Headship & The Head Covering

Well, good morning, everyone. I bring you greetings in the name of Jesus. Before we begin, let's just bow our heads once again. Father, the things that we do not know, we pray that You would teach us this morning.

And the things that we understand, we pray that You would give us the grace to put them into practice in our lives. So just be with us. In Your name we pray. Amen.

2 Timothy 3:16, very familiar verse, says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." The word inspiration means to be God-breathed. "And it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

And I prefaced the message this morning with this verse because the passage that we come to this morning is a passage that I think there's much... what would you say? There's a lot of things done with this passage.

And I just want to reinforce in our minds that what we have here is not... it's not my ideas. It's not even the Apostle Paul's ideas, but it comes from the authority of God, out of His Word. And the passage before us this morning is 1 Corinthians 11. And I guess for a title, it can just simply be "Headship and the Head Covering."

Many commentators go down through this passage and they make the case. And then there's this strange pivot at the end, where one person said, "We can't base such a radical practice on one short passage of Scripture."

Or they'll make the case and they'll say, "It was a cultural practice of the day. We need to make sure we get the principles here. But as far as the practice itself, we don't need to do that."

Others say... they use the last verse of this little passage and say, "Well, the important thing is unity. So if this is going to create a problem, unity is the most important thing. So we will make sure that that's what we focus on." And so as followers of Jesus, our desire is to obey His commands and to be faithful to what He calls us to.

So you can turn to 1 Corinthians 11.

And I'm going to read the first 16 verses.

"Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember Me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you." I'm sorry. It actually begins a little bit before that. "Imitate Me just as I also imitate Christ." "Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember Me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of every woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesied with her head uncovered dishonors her head. For that is one and the same as if her head were shaved.

For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man in the Lord. For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman.

But all things are from God. Judge among 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. But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God."

I'm also going to read this passage in... there's a Bible we use at home, the New English Bible, and we use it for devotions. And I want to read this passage in that version. It says, "I commend you always for always keeping Me in mind and maintaining the tradition I handed on to you. But I wish you to understand that while every man has Christ for his head, woman's head is man, as Christ's head is God. A man who keeps his head covered when he prays or prophesies brings shame on his head. A woman, on the contrary, brings shame on her head if she prays or prophesies bareheaded. It is as bad as if her head were shaved.

If a woman is not to wear a veil, she might as well have her hair cut off. But if it is a disgrace for her to be cropped and shaved, then she should wear a veil. A man has no need to cover his head because man is the image of God and the mirror of His glory, whereas woman reflects the glory of man. For man did not originally spring from woman, but woman was made out of man. And man was not created for woman's sake, but woman for the sake of man. And therefore, it is woman's duty to have a sign of authority on her head out of regard for the angels. And yet, in Christ's fellowship, woman is as essential to man as man to woman.

If woman be made out of man, it is through woman that man now comes to be. And God is the source of all. Judge for yourselves: Is it fitting for a woman to pray to God bareheaded? Does not nature itself teach you that while flowing locks disgrace a man, they are a woman's glory? For her locks were given for covering. However, if you insist on arguing, let me tell you that there is no such custom among us or in any of the congregation of God's people."

So as we approach this this morning, I would like to look at sort of four separate reasons why a woman should veil her head and why a man should find his place in that as well. And those three... three of the reasons are sort of from the passage here, and then sort of a historical church practice which would sort of come out of the very last verse.

And those principles are the created order, angels, and nature.

So Paul starts out here and he says, "I praise you, brethren, that you remember Me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you." So first of all, it seems as if the church in Corinth was indeed practicing this.

If we go to verse 17, he says, "Now in giving you..." and concerning the Lord's Supper, he says, "Now in giving you these instructions, I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better, but for the worse." So it seems like they were keeping this practice. However, it seemed like Paul was concerned that they understood the reasoning, why... why... why this was so important. And later on in the book of Corinthians, he gets into the whole thing of a woman's place as far as in the church, as far as her place and role there. And so it seems like this is a clarification that he wants to make sure is very clear in their mind.

