Now, shall we turn to the Word of God this evening? We want to read together from three passages. The first is 1 Corinthians 11.
Whilst you are finding that, may I just say that this weekend we have the visit of our two dear brothers, Johnny Cochrane and Arthur Rayner, from Eire. They will be with us on Saturday at 7:30, and then, of course, on the Lord’s Day.
On Saturday afternoon there will be an outreach meeting here. We are seeking to go out to shoppers in Richmond. It is 2:30 here for those who feel that the Lord would have them for outreach on Saturday afternoon.
You will also see that there is a bookstall this evening, over in the corner. If you would like to go and have a look at it afterwards, please do so.
We shall read together from 1 Corinthians 11, beginning at verse 2. I am going to read from the American Standard Version—not the Revised, but the original Standard Version.
Now I praise you that ye remember me in all things, and hold fast the traditions, even as I delivered them to you.
But I would have you 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.
Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
But every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonoureth her head; for it is one and the same thing as if she were shaven.
For if a woman is not veiled, let her also be shorn: but if it is a shame to a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be veiled.
For a man indeed ought not to have his head veiled, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man: for neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man: for this cause ought the woman to have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels.
Nevertheless, neither is the woman without the man, nor the man without the woman, in the Lord.
For as the woman is of the man, so is the man also by the woman; but all things are of God.
Judge ye in yourselves: is it seemly that a woman pray unto God unveiled?
Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a dishonour to him?
But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
But if any man seemeth to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
And then, if you will turn to Genesis 2, verse 18.
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.
And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every bird of the heavens, and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them: and whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; but for man there was not found a help meet for him.
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man.
And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
And lastly, in Ephesians 5, from verse 22.
Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being Himself the Saviour of the body.
But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it; that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that He might present the church to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself: for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church; because we are members of His body.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.
This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.
Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife, even as himself; and let the wife see that she fear her husband.
Well now, shall we turn to this study? Just before we do so, shall we have one further word of prayer?
Now, Lord, we have asked Thee to be with us. We have together confessed and recognised our need of the Holy Spirit to lead us into all the truth. We thank Thee now, Lord, that we can just spread out our time before Thee.
We believe, Lord, that Thou wilt take note of our cry and of our confidence in Thyself, and Thou wilt meet us in this time. O Lord, hear us. Take away all strain, all tension. May we just know what it is to be in Thy presence. We ask it together in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Now, as you know, we have had a whole series on the matter of covering. We have gone right through the Old Testament and the New Testament in this tremendous matter—this vitally important matter in the Word of God.
I think we have found out that there is within the Word of God far, far more than perhaps any of us realised. This whole subject of being covered, being in Christ—what it simply means in New Testament language to be in Christ—is to be covered.
Last week, you will remember, we spoke of the mystery of covering, something that is quite beyond us. It is not just to do with sin. Altogether apart from sin, there seems to have been some need of covering before sin entered the universe. There was the anointed cherub that covereth, the covering cherub that is spoken of.
We have also looked at other things that at least make us realise that this subject is not just to do with covering for sin and being, as it were, clothed in the garments of salvation. That is marvellous, but it is even beyond that. It is so profound that we cannot fully comprehend it.
Now, this evening we come to perhaps the most controversial point of all: the sisters—the testimony in the church to covering.
Of course, one is always afraid, in one sense, on the natural level, of such a time as this. One knows full well that a whole number of ladies will come fully armed and prepared for the time. Some of us may have background difficulties; we may have complexes in the matter.
It is amazing how this subject brings out rebellion, resistance, and many other things. I just pray that the Lord, by the Spirit, will use this time to free us from a lot of these silly things that bind us.
The sisters—the testimony in the church to covering—is a tremendous subject. Unfortunately, many people approach it by taking the matter of sisters first, and this entirely puts everyone off, particularly the sisters.
We have gone the other way round and seen the whole subject as a tremendous thing, far bigger than any physical difference between men and women, even in the church. Now we come to the question as to whether it is true to say that sisters are meant to be a divinely constituted and divinely given sign in the church to this vitally important truth.
We have, of course, a number of signs which testify to and express certain truths.
For instance, we are all quite well aware of the sign we see every Sunday morning, and at other times when the Lord so leads us: the bread and the wine. We are quite clear that the bread speaks of something. It has significance. It signifies something. We are quite clear that the wine signifies something.
In other words, there is a testimony within the bread and the wine itself to something far greater than the bread or wine—something universal in its significance and meaning.
We are all well aware of baptism. When people go down into the waters of baptism and are immersed in the water, we know that it is a symbol. Baptism itself does nothing. The waters are not magical. There is nothing supernatural about them. But in the simple ceremony there is a sign. Something is signified: the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ are set forth.
