The head covering for women commanded by God was not for the purpose of modesty. It was meant to be followed all down through the church age. It was not for the new testament church back in the day, only. We know this because to discount it in our day we would have to remove the entire 1 Corinthians 11 chapter from the Bible, which has to do with submission to God and to man and for the sake of the angels. We would have to ignore the men being uncovered, which all men today are doing already. Men are obeying the word to be uncovered, so where are the women's coverings? Why obey one mandate in the same passage while ignoring the other? These are questions we ought to have as we pray for guidance.
1 Corinthians 11:2-16
"2 Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.
3 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.
4 Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head.
5 But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved.
6 For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head.
7 For a man ought not to have his head covered since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man.
8 For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man;
9 for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake.
10 Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
11 However, in the Lord, neither is a woman independent of man nor is man independent of woman.
12 For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God.
13 Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?
14 Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him,
15 but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering.
16 But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God."
It is clear from this passage that God is saying that the churches have no other custom of the woman being uncovered. This was known in all the churches of the time of the apostles. There was no question that a woman should have a "symbol" of authority on her head.
There are two different words for covering in this passage. One is described as the hair and the other is a cloth covering over the hair. It is not for the sake of modesty, it is to show the women have chosen to place themselves under her husband and that her authority comes from her husband who is under God. We obey our husbands as they obey God.
God made it clear that a woman was free to pray and expound on the word within the gathering as long as she was covered. Not as the leader but as a participant.
1 Corinthians 11:5 "…5 And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for it is just as if her head were shaved. "
Notice the man is to be uncovered, if the man's hair were the covering then he would have to shave his head, but these passages clearly say that the man would be dishonoring his head, that is Christ, if he were covered. If a man were to walk into any church gathering or prayer meeting today with a hat on he would be asked to remove it. So why does the culture follow the "no covering" for the man but not the covering for the woman?
This practice of a woman covering her head began to disappear as the culture became more feminist. Back in the 1960's every woman in the church had a hat on her head. Most women didn't know why they were doing it but it came from a time when the women knew what it meant and were obeying God through their dedication to Scripture.
The hats began to disappear after the Catholic church declared that a woman no longer had to be covered in the Mass. Then the protestant churches followed this relaxing of the covering by the Catholic church.
Sadly most women in my mother's day didn't know why women wore hats, they didn't know their Bibles. I was once told by my mother that a woman's outfit without a hat was like the cake without the frosting. She and many other women wore hats to church because it was the fashion. When that fashion disappeared and the Catholic church relaxed their mandate for head coverings the protestant church followed. It was easy to make this happen because very few groups were teaching the reason for the hats or scarves.
It was a sad day when I realized that so many of our protestant customs were birthed from the Catholic church and now so entrenched in all denominations that it is impossible for those attending to understand what they do or not do is unbiblical.
There are still many gatherings around the world that obey the word of God in their coverings because all they have had was the Bible.
It has been the false teachings in seminaries who took up the Catholic cause of removing head coverings from the heads of women. The Catholic church has always followed the fashion and culture to remain powerful.
Since most Christian women didn't read their Bibles or were ready and willing to believe the lies that have come out of these liberal seminaries, they followed whatever tickled their ears.
It is untrue that the covering was for back in the day and not now. Just as it is untrue that women should be allowed to leaders in the church, merely because the times have changed.
As the modern church moves away from everything Biblical to follow their traditions, old and new ones, they violate much of the Bible when it is expedient for them. They are willing to defy God's word to remain popular in the culture.
Here is a very good article that shows the Biblical truth that head coverings for women remain today just as they did at the beginning of the church.
Follow the Link to learn more:
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