The Reasons for Headcovering
In the last post I explained that in verses one and two of 1 Corinthians 11, Paul was encouraging them to imitate him as he imitated Christ, and praising them for keeping this tradition that was handed down to him by Jesus. I explained that Jesus gave commandments to his apostles which they were to hand down to His church to be practiced and obeyed. To read more about that and see those Scriptural references, check out the introductory post Why I Headcover.
Paul then goes on to explain the reasons for this apostolic tradition. Let’s look together.
Reason 1: God’s Ordained Order
“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. 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 woman is the glory of man.”
I Corinthians 11:3-7 NKJV
Paul explains here that the man is to pray and prophesy with his head uncovered and the woman with her head covered because of God’s ordained order of headship. It is what God has deemed as proper. The head of man is Christ, and man is the head of woman. We then see a referral to the Trinity, the head of Christ is God. I think it’s important to pause here and combat the lie that feminism tries to feed us women, that the headship concept in the Bible is saying women are unimportant, less than, or insignificant in some way because they are under man. To make that statement you would also have to believe the Bible is saying Jesus is insignificant, less than, and unimportant because God is His head. And that is blasphemous because Christ and the Father are one, and all things have been placed under the feet of Jesus. He is King and He is reigning. He is clearly not insignificant in any way. So being under headship is not a slight, it’s simply God’s ordained order. I do plan to write more about Biblical submission in the context of marriage in the future, that isn’t the main point of this post so I don’t want to get side-tracked there. Let’s get back to the command and reasons for headcovering.
The woman is to cover her head because she is the glory of man. It is so improper in the eyes of the Lord for the woman to pray and prophesy uncovered that it is the same as if her beautiful hair was shaved off. A woman with a covering on her head is seemly before the Lord. It isn’t something we should question, it is God who gets to decide what is proper and good. It is for us to humbly agree with Him and obey.
Now let me clarify something for my sisters who do not currently cover, although I believe this truth with all my heart, I want you to know that I do not believe this is the basis on which we have right standing before the Lord. If you are in Christ it is not because you do or don’t cover your head, it’s because Christ’s perfect righteous works were given to you, and the punishment for your unrighteous works were bore by Him on the cross. That’s the basis of our salvation, and that’s the reason we can come before the Lord in prayer at all. I believe the Lord hears your prayers, covered or uncovered. I believe He dearly loves His children covered or uncovered, because again, that love isn’t based on our works, but I don’t think this comforting truth is the place that a true child of God throws up their hands and says, “see it’s not by works, so we don’t really need to try to understand this passage and obey it”. That isn’t the heart of the truly born again child of God. If we love Him, we will want to obey Him. So even if you do not interpret this passage the way that I do, please press on in this post prayerfully, and see if the Lord may change your thoughts on it. Growing in obedience is a wonderful thing, but that often times requires us to admit that we were thinking wrongly about it before we can actually turn and do what is right. This is because of God’s ordained order of headship, it is important to Him, and should be important to us.
Reason 2: God’s Creation Order
“For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.
I Corinthians 11:7-9 NKJV
Here we see that God’s ordained order is reflected in the order in which He created. He created man first in His image and glory. Then He created woman from the body of the man. The woman was created for the man, to be a helper suitable. Man is not to cover because he is the image and glory of God, take note that this isn’t just a commandment for women to cover, but first it is a commandment for men to not cover when praying or prophesying. It’s funny how many people will accept the first commandment given to men, and yet reject the second one given to women. I live in the south, and growing up it was no surprise for me at all to hear the words, “We’re about to pray, men please remove your hats.” It’s my hope that one day it will become common for us to hear among Christians, “We’re about to pray, men remove your hats, women cover your heads.” Honestly, that is beautiful to me, and I believe based on this Scripture that it’s beautiful to the Lord.
Reason 3: Because of the Angels
“For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.”
I Corinthians 11:10
Now most people at this point begin to ask, “What do angels have to do with this?”
I believe this is important to angels because they themselves are a part of God’s ordained order: when they come before the presence of the Lord they cover themselves with their wings as a sign of submission and humility before the Lord.
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!””
Isaiah 6:1-3 NKJV
Lucifer was once a covering cherub, but as you will see in the Scriptures below, he did not keep His proper order in creation. He exalted himself in the presence of God.
““Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created. “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. “By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you.”Ezekiel 28:12-17 NKJV
““How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.”
Isaiah 14:12-15 NKJV
Covering is a sign of submission to proper creation order. Lucifer was suppose to be a covering cherub, but instead of keeping his proper place of submission before the throne of God, he exalted himself. He corrupted his wisdom for the sake of his splendor. There is a pattern in the Scriptures of covering being linked with submission, humility, and reverence. The angels covered themselves and submitted perfectly to God. We as women cover our heads and seek to submit to the men God has placed over us in the churches and in our homes. If angels who are able to be in the presence of the Most High, and who do His will are to cover themselves, and Satan who exalts himself and tries to makes himself like God is connected to this commandment taught here in 1 Corinthians 11 ; I think we would do well not to exalt ourselves above man or above this command to the churches, lest we be like Satan and bring reproach on our head. We are to submit to God’s ordained order of the man being the head of woman, and because of this the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, and the man ought to not cover his head because he is the image and glory of God. This is important to the angels, and it should be important to us.