So when God created the universe, He put things in order: the stars in their courses. He gave man dominion over the animals. And He put in place a headship order. There's two words that I want to focus on when it comes to this. And the first one is the word "head." I don't usually write up here because I'm not a schoolteacher either.

And the other word I want to focus on this morning is the word "glory."

Verse 3 says, "I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is a man, and the head of Christ is God." So we can just have it visually here.

And I'll just fill this out while I'm here. So that comes directly from verse 3: "The head of Christ is God, the head of man is Christ, and the head of woman is man."

The glory of God is man.

The glory of man is the woman. And the glory of the woman.

And that comes from verse 7. Verse 7 says that, "For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man." And then if we go down to verse 15, "But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her." So we're going to look at those... we'll look at those things as we go along here.

Where did this headship... where did this order come from?

It came from creation itself.

And I want to read Genesis 1.

Genesis 1, verses 26 to 28. "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them."

And then if we turn to chapter 2, beginning at verse 15, "Then the Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.' And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.' Out of the ground of the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.

And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said, 'This is now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.'" So here we see the roots of where this whole order comes into place. We see that God formed man out of the dust. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And He made man in His image.

And then it says that it wasn't good for man to be alone. He was incomplete. And so God created a woman out of Adam, out of his rib.

And so one of the things that are in our modern time that really gets a reaction in all this is that people immediately, because of the mindset of our day, I think immediately that there's a difference in value. And we've touched on this when we talked about the role of husband and wife in Ephesians.

There's a fellow by the name of Jeremy Gardener. He's actually a part of a group called the Head Covering Movement. And I did find some of his... just some of his things that he said very, very helpful to me. And I'm going to read a few of the things that he says. "Just because we're equal does not mean that we have the same role, authority, or function. These differences can be seen throughout the creation, in angels, and even in God Himself. The doctrine of the Trinity is that there is only one God revealed in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now these three persons are all fully God and fully equal, but they are distinct in function, authority, and person.

As we have seen in the above verse, God is the head of Christ. The submission of Jesus to the Father was not limited to His incarnation, as some claim. Jesus is not less valuable than the Father. The Holy Spirit is not less valuable than Jesus, even though His role is not to speak about Himself, but instead to glorify the Son, as it says in John 16, verse 13. Different roles do not have to mean different value or worth.

This point cannot be stressed highly enough. Does a police officer have authority over you given by God? Romans 13. Yes. Is that police officer of more value or worth than you as a human? No. Children submit to their parents, Ephesians 6:1. Slaves submit to their masters, Ephesians 6:5. Wives submit to their husbands, Ephesians 5:22. Citizens submit to their government, Romans 13:1. And church members submit to their elders. Jesus submits to God. And there's even different ranks in the angels, as Michael was called the archangel, meaning chief.

We need not to be afraid of authority. There will be lousy parents, brutal masters, chauvinistic husbands, power-trip pastors, and ungodly governments until the end. That's due to sin, though, not because authority is bad. And so... and so God, in His wisdom, has selected a perfect symbol to display the difference in the created order.

And that symbol is the covered or uncovered head.

And that's something that God has set up. God loves symbols. He gave us the spotless lamb. He gave us the unleavened bread, the water in baptism, the bread in the wine, the olive tree, marriage, the temple, the feast. And even... and the list could go on.

Each symbol was chosen by God for a specific purpose to point to a greater reality. And in the Hebrews, when God talks about the the the tent that Moses was supposed to make, He said that He was instructed by God, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain."

The author of Hebrews then points out that this tent is a symbol of this present age. Now, even though it was a symbol, Moses was still given very specific instructions and was told to follow them. The reason being is that if you change the symbol, you are no longer... no longer accurately reflect what God was using to point to. So it is with head coverings. The man reflects the glory of God and His submission to Christ by praying and prophesying with a bare head. The woman reflects the glory of man and her submission to the proper male authority in her life by praying and prophesying with her head uncovered... with her head covered. If we change the symbol or abandon it altogether, we miss out on displaying to man and angels the wisdom of God in creation.

