Does 1 Corinthians 11 Teach That Women Must Wear Head Coverings?

Does 1 Corinthians 11 teach that women must wear head coverings? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Well, hi there and happy Friday. I'm Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. This is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Our phone lines are open right now and you can call us for the next 25 minutes or so. With your question, here's the phone number. It's 833-843-2673.

If you want to spell it out on your phone, it's 833THECORE. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites. You can watch Adriel right now on our YouTube channel and send him a message that way. And you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Martha.

Thank you for your program. I have a question. How does Satan accuse us and how can the Spirit help us? Thank you and God bless. For example, Job chapters 1 and 2 actually where the evil one, Satan, comes before the Lord and brings Job up and accuses him essentially. I also think of Zechariah, one of the minor prophets in Zechariah chapter 3 beginning in verse 1. We read, The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you.

Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? Now Joshua was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments and the angel said to those who were standing before him, remove the filthy garments from him. The filthy garments there are a picture of sin. And so the way in which Satan accuses the brethren, accuses believers is by pointing out their sin, by pointing out the fact that they're failures, that they deserve judgment.

He accuses us in that way. Now you need to understand that something has happened to the evil one definitively through the work of Jesus Christ so that he cannot accuse us as he once did. Now what took place is described in Revelation chapter 12. Beginning in verse 7 we read, Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought back and he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony for they love not their lives even unto death.

And so right there I think you have your answer. How does the Spirit help us? Well it's through the blood of the lamb. The fact that yes, we do have these filthy garments, we have sinned against the Lord and yet God has put away our sins. When we confess our sins he forgives us and John says in 1 John that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. And so because of what Jesus has done, the accusations of Satan against the people of God no longer carry any weight.

He's been cast out of heaven if you will. And so you can be comforted with that reality. Now I think that there are times in our lives, Martha, where the evil spirits will bring up the past, what we've done to give us this sense of condemnation, to make us feel like we're hopeless, like things will never get better, look at how bad, how could God love you, that kind of a thing. And so I think there are those kinds of accusations still.

And how do we overcome those accusations? Again, it's through the blood of the lamb. It's by fleeing to the cross of Jesus Christ and clinging to that cross and knowing, yes, I have sinned, I am a great sinner, but I have a great Savior and he has washed away my sins. God bless you, Martha. Some great words of assurance so much. Thank you, Adriel, so much for that. You're listening to CORE Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez and we have an exciting opportunity for you today. We would love to invite you to join our inner CORE, a very special group of people. And I know Adriel is just very thankful for every individual who is part of our inner CORE.

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We'd love to see some new members of the inner CORE maybe this weekend. By the way, our phone number, if you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life doctrine, theology, or maybe how your Christian life, your daily Christian walk intersects with what's going on in today's culture and all the controversial things we're dealing with. Adriel would love to talk to you and get your question. Here's the number to call. It's 833-THE-CORE 833-THE-CORE or 1-833-843-2673. You can also leave us a voicemail 24 hours a day.

And here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Anna. I have a question about Corinthians 1, 11, about head coverings. Um, it says in the passage that women are not to cut their hair or shave their head and to wear head coverings. I have short hair now, like I have shaved sides and back and then the top is long, but that was due to my hair falling out. Currently it's falling out even more and I may shave the whole thing off, but I also don't want to be dishonorable to God and I just want some more clarity on this passage and if it's okay for me to shave my head because I do not want to be a boy.

I am a woman who likes men, you know, I'm just, I'm struggling with my health and that's why I want to shave my head. Thank you. Hey Anna, thank you for that question. Let's say a quick prayer for Anna as she struggles with her health. Gracious Father, would you be with our sister?

We don't know exactly what health issue it is that she has, but we know, God, that your son Jesus is the great healer, the great physician. And so we pray, Jesus, that you would bring healing in our sister's life, that you would be with her, that you would guide her, that you would encourage her and walk with you and grant strength to her body. We ask these things to your Father in Jesus' name.

Amen. You know, a great question, Anna. I mean, the first thing I would say is I don't think that you need to be concerned that you shaving your head for these reasons would be dishonoring to the Lord or that God would be upset with you. There are a lot of questions that are raised about 1 Corinthians 11 and Paul's discussion about head coverings there. It's important that we understand a couple of things, the context here of 1 Corinthians and then also just the cultural context of what was going on there in Corinth.

So a couple of things. Just in terms of the context, here in chapters 11 through 14, you have really an extended discussion about, I believe, Christian worship and how things ought to be done in the worship assembly. In fact, at the very end of chapter 14 in verse 40, Paul said, all things should be done decently and in order. This is coming off of the discussion he had just had in chapter 14 about spiritual gifts in the worshiping assembly, everything done decently and in order. So there's this order to worship that is supposed to be maintained that is honoring to the Lord.