I think we would all agree that in the laying on of hands there is a sign. The laying on of hands covers a whole number of things in Scripture, but in it there is a sign—there is significance—of identification with the Body, or with the church, with the risen Head, as other members lay hands on us.
I think all of us would agree that anointing with oil when we are sick is another sign. The oil does not do anything.
Many centuries ago, Zwingli, in a famous sermon in the Minster at Zurich, said, “Better keep your oil for salad dressing if you think that it is going to do anything to you.” He was talking about extreme unction and the doctrine of rushing oil to someone who is dying so that they may get into the kingdom.
But the anointing of a sick person with oil is, in fact, a sign. It signifies the health, soundness, and wholeness that there is for us in the life of God, in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ—life through the Spirit of God.
We could go on. There are other signs too. In many senses, marriage is a sign. It signifies something much more than two people coming together and the creation of a family or a new home. Something more is signified.
Now, the point we are making is that it has been given by God to the sisters, in their very constitution, their attitude, and their dress, to be a perpetual reminder to the whole church of one of the most important truths in the Word of God.
I find it very sad if sisters opt out of such a testimony. I find it extremely sad when sisters jam some hat upon their head without any understanding at all as to what it means.
There is no glory in that. There is no real significance in that—just obeying a regulation—any more than someone going to the waters of baptism who is not really saved, thinking that the waters themselves will do something.
Obviously, just wearing a hat, as some say, in obedience, is not going to get us very far. But, oh, how wonderful it is when this matter is understood, not only by the sisters but by the brothers.
I hope that this evening will mean that many of the brothers will understand this matter. Brothers do not always help the sisters in this matter at all. They do not understand. They often think it is just a question of women shutting up and being obedient, and therefore they ought to wear a hat in that context and meaning.
So you get the old battle of the sexes brought into the church, with all the deep bitterness that comes from it. Freud was right, of course, when he said that one of the deepest things in human life is the battle between the sexes. It is often very deep; it is very hidden. We do not often talk about it.
But often, even within the people of God, there is this deep-seated battle—bitterness, rebellion, and many other things. This ought not to be. We are free. We are delivered. We are the people of God. In that sense, there should be none of that at all.
It is very interesting that all that we have studied on this matter of covering is summed up and expressed in this sign in the most remarkable way. Nor is it just to do with head covering. It goes far more deeply than that. The sister is a sign in her constitution, not just in the hat that she wears or whatever she may put on her head.
On few subjects can there have been quite so much perplexity, misunderstanding, and, in many instances, so much bondage and bitterness produced.
I cannot think of any subject quite like this matter. I know there are many subjects—prophecy and many other things—that cause tremendous difficulty and complexity, but I can think of no subject that is more perplexing to many sisters in particular than this matter.
Certainly, the most extraordinary and mutually contradictory teachings have been deduced from these Scriptures that we have read this evening. There are theories of adjustment and theories of accommodation. That is, people start off with something and fit the Scripture into that mould.
In other words, the twentieth century says, “So-and-so, so-and-so; that is the society we live in. Therefore, the Scripture cannot say this.” There must be something wrong. There are all kinds of theories of adjustment that have been propounded, and the most weak, and sometimes false, facts.
I have heard with my own ears things which I will not repeat this evening, except perhaps one or two, because the time would turn into a time of hilarity. I have heard the most amazing theories propounded on these Scriptures.
It is not unlike the enemy to have sought to obscure a glorious truth and a glorious privilege. If this is a truth in which there is glory, and a privilege which is glorious given to some of us, then we can understand Satan coming in, as he has with the Lord’s Table and with so many things, to obscure that truth.
He makes things so perplexing, so complex, that we almost throw up our hands in despair and abandon it altogether. Satan has sought to turn light into darkness.
Now, there are a number of false conceptions from which we need to be delivered. Please forgive me if I tread upon your toes tonight. We are bound to do it somewhere during the course of the evening. Let us all be absolutely open and, starting from virgin soil, seek by searching the Word of God and looking to the Lord to find what the Lord really has to say.
Firstly, there is the idea that the woman is inferior. She is not an equal partner, either in marriage or in the church. She is inferior, and the whole implication is that she is to be servile—seen but not heard.
Now, that is a fallacy. It is not only a fallacy; it approaches heresy. You have only to think for a moment to recognise that a woman’s soul and a woman’s personality are as valuable as any man’s. Obviously, there are no second-class citizens in the kingdom of God.
Out of this has come much of the bitterness, prejudice, and bias against this whole subject. Christian gentlemen have not always helped the sisters in this matter. It has often been put over in such a way that the sisters’ deep-seated suspicion—that they are being told they are unequal and inferior—is supposed to be founded in the Word of God.
