Honoring Our Head
1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. 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. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, 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. 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. 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. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God. Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.
Welcome - Happy Mother’s Day - Prayer for moms
Continuing in 1 Corinthians
Today, we will cover a notoriously difficult passage. Definitely the most difficult of the letter.
This passage often results in misunderstandings or simply no understanding of what Paul is talking about.
When Jenine and I were talking about what I was preaching on this week - good luck!
Because to a modern reader, a lot of what Paul says here seems so strange. But let’s remember, though the Bible was written for us, it wasn’t written to us.
So we need to understand this as a letter written by a Jewish leader of the early church to a Gentile congregation who had as their only Scriptures the Old Testament and who lived in a very pagan area of the world.
And we need to remember that this was written almost 2,000 years ago, and there were cultural and scientific assumptions they all shared that we no longer have.
And when there are a lot of shared assumptions between author and audience - most of which go unsaid - that is when we have to be very careful to try to understand what those assumptions were.
And many don’t.
So, some come to this passage and see a normative command for women to cover their heads in church services, and we have many churches today who make women wear hats or something on their heads.
Some come to this passage and walk away with rules about long hair on men and short hair on women.
Some come and do intellectual back flips to explain what Paul means when he talks about angels, and others ignore that part of this altogether.
And what makes this passage even more difficult is that there are different words Paul uses that are translated much the same way in English, and there are other words he uses that have multiple meanings.
Like… the word “head” in Greek can mean pretty much what it means in modern English. It can talk about the body part. Or, the word “head” can also mean the source of something, or it can mean the person in ultimate authority in a given situation.
Paul uses the word two of these ways here, and twice only a few words apart.
Plus, there are four different and distinct words or phrases that talk about a “cover” or “covering” in this passage, and we lose that in English.
In verse 4, it is a verb that means to have something hanging off of the head. (This refers to hair - as we see in verse 14).
In verses 5 and 13, it is an adjective - “uncovered” - it literally means to have your head unhidden.
In verses 6 (2x) and 7, it is a verb that means placing something on your head to conceal your hair.
In verse 15, the word “covering” means a wrap. It is translated as “robe” elsewhere in the New Testament. But the word was also used to refer to male reproductive organs - more on that later.
So, the questions are: what is Paul doing using “head” different ways and using all these words for “cover?” Is hair a sufficient covering for a woman’s head, or not? And what’s with the angels?
Well, Paul is talking about nature. The way things God intends them to be and how that is reflected in the natural order.
And Paul is big on order.
So Paul here begins to introduce the topic of church order by talking about the cosmic order through a discussion of sex and authority. (Repeat)
And he begins:
Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.
Now, most of this letter has been anything but a commendation.
If you’ll remember, Paul jumped right in to the corrections in this letter immediately after his greeting. He identifies himself, tells the Corinthians he is thankful for them, and then admonishes them for what he heard about them.
Then he admonishes them for what they wrote to him.
Here, after all of that, he says he commends them. He commends them because they remember him and keep the traditions according to his instructions.
Now, does that sound strange? That he refers to traditions he taught them when he established this church? Because he did that only about 15 or so years after the church came into existence.
That isn’t a lot of time for many traditions to be established.
But Paul is reaching further back than the founding of this church. He is talking about some of the traditions taught in Judaism that were carried over into Christianity.
He is talking about some traditions that reach back to the time of the Flood.
He is talking about traditions that were set at creation.
He taught these to the Corinthians and praised them for following them.
However, he didn’t want blind obedience. He wanted them to understand why these traditions were carried over, and why they were relevant to them.
And that is how we will figure their relevance to us.
So, he commends them for keeping the traditions, then says:
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.
This is Paul’s reason for passing these traditions on to them. He wants them to know that there is an order of authority established by God. This is the baseline Paul is establishing for everything else he is about to say in this section.
There is a cosmic order of authority.
And it begins with God. Paul is laying out a hierarchy with God at the top. He is using the word “head” here to speak of authority.
God is over Christ. This speaks of Christ’s submission to the Father when He came. Jesus was fully submitted to the Father. He was obedient to Him to the point of death on the cross.
So then, with Him as our example, as Paul just pointed out in verse 1, certainly man can submit to Christ. And the term for man can mean all people, not just males. And I believe it does here.
