You are probably sitting there asking yourself, Now what’s she going to do with that? That was my question when I read the text Pastor Don assigned for today. Now what am I going to do with that?
Honestly? It’s one of those uncomfortable Bible passages. Paul can be challenging! Yes? And here he is at some of his most challenging, talking about heads and hair and head coverings. Most of us have our favorite parts of the Bible and at least a few parts that we stuff in the back of the drawer and rarely pull out to examine. It’s easy to want to skip over a passage like this. But we’re not going to.
As Christians we take our Bibles seriously. Paul writes to Timothy: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (2 Tim 3:16-17 NLT) If we have this “high view” of Scripture, then we shouldn’t be too quick to gloss over even an odd text like this one.
We’re going to look at three aspects of this text. The first is sometimes called “headship.” It’s in verse 3: “The head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.” The second is this odd focus Paul has on hair length and head coverings. What’s that about? And the third is the relationship of gender to leadership within the church.
Before we launch in, though, I want to call attention to something. Paul wrote letters, not rule books. This morning’s text is a personal communication, not an impersonal treatise. Paul knew who he was writing to, knew their kids, their stories, their problems. The people he wrote to weren’t abstract masses. He loved them, worried about them, shook his head over them. Paul didn’t write theoretically. He knew people experienced stress in their jobs and in relationships with others in the church. They had money problems, marriage problems, kid problems. They came to church with “histories”. When we are trying to understand a tricky passage like this one, we need to remember that we are reading a letter, not a book of rules.
Throughout Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we get a real feel for his pastoral, fatherly love for his friends. They are “dear” to him; they are “beloved”. He works hard to give them his best counsel. He says things like, “I say this as a concession, not as a command.” “I do not have a direct command from the Lord.” “I think it best.” “I am trying to spare you…problems,” “I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you.” “…in my opinion” (1 Cor 7:6, 12, 25, 26, 28, 35, 40). Can we hear his pastoral concern? As we read this passage, it will help to keep this in mind.
Okay, so, the first aspect of the text we want to look at: “The head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.” (1 Cor. 11:3) What does Paul mean when he uses the term “head”? There are different schools of thought on that. Maybe it is like a school master – the head of school. It’s the person in charge, the boss. An alternate view is provided as a footnote in the NLT, which we are reading from this morning: “The source of every man is Christ, the source of woman is man, and the source of Christ is God.” This is akin to speaking of the head of a river, the headwaters, the source. This fits the context well when we look at verse 8: “For the first man didn’t come from woman, but the first woman came from man.”
As I read this passage, other scriptures come to mind. Jesus spoke more than once about his submitting to the Father. In Gethsemane on the night before his crucifixion, he prayed, “Not my will but yours.” He taught his disciples that the one who wants to be great should become the servant of all. (Matt 20:26) Another way to put it is that we are to yield the right of way.
In driving, the “right of way” is something we yield, not something we claim. My office is right on one of the round-abouts in Port Townsend. Almost daily I observe the attempts of drivers to claim the right of way when someone fails to yield. People who insist that they have the right of way may well end up in a crash. “Right of way” is a rule of the road meant to reduce crashes and chaos, to keep traffic flowing smoothly, to replace aggressive driving and power grabs with courtesy. But it’s always something that is given, not something that is claimed.
Paul notes that he develops this “rule of the road” from observing the order of creation – first the man, then the woman taken out of the man. But he also notes how creation itself dictates that men and women are interdependent, both needing the other, neither existing on their own, neither better than the other. The created world order and new creation order exist in tension. On the one hand, gender marks who goes first and on the other hand gender is irrelevant. “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28 NLT)
That’s probably enough about headship. Let’s move to the second aspect of the text, which is Paul’s emphasis on hair styles and head coverings. What’s that about?
In first century Corinth, when a woman wore her long hair loose, it was considered sexually alluring. Prostitutes wore their hair loose. Adulteresses had their hair clipped short or even shaved. A woman demonstrated modesty and respect for her husband when she wore a head covering. It might be something like a shawl or scarf; even more common was for her to pin her hair on top of her head.
