To Cover or not to Cover

5 But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since that is one and the same as having her head shaved.
1 Corinthians 11:5

I cannot remember where I read this, but one of the benefits from learning under a Pastor that teaches expositionally vs topically is that you have greater growth as a believer. Why? Generally speaking, it is because pastors who preach topically will cherry pick Bible verses for a specific topic that they are already very comfortable with. The end result is a congregation that is shallow in certain Biblical books and doctrines and usually never surpass their own pastor’s knowledge. However, a pastor who preaches expositionally must wrestle with the text and will have his own biases and long-held beliefs challenged; he must be thoroughly consistent and wholly Biblically. The result is that you will have a congregation that grows with the pastor and is semper reformanda (forever reforming).

In addition to the above point, the pastor is not allowed to preach what he decides, but must preach what God has revealed in His word. And this includes preaching the difficult passages such as the text we are considering, briefly, in today’s article. Too often, we want to write off a passage of Scripture as no longer relevant; as applying only to a particular time and place. But the problem with that is we become the decision makers for what is the relevant and timely words of God and which are merely historical facts with no bearing on our lives. And bad interpretation of Scripture will always lead to bad theology; in the worst case, heresy.

But back to the passage at hand, the text is in no way declaring women to be inferior to men, nor is it passing a universal principle that women must wear a hat or veil in prayer. It is touching on a different principle that God has put in place for women to maintain a spirit of submission to all men. Do not take my last statement too far; it is a recognition and humility in submitting to God’s design of giving men authority. We know also that Paul is not regulating head wear for women because he goes on to elaborate in verses 7-12 of how men are to be the head of women. This, like I said before, is not a matter of inferiority but of subordination. Similar to how in the Trinity, God the Son submits to the God the Father; God the Son not being in any way inferior for He is God.

Simply what we are seeing here is that God, through Paul, is affirming a creation order. Once a woman is saved, this does not mean that she throws away her “covering” and says she is independent and that a wife is no longer in submission to her husband. When a woman does this, it is as though they have shaved their head, assuming the authority of the man, which is not the domain that God has given to the woman. This passage is an affirmation that men are to take responsibility in their areas of authority and, likewise, women in theirs.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Alex

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