1 Corinthians 11:1-16--Maintain the Traditions

1 Corinthians 11:1-16
English Standard Version

11 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Head Coverings
2 Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. 3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, 5 but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. 6 For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. 7 For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; 12 for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God. 13 Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, 15 but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. 16 If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.

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This teaching of Paul (and of God) is not liked by many, it twisted and manipulated by taking it out of context of the rest of the book, and seems to almost stand in opposition to what Paul has been saying in some other parts of the book, but remember that the entire book is a single letter, and while Paul keeps leaving ideas and coming back to them, there has been a common theme for several chapters now about whether Christians need to become Jewish in faith and practice first, or if they should incorporate the practices of the pagan worship that is all around them, or if they are to worship in some way that is altogether different from either Jews and pagans.  Paul seems to indicate here that their worship should be something that is based on the traditions of Judaism, but altogether different as well).  Let me point out the biggest issue and difference here.  Never before had women and children been allowed into the main part of the worship service.  If you look at the Temple it was split into three courts--The Court of Israel (for Jewish men), the Court of Women (where the Jewish women and children could be near and maybe hear what was going on, but not directly participate--it was more a place for them to wait for their husbands and fathers), and The Court of the Gentiles (the furthest away to show the Gentiles that they were "far off" from God and needed someone to bring the message to them because there was no way that they could be close enough to see or hear what was going on).

Now the women and children are in the service with the men and the Church needs to come up some rules about orderly worship and how these women (be they Jew or Gentile) are supposed to behave during the church service.  So at this point it is the men who have the training and it is their responsibility to teach their wives and children--that is the order that God established since the beginning in the Garden of Eden, and we see that order is upheld throughout the New Testament, since it is something that predates the Law of Moses.  Unlike other things having to simply do with the Mosaic covenant and being Jewish (like eating a Kosher diet), Paul does not seem to treat this issue of the order of creation the same way as it is a rule that was established for all humanity by God and submission to this order is submission to the authority of God and rebellion against this authority is rebellion against God and His established order--there are other passages we see this in, but probably one of the best passages to see this in is Romans 1.

There are all kinds of arguments that people make about what Paul is trying to say about the length of a woman's hair here and if that is a rule that applies today or not.  I'd say Paul is clear that part of this is to respect the traditions that have been passed down, and Paul even explains why these traditions are something that should be observed and kept.  Those who argue against this and want to cast off the traditions that are there to teach us something about ourselves and God are not that different than the people that Paul is talking to here who wanted to do what they wanted to do and be uninhibited by rules, traditions and the order of things as laid out by God.

So, let's dig into a few of the things that are said here that I think are important for us to glean, and see if I can still cover some of the things that the passage says that might be considered more controversial today in a way that I think is true to the biblical text--I know some of you will disagree with some of what is going to be said here today, but I'm going to try to stay as close to the text as I can so as to inject my own opinion as little as possible.

Paul starts off talking to them men and saying that this order that has been established by God only works correctly if Christian men are living in submission to Christ and are faithfully leading their households and performing the duties which God has delegated and entrusted to them.  We see this pattern established in the Garden of Eden where God made Adam first and gave Adam work to do and commands to obey before Eve was ever made.  Later, God made Eve and it was the responsibility of Adam not only to love Eve, but to teach her everything that God had taught him and to protect her as well as the rest of creation--though she was separate and distinct and special from the rest of creation, that is very clear from the fact that God showed Adam that there was no suitable helpmate or companion for him among all the animals and that God made the perfect helpmate for him so that they lived in a relationship that is called Complementarian by theologians--separate in form and function, but meant to complement each other.  This stands in opposition to the modern day "separate, but equal" or even the extreme "anything you can do, I can do better" ideology of modern-day "feminism" that is a fulfillment of part of the curse in Genesis 3:16 where God told Even, "...Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”  Until sin entered the world, there was no animosity and Adam and Eve loved the order that God had created and Adam didn't want to abuse his position, and Eve did not desire to rebel against it and be in charge, but Satan attempted to turn everything upside-down by having and animal try to teach truth to the woman to have her make the decision for her and the man, and for the man to stand there and go along with the decision that the woman had made--that is not to insult women and say that they can't make good decisions.  I'm sure God had blessed Eve with wisdom--she was probably the perfect version of the Proverbs 31 woman, but Satan knew exactly what he was doing when he tried to turn everything on its head and pit Adam and Eve against God and against each other as we see Adam's first response after hiding and being in fear when God said, "What have you done?" was for him to say, "The woman that You gave me....." and to blame Eve and God in one breath, and so we immediately see how sin started to tear away at God's established order and the fellowship between God and man, and man and woman--but in Christ this order and fellowship should be able to be restored.

Now, Paul teaches that Christians should not pray or prophecy with their heads covered--this is the complete opposite of what Judaism teaches.  I don't understand the part about dishonoring his head, though I can only imagine that it means that we are somehow dishonoring Christ by trying to bring these traditions of Judaism into the Church.  The best that I can remember, head coverings in Judaism were supposed to be a sign of the atonement that was needed so that God would not see their sinful state--that's not an issue for Christians because full atonement has been made in Christ and to pretend that some other kind of atonement would be necessary for God to hear our prayers or words of prophecy is probably the issue that Paul is addressing here.  If someone knows more about this and wants to clue me in though by messaging me in a private message on Facebook or sending me an email or contacting me through Discord, I wouldn't mind.

