been doing a sermon series on the book of 1 Corinthians. The book is written by the Apostle Paul. Paul writes this letter in part, to answer some questions that the believers in the city of Corinth had sent to him. We don’t have that other letter, so at times it is difficult to know if Paul is quoting their question, and then giving a response to it or if Paul is giving instructions on his own. We do know that Paul was providing teachings to correct some of the problems going on in the church.
The bible is not one book, but 66 books put together. The best way to understand the Bible, also called the Scriptures, or the word of God, is to compare what it says in one section with what it says in another section to stay spiritually balanced. If there appears to be a contradiction in the teachings of Scripture, then it probably has to do with the reality that we do not understand all that is taking place in a passage.
Context of a passage is very important. By context I mean who said it, why was it said, where was it said, when was it said, how was it said and what was said before it and after it. Not everything that is written in the Bible is true. The bible clearly says,” if you eat a certain fruit, you can become as wise as God and you will not die.”
The context of that passage however, is that it was said by Satan, in order to trick Adam and Eve into sinning against God. The context lets us know, that even though it is found in the word of God, it is clearly a lie. So don’t waste your time trying to find out where that fruit is or what kind of fruit it was.
The person who is reading a Scripture passage is also bringing their own context to the Scripture of how they think something should be understood. Certain words in a scripture passage are given a meaning that are not in the text. The person’s own culture and experiences in life, influences how they read a text. It may differ vastly from how the text should be read.
Few things have caused more division in the body of Christ than these 16 verses in chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians. Let’s look at this passage together to gain a greater insight to what Paul is saying. It’s okay if we don’t all come to the same conclusion. I’m just asking for us to be honest thinkers about the passage and not read more into something, than is actually there.
Paul begins with a word of praise for the Corinthians. He had just ended chapter 10 with a plea to not cause other believers to stumble by our actions. He openly acknowledges that believers will sometimes see things differently that are not essential to our faith and salvation and that’s okay. We still have the same Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
In verse 11:2 he writes: 2 “I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you.”
Now Paul commends them for following something he has explained to them before. We do not know which traditions that he is referring to, but the Corinthians know exactly what he’s talking about. Some people will read this verse, and assume that Paul is talking about the passage which is to follow is one of the traditions Paul is speaking of in verse 2. But Paul never says that.
In fact in the NIV and ESV verse 3 starts with the word, “But” which seems to be something different from the traditions mentioned in verse 2. Paul now has to deal with something the Corinthians had asked him about concerning men and women and worshipping together. Verse 3 says 3” But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.”
We bring our culture to this passage, and immediately read into it that the man is in charge of the woman and the woman should listen to what he says because he is listening to Christ. The only problem with this interpretation is that it gives bad theology. It would follow that God is ruling over Christ, which cannot be, because the Father, The Son, & The Holy Spirit are co-equal and are always mutually submissive to each other.
The Greek word used here for head is Kephale. The words translated “head of” can mean originof, source of, or authority. If we use the meaning “origin of” instead of “head of” then the passage becomes more in line with the teachings of Scripture and what Paul is going to say later on in this passage. The Bible in the book of Genesis tells us that God created Eve out of the side of Adam. The man therefore was the source of the woman. Colossians 1:16 tells us that it was through Christ that all things were created. Therefore Christ was the source of the man.
When Christ the Messiah, come into the world, in John 8:42 Jesus himself declares “I have come from the Father” indicating that the Father is his source. If the translators had chosen the word “origin of or source of” instead of “head” it would have made for a more consistent theological interpretation for each of the relationships mentioned in the passage.
Now what follows next is somewhat of a mystery because it is virtually impossible to tell if Paul is taking quotes from the Corinthians’ letter or if Paul is laying down some new teachings. Both views have strengths and weaknesses. Let’s try to look at each verse as it is and sees where it takes us in light of what the Bible teaches in other places.
