1 Corinthians 11:13-16
Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.
We have to excuse Paul for being blinded by his cultural setting. His admonition here reveals the long tradition of short hair for men and long hair for women. But there is nothing necessarily physical about this except that some men will go bald, and thus lose their hair (a few women can also go bald but it is rare). Paul wants churches to be models in their culture of the best acceptable personal decorum. Other New Testament writers talk about this, such as 1 Peter 3. It hurts the witness of believers when they push the edge of acceptable dress and personal grooming. As always, we must note what is driving Paul’s thoughts here: he wants the church to follow his example of doing whatever is necessary to win people to Christ. One very simple thing to do is to look good, be groomed, dress with modesty. We don’t know all the back story of this passage, but the Corinthian believers were obviously doing something that made themselves be a back witness. This idea is not easy to accept, especially in a day and culture where fashions are so dominant and influential.
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