Have we gone beyond the general teaching of the Word of God to give this teaching from these closing chapters of Hebrews? We strongly believe in the law of proportionate mention, if we are to rightly interpret the Word of God. If this is so important, why is it not taught throughout the New Testament? The simple answer is that this is the entire newness of the New Testament and these are the very things emphasized throughout its pages.
What we have taught here was taught by the Lord Jesus to the woman in John 4. We ‘look on’ with joy as the faithful and true Witness leads the sinful woman to first see herself, and then, step by step leads her into the revelation of Himself. The seeking sinner says, “Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet.” She is led further into the knowledge of Him and we hear her timidly say, “I know that Messiah cometh…”. At this point the gracious Lord said, “I that speak unto thee am He.”
It was to this newly-saved soul that the Lord Jesus revealed some of the highest truth about spiritual worship found in all the Bible. She had referred to Mount Gerizim as the place where her fathers had worshiped. The Lord Jesus said, “The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father” (John 4:21). The temple stood in Jerusalem, the first assembly of the NT would meet in Jerusalem, the first breaking of bread would be there, yet, it was not in Jerusalem that men would worship. Where then? In the spiritual sanctuary. “The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23, 24). Truth so profound, and yet within the grasp of a soul newly saved!
The worldly sanctuary of Israel was a figure of Christ. It was incomplete and only a shadow of the great Reality who would come. All that was connected with it was of earthly substance, for an earthly people. It had beauty and glory which related to earth. It appealed to the eye, ear, smell and touch, but it has all been removed, for Christ has come. We now, with confidence, can enter the true spiritual sanctuary of which that other was only a worldly representation. We worship the living God in spirit and in truth, apart from temporal aid or form. As a New Testament priesthood, we enter within the veil, into the true spiritual sanctuary to offer our spiritual sacrifices to God. “By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks (which makes confession) to His name” (Heb. 13:15).
In all that we have written about the spiritual worship of the New Testament priesthood, we have emphasized that nothing from earth can be an aid to spiritual worship, yet there are at least five elements of assembly practice which are physical in nature. The first two are related to Headship. Certainly, long hair and a covering veil on the head of the sister are physical elements (I Cor. 11:1-16). The third is related to baptism. It is very clear that water is a physical element. The last two are related to breaking bread, for the bread and the cup are again physical elements. It is very doubtful that hair, a covering veil, water, bread or wine can be called aids to spiritual worship. However, the main point about these physical things is that they have been chosen by the Lord Himself. This is His plan and as the Lord of the churches, He certainly has the right to exercise His Lordship. How different it is when men introduce things which have no authority from Him. Even in these physical elements chosen by the Lord, we have a great contrast to the forms and ritual of Judaism. Long hair, a veil, water, bread and wine are the simplest and most common of elements and the Lord has ordained them; thus they are His ordinances.
Chapter 7
A Sovereign Display—
Headship in an Assembly
In chapter 6 of this book we were occupied with the spiritual nature of the worship of believers. It was taught that our sanctuary of worship is heavenly and spiritual and that we worship according to the teaching given by the Lord Jesus to the woman in John 4. We do not have a worldly sanctuary with any of the ‘aids to worship’ that are commonly found in religious places. The Holy Spirit moves upon redeemed spirits to produce a spiritual worship that ascends to God as sweet incense. Yet, at the close of that chapter, we pointed out that there are five physical elements, chosen by the Lord Himself, that are closely related to assembly practice. The first is a single element and the other four are two pairs of elements. The baptism of believers takes place in water. This water has no particular quality, it is merely water, but to the believer who thus identifies Himself with the death of his Lord, it is a symbol of death. Although it is only a very simple physical clement, the water has great spiritual significance (Rom. 6:1-11).
The next two physical elements were chosen by the Lord Jesus on the night of His betrayal (I Cor. 11.23-34), and are also very simple, yet who can deny the deep spiritual meaning of the bread and cup at the Lord’s supper? The last two physical elements arc the covered head and the long hair of the sister in an assembly.