We do know that the Corinthians were having problems with their worship services and how men and women should respond to each other in worship. The Corinthian church was made up of believers from different religious backgrounds and some of the things people were bringing to worship was found to be very offensive to others.
Some of it was sinful, but some of it was not. Some people were getting drunk at the Lord’s table. What does that tell you about the difference in the way we take communion and the way they were doing it? Not everything the various parts of the body of Christ does, is to be done forever or by all believers.
Verse 4 says. 4 “Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head.”
Remember I asked you if I had sinned when I prayed for the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers. How many of you were honestly thinking, how dare Pastor Rick pray for any football team with his head covered, dishonoring Christ like that?
You may have been upset that I prayed for the Steelers, but it wasn’t because of the hat on my head. We read this and see it is a cultural thing. Some of us come from a tradition in which men take off their hats inside of a building, but it doesn’t bring us closer or push us further away from God one way of the other. It just annoys us they didn’t take it off.
Verse 5-6 says 5 But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. 6 For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head.
We do not know what question the Corinthians asked Paul about concerning a covering for a woman’s head. We also do not know the historical context of it’s meaning. NT scholars at lot smarter than me have said there are 3 options here for a covered head: 1) that she was not wearing a veil; (2) that she was not wearing a shawl or true head covering; or (3) that her hair was loosened and hanging down.
We as Americans have interpreted this to mean that women should wear hats to church. In the African American Church, women often wore large and small elaborate hats to conform to this passage. Others have said you need a little basket on the top of your head. Still others have said just a little white dolly attached with a pin will do.
All of this would have been foreign to the believers in Corinth and not apply to their situation. There was a cultural problem going on in Corinth that was causing a disturbance in worship over the issue of a woman’s hair. No other church Paul writes to in the Bible has anything to do with making sure a woman’s head is covered in worship. The closest thing we have is Paul telling Timothy to tell the women in Ephesus to dress modestly in 1 Timothy 2:9-10.
Paul is not teaching it is a disgrace for a woman to cut her hair of to have her head shaved. He’s saying, “if it is a disgrace in Corinth for a woman to have her hair cut, or her head shaved, just like I told you concerning meat sacrificed to idols, do as much as you can to get along with each other in love.
If one of you ladies went to a Muslim country and served as a missionary that would be great. Though you may have a right to wear the same clothing you wear to Bridge City Church, it would not be helpful to the church there for you to do so. You would be most helpful conforming to the dress of the women in the country so as not to be a stumbling block.
What really throws this verse into confusion is that Paul also takes the side of women who don’t want to wear some item for a covering as well. He lets the Corinthians know if the issue for you is really a covering, he says in verse 15 that her long hair by itself is a covering.
I have strong reservations about the next few verses. They seem more like a quote from the Corinthian letter, than they do the regular teachings of Paul, but let’s take a go at them.
Verses 11:7 A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.
I am not sure of the argument being made in this verse because it is referring back to creation. Yet when you look at Genesis 1:27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Which affirms that men and women are created in the image of God. We also have the Scriptures telling us that anyone in Christ has become a new creation. Galatians 3:28 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Somehow the Corinthian church has difficulty working out male and female relationships in worship. Paul does not define what he means by the word “glory” in this passage when he says woman is the “glory of man.” Since the argument revolves around creation, the only thing I can come up is when God brought Eve To Andam.
When Adam first saw Eve, he said something like “Wow God! -this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. In other words this is something that looks like me, but not quite, cause it looks a whole lot better.”
The point that is being missed in the discussion is why the head covering is being talked about in worship in the first place. The head covering in Corinth is what gave women in their worship service the same right to pray and to prophesy as the men were doing.
We put the emphasis on the covering as an act of submission to men when in reality it is an act elevating women to equal status to speak in the church.
Verses 10-12 say 10 It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. 12 For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.