Even worse, we're disobeying the commands of our Lord, which, as Paul says, brings dishonor and disgrace upon our head. And so I just like to point out that the whole idea of this headship is not... it's not something that Paul came up with on his own, but it was something that was put in place at the very... at the very beginning. And it's the covered head that is the symbol or the distinction that is to be made. And that word "covered" in verse 6 means "holy covered." And so I think it's important to keep that in mind, that it's the covered head that is the symbol and not necessarily the particular thing that we use to do that.

When the... when the... when the thing becomes the symbol itself, then the place that people go is to say, "What can just be about anything and as long as it means that?" But remember that verse 6, it says, "She is to be... let her be covered." That word means "holy covered."

And this flies... even... even as we say this kind of thing, you can probably almost feel it, like the tension that is in our world today when this subject, or even you start to talk like this, that comes up in our attitudes today. The submission to authority, the roles of men and women.

It's anathema in our society today. It just really is. And it's rebellion against God. And you know, people instinctively, I think, recognize this. And I was interested in this in 1968. Now, or the National Organization for Women, was a feminist organization founded by Betty Friedan.

And this is especially to Catholics. But in 1968, they rallied their troops to have a national unveiling. And here's what they said. This is the quote: "Because the wearing of a head covering by women at religious services is a symbol of subjection with many churches, now recommends that all chapters undertake an effort to have all women participate in a national unveiling by sending their head coverings to the task force chairman. At the spring meeting of the Task Force of Women and Religions, these veils will be publicly burned to protest the second-class status of women in all churches. Now rallied their various chapters to undertake an effort to stop the practice of head covering. They were so disgusted with the symbol and what it represented that they had a public burning of women's veils.

Sadly, their efforts achieved what they hoped it would." So there we have in 1960, at the height of rebellion, there was a recognition, whether they recognized it or not, that when we rebel against the order that God has, that the headship veiling was a sign of that. And somehow they wanted to get rid of that.

They were not happy with the order. And what was the result? It said the results came. And what were the results of that? Well, the result is that we have women out of their God-given role. We have men becoming effeminate. And we wonder today, you know, where did this whole idea of gender fluidity and this whole thing that we can even choose that? It has its roots right in this kind of thinking.

And so we've established that God, in His wisdom, He says that a sign of a man's place in the headship that He has ordained is to worship and pray to God with his head uncovered. It reflects the glory that God intended for that.

And the symbol for a woman finding her place under the God-given headship is to have her head covered.

You know, God's way is the right way. And it's the way to freedom. And I guess so many people look at this as a bondage. Merle Ruth, in talking about this subject, says this: "Suppose a railroad locomotive could speak and it said, 'I'm tired of following the same old tracks and going through the same old towns.' And suppose the locomotive would then leave the railroad tracks and start across the open fields. Would it improve its lot? Would it find greater liberty? Would it increase its usefulness? Of course not. In one way or another, it would soon get stuck. A locomotive is most useful when it follows the tracks for which it was designed. In this day of supposed liberation for women, that lesson is urgently needed.

We make our greatest contribution when we function in our God-given designed spheres." And so as we think about this whole idea of headship and finding our place the way God created it, let's remember that, that that's the way to freedom. That's the way that... for to blessing.

And again, why is it so? Well, because God... God ordained it that way. But I would like to look... think a little bit about glory, because sometimes the question comes into our mind: Well, why? Why... why the covered head? What does... what does this all have to do... do with it?

What is our responsibility and purpose? Well, if we go back to chapter 10 in Corinthians, and I want to reread a verse that we talked about before, verse 31: "Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Do all to the glory of God. So what is our purpose as Christians, as... as His... as God's creation, as the... as the people that He created to... to bring Him glory? And that is our responsibility, to bring God glory. And remember, in the last message, I said that one of the ways we can look at that is to make the things that we do to make God look good.

What does it mean to be the glory of something? Well, Proverbs 20:29 says, "The glory of young men is their strength." So we can get... we kind of get our hand... a handle on that. "The glory of a young man is their strength. And the splendor of an old man is their gray head." In other words, it's something worth celebrating.

