Judge in yourselves is it comely that a woman should pray to God uncovered?
Paul has been building a case for several verses. Here he stops and hands the decision back to the Corinthians. The question looks small: what a woman wears on her head when she prays. But the way Paul settles it shows how God expects His people to think.
One writer notices a shift in tone here. Earlier in the letter Paul used his full authority against open sin. At the close of this passage he refuses to argue with anyone who insists on being contentious.
[The closing words about anyone being contentious] are simply added, by the grace of God in the writer, to check the argumentative spirit of the Corinthians. They also guard the Corinthians against putting unfair legal pressure on the consciences of their sisters in Christ. After all, this could never be made a matter of church discipline. So the apostle does not speak here with the authoritative language of an apostle of Jesus Christ, as he did in that case of flagrant evil in 1 Corinthians 5. Instead he appeals to their own judgment, asking whether it is proper for a woman to pray to God uncovered.
He has already argued from Scripture. Now he turns to a lower kind of proof — one anybody can check.
He is not content with giving proofs from Scripture on this point. He will make God's people their own judges, on the lower though important ground of natural sense. Man and woman are naturally different. From that alone they might have concluded that for a woman to lift an unveiled face to her Creator is unbecoming. If long hair was given her as a veil, to screen her from the gaze of men, how much more should she take a covering when her prayers draw the eye of God straight and especially upon herself.
The word translated "proper" points to what fits — what looks right. William Kelly ties that sense of fitness to the way God made man and woman.
Further, he appeals to the sense of what is fitting, grounded on the make-up of both man and woman. He tells them to judge in themselves whether it is becoming for a woman to pray to God uncovered, and asks whether nature itself does not teach them. It is as natural for a man to have short hair as for a woman to have long hair. To reverse this in practice is a revolt against the nature of each. God's creation must govern where the word of His grace does not call to higher things, and here no one can claim such a call.
A head covering looks like a trivial thing to argue about. Notice what Paul brings in to settle it.
Here we have another instance of how the greatest truths are brought into connection with everyday subjects. Here is a question of whether a woman is to have a covering on or not. The whole ordering of God is brought in to settle whether a woman is to wear a cap on her head (v. 3-16). It was the custom there for women inspired by demons to have their hair flowing out wild, and this was not the order for a woman. They were to recognise the authority of man if they prayed or prophesied. The woman had her place for praying and prophesying, but not in the assembly.
Paul's appeal assumes his readers still have working instincts. One writer admits habit can blunt them, and points to faith to sharpen them again.
Verses 13 and 14 make an appeal to the believer's sense of what is fitting. Your own proper discernment should lead you to conclude that a woman ought not to pray to God uncovered. Many ignore this clear voice of nature, but a Christian has no excuse for doing so. In many places custom has dulled this sense of what is fitting, but faith should certainly restore its keen edge.
- Judge — Paul does not command here. He hands the question to the Corinthians' own discernment, and church discipline never rests on it.
- Judge by nature — his test is one anyone can apply: the difference God built into man and woman. God's creation governs where His grace does not call to something higher.
- Judge where you pray — the verse takes for granted that a woman prays; one writer places that praying outside the assembly.
- Judge the small by the great — the whole ordering of God stands behind a detail as ordinary as a covering on the head.
- Judge against custom — habit blunts the sense of what is fitting; faith sharpens it again, and a Christian has no excuse to ignore it.
Does not even nature itself teach you, that man, if he have long hair, it is a dishonour to him?
Paul has spent this chapter setting out God's order in creation. Here he gives no command. He points to the created world and asks whether it already teaches them the answer.
The verse is one step in a longer argument. Here is the shape of the whole.
The Apostle has spoken of what is true in creation (verses 3–10), of what is right "in the Lord" (verses 11, 12), of what is fitting according to nature (verses 13–15), and of what is allowed by custom (verse 16). He does all this to show the true position of men and women in relation to one another.
Nature here is not the same thing as custom.
Nature is also a term describing the vast system of created things around us. To each part of it the Creator has given not only its existence, but its use, its order, its increase, its decay. These are often called "the laws of nature." They govern each thing and set what is proper to it. So nature teaches that a man should not have long hair, 1 Cor. 11:14; and a multitude of other things that belong to God's order in creation.
One writer turns this into a rule for Christian living.
All through the word of God we find great prominence given to what is according to nature — to what is fitting. "Does not nature itself teach you?" says the inspired apostle to the assembly at Corinth. The Creator planted certain feelings and instincts in nature, and they must never be violated. We may set this down as a fixed principle, a rule of Christian ethics: no action can be of God if it does violence to the feelings that belong to nature. The Spirit of God may, and often does, lead us beyond and above nature, but never against it.
So why is long hair a disgrace for a man? The answer lies in what short hair signals.
The apostle points out here that this is a fact that holds generally: "Does not nature itself teach you…?" It is not a rule for Christians only. Short hair stands for the authority that God has given the man as head. That is his place in the order of creation (1 Cor. 11:3).
Paul does not argue only about women; he includes the man, so that neither may swap the sign belonging to the other.
