1Cor 11:3-9 | KingComments | STEP | . Paul says that we should imitate him, just as he also imitated Christ. How he did that, he said in the last verse of the previous chapter. His aim was to win many people for Christ. In no way he wanted to be a hindrance for people to accept the gospel. In this way Paul imitated his Lord and you can imitate Paul in your turn. . Paul already had given a lot of exhortations. That was necessary. We also need to be exhorted. But yet there is also something for which he praises them. The Corinthians have not forgotten him, they even remembered him in everything. That has pleased him. Besides that, they kept the traditions just as he delivered them to them. He really appreciated that. You can also look positively at the fact that he had to correct them in their way of dealing with these traditions, like the Lord’s Supper, about which he speaks later in this chapter. The positive thing is not to justify the wrong, but it is the fact that they were approachable. He could correct them in their wrong doings and trust that they would listen to him. Anyway, Paul saw good things with the Corinthians. . Then he speaks about an issue that currently is one of the most widely discussed matters, namely the role of man and woman in everyday life. In the world around you, things are dealt with quite differently than what you read in the first part of this chapter. You may even have to reread it several times before you get a clear mind on that. The ranking which is indicated in has been totally done away with in the world around you. God and Christ, people do not believe in. And the thought of the man as the head of the woman is totally out of fashion and wrong so that people make every effort to destroy this thought. I said that indicates a ranking. I mean this: God is at the head, then Christ, then the man and then the woman. To many people the impression arises because of this ranking – and that is what people vehemently oppose – as if the woman is just dangling at the bottom of this list and therefore has the position of being neglected totally. But that is absolutely not the case! Paul actually refers to the creation of man and woman. There you see that the man is created first and that the woman originates from him. She came out of his side, which means as one who is placed at his side. The man is the head of creation, but he himself also has a Head above him and that is Christ. He is responsible to Him. In all things he needs to ask his Head how to behave himself toward his wife, in the family, in society and in the church. Christ is not only his Head, but also his Example, for you read that the Head of Christ is God. That of course doesn’t refer to Christ as the eternal Son, but to Him as Man. As Man the Lord Jesus has fully subjected Himself to the will of God. ‘To be subjected to’ may sound quite subservient, but it is about a position of submission toward another person. By paying attention to his Head, Christ, a man can be ‘head’ of the woman in a right way. In that way he will not manage her, but he will instruct her in a way that makes her heed easily. . How can this ranking be made visible? How can it be made visible that people observe the order of creation? Christ is not on earth anymore as Man, but the creature ‘man’ is. Man is the image of God. Therefore he is also called to represent this ranking. This is best seen in praying and prophesying. At praying man addresses himself to God and at prophesying God addresses Himself to man. In both cases that happens through the mouth of man. If we compare praying with prophesying, then it is clear that it is about praying out loud in the presence of other people. After all, prophesying is not useful when there are no listeners. If a man prays to God or prophesies to people, he ought to consider the place God gave him as a visible head of this creation. Therefore he is not allowed to pray or prophesy with his head covered. In the visible creation there is no creature he is submitted to, for that is what the head covering indicates, as it is indicated in the following verses. In case he has his head covered, he would then dishonor his invisible Head, Christ in heaven. Do you know why? Because by covering his head he would give the impression that he is submitted to another head besides Christ. . Regarding woman it is quite something else. She ought to have her head covered in case she prays or prophesies in the presence of others. In that way, she declares that she doesn’t abandon her position of submission to man when she does something a man is supposed to do. This regards cases when there are no men. When men are present, it is their responsibility to pray or to prophesy. When it regards praying, the instruction for men is written in 1 Timothy 2 that they should pray everywhere ( ). It is important to always remember that it concerns everybody’s official place in creation. The place for public performance is for the man. The woman has a more modest place. In case she comes forward by praying or prophesying, than she is supposed to cover her head to give not the impression that she takes the position of the man. Otherwise she would dishonor her head, the man. By the way: this praying or prophesying by the woman is somewhere else than in the church. In 1 Corinthians 14 it is said in an unmistakable way, that women are not allowed to speak in the church ( ). It may seem to you that this is all going a bit too far to relate so many things to whether or not to cover the head. Nevertheless it is really important, simply because God says so. To the visible and invisible world He wants a testimony of His order in the creation. It is like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in paradise. What was the reason that Adam and Eve were not allowed to eat from that? Its fruit was not worse than that of the other trees, was it? But it was simply because God said that. That must have been sufficient not to eat from it. God wants us to accept what He says; He connects a blessing to it. We lose that blessing by doing things willfully and do not listen to Him, like Adam and Eve acted willfully and lost the blessing. . There is one more thing related to the head covering of woman and that is her hair. If she doesn’t want to cover her head, let her have her hair cut off. Why is that? Because her long hair is her glory ( ). If she prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, she places herself in the position of the man. In that way she doesn’t honor him as her head. The Old Testament deals with the hair of the woman in two verses. Both verses are in a section dealing with the relationship between husband and wife. The first verse is in Numbers 5 where you read that ”the priest shall then ... let [the hair of] the woman's head go loose” ( ). It is about a case in which a man suspects his wife is unfaithful to him. The second verse is in Deuteronomy 21 where you read that her head has to be shaved ( ). There it is about a woman who is taken captive. In both cases the hair of the woman is related to dishonor and shame. Do you know that right after the Second World War (1939-1945) women, who were suspected of having had a relationship with German soldiers, were shorn also? With this in mind the first part of also becomes clearer. Nevertheless Paul wants to assume that a woman is aware of the shame when she has her hair cut off or even her head shaved. He reverts the terms in the second part of directly and says that if it is a shame for a woman to cut her hair off, she should therefore cover her head. You see here how closely head covering and hair are connected to each other. Now read 1 Corinthians 11:1-6 again. Reflection: Why is it important that each person stands in his own place and also takes up his position?

