What does the Bible say about wearing hats in church?

The purpose of the declaration of this order of the ways of God in creation was to set them right on a matter which in our days is often sneered at. Man praying or prophesying is not to cover his head. Woman praying and prophesying is to have a covering on her head. The man who covereth his head in praying dishonoreth his head. Woman uncovered dishonoreth her head. A covering on the head is the outward sign of being in the place of subjection. An uncovered head signifies the opposite. The order which God has instituted as to the place of man and woman, His people are bound to respect. It may appear a little thing, yet if disobeyed, as it was in Corinth (where women seemed to be puffed up and refused to follow this order), it becomes a stepping stone towards more serious evil. Woman is to testify to her place of subjection by covering her head in praying and testifying. Man similarly engaged does not cover his head, for the authority is vested in man "for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man." How all this is denied and woman aims to take leadership and rulership in place of man, we need not to enlarge upon.

Then "the head of the woman is the man," of course that is elaborated in the chapter. For it is important to remember that in the Christian assembly God has a certain order that is suitable to Himself, and this is part of the order, that the head of the woman is the man. When assembled as a Christian assembly, we know that the men remove their hats, and the women remain covered. Why? It is because of what is said here, — the head of the woman is the man. Man was made in the image of God, in His likeness, and the office of man in God's creation is that he stands in the image and glory of God, lie is the head of the lower order of the creation; hence it would not do to cover up the glory of God. The man remains uncovered, but the woman was given to the man to be his help-meet. The woman is the glory of the man. So that, when coming into the presence of God, the glory of man is covered. That is the reason; may God give us to see the force of it; that in God's presence the glory of man is covered, but the glory of God is uncovered.

The angels are elect and holy. This shows that some of the angels that were created were preserved from falling; that was their election. Whereas the human race fell in its federal head, so that all are fallen. The church is an Object of great interest to the angels. By it they learn the manifold wisdom of God. That is why brothers take their hats off, and sisters keep their bonnets on, in the assembly. 1 Cor. 11.

We turn back to 1 Corinthians 11, for this. We read there, "But I would have you to know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God." Here is given us the woman's place in the natural sphere. Man is the head. Neither does this imply inferiority (else Christ would be essentially inferior to God, His Father — a thought impossible to those who believe in His eternal Deity); but, positionally, and as Man, the blessed Son took the place of subjection and obedience to the Father. In verses 4-7 the apostle directs that in prayer or prophesying, the woman, as a sign of her subjection to the man, is to cover her head; while the man, on the contrary, is to uncover his head. This custom of covering (observed everywhere in Christian assemblies until the more recent years of lawlessness), has been a witness for ages of the truth set before us here, of the headship of the man over the woman. "For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man," the apostle says in vers. 8, 9. Then in vers. 10-16 he concludes the subject, giving the reasons why the woman should be covered while in the act of prayer: "For this cause ought the woman to have [the sign of] authority on her head, because of the angels," as the R.V. renders ver. 10. The holy angels are interested in God's family on earth. They have witnessed the fearful revolt of some of their fellows in heaven, in ages past, "who kept not their first estate." They look now to see subjection to God's authority and order in the circle of the redeemed. As has been beautifully expressed, "The Church, therefore, is the lesson-book which the angels especially delight to study, the brightest mirror that reflects the manifold and supernal glory of the triune God; and if the angels see the woman leaving her place of subjection and silence in the Church (woman as a type of the Church, sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning of Him), the lesson-book will be blotted, the mirror blurred, as the angels bend down to contemplate with adoring wonder." (See 1 Peter 1:12 and Eph. 3:10.)

It is beyond our purpose to attempt to explain all that these verses teach; the one point we would press is that man is head, not only in the Church, but everywhere; and in like manner is the woman's place in subjection. Long hair is her glory; because by it she shows her ready submission to the place given her of God in nature; and on special occasions she is to have, in addition to her hair, a covering of some kind to give emphasis to the fact. If she refuses this, the apostle, in evident irony, says, "Let her also be shorn," i.e., be altogether like the man. Some, to their shame be it said, have of their own accord gone to this length, showing thus their utter contempt for what is written in God's Word, and the rebellion of their own hearts against their God-assigned place since the Fall. The man, on the other hand, and for a like reason, must not have long hair like the woman; for, says the apostle, "Doth not even nature itself teach you that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?"

A. — The question of covering the head is raised in the early verses of 1 Cor. 11, because certain sisters at Corinth had forgotten or never known the due place of men and women in divine things. It is a reproof of the Christian females who were disorderly. For if in salvation and relationship to God by grace there can be no difference, there is in His service. Woman's head was to be covered, man's not. Every man praying or prophesying with aught on his head (i.e. covered) dishonours his head; as did every woman uncovered in such exercises. It is the order of power; and God will have this divinely constituted propriety in such as fear Him and know His grace. If she will not be covered, let her also be shorn, is the apostle's taunt. But this says nothing about preaching the gospel, though it is well that man should ever speak reverently and act after a comely sort even in evangelising, instead of yielding to nature, or cultivating popularity in a worldly way. In the assembly, where God's presence is manifested and enjoyed specially, still more should flesh be disallowed. Woman were there to be silent (1 Cor. 14). For, says the apostle, it is not permitted to speak, even could they prophesy like Philip's daughters, but in their father's house it seems, and with due subjection.