He also appeals to the sense of what is fitting, which rests on the makeup of both man and woman. "Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God uncovered? Does not nature itself teach you…?" Suppose it is as natural for a man to have short hair as for a woman to have long hair. Is it not a revolt against the nature of each to reverse this in practice? Where the word of His grace does not call us to something higher, God's creation must rule — and no one could claim such a call here.
The same fact explains an Old Testament practice. A Nazirite was a man set apart to God for a time. He let his hair grow long and took on the disgrace this verse names.
In 1 Corinthians 11:14 we learn that it shows a lack of dignity for a man to have long hair. "Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him?" So if we truly want to live a life set apart to God, we must be ready to give up our dignity in nature. Our Lord Jesus Christ did this perfectly. He made Himself of no reputation. He surrendered His rights in everything. He could say, "I am a worm and not a man." He emptied Himself completely and took the very lowest place. He neglected Himself while He cared for others. Now this is the very thing we so dislike doing. We naturally stand up for our dignity and try to hold on to our rights. But the perfect Man never did, and if we aim at being Nazirites we will not either.
One writer sees a wider purpose behind the blurring of such differences.
We must not overlook the particular case the passage deals with. We ought to watch it closely, especially Christian women. Behind all the movements of the world and of fashion lies the god of this age. His aim is to break down all the differences and barriers which God has set up. In this way Satan's schemes are carried out more easily.
- Nature speaks. Creation is not silent. God gave it laws and instincts that already teach what is fitting.
- Nature marks. Short hair on a man is a visible sign of the headship given him at creation; long hair reverses that sign.
- Nature binds. No action can be of God if it does violence to these instincts. The Spirit leads above nature, never against it.
- Nature surrendered. The Nazirite took that disgrace on himself to be wholly God's. Christ gave up every right and did it perfectly.
- Nature attacked. Wiping out the differences God set up is not just fashion. One writer sees a settled purpose behind it.
But woman, if she have long hair, [it is] glory to her; for the long hair is given [to her] in lieu of a veil.
Paul ends his appeal to the Corinthians with something anyone can see: hair grows differently on men and women, and that difference carries meaning. Two questions follow — what does "glory" mean here, and does hair given "for a covering" replace the covering Paul asked for earlier?
Paul points his readers to what is proper, based on the way men and women are made.
He appeals to the sense of what is proper, based on how both man and woman are made. If short hair is as natural for a man as long hair is for a woman, is it not a revolt against the nature of each to reverse this? God's creation must govern where the word of His grace does not call to higher things. No one could claim that here.
Paul calls long hair a glory. One writer explains how a mark of dependence can be an honour.
The uncut hair was a clear sign of dependence — of weakness clinging to strength. Long hair is the woman's glory; it is the mark of her dependence as the weaker vessel upon man. This is the place in which God has put her, and true glory is to fill perfectly the place God has given.
Nature also teaches what is beautiful, and what people look down on.
The woman has a natural covering in her long hair. So nature shows her place of subjection. It tells us that a hidden woman is a beautiful woman, while everyone looks down on a woman who cuts off her hair and imitates the man.
One writer points out that the Greek word in this phrase is not the word Paul used earlier for a covered head.
Our Authorized Version says in 1 Corinthians 11:15, "for her hair is given her for a covering." From this some teach that a woman's long hair is her head-covering, and that she needs no other covering. But this is a wrong translation. It does not give the meaning of the original Scripture at all. The Greek word here is completely different from the word rightly translated "covered" in verse 6. There the word means "to cover up, covering one's head." Here in verse 15 the word means "that which is thrown around."
Some read the verse as settling the question: hair is the covering, so nothing more is needed. Commentators answer that the verse points the other way.
Some would argue that since a woman's hair is given her for a covering, she needs no other covering. But this assumption ignores the force of the whole passage. The apostle is showing something else. God on His part has given her the covering of long hair to show her place of subjection. On her part she is to agree with this, by using a covering on her head.
Campbell adds a second reason, drawn from glory itself.
Nature gives a woman long hair as a veil cast around her. It is not the head covering that the apostle insists on in the earlier verses. If man's glory must be covered in God's presence, as we have explained, then surely woman's long hair, her personal glory, must be covered in His presence too.
One writer reads long hair as a sign that reaches beyond this chapter — to the Nazarite, an Israelite under a special vow to God, and to Christ Himself.
Long hair is the proper covering for the woman, telling of her place of subjection in the present order of things. If the man has long hair, it is a shame to him. But it is a glory to the woman, for "her hair is given to her for a covering." So the long hair speaks of the place of dependence. In the Nazarite we see one who has willingly given up what man would call "his rights" and his independence, to be wholly in subjection to God. The Lord Jesus is the great example in this, as in all else. He could say, "I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me."
- Nature first. Paul argues from how God made people, not from custom. To reverse the natural difference in hair is a revolt against creation.
- Glory, not penalty. Long hair is named an honour, because true glory is filling perfectly the place God has assigned.
- Thrown around. The Greek word in verse 15 means something cast around her, and differs from the word for a covered head in verse 6.
- Not a substitute. God gives the long hair on His side; she answers on hers. The hair is the reason for the covering, not its replacement.
- The pattern is Christ. Voluntary dependence is the glory of the Nazarite and of the Lord Himself, who came to do the will of the One who sent Him.