Paul has made perfectly clear in this letter that there is a King, and it is the risen and ascended Christ. Remember, Paul repeats over and over again in this letter that Christ is Lord.
And if He - our Lord - God the Son in the flesh - if He can submit Himself, then we should submit ourselves to Him.
Then, if we are submitted to Him and - like we saw last week, love like He loved - then, men, when it comes to our wives, we should have no problem loving them as we should.
Which means, ladies, wives should have no problem submitting to their husbands who are submitted to Christ Who submitted Himself to God.
And please note - this is talking about a wife submitting to her husband. This is not talking about any woman and any man. I have seen what happens when the authority of man is misunderstood and it makes every woman in the church functionally under every man.
It isn’t good.
What Paul is talking about here is about a wife and her husband. The headship of man in marriage.
And he includes that, because it is a reflection of the cosmic order. Just like every person’s rightful submission to Christ.
Did you catch that? The marriage relationship - which Paul elsewhere says is meant to show forth the relationship between Christ - the sacrificial head - and His church who is submitted to Him… that marriage relationship is part of the cosmic order.
Marriage is not a man-made institution. It is a God-made institution. It is a covenant relationship established by God as part of the natural, cosmic order.
As a means to show forth the whole natural, cosmic order.
Just as Christ submitted to the Father, so are we all supposed to submit to Christ, and wives are to submit to their husbands.
But men, don’t get giddy about having that responsibility. This isn’t authority the way the world views authority. It is the way Christ views authority.
And as soon as a man lords his authority over his wife or abuses his responsibility as the head of his family, he has broken that cosmic order. Women are to submit to husbands who will sacrifice everything for them. Women are called to submit to men who will love them unto death.
So Paul lays out this authority structure. God, with the submitted Christ under Him, with everything else under Christ, and within that, a woman submitted to her Christ-like husband.
Why does Paul lay this out? Because it is the reason the tradition he is about to discuss, is a tradition.
And he says:
Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head,
And here we get our first word for “cover.” This is the only time this particular word is used in this passage - actually, it’s three words - and it refers to a man having long hair. It means to have hair coming down off the head, or hanging off the head.
Paul speaks of the natural order of authority by speaking of headship, and then says that if a man has hair hanging off his head, he dishonors his head.
But Paul is using the word “head” two different ways here.
If a man has long hair on his head, he dishonors Christ, Who is the head of every man.
Why is that dishonoring to Christ? Because for a first-century Christian, it would be a violation of nature.
When this letter was written, a man growing his hair long would in essence be a denial of his manhood. And I promise I will explain why that was, but I want to go a little further here:
Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head
Okay, now we have four heads and two covers...
Paul is using head the same way in the second clause. Just as a man with long hair dishonors Christ Who is his head, a woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, which is Christ, and if she’s married, also her husband.
And note that there is not a separate word for “wife” in Greek. It is the same word as “woman.” This can refer to all women, and not just wives.
Though it hardly matters, because in the first century, in most cases, as soon as a girl became a woman and could reproduce, she was married off.
But in this case, if she is unmarried, she dishonors Christ, Who is her head. If she is married, she dishonors her husband and Christ. The hierarchy is inclusive. Christ still has greater authority over my wife than I do, because He is a higher authority.
And just like a man is violating nature with long hair, so a woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered violates the natural order.
But the “uncovered” is a totally different word than the “covered” Paul just used. This “uncovered” means “unhidden” or “unconcealed” - it means to not have something over your head so as to leave your head and hair unhidden.
Women are supposed to hide their hair, according to Paul.
And this, of course was a Jewish tradition. It still is in some sects of Judaism where modesty is a highly held virtue. In those sects, married women are to cover their hair in public.
And the focus in this section is not on the head, but the hair here, as we will see.
And note that Paul is talking about praying and prophesying here. It is important to note that Paul assumes both men and women are doing this in the church. Doing this among the people of God.
And they were.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached that part of Joel’s prophecy had been fulfilled with the coming of the Spirit. And part of that was that both sons and daughters would prophesy because on “male and female” God would pour out His Spirit.
And we read of prophets in the book of Acts - and we read of both men and women prophesying. And Paul will address this gift in detail later in the book.
And when it comes to prayer, of course, every Christian even today would assume both men and women are doing this. And we all should be.
