Every man praying or
prophesying,
having his head
covered,
dishonors his head.
But every woman who
prays or prophesies
with her head
uncovered dishonors her head,
for that is one and
the same as if her head were shaved.
For if a woman is not
covered, let her also be shorn.
But if it is shameful
for a woman to be shorn
or shaved, let her be
covered. For a man indeed
ought not to cover
his head, since he is the image
and glory of God; but
the woman is the glory of man.
1 Corinthians 11: 4
-- 7
If there is
any portion of Scripture that has caused much division and gave birth to
several various doctrines, this is certainly one of those divisive and
misunderstood portions of Scripture.
This is a place were a little history will give us some understanding of
why Paul wrote the way he did and how we are to apply what he wrote in our
congregations and in our worship of our God.
It was customary in the eastern cities, especially we find such
practices of covering in the Islamic religions, and in other religions, and
also for the Greeks that women were to cover their heads in public or otherwise
be accepted as the women of immoral character. Corinth was a center of false religion and full of temple
prostitutes who were not covering their heads and now had come into the
congregation and were taking advantage of this new-found Christian liberty. Even those who were custom to wearing veils
began to lay aside their veils in church meetings and horrified the more
modest Christian. Paul is telling them
not to defy public opinion as to what was considered proper and feminine
decorum. We live in a world where there
is clamor over the need for the empowerment of women as though this somehow
will make them equal to men. Let us get
this one thing straight: in the sight of God, men and women are of equal
value! Yet we must not misunderstand,
there are certain natural distinctions between women and men and if not
human society could not exist.
Christian women, living in human societies, should be cautious in their
innovations, lest they bring reproach on their religion. It is bad generally when women to come too be
much like men. Yet this is what we see
being promoted by the media by education that somehow particularly since
"NOW" movement began to make every effort to empower women as though
women did not already have an equal position with men. This is not to say that there was not abuse
by men against women and those abuses needed to be addressed and were addressed
and yet there are still some other areas in which women must be addressed as to
their equality with men. In addressing
equality between men and women we must not forget that God has placed for us to
see, read, and adhere to His metric and that metric is that Jesus Christ is
the head of all, especially the head of man, and man is the head of woman. Now, if we are in the image of Jesus Christ
then we must understand that being that head means that we also love as Jesus
Christ loved. We are not to hold
superiority over a woman, no! We are
told to love our wife: "Husbands,
love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for
her" (Ephesians 5:25). While
God provided a metric, that is his economy for those whom he created he also
gave us the foundation by which we are to operate in that metric. So we come to this place where Paul
rebukes the woman for praying or prophesying uncovered, or that the man was
covering his head. So how are we to
understand these words of Paul? First
covering was a mark or token of subjection, in the eastern countries, contrary
to the custom of others, were being covered is a sign of superiority and
dominion. If a man prays or prophesies
with his head covered, he then is dishonoring his Head, and that Head is Jesus
Christ, and to do so then makes one appear unsuitable to the rank in which God
has placed him. Now, here is an
important point for both men and women including children; we should, even in
our dress and habit, avoid everything that may dishonor Jesus Christ. There is proper dress for each and every
occasion and yet there seems to be a type of liberality that was occurring in
the Corinthian church in regard to head covering and the fact that both men and
women began to do things that which were improper. This liberality found in the Corinthian church in regard to dress
can be found in our churches today.
Where people think that it is proper to dress as though they're getting
ready to go to some picnic, some party, even wearing shorts, shower shoes, and
women dressing with breast sticking out so that they can be seen in such an
immodest manner as though it does not matter.
It seems as though they can dress in a suit and tie or in a modest
manner, for the women particularly, when they go before the president of the
United States, or when their work requires such progress Monday through Friday,
find it unreasonable to put a suit and tie on when they go to a public church
service. The principal Paul is laying
out is that we should take care that how we dress does not bring reproach upon
the Church and Christianity as a whole.
But the attitude is; "don't tell me how I can dress!" Furthermore, they say: "how I dress
does not indicate whether or not I have faith in Jesus Christ!" Let me make sure that you fully understand;
I am not here to tell a person how to dress or to demand dress in a certain
manner. My goal is that all that we do
like changing from the inside/out is that we think first and foremost as to
whether or not our lives are actually in the image of our Savior Jesus
Christ. Are we denying ourselves even
though we may have the right to do certain things, such as dress even though
the manner in which we dress does not show our humility and dressed properly
helping others to see that we hold Jesus Christ as the Head of our life. Somehow, we must have it our way; no matter
what, no matter what has been said. And
no matter what Scripture teaches. Who
holds the priority in your life?
My son, give attention to my words;
incline
your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them depart from your eyes;
keep them
in the midst of your heart;
for they are in life to those who find them,
and health to all their flesh.
Keep your heart and with all diligence,
for out of
it springs the issues of life.
Psalm
4:20 -- 23
Preserve discretion
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