‏ 1 Corinthians 11:3-9

Head Covering and Hair (I)

1Cor 11:1. Paul says that we should imitate him, just as he also imitated Christ. How he did that, he said in the last verse of the previous chapter. His aim was to win many people for Christ. In no way he wanted to be a hindrance for people to accept the gospel. In this way Paul imitated his Lord and you can imitate Paul in your turn.

1Cor 11:2. Paul already had given a lot of exhortations. That was necessary. We also need to be exhorted. But yet there is also something for which he praises them. The Corinthians have not forgotten him, they even remembered him in everything. That has pleased him. Besides that, they kept the traditions just as he delivered them to them. He really appreciated that.

You can also look positively at the fact that he had to correct them in their way of dealing with these traditions, like the Lord’s Supper, about which he speaks later in this chapter. The positive thing is not to justify the wrong, but it is the fact that they were approachable. He could correct them in their wrong doings and trust that they would listen to him. Anyway, Paul saw good things with the Corinthians.

1Cor 11:3. Then he speaks about an issue that currently is one of the most widely discussed matters, namely the role of man and woman in everyday life. In the world around you, things are dealt with quite differently than what you read in the first part of this chapter. You may even have to reread it several times before you get a clear mind on that. The ranking which is indicated in 1Cor 11:3 has been totally done away with in the world around you. God and Christ, people do not believe in. And the thought of the man as the head of the woman is totally out of fashion and wrong so that people make every effort to destroy this thought.

I said that 1Cor 11:3 indicates a ranking. I mean this: God is at the head, then Christ, then the man and then the woman. To many people the impression arises because of this ranking – and that is what people vehemently oppose – as if the woman is just dangling at the bottom of this list and therefore has the position of being neglected totally. But that is absolutely not the case! Paul actually refers to the creation of man and woman. There you see that the man is created first and that the woman originates from him. She came out of his side, which means as one who is placed at his side.

The man is the head of creation, but he himself also has a Head above him and that is Christ. He is responsible to Him. In all things he needs to ask his Head how to behave himself toward his wife, in the family, in society and in the church.

Christ is not only his Head, but also his Example, for you read that the Head of Christ is God. That of course doesn’t refer to Christ as the eternal Son, but to Him as Man. As Man the Lord Jesus has fully subjected Himself to the will of God. ‘To be subjected to’ may sound quite subservient, but it is about a position of submission toward another person. By paying attention to his Head, Christ, a man can be ‘head’ of the woman in a right way. In that way he will not manage her, but he will instruct her in a way that makes her heed easily.

1Cor 11:4. How can this ranking be made visible? How can it be made visible that people observe the order of creation? Christ is not on earth anymore as Man, but the creature ‘man’ is. Man is the image of God. Therefore he is also called to represent this ranking. This is best seen in praying and prophesying. At praying man addresses himself to God and at prophesying God addresses Himself to man. In both cases that happens through the mouth of man. If we compare praying with prophesying, then it is clear that it is about praying out loud in the presence of other people. After all, prophesying is not useful when there are no listeners.

If a man prays to God or prophesies to people, he ought to consider the place God gave him as a visible head of this creation. Therefore he is not allowed to pray or prophesy with his head covered. In the visible creation there is no creature he is submitted to, for that is what the head covering indicates, as it is indicated in the following verses. In case he has his head covered, he would then dishonor his invisible Head, Christ in heaven. Do you know why? Because by covering his head he would give the impression that he is submitted to another head besides Christ.