A young man in his strength, that brings... that's glory. That's glory to him. An old man in his gray head, it symbolizes wisdom. The glory and splendor of pastures is flowers. Psalms 37, Matthew 6, Jesus talks about that, the flowers of the field.

James 1:10 and 11. The glory of a house, says Psalm 49, is its wealth.

And so the question is then: How do we, as humans, bring glory to God?

And why is man the glory of God? Well, it's because we were made in His image. Remember what it says back in... in... in Genesis there, that we were made in the image of God. And so, you know, I think about it... Dad's not here this morning, but he's been doing some carving. And his latest one was a... was a bald eagle with a fish in its claws. And you know, when you... when you make something or create it, there's a certain sense in which there's a glory attached to that. And I don't think that's his motivation. His motivation for carving is not so that he can get glory. But when I look at that, there's a certain sense in which I say that the glory goes back to the Maker, right?

We understand that. And when God created man, it says He created him in His image to bring Him glory. He wants to have a relationship with us. He wants us to bring Him glory.

And so... and then it says that woman is the glory of man. Genesis makes it clear that woman was made for man. It wasn't the other way around. And again, to our... to our 21st century ears, that almost makes us want to... want to shudder a little bit.

As I said, it's not my words. He made woman as a helper. And so what do we mean when woman is the glory of man? There's another person that I read, and I'm going to read some quotes from him. His name is Bon Tenant.

He says this: "Leaving aside biblical theology for simple embodied experience, we all know that women are the glory of men. They are the thing that, when considering humanity as a whole, men themselves are the most inclined to celebrate.

If presented with the choice of saving either a man or a woman, we save the woman. We consider them of greater value. One woman's face launched a thousand ships, and others is compared to a summer's day. Just as the beauty of the lily is the glory of the pasture, so is the beauty of the woman the glory of the man." So there's a sense in which a woman is man's glory. "Stated succinctly, when we think of God's presence on earth, the thing most worthy of honor is man.

And when we think of man's presence on earth, the thing most worthy of honor is woman." Well, what about long hair then? The woman and her long hair? What then of long hair? Again, this is self-explanatory. "We don't call them beauty parlors for nothing. The cliché of models in commercials swinging their heads in slow motion, displaying their... dare I say it, glorious locks is no mere coincidence. Of course, a woman's long hair is her glory, and of course that hair is emblematic. Thing to be defaced by feminists seeking to reject the beauty of femininity.

What is the reason that the stereotypical feminist not only cuts her hair short, but goes to the trouble of making it an unnatural color?" And I don't know if you've noticed that recently in our society, that the colors of hair, the unnatural reds and pinks and purples.

And I think it stems back to this whole thing of: I'm going to rebel against the very thing that God... God set in motion. That a woman's hair is her glory. It speaks of her femininity. It speaks of her beauty.

And so where's all this... this coming from? It's coming from a distinct rebellion.

It is because she understands, as we all do on some level, that comportment is a kind of communication, hence the term "body language." Feminists have much they wish to communicate about their opinion of God's design, and they wish to communicate it with everyone. "It is disgraceful, as nature itself teaches, for a woman to cut off her hair, because one does not treat one's glory with disdain and dishonor.

And it is equally disgraceful for a man to wear his hair long like a woman, not just because he is being effeminate, which is an abomination in and of itself, but also because he is, as it were, stealing a woman's glory." And all this leads us into... to a premise: Whose glory are we supposed to display?

In worship, in our lives. Whose glory are we intended to magnify? And I think we all agree that God's glory is what needs to... to be on display.

"The cherubs and elders before the throne continually cry out in worship of God's glory." Isaiah 6:3, Revelations 4:9 and 11. "Worship is glorification. It is for the purpose of praising the greatness of a thing. God is jealous for how we worship Him and will not overlook idolatry or blasphemy.

Notice also that when the elders worship, they render to God their crowns, which Scripture... in Scripture is a symbol, not of rule, that is, the scepter, but of glory." And therefore, the conclusion we come to is that woman's glory needs to be covered so that the glory of God can shine forth.

