Bible Challenge #29

1 Corinthians 11:1-16

1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Head Coverings

2 Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. 3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife[a] is her husband,[b] and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, 5 but every wife[c] who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. 6 For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. 7 For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.[d] 11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; 12 for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God. 13 Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, 15 but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. 16 If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.

This is a passage that can often be difficult or scary because it seems to be so contrary to our current cultural understanding of the relationship between men and women. However, we need not approach difficult Bible passages with fear. When we read this passage we must notice that Paul is giving us two different points of information. First, Paul is giving us a principle. Second, Paul applies that principle to the Corinthian church. The principle is what we also need to follow, but the application may change from culture to culture.

But what is the principle? The principle is that there is an order of submission to follow for the church to be reverently worshiping God. This order starts with God the Son submitting to God the Father, then men submit to God the Son, then women submit to men. However, this is not every woman to every man (only wife submitting to husband, who in turn is submitting to God and to church leadership who is submitting to God), and the Bible is clear that any principle of biblical submission only applies to the family and to the church, this does not speak in any way to the workplace or to the governance of society.

Important caveats aside, we have to acknowledge that this principle is foreign and even hostile to the way our current culture sees the world. However, our culture knows there is some level of submission right? No one would seriously argue that a 5 year old shouldn’t submit to their parents, or that a student shouldn’t have to submit to their teachers’ rules and how they grade. But here is the breakdown, our culture cannot understand that equals can CHOOSE to submit to one another. The issue is that our culture thinks that if someone has ANY authority over me, I must not be their equal (and even those in the church can easily fall victim to this, we were raised in this culture after all).

The good news is that this isn’t true!! Look at our example above. Jesus submits to God the Father, but they are one and the same person, they can’t get any more equal! So this is the fundamental principle Paul is teaching, that there is an order of submission among equals between men and women, just like with God the Father and God the Son. They are unified in dignity, value, worth, and mission, but have different roles to carry out that mission.

Then we get into the confusing bit where Paul applies the principle for the Corinthian church (they have a history of misunderstanding his teachings so he applies it for them), and in their culture head coverings meant two different things for men and women. For men, only the social and religious elite wore head coverings, and only for special times. Hence, for a man to wear a head covering would be placing himself above the others in the church, when in reality they are all submitted to God and to the church leadership who are in turn submitted to God. Therefore, a man shouldn’t wear a head covering. Alternatively, for women a head covering in their culture signified that they were a married woman and were saying I am with my husband. Therefore, under Paul’s principle of an order of submission then it makes perfect sense in that culture for the women to wear head coverings.

Also, don’t miss the key point that this is only even a problem because BOTH men and women are praying and prophesying in the church (verse 5). This is extremely uncommon for that time and culture, and shows an equality across gender lines that was unheard of for that period.

Anyways, so we must follow the principle, but the application may change. For our culture, the application has certainly changed. We simply don’t wear head coverings, and if we do it is a matter of style and not a commentary on gender roles. In fact, I would argue that there is no way in our culture to indicate authority or submission by appearance. In that case, it then comes to each Christian to do their best to faithfully apply this principle in their life.

However, I think because of the confusing part of this passage (verses 2-10), we often miss the most important part of this passage. Paul knows that people are evil, and he knows they are going to twist what he just said to promote inequality between men and women, or to try and force submission as a duty, rather than taking his actual meaning which is equality with submission by choice. So he includes this reminder in verse 11-12…

Men and women cannot exist without the other! We need each other. Paul uses the fact that this is reproductively true to illustrate that it is also true in the family and in the church. Every family and every church needs men AND women using the fullness of their gifts from God, serving and leading, teaching and learning. Because if we don’t have both, we cannot accomplish what God has planned for our families or for our church. God has put us in our families and in our church for this specific time for a reason. Let that be a rallying cry for us, and let us focus on how we can best follow the principle that Paul is teaching rather than getting bogged down in an application that no longer applies to our current culture.