I have no idea what the angels have to do with this discussion. After reading several possible explanations, I’m convinced that nobody else does either. Yet after going through the argument of creation, Paul turns around and says, don’t get caught up in who came first in creation and who came out of who. Because after the initial creation, everything was reversed. Every man since then has a woman as his origin or his source. The important thing is that we all come from God.
In verse 13, Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering.
The true message of the Gospel is eternal and is for every person, in every culture, in every time period. If the message of Christ’s love, life, death and resurrection is not applicable to every culture, then it is not the universal message of the God who created the heavens and the earth.
For the bible clearly states that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Paul is dealing with what is going on in worship in the city of Corinth in the first century.
Is Paul telling the Corinthians to judge for themselves whether or not it is proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Would he give the church at Ephesus or Galatia or America the same opportunity to judge the matter themselves?
What is the proper length for a man’s hair to be. How long is long? Which culture gets to decide the correct length of a man’s hair.
Since a man should not cover his head, would it not be more spiritual for men to have bald heads. I can remember in the 70’s when my hair looked like it was about an inch high. But if I put a hot comb to it, out came this afro about 3 inches high.
Is long hair really a disgrace to a man. Well not if you made a sacred Nazirite vow. This was a vow you made to God for a period of time, and you were not to cut your hair during that time period. Does anybody remember the Nazirite Samson who was never ever to cut off his hair? When he got rid of his long hair, the Spirit of God left him.
Absalom was another man praised in Scripture for his exceedingly long hair and how much it weighed. He had to cut his hair once a year because it was too heavy for him to carry around.
What is meant by long-hair for women? Again how long should long be? Whose culture is going to get to decide that? Where does practicality and spirituality come together on this issue? Do you really believe if a woman would let her hair grow by two more inches she would become more spiritual than she was before or if she cut two inches off it would drain her of spiritual power and strength.
When Paul talks about the nature of things, he is not talking about looking at nature itself. He’s talking about looking at the customs, propriety, and the way one’s culture operates. He is recognizing there are two sexes, men and women. There are distinctions among them that should not always be obliterated.
Paul’s whole point has been about not bringing distractions into the worship service, and how we should get along with each other when we have a difference of opinion over something that is not defined as sin in the Scriptures. We should give up some of our rights in order to maintain the unity of the Spirit. Just because we are free to do something, does not mean that we should always do it, regardless of where we are.
Paul writes in verse 16, 16 If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.
Some of us read this verse with our own lens and conclude that Paul is saying, if you want to argue about this, that’s on you. But in every church I’ve been in, the women wear head coverings and the men keep their hair short and never wear a hat in church. All the women do their best to have long hair.
I think Paul is saying, “I’m not going to argue with anyone over this matter. The goal is to have a worship service that is pleasing to God and done in an orderly meaningful fashion. That means sometimes things are not going to go the way we would like for them to go. This is my position and its what the other churches follow as well.
This was a serious issue for the Corinthian Church, but it does not have to be a serious issue for every generation of believers. I recall a day when people were so concerned about the food they ate and whether it would make them unclean to eat it.
Jesus said, “it’s not the food going to the stomach that makes them unclean. It’s the stuff that comes out of the heart that defiles them.” Jesus warned the Pharisees against looking perfect on the outside, but being full of everything unclean on the inside.
It’s dangerous at times to measure a person’s spirituality by how well they conform to an appearance standard that we have set up. It’s dangerous to ourselves because we begin to trust in ourselves for our spiritual growth rather than trusting in God. You can read all four gospels and you will never once read about Jesus insisting on a woman having the proper head covering. You will find Jesus, using women to spread his message around the world. What’s that on top of your head.
I want you to know that it doesn’t matter nearly as much as what is sitting on the top of your heart today and what kind of a heart do you have. Jesus wants to transform you from the inside out by giving you a new heart and a new way of looking at the world. External put-ons can never replace the healing and cleansing power of the Holy Spirit that is available to all who choose to put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
