“Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering.”

Why is hair an issue when the church comes together? What do you do with men who do have long hair, and women who don’t? There are many application questions as well as secondary interpretive questions, the answers to which would require more space than we have here.

We want to address here the larger question of why hair is such a big deal. Remember when a woman washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair (Luke 7:38, 44, John 11:2)? Would this have carried the same significance if a man had done it? One could argue that, yes it would, for the significance is that of devotion to Christ. I would argue against that. She was submitting her female glory in worship of Christ. Which interpretation can be proved? We would appeal to Paul’s argument, “Judge for yourselves.”

It is patently obvious that a woman’s hair is extremely more significant to a woman than a man’s hair is to a man. To be sure, some men wear their hair long, but even they do not give attention to their hair that most women do. And some women don’t give much thought to their hair, but exceptions do not invalidate the observation of what is generally true.

Far more is produced and spent on women’s hair treatments and styling than on men’s. No comparison! A man being bald or shaving his head in our society is fairly common, but when was the last time you saw a woman bald (except for one undergoing cancer treatment)? Men are not embarrassed as a general rule by baldness, sometimes even joking about it.

We can truly agree when the apostle says a woman’s hair is her glory, and very much adds to her attractiveness. And it is precisely this that drives the passage on head-coverings. Women are to cover their hair, that which makes them very attractive (among other things), because it rivals God’s glory. What is the rivalry? Namely, the rivalry for the attention of all human beings in worship. When the church comes together, the focus should be on God and His glory. The glory of women can distract from the glory of God. That is how much God thinks of the beauty of women. And He asks that for the short time His people are together, we should do everything possible to direct attention toward God and not away from Him by distracting human glory.

Lord, thank You for making women glorious, but help me to focus on Your glory in worship.