He begins in chapter 11 in verse 2, I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. So right there again is this sort of idea of you're holding fast to the way I told you to do things but 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 since it is the same as if her head were shaven. In that day, the sort of shaving of the head could have been a sign of a couple of things of grief or mourning or also of disgrace. You see this in various places. You see this in the Old Testament as well in places like Isaiah chapter 7 verse 20.

You think about when individuals would be in mourning or sorrow or when they were disgraced in some manner, they would shave their head or men would shave their beards, that kind of a thing. So there's that cultural element. There's also the broader just sort of cultural historical context of Corinth. Corinth happened to be a Roman colony. So you had this sort of clash of Greek and Roman culture and Romans did things a certain way and Greeks did things a certain way even when it came down to the way in which they worshipped in their own assemblies. I'm just talking about this sort of pagan culture. The Romans, for example, were really keen on things like head coverings and the way that they dressed and their dress being symbolic of status and so on and so forth. So in their assemblies, in their religious assemblies, they would have these head coverings.

Now the Greeks were not as keen on head coverings. So it seems like this could have been just a cultural issue there in Corinth as well as Greeks and Romans are coming to faith in Jesus Christ and they're going into the church and they're thinking about what worship is supposed to look like. This could have been an issue and it seems like it was there in Corinth which is why Paul brings this up and he wants there to be order. He's highlighting here in particular the relationship between God and his people, the relationship between a man and a woman and he's talking about being respectful, being honorable, all things being done as I said in chapter 14 decently and in order.

But I think that there's some just rooted in the historical background here and the context there in particular in Corinth so that you shaving your head today would not mean the same thing necessarily that it meant there in that context. It wouldn't be a scandalizing thing. It wouldn't be something that I think should cause you to feel like, oh man, I'm dishonoring God here. No, may the Lord be with you and may the Lord bless you and as you continue to want to pursue Jesus and honor him in everything that you do and may God also grant you healing with whatever it is that you're going through. So thank you for giving us a call. God bless. Thank you, Anna, and thank you for listening to Core Christianity. We appreciate you so much.

We will continue to pray for you in that health issue that you mentioned. This is Core Christianity and our phone lines are open right now. If you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life doctrine or theology, here's the phone number to call. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

We'll be taking calls for the next eight or nine minutes or so. So if you've got a burning question for Pastor Adriel, now is the time to call us at 833-THE-CORE. We also receive emails here at Core Christianity.

Here's our email address. It's questionsatcorechristianity.com. And Adriel, here's a real practical question from one of our listeners named Perry. He says, I'm a believer in Christ and a CPA. I've asked this same question to many Christian financial talk shows.

No one seems to want to touch it since it's so countercultural. I appreciate how you don't back down on difficult questions. Can you explain 1 Timothy 5-8 specifically to a husband's role to provide for the family by having a single income home?

Yeah. Well, the context here in 1 Timothy 5, Paul is going to be discussing widows and caring for widows. He begins in verse 3, honor widows who are truly widows, but if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

She who is truly a widow left all alone has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command these things as well so that they may be without reproach, but if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Very strong words from the apostle Paul there in verse 8. If you don't provide for your relatives, especially for those of your own household, as if you've denied the faith, you're worse than a non-Christian. You're not even caring for your own family. This is, I think, a sobering warning for all of us in thinking about how we care for each other, how we care for our parents as they age, how we care for our children, but it sounds to me like you're asking, does this mean or necessitate that a married couple, that they have to have a single family income, that the husband has to have enough money, be making enough money, and that if he isn't, he somehow denied the faith?

I certainly would not go that far. I don't believe that what Paul is saying here is that if you're married, husband, if you're not making enough to make ends meet for the family, and maybe your wife works part-time or she also works, then you've denied the faith, you're worse than an unbeliever. That's not actually what even the apostle Paul says.

I think as men, we should strive to provide for our families, to do the best that we can, and to work hard. I think that's what Paul is calling these individuals to. The person that he has in mind here is someone who has abandoned his own family, who has abandoned his relatives even, not caring for his own household, is somebody who is derelict in his duties in that way. Paul says that's a very grievous sin. This is a denial of the faith. It's worse than being an unbeliever. I think we just have to take Paul at his word there. I know that this is a complex issue, and depending on where you live, some places cost more money to live. Does it mean, well, you can't be there if you don't make ends meet all on your own, on your own salary?

No, I don't think so. I think we have to exercise wisdom here as Christians, and in particular as Christian couples, to think about what does it mean for me to lead my family well in a manner that's honoring to God, not placing an intense burden on my family, on my children, on my spouse, and working, and trusting that the Lord will supply the needs that we have, but being diligent to do the work that we're called to do also in caring for our families. God bless you and the work that you do, brother. Thank you for reaching out to us, and have a wonderful weekend. I was just thinking Perry being a CPA, being an accountant, this is his busy time, man, the tax season, so we'll be praying for you, Perry, and all of your fellow CPAs with all the work and the long hours you'll be putting in here over the next several weeks. Well, let's go back to the phones, and we have Tim on the line from Edmond, Oklahoma. Tim, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hey, good afternoon, hopefully you all can hear me okay.