The angels are watching us in awe of the Lord’s redemptive plan taking place on the earth and in heaven. We are being watched and put on display to these amazing creatures to display God’s glory to them. This is a tremendous honor that we should take seriously.
“To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.”
I Peter 1:12 NKJV
“For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.”
I Corinthians 4:9 NKJV
“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”
Revelation 3:5 NKJV
Not Cultural
First of all, God’s ordained order from creation does not change with the culture. Angels also do not change with the culture. Angels don’t have one opinion in the early church in Corinth and another in the modern church in America, because their opinion on the matter is informed by God’s standard, not man’s. In light of the reasons Paul gives for the headcovering, the cultural argument really holds no weight if you want to have honest and consistent Biblical hermeneutics. To say the Headcovering commandment is cultural would open the door to make women elders and homosexuality a cultural matter as well, which many false churches have done. It’s a slippery slope when we start deciding what parts of God’s Word apply to us, and which ones we can ignore because times have changed.
Many reformed Christians believe the headcovering was cultural, and that today we use wedding rings, and that the rings fulfill obedience to this commandment. The idea that a wedding ring could be the same as a headcovering is obviously nowhere in Scripture, it’s simply a strange fire idea similar to Nadab and Abihu’s. A man or woman who did not want to obey God’s clear written words decided to bring before the Lord wedding rings as their symbol of submission to God’s ordained order in creation. Do you think He will accept that as obedience, or is it sin to decide for ourselves that we will worship God in a different way than He has revealed in His Word? Furthermore, the wedding ring idea is inconsistent with the Scriptural command because in our culture both the man and the woman wear rings, to make it a one to one, the woman would wear it and the man would not, but I think it’s clear that wedding rings simply do not fit the covering commandment. I wear a wedding ring, and do not believe it to be sin, but it is not a replacement for a Headcovering. 1 Corinthians 11 goes on to give instructions for the Lord’s Supper. No church practicing solid Biblical interpretation would say because of culture we can use Dunkin’ donut holes and coffee in place of the bread and wine since that’s what our culture has at gatherings. We can’t invent our own way to worship God based on our sinful culture, especially when He has clearly outlined the way He desires for us to do it, and His reasons such as His ordained order, His creation order, and the angels completely transcend culture.
Not just for Married Women
Many wrongly believe that the Headcovering command only pertains to married women because of the command in other portions of Scripture for wives to submit to their husbands, but this command is for the creation order being honored in the church as well as the home. There are a hand full of commands pertaining to women’s behavior in the church gatherings and they are just as applicable for crossreference for understanding this passage as the ones about wives submitting to husbands.
Here are a few of those commandments given to the churches:
“And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.”
I Timothy 2:12 NKJV
“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.”
I Corinthians 14:34-35 NKJV
Notice Paul said, “As the law also says”, he is referring to Genesis in the Torah. This is because of creation order, the same thing Paul appeals to explaining headcovering: because the man was created first, and the woman was created for man.
“For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.”
I Corinthians 11:7-9 NKJV
For the sake of brevity, I won’t be able to expound on 1 Corinthians 11:11-12, but here is a little homework assignment you could pursue on your own if you are interested in digging in more. Compare these passages with 1 Timothy 2:8-15 and notice the correlations and similarities. God is a God of order, and His ways are good.
“Let all things be done decently and in order.”
I Corinthians 14:40 NKJV
One more thought on this commandment not being just for wives:
The ESV translation has complicated people’s understanding of this concept also because they took a liberty they should not have to translate the Greek word for “woman” as “wife” in 1 Corinthians 11 in certain places and leave the same Greek word as “woman” in other parts of 1 Corinthians 11. This was their own interpretation coming out in the passage and not a faithful translation. I believe it is a wrong interpretation when I look at the context of the other commands given to the church concerning men and women such as the ones I quoted above. This is not a passage primarily about marriage, it is about creation order which will be shown in both the church and the home. This is another little homework assignment you can do: download the Blue Letter Bible app and use it to examine the Greek words for “woman” and for “covering”.
I know this was meaty, but I hope it was helpful!
My next post will be an explanation of the portion of the passage which refers to what nature teaches us by the length of a woman’s hair. Many have wrongly taken this portion of the passage to contradict everything Paul just plainly said, but that interpretation simply can not fit the text and I will explain that. So subscribe by email, or sign up for notifications on IG or FB, or check back in the next few weeks as we continue to examine 1 Corinthians 11 and this beautiful commandment together.