1Cor 11:5. Regarding woman it is quite something else. She ought to have her head covered in case she prays or prophesies in the presence of others. In that way, she declares that she doesn’t abandon her position of submission to man when she does something a man is supposed to do. This regards cases when there are no men. When men are present, it is their responsibility to pray or to prophesy. When it regards praying, the instruction for men is written in 1 Timothy 2 that they should pray everywhere (1Tim 2:8).

It is important to always remember that it concerns everybody’s official place in creation. The place for public performance is for the man. The woman has a more modest place. In case she comes forward by praying or prophesying, than she is supposed to cover her head to give not the impression that she takes the position of the man. Otherwise she would dishonor her head, the man. By the way: this praying or prophesying by the woman is somewhere else than in the church. In 1 Corinthians 14 it is said in an unmistakable way, that women are not allowed to speak in the church (1Cor 14:34).

It may seem to you that this is all going a bit too far to relate so many things to whether or not to cover the head. Nevertheless it is really important, simply because God says so. To the visible and invisible world He wants a testimony of His order in the creation. It is like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in paradise. What was the reason that Adam and Eve were not allowed to eat from that? Its fruit was not worse than that of the other trees, was it? But it was simply because God said that. That must have been sufficient not to eat from it. God wants us to accept what He says; He connects a blessing to it. We lose that blessing by doing things willfully and do not listen to Him, like Adam and Eve acted willfully and lost the blessing.

1Cor 11:6. There is one more thing related to the head covering of woman and that is her hair. If she doesn’t want to cover her head, let her have her hair cut off. Why is that? Because her long hair is her glory (1Cor 11:15). If she prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, she places herself in the position of the man. In that way she doesn’t honor him as her head.

The Old Testament deals with the hair of the woman in two verses. Both verses are in a section dealing with the relationship between husband and wife. The first verse is in Numbers 5 where you read that ”the priest shall then ... let [the hair of] the woman's head go loose” (Num 5:18). It is about a case in which a man suspects his wife is unfaithful to him. The second verse is in Deuteronomy 21 where you read that her head has to be shaved (Deu 21:12). There it is about a woman who is taken captive. In both cases the hair of the woman is related to dishonor and shame.

Do you know that right after the Second World War (1939-1945) women, who were suspected of having had a relationship with German soldiers, were shorn also? With this in mind the first part of 1Cor 11:6 also becomes clearer.

Nevertheless Paul wants to assume that a woman is aware of the shame when she has her hair cut off or even her head shaved. He reverts the terms in the second part of 1Cor 11:6 directly and says that if it is a shame for a woman to cut her hair off, she should therefore cover her head. You see here how closely head covering and hair are connected to each other.

Now read 1 Corinthians 11:1-6 again.

Reflection: Why is it important that each person stands in his own place and also takes up his position?

Head Covering and Hair (II)

1Cor 11:7. Man is “the image and glory of God”. The significance of this is far from small. It means as much as: man ought to be the visible representative of God on earth. God also expects from man that he shows, as it were, expresses, the features and attributes of His Being. Therefore he ought not to cover his head. Woman in her turn is the glory of man. She can show something of him by showing some of his characteristics in her action. These matters are the result of the way God created both of them. “For it was Adam who was first formed, [and] then Eve” (1Tim 2:13). When Adam was created, God took one of his ribs and made Eve from it (Gen 2:21).

1Cor 11:8-9. Besides the order of creation of man and woman, there is also the reason of the creation of woman. Woman was created for Adam’s sake and not Adam for Eve’s sake. Eve was given to Adam as a suitable helper for him. That doesn’t mean that a man doesn’t ever have to help his wife. On the contrary, man should help his wife as much as and whenever he can because he loves her. But that doesn’t change anything in the verses here.

We must persistently adhere to what is written here because there are powers that are making every effort to reverse God’s creation order . In the world around you the movement of emancipation is gaining ground more and more. In this fight for emancipation people break with these verses. Feminism is promoting to let woman be the head of man. The fact that this is happening in the world is not something strange, but it also affects the believers.

1Cor 11:10. That “the woman ought to have [a symbol of] authority on her head”, is more often experienced as a burden than a privilege. The head covering is here called “[a symbol of] authority” because it is a sign of the authority to which she is submitted. Man is after all her head. Surely, God always looks at the heart first and what the thoughts of the heart are. For it makes a difference whether a person does something only because ‘people’ say so, or he does it from a conscious obedience and love for Him. But God has also given us visible signs. By these signs angels are able to see whether a person does or does not consider the order that God has put in creation.

The head covering at praying and prophesying is the visible proof that a woman by no means wants to take the place of man toward God or men. Here it is also written that it is “because of the angels”. That appears to be a strange reason for the head covering. Nevertheless it is rather significant that they are mentioned here.

