Common Objections to Covering

I hope you have had a chance to pray and meditate on 1 Cor 11. I have decided to tackle a few common questions.

1. What is the "right" size and style of a covering?
2. Is it cultural?
3. Well hair is the covering given to us by God. We do not need anything else.

Here are the answers I give to these questions when asked.

1. The Bible says absolutely nothing about the size and style of the covering that a sister in Christ must wear in order to follow scripture. If there was only one correct style, then I am positive it would have been mentioned. But, what I do say is that it is called a "headcovering". Does this mean that I have to cover all my hair? I do not think so. If God had intended for it to be a haircovering, I am sure he would of had Paul use that word instead of headcovering. Also, if our hair is to be a vest for us, how can it be a vest if it is worn up and covered?

Some say that the hair is the glory of a woman and therefore should be covered and reserved for her husband. Although the Bible does not instruct us to cover our hair, if a woman feels convicted to cover her hair as well as her head, then so be it. I personally do not share that same conviction, but I am not going to discredit those who do.

Some churches stand by the thought that a covering must be a specific style and has to be black for certain women and white for other women. That is fine. If you do not attend a church that dictates the style and color of a covering, then you are free to choose your own covering. They insist that the covering must say "religious" in order for it to qualify as a covering. My question is who determines if a covering says "religious" or not? It is society that determines that based on the typical coverings that women wear in the circles that still require headcovering.

I have faith that if you are unsure of what kind of covering you ought to wear, pray and the Lord will lead you to a covering he approves of.

2. Is it cultural? No. If it is cultural, then I suppose we do not need to keep the Lord's Supper either correct? That is the second part of 1 Cor 11. Also, there are only three reasons given for covering. One, the headship order: God, man, then woman. Two, man was created before woman so therefore the woman is the glory of man. Three, because of the angels. This third reason is not really elaborated on much in the Bible, but the other two are repeated several times throughout 1 Corinthians 11:1-16. Another reason I personally do not believe headcovering is cultural and therefore for the church of Corinth only is because of 1 Corinthians 1:2 "Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours". Paul clearly states that he is writing this letter first to the church of Corinth and then to all churches around the world that believe in Jesus Christ.

3. Is the hair the covering? No! As we saw from the Greek study in the previous post, we saw that two different Greek words are used in the sense of a cover and of our hair covering.

Another explanation for why our hair is not a covering... is how can hair be removed and put back on for prayer? It can't be, unless we wear a wig. But then, how could the men remove their covering for prayer and prophesy if the covering is the hair? Again, unless all men are bald and put a wig on while they are not praying or prophesying, then the hair cannot be the covering. So, it makes much more sense for the covering to be a physical covering...one that can be removed and put back on.

The NIV Bible has added notes to its Bibles saying that the hair is a woman's covering. This is one of the most common Bibles used by Christian churches these days. I am not going to say not to use the NIV Bible, but if you do use this version, I ask you to be very cautious with taking the study notes as part of the Bible. Remember, those were not in the original document so someone put their interpretations in a Bible and published it. Prayer is the best way to determine the interpretation of something in the Bible.

If you face any objections, I understand. Covering and being the only one in the area is a very difficult thing to do. It takes a lot of courage and determination to not let others talk you out of it. If there are any other objections you have heard, please share them :)

Blessings in Christ,