Understanding Divine Order and Head Coverings in Worship

Devotional

Sermon Summary

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. [00:19:17]

The question is not whether it's a sin to wear one. The question on everybody's mind here today is it is it is is it a sin to not wear one and we'll try to work our way to some conclusions as we close. [00:07:44]

From the time of the Apostles until approximately the mid-20th century, that is your grandmother's heyday, okay, for most of you Christian women covered their heads in worship and many times in public as well. This was not considered a cultural thing all the way up into the 1950s and 60s. [00:08:52]

The entire history of the church saw this scripture as not controversial at all but very clear and very simple. It's us who don't see it like that. For example, here's a quote: the oral and written history handed down to us from the early church is an example of these matters. [00:10:11]

The widespread jettisoning of the practice of head covering can be traced to the mid-20th century right around the time of the rise of modern feminism. Many influenced by feminist ideology would not only see marriage as "a comfortable concentration camp," but they would hate any symbols of a woman being under authority. [00:19:16]

The tendency is to interpret what we see in Scripture not by what it meant to its original hearers and then extrapolate from there, but rather through the grid of the world. So often we say of plain obvious scriptures, I know it says that, but it don't mean that. [00:22:17]

The danger is once everything becomes that was then, this is now, and it no longer applies, all standards get thrown out: marriage, family, what the gospel is, the concept of sin, what is lawful or not, even the concept of grace is under assault in our current church culture. [00:23:49]

The Greek here for the word woman can be translated wife or woman depending on the context, and she most certainly would in whatever context is not inferior, but she plays a different role. Can you see now, as we walk through the passage, why the culture hates this? [00:35:39]

Paul uses creation order as part of his defense of head covering. He actually uses governmental order first, now he's using creation order, which they both are very similar, but he's using creation order to bolster his argument. As we've already said, since male and female are both made in the image of God. [00:50:47]

Paul now brings in a very hard to understand additional reason for coverings: because of the Angels. I might say because of the Angels. Now I need you to kind of get what's going on here. For those of you who will disagree with my take on this, and that's okay, I love you. [00:55:27]

Paul is obviously trying to lead them to the answer of no in the text, right, but he wants them to think it through objectively, and then he begins to use yet another example. He's still making his case, another example: does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him? [01:00:24]

We pray that our attempts to simply be honest with the scripture is a blessing, and even if our conclusions run contrary to what is normally taught within the culture, we also pray to our God and to our Christ that Satan, who is the father of rebellion, would not be allowed to use a passage of scripture that teaches against rebellion to cause rebellion. [01:07:32]

Ask a question about this sermon