Take your Bibles with me and turn to 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11.

I am a committed expository preacher. I'm committed to giving you the whole counsel of God. That means I don't skip passages because they are difficult. But if there ever was a passage I wanted to skip - this would be on the short list for two reasons:

1. It's incredibly difficult to parse and scholars have all kinds of views about nearly every part of it.
2. It's incredibly controversial and runs right against the grain in our culture.

But I'm not going to skip it. I've studied just about everything I could get my hands on on this passage and wrestled with it all week, and I think it has some extremely important principles in it for our church.

Let's go ahead and read the text:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 - KJV

1. Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
2. Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
3. But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
4. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
5. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
6. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
7. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
8. For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
9. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
10. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
11. Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
12. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
13. Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
14. Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
15. But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
16. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.

I'm not a mind reader, but I can take a guess what is going through your mind right now: Something like this "Whaattt???" "What did I just hear and read?"

If that is you, then you are in good company, because just about every commentary writer wrestles with understanding this text and Bible students throughout the ages have marked this off as particularly difficult.

It's difficult because there are some genuine head scratchers in here that would be puzzling in any text:

• "Power on her head because of the angels"?
• "Woman is the glory of man"?
• "But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God"? What does that even mean?

It's difficult because it deals with a culture we are far removed from. We do not live in Roman culture. We do not live in 1st century Corinth. We live in 21st Century America. If you see a woman today wearing some kind of head covering, you are going to assume that she is either Muslim or Mennonite, but it isn't a widespread cultural symbol anymore.

Finally, it's difficult because it deals with a controversial subject. Let's be honest, we live on the other side of a feminist revolution like nothing in history. We are at least a few generations removed from any idea of male headship. Feminism has been so enshrined in our society that when we read this in our Bible, it's almost like we are reading some forbidden text on the dark web. (Some of you are wondering Is it even ok to talk about this??)

That's not even to mention the confusion of the transgender movement and the cultural embrace of being "nonbinary."

So when we see this - it's confusing, controversial stuff!

But this is God's word. This is good. This is truth. We don't get to skip over any of it, and I think it would be particularly harmful for us to skip over this.

• Because this is controversial, we need it more than ever. Because we are so culturally removed from it, we need to recover the lessons from that culture and apply it to today.
• Because this is God's word, we need every bit of it, and we can understand it.

So let me give you some context about what was happening in Corinth, and then we will try to understand it.

In the Roman world, respectable women wore head coverings. They weren't a veil like a muslim burqa (they didn't cover the face), but they were a hood like a muslim hijab. You could call them a hood.

This was a cultural norm. Every woman wore one with a few exceptions: prostitutes, adulterers, and slaves. Prostitutes were some of the only woman in society that didn't wear a hood in public covering their hair. So in that society, if you didn't wear a hood, you were basically saying "I'm a loose woman, I'm for sale, come and get me."

There also seems to be a movement in Corinth where men dressed and wore their hair like women. The greeks and Romans had this God Dionysius who was a man who was raised as a woman and dressed like a woman, and apparently it was fashionable for some men and woman to blur gender lines and for boys to dress like girls and girls to dress like guys.

And it seems like, in the church at Corinth, you had two things going on:

1. You had men who were growing their hair long like women.
2. You had woman who had decided that they were free in Christ and didn't need to wear the hood anymore.

And Paul is addressing this problem in chapter 11.

Now, we don't wear head coverings today in America. The closest thing I know of in Christian circles is what the Amish and Menonites do - and that is more of a hat or a doily and not what was going on in Corinth.

But we absolutely need this passage, because despite all of our cultural changes, God still has principles of order for the church and the home, and He expects those principles to be respected and translated into how we dress and how we worship.

What are those principles? Our text lays them out for us:

• The principle of authority.
• The principle of design.
• The principle of propriety.

Let's pray and we'll look at those three principles.

Our text starts by giving us...

1. The principle of authority.

This is where Paul starts in verse 3:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 11:3 - KJV 3. But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

Headship is a very important idea in the Bible. God is not anti-authority. Authority or headship is a through line that runs throughout scripture.

And bundled up in the idea of headship is representation. This is so important to God, that Paul tells us in Romans that we didn't even have to sin personally, we sinned in our head, in Adam. And we were justified in our head, Christ.

So God is saying here that the head of every man is Christ. We all follow Christ. He is our leader, he is our authority.

The head of woman is the man. Now, I do not believe that this means that in general, men in are in charge of ladies. That isn't really taught anywhere else in scripture. When it says "the head of every woman is the man" I think we can take that to mean the head of every woman is either her husband or her father (if she is unmarried), then it says that the head of Christ is God.

Now, I want you to understand something important here: headship and authority doesn't mean inequality.

Just because someone is your head, doesn't mean they are more important or better than you. It just means that in God's economy - they have authority over you.

The ultimate example of that is found right in this verse - it says that the head of Christ is God.

We know that God and Christ are equals. They are coequal parts of the trinity. Philippians tells us that Christ "thought it not robbery to be equal with God." They are equals - and yet Christ always acknowledged that God the Father was His authority.

You might have a boss at work. That boss has authority over you. They are your head in that relationship. That doesn't mean that anyone things they are better than you. Rank doesn't always equate to quality - but they are still your boss.