But it is nowhere found in the Word of God. We shall come to the positive side in a moment, out of which this has been twisted.
The second misconception is that this whole matter does not refer to the church meeting, but to prayer privately or to a sisters’ meeting.
For instance, we see in 1 Corinthians 11:5: “Every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonoureth her head.” We are told this is not a church meeting. This is obviously private prayer, or it is a sisters’ prayer meeting.
This, I do not think, has any foundation. If we look at 1 Corinthians, we find that the apostle is dealing with church matters and church gatherings. He is speaking about the contribution of both men and women in the gathering of the church.
For this reason, in some circles a sister’s hat is hardly ever removed. My sister, some years ago, went to stay with a rather strict group down in Cornwall, in Mevagissey. To her amazement, the ladies there went into the sea, even when they put on their bathing costumes, without at any point removing their hats.
Then, to her even deeper amazement, she found the dear sister at the stove with her hat on. The point was that she said, quite honestly and sincerely, from a pure motive, “Well, I might be praying.”
This is very interesting because in Orthodox Jewish circles, this is why Orthodox Jewish men keep something on their heads the whole time: lest at any given moment they might pray and be caught out by heaven. Rather than do that, they have a little black thing on the back of the head that stays there permanently, even when they take their hats off.
Well, I do not think that has any foundation. That is another false conception.
The third misconception is that the whole matter is to do with first-century customs and has little for us today, except that we should learn from it that there is orderliness and decorum in the church.
We are told that the veil was, in fact, to do with married women, and some have said that it corresponds to the wedding ring. Therefore, today, if you have a wedding ring, you can remove your hat. The spinsters amongst us find that rather sad.
But for the married ladies, we are told, the wedding ring is sufficient. This is fallacious. Maybe in certain quarters there was something of that kind, but I do not think it was ever so in Jewish circles. In fact, it was the unmarried girls who always wore the veil, and the married women who could more easily uncover. It is quite the other way round.
Then there is the other idea on which I was brought up: that in Corinth, the loose women of the streets never wore a veil. Therefore, the apostle was afraid that Christian ladies should be thought of as women of the street, and he said all this. In other words, it is only something to do with the first century and has nothing to do with us today.
This may be perfectly true as a fact, but did the apostle really mean this to go to such lengths? Why does he not simply say, “You know that all around you there are these kinds of ladies. You cannot do this kind of thing”? Why does he say, “Because of the angels”?
Here comes the weakness: the same people who say that it belongs to the first century tell us that people in the first century believed angels were present at worship. So now we find that a whole passage has absolutely no relevance to any century other than the first.
Where do we end? Shall we throw baptism out? Shall we throw other things out? Where do we end on such a thing?
The next misconception is that if a sister wears a hat in obedience to Scripture, that is spirituality. I wish I could believe that spirituality could be so quickly acquired.
The tragedy of it is, for some of us who rebelled against this whole matter when we were younger, that the older the hat and the more dowdy the appearance, the more spiritual the sister was supposed to be.
I remember sitting behind some sisters when we were young, in certain conferences, wanting to push back the pins in their buns. There it was all around us: a kind of unkempt, careless attitude, and this was supposed to be spirituality. No wonder people have reacted against something like that.
That, of course, is entirely false. Putting a hat on no more makes a person spiritual than anything else outward.
Another misconception is that it is a sign that the church is a man’s world, and that sisters have no part or very little influence in it. This is wickedly untrue.
The sisters do not have to speak to have a very great influence in the church. Sometimes, when sisters speak too much, they lose their influence. God has so positioned us, so constituted us as men and women, that women can influence things very greatly by just being quiet and just being women.
The old saying is that behind every man stands a great woman. I think it is true: sisters have a tremendous influence. It is only when women are insecure that they have to throw their weight around, tell people to do this and that, and jump in to tell people where they are wrong.
The last misconception I would like to mention is that the hat is only to be worn at the church meeting—that is, the Lord’s Table.
I was always amazed in some places I went to when no one wore a hat at all, but suddenly, at the Lord’s Table, from the depths of portmanteaux and trunks, wicker hats appeared, and everyone came with a hat.
People seem to think that the Lord’s Table is the meeting of the church, so you wear a hat for that, but for other gatherings you can choose. Then again, if you move into a house, you do not have to wear anything. This, of course, just reveals our conception of the church.
There is also a variation of this idea: that you only have to wear something on your head when you pray or prophesy. I call that a misconception.
In what way are sisters a sign in the church to this matter of covering? Perhaps we shall begin to see this matter more clearly if we first take a look at the brothers.