And that, at least in a measure... I don't claim to understand all the reasoning why God chose the covered and uncovered head as... as the sign. But at least in part, that gave me a little bit of a handle on... on the... on that. And I think it makes it a little easier for me to... to understand. That if our purpose is that God's glory shines forth, then the man has to reflect his glory, God's glory, and we do that by not covering our heads.

And the woman needs to cover her glory so that she's not robbing the glory that belongs to God. That glory is to be enjoyed by... by her husband.

Okay, then there's probably more we could say on that. I want to go now to the second reason.

In verse 10, it says there's another reason why a woman ought to wear a veil. "For this reason, a woman ought to have a sign of authority or a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels."

And there's been very... very much made of this...

of this verse, and people don't know what to make of it. And I'm not sure I understand it either completely. But I did... I did find something that, at least to a measure, gave me some understanding on it. And again, I'm going to read from Jeremy Gardiner.

"The purpose for head coverings is to provide a visual symbol to the gathered church. If angels are the reason why, we obey this command. It presupposes that they must be watching us worship. Nothing else would make sense. So understand... so one understanding of why we practice head coverings is so that we may rightly symbolize the created order to all present, both visible and invisible.

So that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through the church to the elders and authorities in heavenly places." Ephesians 3:10. "These rulers and authorities are the angels of God." We see from this passage that what our Lord is doing through the church shows to them how incredibly wise He is. Peter describes the angels as longing to look into what God is doing. They are captivated by what God is doing and want to see more of it. I believe this is a desire that God... this is a desire that God would take pleasure in fulfilling. Allowing them to watch us worship could be one way of fulfilling that desire. I love thinking about what the angels must be thinking, since they have such a unique perspective. "The angels were the very first of God's creation.

We know that they've seen all history unfold as God told Job that the angels rejoiced watching Him make the world. They've spent their entire lives in the presence of a holy and perfect God. They watched Him create a perfect world where there was no sin, death, or suffering. These concepts were unknown to them. Then one of their own, Satan, sins. God puts him and the angels who follow him out of His presence forever. No opportunities for repentance and no one to intercede on their behalf. The angels know that sin has a high cost. Then, as a repeat, the first couple God created also sins. However, there's a twist in this storyline. God kills an animal in their place and promises them a redeemer.

He then sets apart a group of those sinful humans to display His love and affection on. It culminates in God Himself entering the world in human flesh. He lives a perfect life and lays it down as an unblemished sacrifice. He is slain, the Lamb of God, so that ill-deserving children of the devil can be totally forgiven and adopted into His family." What a story. No wonder the angels long to look into this. So now put yourself in their shoes as they watch the gathered people of God worship. Redeemed. "No longer are they usurping and longing for man's position of authority. Instead, they're content in the role God ordained for them. The men likewise, through their bare heads, communicate that they will exercise authority in their respective roles.

However, no longer through domineering or being passive like the first Adam. Their position as a man is also redeemed. The angels, with... with their jaws dropped, must cry out as they watch this: Behold the manifold wisdom of God!"

Let's not forget that as sinless beings, they would be much more sensitive to sin. If we're dishonorable and disgraceful from a human perspective, how much must we look to angels if we disobey this command? If we don't pray and prophesy as God said to, the only thing we may be symbolizing to them is the role distortion of Genesis chapter 3.

And again, I don't... I don't claim to completely understand all... all of what He says. But Merle Ruth, again, in his commenting on this verse, says: "The good angels are always represented... represented as being in full subjection to God. In Isaiah 6:2, the seraphims are said to cover their faces in the presence of God. In numerous other places, the Scriptures angels are represented as constant observers of the heaven... the human scene, and as helpers of the saints." This verse seems to imply that the presence of these unseen heavenly observers constitutes another reason why the woman should want to submit to spiritual leadership. "Her covered head is a sign even to the angels that she is qualified to pray and eligible for ministry and protection."

Other explanations have been offered for the meaning of this verse, but this much is clear, and I guess this is where I... I'm going to say: It makes a difference to the angels whether a Christian's woman's head is veiled. I mean, the Bible specifically says that, that it makes a difference. And so some people have taken this to sort of almost a mystical thing, that if a woman's head is veiled, she has some kind of almost like a talisman or some kind of... And I think we all know of... of situations where that wasn't the case.