Angels are spectators. They were there when God laid the foundation of the earth (Job 38:4 ; 7). They observe the world and are interested in how God deals with it. They saw man’s failings in the time which is written in the Old Testament. After that they saw the perfect life of the Lord Jesus: they were there when He was born, when He was tempted in the wilderness, when He was in agony in Gethsemane, when He rose from the grave and when He went back to heaven. You can read all this in the Gospels.

The redemption work that the Lord Jesus accomplished, He did not accomplish for angels, but for guilty people (Heb 2:13-16). Now the angels are observing whether the believing woman above all, through whom sin came into the world, is considering the order God has ordained. Therefore it is not about something that is culture specific. That is not what the angels are interested in. Their concern is God’s creation order, which remains to exist as long as this earth remains to exist. Believers have the privilege and the responsibility to show the order of God, while the world, led by the devil, takes a course that is right against it.

Angels are also called spectators with regard to the church (Eph 3:10). Now the question is asked whether the woman ought to cover her head when the church gathers. After all she is not allowed to pray or prophesy out loud there, as we shall see in chapter 14. Nevertheless the woman is to cover her head when the church gathers because she is a picture of the church (Eph 5:22-24).

When the church gathers there are men and women. During the gathering they do things out loud together, such as singing and saying amen. By covering their head they make it clear to the angels that they are aware of their position as woman. It is an impressive testimony to the invisible and intelligent world when they see that believers act according to God’s order in a world that totally rejects this order.

1Cor 11:11. Here it is said that man and woman have their place together “in the Lord”. ‘In the Lord’ there is no distinction. ‘In the Lord’ means that they both stand before Him and they can serve Him together as their Lord in harmony. He is Lord for both man and woman. When they both are aware of that and consider that in all things, then the right balance in their relationship will not cause any problems.

1Cor 11:12. This balance is also reflected in this verse. It is true that woman originates from the man, but after Adam the only way for a man to enter the world was through the woman. That is to the woman’s honor. Of course nothing will ever change the fact that God is the origin of every life. He is the Creator of each man and each woman.

1Cor 11:13. Paul pointed out different reasons for the woman to be convinced that when she prays or prophesies, she ought to have her head covered. He pointed at the order of creation in 1Cor 11:3-9. After that he brought in the angels as spectators (1Cor 11:10). In 1Cor 11:13-14 he gives another reason, which is the natural sense. He appeals to the discernment ability of the believers, for that is the meaning of “judge for yourselves”.

They had to examine this matter spiritually and make a conclusion; then they finally had to make a decision. To be able to make a conclusion they needed a measure. For you cannot consider such a matter on your own initiative because then you will have a purely emotional conclusion. The only way to come to a right judgment or conclusion is to bow your knees before the Lord, asking Him for light and insight to explore the Scripture in this respect and to willingly subject yourself heartily to the outcome.

1Cor 11:14. The question whether it is proper for a woman to pray to God without a head covering easily introduces the lesson of nature in connection with the hair of man and woman. Head covering and hair are closely connected to one another. In the Bible long hair is connected to subjection: to relinquish certain rights and be committed to another person. Because God has given man a position at the forefront, he is ought not to have long hair, while long hair is a glory for the woman. That’s the teaching of nature.

It is unnatural when a man has long hair and a woman has short hair. Some people may disagree with that, but that doesn’t change the fact that nature does teach us this, for that is what God says in His Word here. So it might be that many people say that homosexuality is normal and natural, and yet nature teaches the opposite. In Romans 1 homosexual relations are called “unnatural” or ‘against nature’ (Rom 1:26).

1Cor 11:15. The long hair of a woman is given to her for a covering, whereby she shows her modesty and commitment toward the man. Of course her long hair is only useful when she reflects this modesty and commitment in her conduct. Then the glory, which is related to having long hair, will be fully her portion.

I do not concern myself with the discussion of what the standard length of long hair should be. In Luke 7 and in John 12 you find an indication (Lk 7:38 ; 44; Jn 12:3). In the histories described there, we see that the hair of each of the women who came to the Lord was long enough to dry His feet with. Further on in Revelation 9 there is another indication. There you read about “hair like the hair of women” (Rev 9:8). Since there is no difference in the substance of the hair, the indication “hair of women” must have to do with the length. Therefore a clear difference should be visible between the hair length of man and of woman.

1Cor 11:16. Whoever wants to argue that is his business. Anyway, the apostle has no such practice, nor has any local church. All of this can be equally clear to all people. Too often it is made confusing, complex and difficult because we do not simply adhere anymore to what God’s Word says. Also in this respect the world has got a great influence on the mind of believers. This influence also comes out in the appearances. God says here: long hair is a glory to the woman. Which woman dares to take that glory without compromise?

Please note that the point in these verses is the normal standard. There are women, who due to illness or other causes cannot help that they do not have long hair.

Now read 1 Corinthians 11:7-16 again.

Reflection: Why is this section so important for the practice of the Christian life?