Why do you Headcover all the Time?
I have already shared my Scriptural reason for headcovering and the reasons God gives in His Word for giving us this ordinance. (check older blog posts to read)
“But why do you cover *all the time*?” Is a typical follow up question, and so I want to answer that here.
The short and simple answer is because it is convenient to have one on so that I am always ready to pray or prophesy without stopping to search for a covering. As a busy mama to seven children, I don’t want to be fussing around with putting a covering off and on all day as I need to pray or speak forth Biblical truth to my children or to people the Lord brings into my path who may need encouragement, exhortation, or the Gospel.
It’s Not for Modesty
It isn’t a sin to show your hair or immodest. This passage is not about modesty at all otherwise it would speak of it. Some people try to insert ideas from other religions such as Islam, that the hair is sensual and should only be seen by the husband. This isn’t the way Christian headcovering is spoken of in Scripture. It’s about God’s created order as I’ve shared in previous posts. To believe it is for modesty would be adding to the Scriptures and bringing in ideas from other religions, which we should never do. We should also remember that Mary washed Jesus’ feet with her hair (John 12:3). If showing hair were immodest, then this would’ve been a sinful act, but it was instead commended which would stand to reason that showing female hair is not immodest or immoral.
When does the Bible say we are to cover our heads?
“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.”
I Corinthians 11:4-5 NKJV
This is a very simple reading comprehension question if we are honest, it says when praying or prophesying. It doesn’t say all the time and in every moment. It is only assigned to be worn while praying and prophesying. You can wear it other times, but it’s not a requirement. Just as a man can wear a hat at other times, but should remove it to pray or prophesy.
Prayer
So let’s take this further and ask, when do we pray?
Most of us pray quite often throughout our days. We have a relationship with the Lord, we are abiding in Him and He in us. We talk to Him often because we love Him and need Him.
We also pray in groups, at meals, at church, in the car driving, on a phone call, etc… I believe a woman could keep a covering in her pocket, and put it on when it’s time to pray. I believe a man could wear a hat, and remove it when it’s time to pray.
The Bible commands to pray without ceasing, but I believe this to mean that we are to pray often and consistently. When I’m reading my child her math lesson or picture book, I’m not simultaneously praying, though occasionally we might pray in little moments while doing such a task. “Lord help me be patient with this child and to teach her diligently” might come to my mind in between pages, but it doesn’t always. The same is true while doing many activities that occupy our minds such as writing a grocery list, solving a problem, playing a sport, etc…
Prophesying
I like John MacArthur’s simple definition of the word in his commentary on 1 Corthians 14:24-25 (found in his study Bible). He said prophecy means “to publicly proclaim the Word of God.”
The Scriptures themselves describe prophesying in this way:
“But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.”
I Corinthians 14:3 NKJV
Anytime you are using Scripture or Scriptural truths to edify, exhort, or comfort someone you are prophesying; and if you are a woman then the Spirit says it is shameful for you to do this without covering your head, just as it is shameful for a man to do these things with a covering on his head. I also believe that women should cover when typing or writing forth the Word of God for edification, exhortation, and comfort because that is the same as speaking in my mind. This is my personal conviction on that particular.
Not In Church Only
There are some who believe this commandment only applies to the church meeting because of its appearance in the same chapter as the Lord’s supper which is only done in church meetings. If this is your belief, I want you to know that I respect your interpretation, but I want to ask you to dig in with me here and consider the Scriptures I’m about to share. Our hearts should be to understand and do whatever the Lord commands, not to seek to interpret it as whatever we are most comfortable with. Let’s look at this passage together, specifically noticing the transition sentences.
Transition 1 leading into the headcovering topic:
“Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.”
I Corinthians 11:2-3 NKJV
Paul goes on to explain the reasons for headcovering, and ends the topic with this final sentence.
But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.
Transition sentence 2, leading into the topic of the Lord’s supper:
Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.”