How about men? “In Greco-Roman religions male worshippers covered their heads with their clothing as a mark of respect for the god. For a Christian man to do this would dishonor his head, Christ, by treating him as though he were one of those gods.” (CEB Study Bible) Further, long hair on a man was considered sexually degrading. Paul doesn’t want bad hair to detract from the gospel message.
How should we think about hair and hats in our church? I don’t know... Is hair considered sexually alluring in the culture at large? Does a woman’s use of a head covering denote modesty in our culture? Is long hair on a man considered sexually degrading in our culture? Do men wear hats when they worship idols today? I think the answer to these questions is largely “No.” Which may indicate that we shouldn’t pull Paul’s guidance about hair styles and head coverings wholesale into the boat. But that said, we must ask whether there are other markers in our culture where we need to be careful. Things where if we break a cultural norm, we risk giving the church a bad reputation? If Paul were writing to us today, where would he urge caution so that we do not give offense to one another or the larger community?
When we consider the many issues Paul has addressed with the Corinthians in previous chapters (recall lawsuits, sexual immorality, idol food, marriage), we begin to get a feel for Paul’s true concern. He doesn’t want anything to bring dishonor to God or to get in the way of people coming to faith in Christ. Here’s what he says in the verses just before this morning’s reading:
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, so that they may be saved.” (1 Cor. 10:31-33)
To sum it up another way, when it comes to how we behave toward one another and toward those outside the church, “the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13:13)
We’ve looked at two aspects of our text: what headship is and whether hair length and head coverings apply today. Let’s deal with a third: the relationship of gender to leadership in the church. We can’t tackle this text in any serious, authentic way without talking about gender and church leadership. Let’s look at what the text has to say about this.
“A man dishonors his head if he covers his head while praying or prophesying. But a woman dishonors her head if she prays or prophesies without a covering on her head.” (1 Cor 11:4-5) Interesting. Paul assumes that both men and women pray and prophesy in church. Note that these are two primary offices in public worship. In prayer we speak to God; with prophecy, God speaks to us.
We’re accustomed to prayer as a vital part of our gathered worship. We’re perhaps less aware of prophecy as a part of our gathered worship. Maybe you’ve been present when people are worshiping, praying, pausing to be quiet and listen to God, and someone speaks in an unplanned, spontaneous manner, words that the Holy Spirit has impressed upon them. This is one manifestation of prophecy. However, in many congregations, including ours, another prophetic manifestation is more typical: the regular preaching of the pastor, who speaks and interprets God’s words to us. In chapter 14, Paul says “those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” (14:3) This can include applying scripture to the congregation’s situation, providing theological insight, and speaking prepared words as well as spontaneous ones. A person who prophesies (a prophet) speaks God’s word to God’s people. To build them up, encourage them, comfort them, point them to God, and correct them.
Contrary to what we sometimes think about Paul, he doesn’t limit the leading of public worship to men. Neither does he tie spiritual gifts to gender, not here, and not in chapter 12, where he goes into his lengthiest teaching on spiritual gifts.
In college I spent a summer in the Philippines as part of a team sent by my church. At the time, I held the traditional belief that a man should lead. Unfortunately, when provided with a very human male leader, I am sorry to say that I failed to yield and made his road harder than it should have been. I didn’t yet understand several things. One, I needed to serve and respect my brother in Christ who was in a position of leadership, regardless of whether he seemed like a leader. Two, I didn’t see that gifts of leadership are not gender-based but are distributed (as are all spiritual gifts) by the Holy Spirit for the common good. Three, not seeing this prevented me from recognizing the spiritual giftings God had placed in me. (1 Cor. 12:7) And four, I didn’t realize that even those with a gift of leadership should yield the right of way.
Some of you may experience the tension of this reality in your marriage, particularly if the wife has the more prominent gift of leadership. This will call on you, in very practical ways, to practice what Paul advises in his letter to the Ephesians: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Eph 5:21 NLT)
There’s a lot in this text. It’s not an easy one. Let me leave us with this: Paul’s heart is that the church put no stumbling blocks in the way of the gospel. He wants us to glorify God and love one another, so that as many as possible come to faith.