Now comes the part where it gets dicey for most people--women are supposed to have their heads covered if they pray or prophecy.  Paul lays out the reasons why here so that we don't have to guess his reasoning.  First he says that to not follow this tradition would be like a woman shaving her head, which was a symbol of her rebellion and trying to cast off her feminism and become more masculine.  We see this today with those with gender dysphoria and those who chose to be lesbians--they will often time either get haircuts to make themselves look more like boys or shave their heads to look more masculine and as a sign of rebellion--that is not to say that all women who cut their hair short are doing so for this reason, I know plenty who say they do it just because it's easier to manage short hair and takes less time to wash, dry and style.  The point is still valid though that Paul is saying that there are visible signs that we can give of when we are being submissive and when we are being rebellious and it is not the role of women to usurp the role of men in the church--Paul will specifically get to this later when talking about choosing elders and deacons when we get to the Pastoral Epistles if 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus.  Paul does seem to indicate though that there is some place in church for the women to pray and prophecy according to the gifts that God has given them--let's not miss that.  Many skip over that when teaching this passage, but it must be done in a way that is respectful of the traditions and honoring the authority and established order set up by God.  Paul seems to indicate that obeying this order is a testimony that we give to all those who are watching, even the angels in heaven who can see that woman was made to complement man and that man is responsible to lead his wife and children and that God will hold him responsible for his leadership or lack thereof.

Even though woman is in a submissive role to the man, the two have become one flesh in marriage and are not independent of one another.  It is the duty of the man to love his wife as Christ loves the Church and we are the Body of Christ and are one with Him and in the same way the wife and the man should be of one mind and one accord because they should both have the mind of Christ in all things.  So, the issue of submission should not really be one of contention as we see in verse 16 of this chapter where Paul says, "If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God."  It is not right for the man to be misogynistic (hating and discriminating against women) or for the woman to be misandrous (hating or discriminating against men).  That kind of bigotry doesn't belong anywhere in God's people or in His church and again goes against His design and purpose for us--so don't use this passage as a text to say that Christianity treats women as some kind of second-class citizens of the kingdom, that's just not true.

Paul again returns to nature and the way God created things to say that God made women to have longer hair.  Men who try to grow long hair do so to be rebellious and women who have short hair many times do so as a sign of their rebellion.  Paul then says something that I think is very important--he says to ask the question and judge for yourself.  It is important for you to understand what others will think when they see you exercising what you believe to be your right and liberty in Christ--that is how this connects to the last passage.  Even though there may no longer be a law telling women that they have to have long hair because we are not under the Law, would it not be proper for a wife to do everything in her power to show the world (and even the angels in heaven) that she loves her husband and honors him and chooses to live under the authority that God has delegated to him?  Shouldn't we be careful to not want to take on the look of the rebellious people in the world.

I avoided this issue earlier, but the short hair issue seems to have also been a cultural thing among the temple prostitutes' and was a way for a woman to day "I'm available" instead of saying "I'm married and not available."  For a woman to have cut her hair in this time would have been giving signs to the men that she probably need not be giving as a Christian--even if she was single.  With that in mind, I'm sure there are MANY things in our society today that we could now apply to this for both men and women as we should be modest and chaste in our dress and our conduct whenever possible.  I don't think that's the primary theme of this passage and there are other passages that go into this much better, but let's not use our bodies that God has given to us to glorify Him as symbols of rebellion and instruments of sin (Remember the "Temple of the Holy Spirit" passage in 1 Corinthians 6?).  So, I hope you are starting to see how all these ideas are tied together and we do ourselves a disservice by trying to look at a passage like this one out of context of the entire book and out of the context of the entire New Testament and other books of the Bible.  Paul is saying that there will be some traditions that are worth keeping because they show people what we believe about God and they existed before the Law.  There are other traditions that were simply there to make people know that they were Jewish that came from the Law or the Pharisees, and there was no reason to keep those rules because Christians, though part of "Israel" in Christ, did not need to be Jewish to be Christian.  Paul also seemed to warn the Church to be careful to not look and act like the world and send the wrong message to those who were watching and that we should be careful to not let Genesis 3:16 and "the battle of the sexes" play out in the Church of God and His people.  God desires our marriages to be a telling of the gospel and the kind of union we can have in Christ--Satan and the flesh desire for that message to be corrupted by selfishness and the division that it brings.  When both of us think of the other more highly than ourselves and we are both focused on submitting to the leadership of Christ and letting the Spirit of God live in and through us, then these divisions and prejudices and bigotry should disappear and no longer be considered part of our identity.

This is by no means an "easy" passage, but I think we can see that it's a passage about love and not hate if we come in trying to read it for what it is instead of coming in with a preconceived notion trying to look for a "proof text" like so many do when they come to this passage.  Let's be careful to take meaning out of the text instead of trying to read meaning into the text.