“Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. 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.”

One theologian refers to head coverings as a “gnatty” issue, indicating his frustration with the conclusion to which his hermeneutics (interpretative principles) led him. We must take this passage at face value and therefore understand the covering having application for today. The reasons given have little to do with the culture but are rooted in timeless theology. The arguments against such a view strain one’s consistency of hermeneutics when applied to other passages. Surely one would not reject substitutionary atonement just because it is an abhorrent idea to our current sensibilities—a murderer cannot go free simply because someone else has been executed in his place; the public uproar would be deafening. Complete forgiveness at the cross extended to the “worst” human beings (including a terrorist) is quite offensive to modern minds, yet that is exactly what we believe and what we preach to an unsaved world. Why then do so many object to a symbol such as a head covering? Could it be that it doesin fact represent what is culturally offensive—role relationships in marriage, particularly the headship of the man and all it represents?

Before we go on, we must be quick to clarify that headship does not represent repression or give license to abusiveness. Remember this term is applied to the relationship of God the Father with Christ—and the headship of Christ with the church, for whom He sacrificed greatly. That is the kind of loving headship of the man symbolized in this passage. This is certainly not the prevailing practice of our culture today, and in that sense, it is very countercultural. Paul makes this clear when he writes to the Ephesian church:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. (Eph. 5:25–27)

Whatever 1 Corinthians 11:4-16 says about role relationships, headship involves the husband’s loving, sacrificial attitude and actions for the best interests of his wife. If this is true in the marriage, then the spill-off effects into male-female relationships in general will be nothing short of culture-rattling!

Lord, help me be obedient to You and not to my culture!