But we are to do it recognizing the natural order as God intended it. And that includes some rules that Paul puts in place for the official worship service. That isn’t what Paul is talking about here. This isn’t talking about preaching in Sunday service.
This is speaking of what is done within the universal church; not as an official church function.
Women, Paul says, can pray and prophesy right along with men.
But there are rules even then.
Which is why Paul says:
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. 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.
Paul now contrasts the disgraceful long hair of a man with the disgraceful shaved head of a woman. A first-century woman who shaved her head would be violating nature just like a man would be by growing his hair long.
And Paul says, not covering your hair is the same kind if disgraceful as having a shaved head, so a woman’s hair must be covered.
And, of course, this is yet another word for “cover.” It is a verb that means to place something on your head to hide your hair.
So, shaving your head is a violation of nature, and not covering your hair is the same as shaving your head.
Where is Paul going with this?
Well Paul explains further:
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. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
Now, if that doesn’t clear it all up, I don’t know what does.
Paul says that a man ought not to cover his head. He is giving an imperative here. It isn’t a suggestion. It is an ought.
He should not cover his head.
But this is the same “cover” from the previous verse. Paul is talking about hiding your hair. So now, just like women should not shave their head or leave their hair visible while praying or prophesying, a man shouldn’t grow his hair long or cover the hair he does have.
So men must have their heads uncovered and not grow long hair, and women must not shave their head or leave their hair visible.
And why?
Paul says because man is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.
And then he gives an explanation:
“For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.”
Paul is referring all the way back to the creation of man and woman. Eve was taken - quite literally - from Adam’s body.
He is referring to the natural authority structure God put in place at creation. He is talking about nature itself.
There are some details of the creation we can easily miss. Especially since we are so familiar with the account. But it has a focus on authority structures.
Very clearly, mankind - male and female - are under the authority of God. And we were supposed to live that way. We didn’t, and most still don’t, but that doesn’t change the fact that the authority structure exists.
And like Paul explained earlier, God is at the top.
But the creation account also shows that man is given authority over his wife. Because God gives His command about the trees in the midst of the Garden to only the man. There is no Eve when God speaks of the trees. He tells Adam what mankind can and cannot do.
And Adam had to tell Eve.
That’s why after Satan fools Eve and Adam goes along with it, God questions only Adam about what happened. He uses singular “yous” when He asks “Where are you, Who told you you were naked, and Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
God holds Adam alone responsible. He was the one in authority.
Adam was the one who was given the command. That’s why it is his sin that has affected all of mankind.
But Paul explains further about this authority structure. Man was not made from woman, but woman from man. And she was created for man. To be his helper. To help him carry out what he was commanded by God.
And note that Paul says man is the image and glory of God, and woman is the glory of man. Woman is not the image of man. In the creation account, we are told explicitly that male and female are created in the image of God.
But in saying that man is the glory of God and woman the glory of man, Paul is reflecting that authority structure from verse three.
God
Christ
Man
Wife
That’s why Paul says a wife should have a symbol of authority on her head. She covers her hair to show that she is part of the natural authority structure put in place by God.
And she does this for another reason.
Because of the angels.
What does that mean?
Well, understand that hair was then, as it is now, part of a woman’s allure. Hair can make a woman more sexually attractive to a man.
What I first noticed about “hair lady” - I was attracted to her by her hair
But there was more to it in the first century. Because a woman with long hair exposed was sending a message. She was saying that she was open for business, if you catch my drift. She was flaunting a sexually desirable part of her body.
So a wife would cover her hair because, as a married woman, she was saying she was sexually spoken for. It was a symbol of her recognized place in the natural authority structure.
That’s why Paul calls it a “symbol of authority on her head.”
But there was another reason a woman might want to show off her long hair.
In the first-century, hair and fertility were very closely tied together. So long hair was believed to mean that a woman was fertile.
And Paul is now talking about reproduction.
Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman.
In modern parlance, Paul is saying, “it takes two to tango.” Or it takes two to make a thing go right, if you were a Rob Base fan in the 80s...
Paul says men have authority over their wives, but they need their wives like their wives need them. Just like the first woman came from man, now all people come from women.
And this has nothing to do with male authority, in this case. It has to do with reproduction. And it has to do with obedience to the Head of all people.
Because right after we are told that God created all people - male and female - in His image, He gives both male and female a command:
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
God tells these image bearers to make more and more image bearers that the image and glory of God may spread from the Garden until it covers the earth.