But again, the angels are observing. They're observing the things that we... that we do and how we are conforming to the mandates that God has given us. And I think it does make them rejoice when... when they see people taking their proper role.

Then I would like to look a little bit at nature. Because He says in... in... in verse 13: "Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that 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... for a covering."

I don't know that we can say that nature teaches us that we should wear a covering. But it's a confirmation here. He says nature teaches us that if a man has long hair, it's a dishonor. And a woman has long hair, it's... it's her glory. And now that's pretty much universal throughout the world. Jesse this morning talked about some of those things that are just part of... of... of nature. There is a biological explanation to it.

Although women's hair and men's hair grow almost exactly the same rate. The... the different hormones, testosterone, causes hair loss. And estrogen causes hair retention. So that's why that there is... is a difference there. Here are... here are the two things that nature teaches us: That there are distinct differences between men and women. When a gender distinction is disregarded and crossed, that dishonors a person. To illustrate this point, Paul gave the example of her hair lengths. He said that women having long hair and men having short hair is one of those gender distinctions that is seen in nature and dishonorable if crossed.

So now a head covering is a feminine symbol of being under male authority. Since the symbol is rooted in our gender distinctions, nature teaches us that to cross this symbol would likewise be dishonorable. So while head coverings are taught explicitly by special revelation, it is confirmed in nature. So I think that's what he's... what he's trying to say there.

And so then, hence, he says at the end of verse 15: "For her hair is given to her for covering," which I... I think is the more... proper way. "Her hair was given to her so she can... so it can be covered."

And then a little bit on... on historical church practice. Verse 16 says: "But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God." Another translation says it this way: This is how things are done in all of God's churches, and this is why none of you should argue about what I've said.

And as I said at the beginning, it seems as though the Corinthians were... were practicing this.

Finney Curavilla has a course in head covering, and he said that one of the things that he tried to do is just go back. You know, this practice was a practice by Christian women for 1,900 years. It's only been in the last hundred years that it's... that's fallen by the wayside. And so he thought, what would happen if I would go back and just study into all the people that commented on it through the years? And he gave us an example of what Calvin wrote about it, and he said we don't necessarily prove of... of things that Calvin wrote. But this has become almost prophetic written... John Calvin lived in the 15... early 1500s.

He says John Calvin said this: "So if women are thus permitted to have their heads uncovered and to show their hair, they will eventually be allowed to expose their entire breasts, and they will come to make their exhibitions as if it were a tavern show. They will become so brazen that modesty and shame will be... be no more. In short, they will forget the duty of nature. So when it is permissible for the woman to uncover their heads, one will say, well, what harm in uncovering the stomach also? And after that, one will plead for something else. Now, if the woman go bareheaded, why not also bear this and bear that? Then the men, for their part, will break loose too.

In short, there will be no decency left unless people ordain themselves and respect what is proper and fitting, so as not to go headlong overboard." So he's pretty blunt in... in saying where... where this all... And I came across an interesting discussion online where the discussion was if the head covering practice and... and the meaning behind it was not lost, would... would we even be faced with this feminist... whole feminist thing? And of course, I think we know the answer to that is... is that we would not be.

David Burceau, in... in his writings about the historical early church, says this: "The historical record reveals that the early churches all understood Paul to be talking about a cloth head covering, not long hair. The only thing that wasn't clear to some of the early Christians was whether or not Paul's instructions apply to all females or only to married women. The reason is that the Greek word "gine" used by Paul can mean a female, or it can mean a married woman. Around the year 200 at Carthage, North Africa, Tertullian wrote a tract entitled "The Veiling of Virgins." Tertullian makes the argument that the passage applies to all females of age, not just to married women. Of course, Tertullian's personal view is of little concern to us, but what is so valuable about this work of his is that he discusses the practices of different churches in various parts of the world.