There are those who would not link these last two physical elements with the others. For them, the covered head of the woman is an insignificant and non-vital truth in comparison to baptism and the Lord’s supper. However, Paul, by the Spirit, clearly links them in I Corinthians 11. This chapter marks a new section of the epistle. He has been dealing with areas of personal liberty and giving spiritual principles to guide believers (chs. 7-9). Immediately as chapter i I begins, he removes any thought of personal liberty, “Be ye imitators of me” (v. 1, RV), and this is an imperative. This same kind of language is seen in verses 2 and 16.
When children are given lessons, they often ask why. Their growing intelligence seeks answers and reasons. This is healthy and the wise parent displays patience and care in feeding this intellectual curiosity, yet, when spiritual children ask why, they are sometimes rebuked and seldom are they given satisfactory answers.
There are three kinds of ‘why’ in the spiritual realm:
1 The Why of Scriptural Mandate.
2 The Why of Spiritual Meaning.
3 The Why of Sincere Motive.
When I was a very young Christian, the first ‘why’ satisfied me. The Bible said it, that was enough. Simple obedience to the Word of God is a spiritual law, written by the Holy Spirit upon every true child of God. It is a very clear sign of divine life and the importance of it can never be overstated. However, if the believer stops here, he has missed so very much. We should never feel threatened by a second ‘why’. It is the ‘why’ of spiritual meaning. Obedience is predicated on the why of Scriptural mandate, but appreciation and spiritual understanding can only come about through the answer to the why of spiritual meaning. The third kind of ‘why’ is the why of sincere motive. I should obey God because His Word commands me (John 13:34; 14:21; I Cor. 14:37; I John 2:7,8; 5:2). I will obey intelligently when I understand the spiritual significance of what is commanded, and I will obey gladly and joyously when the right motive of love to Christ moves my heart.
We have to say sadly that there are those who believe the first why is all that is necessary, and would discourage the answers to any other why. This is a dangerous attitude and comes very close to an attempt to reach a practical sanctification by a legal system. This was the error of the man in Romans 7, who eventually made the discovery that legalism can never produce true spirituality.
When I was a young Christian, I was asked if I knew why women should cover their heads when the assembly met together. I knew the answer to the first ‘why’, the Word of God said so, but had to confess that I did not know the meaning of the covered head. The man who had asked the question was a true shepherd. That day he introduced me to one of the greatest truths in all of Scripture, the truth of the Headship of the Lord Jesus over all things. I learned then that I can only begin to appreciate divine revelation when I can enter into its spiritual meaning, and can never forget the impact of that lesson.
The importance of headship can be seen in the order of the teaching of I Corinthians 11. Paul deals with the disorder, that only heaven would detect in its full significance (1 Cor 11:10), before he deals with a disorder that even the world condemns (1 Cor 11:21, 22).
I would like to apply the why of spiritual meaning to the physical elements, the covered head of the woman and her long hair. We should notice that there are two things in I Corinthians 11:1-16, and seeing they are distinct, each must have its own meaning. One of the greatest aids to this study is that this passage is exhaustive. It deals fully with the subject and gives in detail the spiritual meaning of both the veil, or covering, and the long hair.
The divine principle of Headship in a Man is a major theme of the Bible:
Gen. 1:26-28, Headship in Principle and Picture.
Eph. 1:19-23, Headship in a Person, its Purpose.
I Cor. 11:3-16, Headship in Practice.
Col. 2:10-19, Headship in Provision.
Heb. 2:8, 9, Headship in Prospect, its Power.
I Corinthians 11:3 is the key to understanding the practice of headship:
1 The Head of every man is Christ—no equality.
2 The head of the woman is the man—equality and subjection.
3 The Head of Christ is God—equality, yet subjection.
First principle—the man’s uncovered head teaches that Christ is unveiled in the gathering (vv. 4 and 7).
Second principle—the woman’s covered head teaches that the assembly is not the place to display the glory of men (1 Cor 11:5 and 7).
Third principle—the woman’s tong hair teaches the subjection of the assembly to the Headship of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor 11:6, 10, 15).