The first three commands here are all about making babies: be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth.
And that’s what Paul is talking about here: making babies.
Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God.
And note that because that authority structure is inclusive - with God at the top - even the baby a man and woman make together is really from God.
And what a blessing it is.
But there’s even more here. Look at what Paul says next:
Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.
Paul again appeals to nature.
He says it isn’t proper - it isn’t fitting - for a Christian woman to pray with her head uncovered. Because, as he said, it is shameful, the same way it would be shameful for her to shave her head.
Because it is a violation of nature.
Just like, as he says once again, it would be a disgrace for a man to grow his hair long. That, too, is a violation of nature.
But why was that believed to be a violation of nature?
Because a woman’s long hair is her glory. And because it has been given to her for a covering.
And here is yet another word for “covering.” This is the fourth different word or phrase Paul uses in this passage. And it is the only time he uses it.
The word means literally a garment that covers part of the body. Like I said, it is the word translated as “robe” elsewhere.
And here is where even if we think we have an idea of what Paul is saying to this point, it kinda falls apart. Because now it sounds as if a woman with long hair doesn’t need a covering, because her hair is her covering.
What in the world is Paul talking about?
Well, remember, the Corinthians have read four different words for “cover” or “covering.” They know they don’t all mean the same thing.
And Paul is assuming the Corinthians know what he knows about this covering.
And here is where many might stumble, because evangelicals tend to have a very weak understanding of Biblical infallibility and inerrancy.
Because we think that means the Bible fell from heaven as-is, and is the authority on all things - even things it was never intended to be an authority on.
Now, the Bible is 100% true and without error in everything that it claims. But we have to understand what it’s claiming.
The Bible uses metaphor, it uses allegory - and it uses common ways of communication according to the understanding of the people writing and those it was written to at the time it was written.
In particular, it uses the scientific understanding of the time, because if God was to speak of microbiology or quantum physics, nobody would have understood what He was saying.
And the human writers of the Bible wouldn’t do that, because they only knew what people of the time knew about the world.
Remember, God uses people to carry out His redemption. And He used people to write His Word. And the Spirit carried them along to write as the people they were.
So it is only once we know what the Biblical author intended to communicate to his audience according to their common assumptions and understandings that we can understand the truth being communicated.
This is one place where it is very important, and that is why this passage has been so misunderstood and misapplied.
Because it isn’t about hair and hair coverings, per se. Men, it’s 2025, grow your hair long if you like that look. Ladies - excluding my wife - cut your hair as short as you want.
And by all means, ladies, please feel free to come to church with your heads uncovered.
Because that isn’t Paul’s point.
Because according to the scientific understanding of Paul’s time, the hair was part of the reproductive system in humans.
It had been understood that way since a guy named Hippocrates. He lived in the 4th century BC, and is considered the father of medicine. Even today, doctors take what is known as the Hippocratic oath - named after Hippocrates.
And what he claimed - as did those of his school of thought that followed him through the first century - was that hair was part of the reproductive system.
Because humans were born with hair on their heads, and only when they came of reproductive age did hair start to grow elsewhere - and grow thicker in one certain area than any other part of the body aside from the head - the conclusion was drawn that hair helps reproduction.
In addition, it was believed, that hair was hollow. And some human hair is.
And I apologize for the bluntness of this explanation.
In particular, the hair was hollow and was believed to be where semen would be stored. Hair would actually draw semen into itself. So a man’s hairy body meant he was able to make babies because his body was producing semen.
And the idea was that if a man had long hair, his semen didn’t get to where it needed to get to.
If a woman had short hair, then after sex, the semen would not move up towards her long hair, passing her uterus, and she would not get pregnant.
This is why the hair on a woman’s head was the equated with the genital region of a man. Hence, the word Paul uses here for covering when he says:
her hair is given to her for a covering.
He uses a word that came to also be used to describe a man’s testicles.
He is not here saying a woman’s hair provides a covering, he is saying it is given to her as a reproductive organ.
And that’s why he says:
Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.
He says judge for yourselves, just like a man needs to have short hair in order for the natural order to work, and what a disgrace it would be for him to violate it - so too a woman should have long hair.
And should she expose what has been given to her as a reproductive organ?
