A Head-Covering in Public Worship (1)

The question is often asked—Does this passage of Scripture require that women present at a service of worship and prayer today are required by God to wear a hat or some kind of head covering? Some assume that the instructions given in 1 Corinthians 11 were only relevant to the place, the age, and the community to which they immediately refer, and that they do not apply to women in our country today. Others retain the custom, but may have great difficulty in explaining the passage on which it rests. All who respect the Bible as the Word of God must acknowledge that this portion of it is meaningful and designed for the guidance and instruction of the Lord’s people.

Verse 1 may be regarded either as a conclusion to chapter 10 or as an introduction to chapter 11, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” In either case it reminds the reader that the epistle was written by an apostle who “followed Christ” in his life and teaching.

In verse 2 Paul commends his readers for their remembrance of him and for their attention to the “ordinances” which he delivered to them. The word could be rendered “traditions” — meaning instructions handed down, first by the Holy Spirit who inspired him, and then handed on from Paul to his readers.

In verse 3 the apostle lays the foundation upon which his instructions are to rest. All things stand in a certain order in relation to each other and to God. This order is part of God’s design and an expression of the perfection of His own Being. “The head of every man is Christ; the head of the woman is the man; and the Head of Christ is God.” The second clause does not separate Christian women from the Headship of Christ, but asserts the position which God has designed that the woman should occupy in relation to the man. The third clause does not assert that Christ is less than God or inferior to Him. In His Person, Christ is equal to the Father and could say, “I and My Father are one.” In taking upon Himself the office of Mediator and in undertaking to redeem His people, Christ humbled Himself: “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8).

There is a place in the divine order for the acknowledgment of the Headship of the Father by Christ, the acknowledgment of the headship of the man by the woman. This acknowledgment is made in words and in conduct and in the attitude of the heart and of the mind. The apostle proceeds to demonstrate that it also has a bearing upon the use of a head-covering in public worship.

Verse 4 plainly states that a man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his Head, who is Christ (verse 3). This is hardly ever the cause of argument among Christians today, but it has not always been interpreted in the same way, even by “Reformed” scholars. In some of the continental churches at the time of the Reformation it was not unusual for the minister and male members of the congregation to wear their hats during a public service. Today, however, Christian people would feel a sense of outrage if their minister entered the pulpit wearing a hat, and they would say that it was dishonoring to Christ. Obedience to this precept as far as the man is concerned is unquestionably regarded as a mark of reverence, humility, and subjection to God.

Verse 5 makes it clear that the woman praying or prophesying should have her head covered, and that if she does otherwise she “dishonoureth her head”—that is, she dishonors her husband. The covering of the head was a mark of subjection, not servility. “The Church is subject unto Christ” (Eph. 5:24). In that relationship to Him the Church occupies a place of high dignity and honor and is loved by Him. The woman is subject to the man, and in that relationship she is honored and loved by the man. If the head-covering is a token of that relationship, can she discard it without dishonoring him? Paul makes it clear that she cannot. Shaving a woman’s head was the punishment meted out to an adulteress, and a woman so shorn would be ashamed to appear anywhere in public, least of all among an assembly of Christian people at worship, for she would be known by all to have “dishonored her head.” In verses 5 and 6 the apostle says that to discard the head covering is just as dishonoring— “let us be covered.”

Verse 7 forbids the man to cover his head while at worship, because “he is the image and glory of God.” His divine “Head” is not visibly present, and if the man veils his face or covers his head it might be interpreted as an indication of subordination or subjection to men, to the minister or elders. The last part of verse 7 is closely connected with the statements of 8 and 9, “For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man.” This refers back to the creation— Genesis 2:23, “She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.” Paul continues, “Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man”—a further reference to Genesis 2:18, “I will make him an help meet for him.”

Upon these truths of Holy Scripture Paul establishes the instruction given in verse 10, “For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.” This verse has been a difficulty to many readers. “For this cause”—because the woman was taken out of a man and was made for man—the woman ought “to have power on her head …” Our English word “power” stands for two different words in the Greek, one meaning “might” or “physical power” and the other meaning “right” or “authority.” The context has already shown that the covering of the head was a mark of subjection, and this verse emphasizes that in public worship the woman should wear upon her head that covering which was symbolic of her relationship to her husband and her acknowledgment of his authority, which she must not usurp. (See 1 Timothy 2:12, “… nor to usurp authority over the man ….”) The woman worships God in the presence not only of men but also of His invisible ministers, the angels—”Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb. 1:14). Thus, in honoring her husband she honors God who made them both.

Verses 11 and 12 remind the man that in another respect he is dependent upon the woman, and although in the order of creation and of nature she is subordinate to him and subject to him, he is not to tyrannize over her. “Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.” They are dependent upon each other and are exhorted to love one another— Ephesians 5:21, “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Church…. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be subject to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it. … Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” “The woman is of the man … the man also is by the woman, but all things of God.” The relative position of man and woman was not ordained by men, but by God and He has not made one a master and the other a slave, but He has made both to be dependent upon Him and upon each other, to love Him and to love, honor, and respect each other. Where there is such love, honor, and respect, can it be a very great burden to show it in such a small thing as an article of dress?

Rev. T.H. Brown is the chairman of the Trinitarian Bible Society, which is devoted to printing the Bible in the Authorized Version (King James Version). This anicle was taken from the Lethbridge NRC bulletin.

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