When the head of the woman is mentioned, we go back to verse 3 and learn that her head is symbolic of the man. When the head of the man is mentioned we go back to our key verse and learn that Christ is portrayed. This becomes very significant when we read in verse 7, “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God.” Using verse 3 as the key, I understand that the uncovered head of the man is teaching that Christ is the image and glory of God and He alone is ‘uncovered’—revealed in His glory when the assembly meets. No natural man should be on display there, no matter how great his gifts or his natural attainments. This is surely linked with the great principle of the preeminence of the Lord Jesus (Col. 1:18) and is a powerful rebuke to the spirit of a Diotrephes (III John 9).
When we turn to the two coverings on the head of the woman, we learn truth that is equally important. Paul is dealing here with headship; he is not at this point in the epistle dealing with the silence of the woman. He docs this in 14:34. There was disorder in the assembly at Corinth and this is a corrective. In appealing to divine order, Paul goes back to creation. In the beginning, a man was given universal dominion overall the creatures of earth, whether they walked on the land, swam in the sea or flew in the sky. Man lost this dominion by his rebellion, but in Genesis 1:26-28, we have the truth of headship in principle. This can be proven from Psalm 8:3-9, Romans 5:14 and Hebrews 2:5-9.
This latter passage shows that Adam’s sin did not change the purpose of God. It is in the eternal purpose that a Man shall have universal and eternal dominion (Eph. 1:10; 3:11). Ephesians 1:20-23 teaches that the Lord Jesus in His resurrection glory has been made Head over all things, and that He is Head to the church which is His body. Although the world He made is at present in rebellion against Him, His Headship will yet be recognized to the farthest reaches of the universe of God and every created intelligence will eventually bow willingly or unwillingly to His supreme authority (Phil. 2:10, 11; Col. 1:18-22). This teaching can scarcely be viewed by any believer as insignificant, and these are the truths that are portrayed for angels in the uncovered heads of brethren and the covered heads of sisters in an assembly.
The head of the woman which, according to verse 3, is symbolic of the man, is to be covered with a covering veil. Man is not to be displayed in an assembly, there is no place for glorying in the flesh. The covered head of the sister is a rebuke to any of us who would ever dare use an assembly gathering as a place to display self. The natural man is to be out of sight and the Man on display is the Man whom God has ordained shall have eternal dominion. While the Headship of the Lord Jesus is denied by a sinful world, wherever an assembly meets and the covered heads of the sisters and the uncovered heads of the brethren are seen, the Headship of the Lord Jesus is displayed. The truth now seen in an assembly, and only there, will yet be displayed to a wondering universe (Psalm 72:5-17). So the covering veil on the head of the woman is signifying submission to the Lordship of Christ in an assembly. Her long hair signifies that she is in submission to the man
(1 Cor 11:3).
Let us be clear that the woman covers her head, and the emphasis is on the head not the hair. It is the Headship of the Lord Jesus that she is denying to any other than its rightful Owner. The veil is a covering down upon her head, it is not merely a covering for her hair which is her own glory
(1 Cor. 11:15). Although the veil will surely cover part of her hair, this is not its significance. In the covering of her head, man is being covered.
From 1 Cor 11:6 we learn that two coverings are being described. Some have mistakenly taken the words of 1 Cor 11:15, “Her hair is given her for (instead of) a covering,” to mean that only one covering is in view—the long hair. A careful student will not make this mistake, for he will see that it is an entirely different word that is used for this natural veil (1 Cor 11:15) from the word used for the extra veil (1 Cor 11:5, 6, 7, 13 [twice in V6]). Rather than being a covering down upon her head as in the former verses, verse 15 describes her hair, a covering that is round about her head.
Others have given significance to the extra veil, but have taught that the long hair is purely an optional thing. Neither of these contentions agrees with the words of verse 6. It can be paraphrased correctly like this, “For if the woman is not veiled, let her also cut off her hair, but seeing it is a shame for a woman to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her be veiled.” The last phrase of 1 Cor 11:5 agrees with this, “…For that is even all one as if she were shaven.” Do not leave out the word ‘also’. It is vital to the interpretation. The significance of this statement is that the veil is as important as the long hair, both alike are necessary and the argument is, if the woman will not veil her head she may just as well cut off her hair too.
