The first thing to know about this section is that it is not about marriage or the role of women in the church. It is about having respect in worship for each other within our culture. Just prior, Paul was telling us to have respect for the conscience of others who are weak in terms of the freedoms in Christ in order to win them for the gospel. Here it is about being culturally aware and respectful, while truthful to the gospel, in order that we might not turn people away from Christ for the wrong reasons. It is also about majoring on the majors and not sweating over the small stuff – having unity in the church as a more important value than sticking to your freedom.
I want to interpret this section with four things in mind: culture, context, character, and language.
1 – 2
Paul is happy that they are paying attention to what he says. Paul’s teaching was received directly from Jesus Christ so it carries a lot of weight. It may make his corrections a little easier to take since they have already put a lot of trust in what he has to say.
3
One way this verse has been interpreted is that the husband is over the wife, as in “has authority over.” The Greek word kephale can mean authority. But it can also mean something else: source or origin. In that sense, men are the source of life for their wives. In that and most ancient cultures in that women without a husband could often not work or provide for themselves. If we keep that idea going, Christ is the source of life for men because He died for us to give us new life. Christ is not inferior to the Father but was “made a little lower than the angels” when He came to earth in order to pay for our salvation. So, women are not inferior or “lower” than men but must rely on them in that culture just as Jesus had to rely on what the Father told Him when He was on earth.
The second thing we need to consider is that Paul is not talking about an organizational structure or command structure here, but about relationships, so the latter interpretation both makes sense and fits within the idea of sensitivity to culture in order not to detract from Jesus.
4 – 5
We don’t know the exact cultural reasons for what Paul says here. Note that this involves public worship and that both men and women could pray and/or prophecy in public. But for some reason culturally, men did not cover their heads and women did. To do otherwise would focus the attention on the person, not the prayers and not the Lord. Just like they can give up our freedom to eat meat in order to win others to the Lord, so too they could keep the cultural norm of head coverings in order to win others to Christ and not cause a ruckus in the church. A very modern application is that Americans traveling to other countries could dress as we do here in shorts and tank tops, but in some cultures that would be a taboo. People would be focused on what you wear, not the Lord you represent.
6 - 12
Apparently having a shaved head was some sort of disgrace in that culture so Paul says if you won’t defer culturally to covering your head in worship it would be tantamount to going ahead and shaving your head.
Verses 7 – 12 are a little more difficult to interpret. But I think the key is actually in verse 11. We are equal in Christ but not independent. In the creation God created the man first, then took a part of the man and made the woman. It takes both of them to really reflect the full image of God, so if a woman forces her way to uncover her head in the that culture, or if a man covers his, they are not as a team reflecting the image of God in a way that others in the culture will see God instead of them. You need a voice in order to preach, and sometimes that voice comes from silencing cultural differences, even if it means doing things or not doing things you would normally do or not do.
The reference to angels might simply be that angels are present with us and appreciate the lengths we go to put the gospel first.
13 - 16
Again, we have to think culturally here. In Corinth, apparently, men were not to have long hair, nor women short hair. This wasn’t true for all times and places then, nor is it now. Remember Absalom, David’s son? He had very long hair and though it got him tied up in a difficult situation, it wasn’t a disgrace.
The natural way of that culture was that men didn’t have long hair and women did. So don’t call attention to yourself in your culture in a way that distracts from the gospel. It was very important then not to blur the distinction between men and women. Today we tend to blur that distinction. I’m definitely for equality but I did note a study recently that said that women who want to get ahead in business should not focus so much on dressing and acting like men, but get further by dressing and acting like women. We can be equal and yet different!
Some have suggested that long hair on men labeled them as temple prostitutes and women with short hair were hookers. So he says, be honorable in your culture.
In the end Paul is saying that orderliness in the church is important—in all the churches. Being contentious and arguing the point endangers church unity and moves the focus away from Jesus and that is wrong.
Conclusions�
So if most of what we see in the first 16 verses of this chapter is cultural, what universal values are there to apply to our lives today?
One thing that we might be tempted to do is to lift this literally out of the chapter written to 1st century Christians and plop it down in 21st century America. I have actually seen this in action where I church I know of actively encouraged the women to wear head coverings to church because of this chapter. That, I think, does the exact opposite of what Paul has in mind.
This would be like if Paul were alive today writing 1st Newbergians with all of our cultural references – and it was read by 1st century Corinthians – they simply wouldn’t know what to make of what we are familiar with. No, you can’t simply literally take this and apply it.
The first thing to understand is that men and women are equal in Christ.
Galatians 3:28 “There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 5:21 “submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.”
In our culture the equality of men and women is taken for granted. In fact, we have to do a lot of explaining about past cultures in order to keep us from concluding otherwise from passages like this.
So where do we find the universal value? Look back at verse 13. Paul asks: “Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?” The word “proper” or “comely” in the King James comes from a Greek word that means “to tower up.” The way the word can be translated is “to be conspicuous.” It’s not a matter of good or bad, but how much you stand out.
The men and women in the church in that culture were experiencing freedoms they had never had. The women especially, due to how that society treated women, were able to live in ways they had never known. There were various problems associated with that freedom that Paul addresses. For instance, men and women sat apart and some of the women were calling out to their husbands disturbing services so Paul tells them to shut up and talk about it when you get home!
Here, they were presenting themselves during public worship in a way that was very out of the ordinary: namely praying with their heads uncovered. They stood out, and not in a good way.
So the value is: Don’t call more attention to yourself than to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
How do we apply that today?
1. Getting Weird
Sometimes churches express their love for the Lord by very emotional outbursts during worship that disturb everyone else’s worship experience and focuses on them. I’ve talked to many people who are so turned off by this that they say they will never consider Christianity. So have in mind the potential reaction of someone who does not know the Lord.
2. Taking relatability too far
I’ve known pastors who swear from the pulpit. Now there may be some Scriptural things that come to play here too (James 3:11 for instance), but they think that by being shocking in their freedoms that people will relate to them. But it can also be a big turn off to those who expect a Christian to act differently.
3. Being Legalistic
Churches today that major on minor issues that have nothing really to do with reflecting the character of Christ actually turn away people from the gospel. They think it is about membership, or dressing or talking in a certain way.
Let us make sure the gospel and the character of Jesus are number one, even if it means giving up our freedom.
Let the character of Christ make you stand out, not your freedom, if it runs counter to the culture you are trying to reach.