Here are some key excerpts from his work: "I also admonish you on the... you second group of women who are married not to outgrow the discipline of the veil, not even for the moment of an hour. Because you can't avoid wearing a veil, you should not find some other way to nullify it. That is, by going about neither covered nor bare. For some women do not veil their heads, but rather bind them up with turbans and woolen bands. It is true they are protected in front, but where the head properly lies, they are bare. Others cover only the entire... the area of the brain with a small linen coiffe that do not even quite reach the ears."

That's what Tertullian had to say about it.

And Tertullian also makes the point that 150 years after... after...

when he... 150 years later, the Corinthian church was still practicing the head covering.

R.C. Sproul, surprisingly, was... also believed that the head covering should be... should be applied. And he says this; he's a... a more contemporary: "The wearing of fabric head coverings in worship was universally the practice of Christian women until the 20th century. What happened? Did we suddenly find some biblical truth to which the saints for thousands of years were blind? Or were our biblical views of women gradually eroded by the modern feminist movement that has infiltrated the Church of Jesus Christ, which is the pillar and ground of the truth? Head coverings are not some strange new doctrine. This is an old doctrine based in the Bible and understood that way by the majority throughout the history of the church."

And so just an encouragement that this is not... this is not something new. This is something that Christian women for thousands of years have... have... have observed. I was interested... there's a... some of you may have this... under... have this painting.

It's a copy of... of painting by... by Millet.

He was a French painter that lived in the mid... mid-1800s. And this painting depicts two peasants in a field bowing over a basket of potatoes. And they were saying a prayer. And the interesting part is that the man has his hat off, as you can see, and the woman is very... very decently veiled.

And the... the title of the poem or the painting now is "Langelis," but originally he had... he'd simply entitled it... titled it "Prayer for the Potato Crop." And I just thought it was interesting that just as a... a confirmation that it was normal for... for women to... to... to veil their heads, especially the... the common people and people that claim to be Christians at the time that painting was... that... that the painting was done.

And I guess finally, on a... on sort of a... a personal level, sisters, I just want to acknowledge that I understand that obeying this commandment is difficult. It's not an easy... not an easy task. It's... it's countercultural.

Our... our society is dead set against it. And not only against it, but they're against what it stands for, the thing that it's supposed to... to portray. And I... I want to applaud your courage this morning.

It's not an easy thing, and I... I just want to... I want to recognize that. I also want to encourage you to keep... keep it up. It's not something to... it's not something to... to despise. And that's something I've just... I would like it... like us all to ponder.

I said the word "covered" means wholly covered. And I think we all agree. We see the tendency over time, smaller and smaller, to which it's a symbol... the symbol becomes a piece of cloth instead of the covered head.

And the changes that you make, that you have made, the question I would just like to... to... to challenge us with this morning is what direction... what direction is it going? Larger, more covered, or smaller, less covered? And I'll just let it at that. To the brethren, this is not just a woman's ordinance. There's... there's instruction for us. We need to take our place as leaders.

And whether this practice remains or falters rests a lot on our shoulders, mostly on our shoulders.

Do we encourage our wives and our daughters? Do we support them in this? Do we keep tabs? Do we teach often on this subject? I think it's something that we need to teach over and over again. Because, as I say, our society is... is against it. Our society thinks it's foolishness. And if... if we need to make it clear to our... to all of us, and we need to refresh ourselves on the reason we... we do that. It's a... it's something that was set in place at creation, before the... the fall of man, that headship order was... was put in place. We need to reflect the glory of God. That is our responsibility. That is why we're here, is to give God glory.

And when we get out of... we get out of the headship order, then the glory goes to... to... to someone else besides... besides who it belongs to. And so I just... I hope this is a challenge. I found this a little difficult to... you know, one of my... my daughter said the other day, someone asked her about the covering, and she said, "I know... I know what... I know I... what I believe, but it's really hard to... to sort of put it into words." And I don't know. I... I... I know we... we struggle with that. But hopefully this was an encouragement to us, and that we can understand it a little better. And... and let's be... let's be encouraged.

Let's... let's keep it up. And let's find ourselves in the order that God designed. And that's my... my hope and challenge this morning. God bless you. Any... any comments?