I can hear you. My question is this, I lost my beautiful angel of a wife, I was married to her for 35 years, a couple days post-operative heart valve replacement, totally unexpected, she was in wonderful health, and just flawless in my family's eyes, my daughter and son, but I know she's in heaven because we're believers, and I know she has a perfect heart valve right now, and she is dancing for joy and perfect health. We want to honor my beautiful wife, Dina, and I want to know, does she see what we're doing right now in our daily lives as we try to honor Christ and also honor her?

Tim, my condolences to you, brother, I'm sorry for your loss. I rejoice with you that, as you said, you know, she's in the presence of the Lord, she's in the presence of Jesus. Now, the question is, does she see you now? Is she aware of what is taking place in your life?

Is she observing, watching? I mean, some of the places in the New Testament where we might have something like that suggested, I mean, some people will point to the story that Jesus tells of Lazarus and, you know, wanting to go back and speak to his family members, the rich man. The Scripture is not really clear on, you know, to what extent our loved ones who have gone before us are aware of or watching us. I think that their focus is on the Lord, and we do have that beautiful picture that's painted for us in the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 12, verses 22 and following, of worship in heaven, Tim. The author of the Hebrews says, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. Those, the spirits of the righteous made perfect, that's a reference to our loved ones who have died in Christ, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. The author of the Hebrews is saying, when we gather on earth to worship the true and the living God, and we go to church on Sunday, you know, we don't see all the things that are taking place in the heavenlies, if you will, but it's as if we're going up to the heavenly Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, and we are joining the choir of angels in festal attire, and you know who else we're joining around the throne of God, as it were? Our loved ones, and the focus is on Jesus, his glory, his blood, which saves us. And so I'm prone to think that, you know, for those who have gone before us, I do believe that maybe there is some awareness, you know, there's this perfect knowledge that we have in the presence of the Lord. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

We see through a mirror dimly now, but when we see faith to faith, we're gonna know even as we ourselves are known, so I think that there's this fullness of knowledge that we're given. We don't know exactly what that's going to be like, but I think that the focus is on Christ, on the Lord, on worship, in that heavenly gathering, and the sweet thing, the wonderful thing is we are a part of this one church, the church militant, here on earth now, which you're a part of, still striving to follow Jesus, to walk with him, Tim, and also the church triumphant, where your wife is right now, in the presence of Jesus, perfected in holiness and perfect peace, one body of Christ, one church, and our eyes are all directed to the Lord, to Christ, and may Jesus lift your eyes to him and continue to fill you with his Spirit and comfort you in this time, and thank you for giving us a call. Tim, we do really feel for you and your loss, and we'll be continuing to pray for you and your family. Adriel, here's a related question coming in from Ruth in Oklahoma. Ruth, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, how are you? I'm doing well, Ruth. How are you? Good, thank you.

I'm just going with this kind of a curiosity question. I haven't found in the Bible a verse that says that we're going into heaven immediately after we die, like I'm looking for that word exactly, like it says places or even heavens, and so I don't know if there's a particular verse that I can find. I'd love to help you with this, Ruth, and I was actually just reading from one of the verses that I would go to in Hebrews chapter 12, where it talks about the heavenlies with the angels around the throne of God, and there you have the spirits of the righteous made perfect. That's Hebrews chapter 12 verse 23, that is those believers who have died and gone to be with the Lord. Other verses that you could go to, if you want to get a pen to write this down, I think of the Gospel of Luke in Luke chapter 23 verse 43, where Jesus says to the thief on the cross, today you're going to be with me in paradise. Today, on the day that you die, you're going to be with me in paradise.

That is, I believe, in heaven. You also have the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 8, where he says to be absent from the body, when we die, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. One more verse that I oftentimes will go to is what the Apostle Paul says in the book of Philippians, in Philippians chapter 1, where he says, if I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.

In other words, I don't know if I'm going to be here for much longer, Paul says. He says, my desire is to depart and to be with Christ, for that is far better. There, that's Philippians chapter 1 verse 23. He says, when I die, I'm departing from this earth, from my body for a period of time. My spirit is going to go into the presence of the Lord. I'm going to be with Christ. That is far better than anything I've ever experienced here on this earth. Those are four passages of scripture that I just gave you that I think indicate very clearly that when a believer dies, they are immediately in the presence of the Lord. Their souls are perfected in holiness and they wait for that glorious day, the day of the resurrection when we're reunited to our bodies through the work of Jesus Christ. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.