Meditations

Question from moody radio listener on Aug 5, 2017:

Really happy to ask you this question because it’s your Jewish heritage from your perspective. My question is about head covering in Chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians and really what my question is was this something that was in Judaism or was it something that was new or was it a practice that was neglected but more importantly what really troubles me is why would Paul call for an external practice such as something you wear to be part of a woman’s Christian walk?

Answer from Dr Michael Rydelnik:

Good. That’s a really good question. 1 Corinthians 11 really begins with the structure of authority, the authority listed this way: I want you to know that Christ is the head or ruler of every man and the man is the ruler (this not talking about every man being a ruler of woman but it’s talking about male leadership in the local congregation), the head or the male is the ruler of the woman, so there is male leadership (just like what 1 Timothy 2 is talking about) and then it says God is the ruler of Christ.  They are fully equal in essence just like man and woman are fully equal but God the Father has functional authority over Christ. In essence, who they are, fully equal, co-members of the God head but the Lord Jesus says I’ve come not to do my will but the will of the one who sent me, always submissive to the Father’s will, that’s in John 6. What this is saying is God the Father is the authority, the functional authority over Christ, just as man in the local congregation is the functional authority over the woman in the congregation, just as Christ is the authority, the functional authority over man. That I believe, because of that essence over there, that doesn’t change in this passage. But one of the things in that culture and in that day, the way a woman show respect for authority, on God’s authority on her life, one of the ways that she dress modestly in worship is by wearing a head covering, a veil. Now, that’s true for Jewish people but also true in the gentile world of Corinth that woman respect and honor by wearing a head covering, to show their modesty. Now, today, people say what do we do with this? The system remains intact. The functional authority of God the Father over God the Son, of God the Son over the man and the man over the woman, the function and leadership of the congregation, that remains the same. How woman expresses her submission to that authority is still with modest dress, of course today, being veiled,  wouldn’t express that. So what we have to do today is to find other ways that woman can dress modestly, fashionably if they like, but modestly, so that they are respectful of the authority structure in the congregation.  It’s one of the reasons why I don’t believe woman don’t have to wear veils today because that wouldn’t reflect that modesty and that respect that’s required but woman do need to dress modestly to reflect that respect. So, today there are other ways that woman can find to dress modestly without wearing a head covering.