And while this may sound so strange to some of you, I want to point out that it also explains the seemingly oddest part of Paul’s reasoning. If a woman’s hair is part of natural reproduction, and part of her reproductive system, and reveals her fertility, and thereby attracts potential mates, then:
That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
Why in the world would a woman need to cover her hair because of the angels?
Well, because as I said, a woman exposing her hair said a few things about her. She was available. And she was also - if she had long hair - fertile.
Why would this affect angels?
Well, remember, Paul is speaking of the natural order here. And he is referring back to the time that the natural order was broken in the most heinous way.
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
The natural order was so broken here that God wipes out all but 8 people to correct it.
This speaks of divine beings seeing attractive human women and leaving their proper estate to mate with them, leading to an unnatural race of giants. The same race that Israel was later called to wipe out when it happened again.
These are some of the angels Paul tells us we will judge someday back in chapter 6.
So a woman, according to Paul, should not have certain parts of her body exposed. It is not proper for a Christian woman, while praying or prophesying, to reveal parts of her body to entice others - man or angel - to violate the natural order of things.
And the natural order includes a woman and her husband alone having a sexual relationship.
So when Paul insists that men have short hair and do not cover it, and that women should not have shaved heads and keep their hair covered, the Corinthians - who shared the same assumptions about hair as Paul - would have understood all of this to mean that men need to be men, and women need to be women.
And even further, women need to be women, but they are to dress modestly and not purposely try to entice men sexually.
This is what Paul is instructing for the church:
If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.
It may be that Paul had heard something about this church or maybe they wrote something in their letter that made Paul think some of them were playing fast and loose with these traditions.
But Paul says that if you want to argue with these principles, realize that you are going against what true churches teach.
And what are the principles? As I said, this has nothing to do with hairstyles and nice hats or head wraps. This is nowhere near that easy.
No, this is about order and sexual modesty.
So first, men: be men. Recognize your responsibility in the home, and as we’ll see later in the letter, in the church.
Don’t distort the natural order - you are to marry one woman, lead her, and love her sacrificially even unto death. Anything less than that has no place in the church.
And recognize the boundaries God put in place. We need to think of any woman that is not our wife as a sister or a daughter. Anything else has no place in our lives as Christian men.
And tht means: don’t view any part of a woman that would be improper for anyone but her husband to see. Flee from idols, and flee sexual immorality. Get rid of your phone and your computer if you have to.
Do not objectify those made in the image of our God.
Stand out from the world, brothers.
Second, women: be women, and be modest.
Modesty is a lost virtue in the world today.
Female sexuality was purposely weaponized in our society in the 60s because women were sick and tired of men lording their power over them - of men distorting the natural order where men are to be sacrificial and loving towards women - and now it is just part of our culture.
The world’s solution to the male distortion of authority was to distort it further.
That has no place in the church.
Paul tells you not to try and break the natural order by using your feminine assets improperly.
And he says to protect yourself from those that would violate the natural order by wanting you only for sex.
And that doesn’t mean you can't dress nicely. It doesn’t mean you can’t dress so you feel good about how you look. And I am in no way saying that even dressing provocatively makes what a man thinks and does your fault.
But Paul calls for modesty by Christian woman.
My sisters, stand out from the world.
Third, we all need to recognize that there is a natural, cosmic authority structure. And we all need to live that out God’s way, or we are violating it.
Most importantly, remember: Christ is Lord. Paul has said it over and over again.
Yet He submitted to the Father.
We have to live in submission to Him.
He took His responsibility to God’s plan so seriously that He came to die to fulfill His calling.
We all need to take the responsibilities we have in the authority structure very seriously.
So we need to obey our Lord. When it comes to sex. When it comes to modesty. When it comes to obeying any authority God has placed over us. And when it comes to using the authority God has given us.
Let’s make our church obviously different from the world.
Because, as I said, regardless of the fact that Adam failed and many today fail to recognize God’s authority, it doesn’t change the fact that He has all the authority.
And the greatest difference between us and the world, is that we are supposed to recognize that, and live it out.
Just like Christ did.
And like Paul commanded right before all this talk about authority, we are to imitate our Lord.
Once again, in these things, we have an opportunity to be different from the world we live in. We have an opportunity to show those around us how things should be, as opposed to how they often are.
We have an opportunity to show the world that there is a Lord over all Who loves so much that He gave it all.
Let’s honor Him in these things.