Paul wanted to make something clear, in God's economy, men look to Christ as their authority, and woman look to their husbands or to their father for authority and this is reflected in how they dress and carry themselves in the church house.

A man who wants to wear long hair or cover his head is basically rebelling against God's order and a woman who wants to look like a man is rebelling against God's order.

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 11:4 - KJV 4. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.

This means that a man who prays or speaks in church looking like a woman is dishonoring his head - that isn't talking about the top of his cranium, it means he is dishonoring Christ.

By dressing effeminate in worship, the man is blurring the lines and confusing God's order.

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 11:5 - KJV 5. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.

When a woman in that culture didn't wear a hood, she was dishonoring her head - who was that? Her husband or her father. And Paul said she might as well be shaven.

In Bible times when a woman was caught in adultery, they would shave off her hair. It was a public shame. Paul is saying to these ladies you might as well publicly shame yourself and your family.

Now notice. Women did pray and speak in church. Paul wasn't saying they shouldn't do that. But he was concerned with how they did it and that when they did it they properly recognized their God-given authority.

So Paul was very big of these ladies wearing head coverings in worship because of the principle of authority.

The second principle in this passage is...

2. The principle of design

We've had authority, now we have design.

Look at verses 8-12

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 11:8-12 - KJV 8. For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. 9. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. 10. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. 11. Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. 12. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.

Paul is moving from the principle of headship, of God-given authority to the principle of God's design.

God designed men and woman differently and God has given us different purposes. In the creation account, God created the man and gave him a job, and then created the woman specifically to be his helper.

This is highly controversial - but that doesn't mean it isn't biblical: God made woman to help, not to lead.

God made woman as a helper - and in Scripture, 'helper' isn't a demeaning term. God Himself is called our helper throughout the Psalms. But the created order shows that woman was made for man (v. 9), to complete him, to partner with him - with man bearing the responsibility of leadership in the home and church.

This is something that happened before the fall. Before sin entered into the equation. This is how God made men and women.

Now, we all know men are pretty useless without their wives. Without the woman's help, this church would probably have to close its doors in a month. But God designed for men to be in positions of leadership in the home and in the church.

Design matters. I could drive a nail with my laptop. But that isn't what it's made for. It's going to destroy my laptop. Things work best when they are used as their creator intended.

And God intended for men and woman to live in harmony, with distinct roles. They are interdependent on each other.

This goes down to being born. Only one man who ever lived was able to live without a woman - his name was Adam. Every single other one came from a woman.

So men depend on women, women depend on men and all of us depend on Christ.

Now there is one curious verse in this section, verse 10.

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 11:10 - KJV 10. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.

The word "power" there means "authority." And this probably indicates that she should wear the head covering as a symbol of being under authority.

But what is this thing about the angels?

There are lots of speculation about this. There are even people who think this refers to the sons of God and the daughters of men from back in Genesis. I think its simpler than that:

The Bible tells us that angels were made to worship God. It tells us that the angels submit to God's authority in all things and it tells us that angels are present and watching us when we worship - so it seems like Paul is saying that if angels are watching us, we need to worship appropriately.

So we've talked about the principle of authority and the principle of design. Verses 13-16 give us...

3. The principle of propriety

Let's read those again:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 11:13-16 - KJV 13. Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? 14. Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? 15. But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering. 16. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.

Now Paul is just going to go to what is appropriate. He asks them "is it appropriate for a woman to pray uncovered?"

In that context - it was absolutely scandalous.

Then Paul talked about how even nature shows a distinction between men's hair and woman's hair.

Now this is a generality. There are exceptions to this. But generally speaking, woman grow hair more easily than men do. In general women have longer hair and men have shorter hair.

We are speaking in general here. There are bald woman and there are dudes like Absolom. But they are the exception - not the rule.

There are biological, not just cultural, reasons for this related to the hormone differences between men and women.

Finally, Paul appealed to the general practice of the church. In verse 16 he seemed to say "We aren't going to argue about this - this is common across all the churches."

Conclusion

So the principle of authority, the principle of design, and the principle of propriety.

Now, I've been talking about head covering this whole time, and would you believe it, there isn't a single lady in our whole church wearing a hood tonight?

Not even my wife. Not even my daughters. Scandalous.

How can we call ourselves a true church without making the woman wear hoods? There is a reason for that, and it gets to application tonight:

Woman wearing a covering over their head is no longer a common cultural symbol. When I see a woman without a head covering at Walmart, I'm not thinking "prosititute!" Are you? Of course not.

Now there are parts of the world where it still is. We'd be having a very different conversation if we were in Egypt about this.

But there are principles here that extend beyond culture. Principles that are drawn from the Trinity and creation. So we need to figure them out and make applications to our own culture.

Can I suggest some applications of this:

• Men and woman should embrace their God-give roles in God's economy.
• Men and woman should dress in a way that reflects that they have embraced their God-given roles.
• Woman in particular should be careful not to dress in a way that draws physical attention to themselves and suggests that they are available.
• Men and woman in the church should all dress in a way that shows respect as they are worshiping a Holy God in the presence of angels.