1 Corinthians 11:16-18 NKJV
When Paul first begins the discussion of headcovering he does so by saying “I praise you” and he praises them for keeping the traditions he handed down, which was the practice of the women covering and men uncovering when praying and prophesying. He goes on to explain the symbolism and the reasons for the headcovering tradition. Then he moves to a new subject, and his transition sentence is “when you come together as the church”.
It is not correct in English, Greek, or any other language to assume he meant to apply the context of coming together to his previous paragraph. Here is an example of these exact transition sentences in a different scenario.
If I told my children:
I praise you for being so obedient to me and always saying “yes mama” to my instructions. It’s very important because God’s Word says, “children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.” It is God’s order, and it is good.
But for this I do not praise you, when we are at the grocery store and you beg me for candy, sweet cereal, and chocolate milk. You are being greedy and covetous. You are not behaving like a Christian child.
Does that mean my first few sentences applied to only when we are at the grocery store? Are my children only to say “yes mama” at the grocery store? Of course not. It applies to anytime, grocery store or otherwise. I changed subjects, and I had a transition sentence just like the transition sentence the Holy Spirit through Paul chose to use in His Word about headcovering. The first paragraph is a general praise for their obedience to a command that should be obeyed anytime praying or prophesying, and the second paragraph transitions into a behavioral problem he is not praising them for that specifically happened when they came together as the Church and should’ve been taking the Lord’s supper in an orderly and reverent manner.
Our understanding of when women should cover must also take into account the other commands in Scripture regarding women in church.
Commands to Women in Church
“Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church. Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.”
I Corinthians 14:34-37 NKJV
“Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.”
I Timothy 2:11-14 NKJV
These two passages are specifically in church meeting context. Women can obviously speak in other situations outside of the church meetings. Women can even prophesy outside of church meetings as we see in 1 Corinthians 11 as well as the accounts of Anna the prophetess (Luke 2:36), and Philip the evangelist who had four prophetess daughters (Acts 21: 8-9).
It would stand to reason, since it is shameful for a woman to even ask a question in church meetings, but instead should ask her husband at home, that she would not be prophesying in the church meetings.
So, where would she prophesy?
Outside of the church.
And if she should cover her head when she is prophesying, then she would cover her head outside of the church.
Cover in Church as Well
I do believe women should cover in the church as well because it is a time of prayer to the Lord, we should be in prayer throughout our time of worshipping with the Saints. The hymns we sing should be prayers of worship from our hearts, as the men pray lifting holy hands the women should be praying in agreement in their hearts, and as the men speak and teach the women should be praying for the Lord to speak through them and responding in prayer and confession to the things they learn, also as the Lord’s supper is being taken it should be a time of prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord for His sacrifice. So the covering should be worn in church, but with the context of these other Scriptures we can also see that it should be worn outside of the church anytime the woman is praying or prophesying.
The Passage is Clear
It truly is much more clear than people try to make it. I think much of the confusion is due to our flesh, the culture, and the many disobedient Christians who explain this passage away using terrible hermeneutics that they would never seek to use in other portions of Scripture. Many are okay covering in church only because it is more comfortable to cover around our church members, it is uncomfortable to cover out in the world with friends, family, and co-workers. It is harder, but let’s just let the text say what it says and seek to obey it even if it is hard.
To be honest, the Bible talks about obedience bringing much more difficult things than funny looks, snide remarks, and people judging you. Obedience to the Word can in certain cultures and times bring physical persecution, imprisonment, torture, and death. If we can’t obey in the smaller things, what makes us believe we will obey in the bigger things. As God said to Israel,
““If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, In which you trusted, they wearied you, Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?”
Jeremiah 12:5 NKJV
I believe we as true Israel (Romans 9:6-8), should also consider this truth now. If we can not stand on truth when it is simply thought of as odd or strange, how will we stand on truth when it means jail, taking our children, and possibly being put to death.
I know this is not easy for the flesh, but we are called to put to death the deeds of the flesh.
“For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Romans 8:13 NKJV