The prescription then for the covered head applies in this passage to those seasons when women were praying or prophesying in the manner mentioned. And another has called attention to the fact, that "to decide this question, simply of what was decent and becoming, the apostle lays open the relationship, and the order of the relationship, subsisting between the depositories of God's glory and Himself, and brings in the angels, to whom Christians, as a spectacle set before them, should present that of order according to the mind of God." The foundation, therefore, on which the apostle directs women to pray with covered heads is the divine order which God has ordained: "The head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." (v. 3.) Man, "forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God," and as such representing God's authority, ought not to cover his head; but the woman being the glory of man, is under authority, and, as a sign of it, is to be covered. This is distinctly stated on the introduction of the second ground of the exhortation; viz., the relationship of the woman to the man in creation (vv. 7-10); for it is then said, "For this cause ought the woman to have power" (i.e., the symbol of it, as being subject to it (authority) "on her head, because of the angels" (v. 10), inasmuch as these, whose characteristic is obedience (Psalm 103:20), are the delighted spectators of submission to God's order on the part of His people. The apostle urges yet another consideration — the teaching of nature. He says, "Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God (and these words are very absolute, seeming to include all acts of prayer) uncovered? Doth not nature itself teach you," etc. (13, 14.)

A few remarks may be added. First, the hair, long hair, is evidently not, as it is sometimes contended, the covering indicated by the apostle; for he says in verse 6, "If the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered." The covering is thus something in addition to the long hair. Secondly, the instruction is for women, not wives only, but for women, and not for children. Finally, it will be helpful to observe that this is no prescription for women's dress, but simply and solely a direction concerning what is seemly and suited for them when they are praying.

"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" (1 Corinthians 11:15).

This verse shows that a woman is not always required to wear a veil. Hair has been given as a covering, with "as a covering" meaning "in place of" or "to replace." Hair is like an ornament provided by nature to cover a woman's head. It is not referring to what covers the head, as discussed in the preceding verses. Thus, it is important to distinguish between the "natural covering" (the hair) and the item (scarf, hat, or other) with which a woman covers her head by faith and in a spirit of submission on specific occasions.

49 If I were to go into a church nowadays, I may have to take off my hat, but what to? What does doing so say? That it is God's house. Then I won't go into a temple and say that.

I won't take my hat off, to say that that is God's house.

This is a most important truth, although many have little sense of it; but how important it is that all should be able to see from scripture the ground on which God would have His saints come together. Suppose someone said to you: "I came to your room the other morning and it was quite different to anything I had been to before; there were long pauses, and no one seemed to take the lead, but all was very solemn and impressive; I have never seen anything like it before. Could you explain why you meet in this way? was it the invention of some man?" What answer would you give? Could you produce scriptural warrant for this? Some take it for granted that it is right, and, indeed, have a distinct sense that it is according to God, but we want to get it from scripture and know the power of it. For instance, do you really believe God Himself is actually there, when we come together in the assembly of the saints? Would not the sense of this produce fitting behaviour and proper reverence with us? When we, as children, went to church, we had to behave properly, show due reverence, take off our hats and so on, because we were told it was the house of God. How much more reverence becomes those who are in the presence of God in the assembly of His saints! In 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 an unconverted man owns God's presence there. What a wonderful reality it must be!

But Christ, then, is the Head of every man. The head of the woman is the man. Here is what we were saying; something which in the minds of many now would be contradicted or set aside by the place in Christ which we have got, in which there is neither man nor woman. That is quite true, and remains always true, that there is in Christ neither male nor female. There is a common equality, and one of the most perfect and highest kind, which can never be touched, never set aside, but to be acknowledged in the fullest possible way. That does not, on the other hand, set aside the fact that in God's order for earth, and in the place which God has given to man and woman respectively on the earth, the head of the woman is the man. The higher fact is shown forth in the lower one. There are not two heads in creation, but one. Two heads would mean division. God's thought is unity. The man, as he says afterward, is not without the woman in the Lord. The man and die woman form the man in the full sense of humanity, and the woman is necessary thus to make the man what he is; but that alters nothing, but rather confirms what he contends for here according to God's thought, as we look back and see it in creation itself, — the head of the woman is the man. Let us go further, he says. The Head of Christ is God. Is that something derogatory to His true character? Is not He God? Is not He divine? Yet, after all, it can be said, "the Head of Christ is God." Christ has taken His place as man, and He is not ashamed of it, and He does not refuse the consequences of it. He has come to be in creation the example of most perfect obedience on the creature's part, as well as on God's part the example of the most perfect grace, the fullest revelation of God that can be found. Thus, then, we have these things established.

There are some practical consequences in the exhibition of this order of things upon the earth. If a man pray or prophesy having his head covered, he dishonors his head; in itself a very small thing surely, — in that which it signifies not small at all. Everything depends upon the truth which is in it, or the error. The head covered for him is, as we see directly, the place of subjection taken. The woman covering her head does not profess to be the head. The head is covered with her, if she takes her place praying or prophesying; that is, as we see clearly, where it is a question of the assembly, — not necessarily as gathered, however, where her place in connection with others, therefore, is in question. If she prays or prophesies, although this prophesying was by a higher power than that of nature, — by the Spirit of God, and thus asserting for her her full rights as one in Christ, equal rights with any other, — yet if she prayed or prophesied with her head uncovered, she dishonored her head. Everything that is out of its place before God, is dishonored. If we exalt ourselves, it is our own dishonor. It is one and the same thing, therefore, he says, as if she were shaven. Why not let the woman cut off the hair which nature has given her? Plainly she has it in a way that man has not. You say, perhaps, if she has the hair, let that be enough, it is what nature has given her, let her wear that. But the wearing of the hair is not of necessity at all the owning the truth which is in it. The covering of the head owns for her, on her part, the truth which is in that testimony of nature. She is giving heed to the testimony when she covers her head. Thus the man ought not to have his head covered, because he is, in a direct way, as one may say, the image and glory of God, His representative upon the earth. The woman is the glory of the man.