The woman’s long hair is a sign of her submission to the man in God’s order for creation. It was given to her by nature and is her glory’ (1 Cor 11:15). It is a sign that from the beginning of the creation it is the glory of the woman to be naturally veiled. This veil is her glory, not so much in the sense that it is her beauty, but that it veils her natural beauty with a suitable covering, given by God. Her long hair is a mark of submission in the created order and this is to her a glory, for it is the place divinely given to her, “The woman is the glory of the man” (1 Cor 11:7b). The Holy Spirit now lifts this into the spiritual order so than he veiled head and long ha ir of t he woman become a symbol of holy submission, signifying the submission of the entire assembly to Christ as Lord. Paul uses a similar argument in I Timothy 2:9-15.
In verse 10, the assembly at Corinth is seen as a classroom. God is the teacher, angels are the students and headship is the subject. In an assembly angels see holiness, divine order, headship and submission. The first time an angel is seen in ministry is in Genesis 16:9 where an angel tells Hagar to “Return to thy mistress and submit thyself…”. This first mention of an angel is in keeping with the law of first mention. Angels are still occupied with submission.
The sign on the head of the woman of her submission to authority goes back to creation (1 Cor 11:8, 9), but will be fully told out in the future preeminent glory of the Lord Jesus. Seeing that the head of the woman is the man, the coverings upon her head are saying that the entire assembly is submissive to the absolute authority of the Lord Jesus Christ now.
The word that is used for long hair in 1 Cor 11:15 originally had the meaning of healthy, or nourished. The word came to mean the length of the hair. It is not difficult to see the link in these two thoughts, healthy hair will grow. There is no room here for speculation as to the degree of longness. It should be as long as God causes it to grow. Its spiritual significance is so great that to understand the why of its spiritual meaning would make us desire to display the truth of the Headship and absolute preeminence of the Lord Jesus as fully as it is possible.
It may not be possible to prove to everyone’s satisfaction that the scissors should never touch the hair of the woman, but this surely seems to be the plain sense of the Scripture, for the word ‘shorn’ means to cut off. When this has been denied there has been a progressive departure from the significance of the long hair. Cutting the hair in the front to make short bangs while leaving it long in the back is a clear departure from the sense of I Corinthians 11:6.
On this very delicate matter, I would like to make an appeal which I believe is very necessary. One young sister said that she felt it was hypocritical to ‘put on a show’ with long hair, God sees the heart and this is much more important. It was pointed out to her that the long hair is an object-lesson to angels (1 Cor 11:10) and we have no reason to believe that angels can read hearts, nor can our fellow-believers or the world. It is a very serious matter to he a stumbling-block to others (I Cor. 8:12), and we should ever keep in mind that we are being watched by younger believers and being used as a pattern. Love to others will be displayed when we carry out the Word of God to the utmost of our ability.
1 Cor 11:16 has provided an easy explanation of all this to some readers of the Bible. According to them, Paul is saying, “If anyone does not agree with this, let him know that we have no such custom that demands long hair for women and covered heads, and short hair for men and uncovered heads, so do as you please.” No serious student of God’s Word will accent this. This is the very thing Paul is not saying. He wants it to be known that what he has here taught the Corinthians has been taught and is practiced in all the churches of God, that is, in all assemblies. This last verse will also emphasize the fact that the second veil, or the extra covering is a practice that should be obeyed in the churches, that is, when the church is gathered together (1 Cor 11:16-20).
The answer to the why of spiritual meaning is most significant. No spiritual mind would discount any of these physical elements. The water of baptism certainly has great significance. No spiritual person would try to dispense with the bread and the cup at the Lord’s supper and we trust that none will judge as insignificant the spiritual meaning that is portrayed in the long hair and covered heads of the sisters in an assembly.