The whole problem is that everyone thinks that the woman is the sign. But, in actual fact, first we must look at the other. Then, when we have seen what the brothers signify, we shall see much more clearly what the sisters’ significance, or testimony, is.
The man represents Christ as the image and glory of God. In 1 Corinthians 11:7 we read:
For a man indeed ought not to have his head veiled, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
J. B. Phillips renders it, “A man ought not to cover his head, for he represents the very person and glory of God.”
The fact of the man’s head being uncovered was the sensational thing in Paul’s day. I do wish everyone could get hold of this. There was absolutely no question about women having always had their heads covered, but the fact was that up to that point men had their heads covered as well.
They had the prayer shawl. No child of God under the old covenant would ever come before God without drawing the prayer shawl over his head. Most wore something on their heads, especially the Pharisees, all the time.
You remember when the priests went into the presence of the Lord, they never took their headwear off. They had to be carefully clothed with special headwear. What did it all mean?
It was sensational when the early Christians, the men, uncovered their heads and stood before God praying, worshipping, and contributing in the gatherings of the people without something on their heads.
The prayer shawl, or the hat, was a sign that there was something between God and man. There was a veil between God and man. Something blocked heaven. Heaven was closed.
Now the man is to pray or prophesy with his head uncovered. The veil is gone—torn in two. Heaven is open above him. Sin has been dealt with.
Now, it is not the man who has done this, but Christ. He is the only One who inherently had an open heaven. Remember when heaven opened at His baptism:
This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.
Heaven had never opened to a human being before. Heaven was open to the Lord Jesus Christ. The man is a sign, if you like, of the Lord Jesus Christ, upon Whom there is an open heaven, Who has dealt with our sin and torn away the veil.
That, in the early days of the church, was sensational. So sensational that a sister might say, “My goodness me, are not we included? This is so marvellous. This is so absolutely wonderful to see all the brothers standing there without anything on their heads. Why cannot we throw off the veil as well? We are all one. We are all saved.”
This is the whole point why the apostle had to write to them and say, “Do not do it. The men signify something, and you, sisters, signify something else. If you disregard this difference, you will lose something very, very precious.”
The woman represents, not Christ, but the church. She represents the church as the glory of Christ. The passage says that the woman is the glory of the man; the woman represents the church as the glory of Christ—His fullness, Who filleth all in all.
So the sisters have this tremendous privilege, as the men have their privilege. The men remind all of us that Christ has an open heaven; the veil is gone. The sisters have this wonderful privilege of saying before us all, “We are the church. In ourselves, we have no open heaven, but we have an open heaven in Christ.”
Do not let any of us who are saved think, “We are something in ourselves. Heaven is open to us because of what we are.” Do not think that somehow we can persuade God through good works, having been saved by His grace, that He can now bless us through our good works.
No, no. The sister is the perpetual reminder that the only way the church has of communication with heaven is through her Head—through the Lord Jesus.
She is taken out of Him. Her place is to be together with Him, to be part of Him, to be, as it were, His complement.
This is why the Genesis 2 passage is fundamental to this whole matter, and why the Ephesians 5 passage throws so much light on it.
Why did God do this with Adam? Why, first of all, does Genesis 2 begin with the comment that there was found no help meet for him? Then, immediately afterwards, very strange to our rational way of thinking, God produces all the animals of the field and brings them before Adam, saying, “Now, Adam, would you name these creatures?”
I used to think, when I was first saved, that was the strangest way of doing things. Why did God not name them, since He had created them? But no, it was man who had to do it. What was God doing? He was trying to make man aware that he was not complete.
There was only half of him there. So much for this question of inequality. God was trying to get over to Adam, “Adam, you are not complete. There is only really half of you there. Actually, the other bit is in you, but we have got to get it out.”
So He put him to sleep. When there was not a single one of those creatures that Adam could live with, he looked at them all, named them, and they trotted off—or loped off. But there was not a single one, not even the orangutan, that he could settle down with.
So God put him to sleep, opened his side, took out bone, and fashioned woman. Woman was a creation of God, just as man was.
God woke Adam and said, in effect, “Here.” Adam did not say, “Oh, this is such-and-such. We will call it such-and-such.” He said, “This is entirely different. This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This is my other half. I will call her woman because she has been taken out of man.”
The two belong to each other. This is a picture of what God did with our Lord Jesus.
Do you remember that extraordinary statement of John the apostle? When the Lord Jesus died—when He was, as it were, put to sleep—the soldier ran the spear into His side, and forthwith there came out blood and water. John makes so much of it. He says, “He that hath seen hath borne witness, and his witness is true,” and then he emphasises it again.
What is it all? He is trying to tell us that that blood and water produced something. Out of the open side of the dead Christ came the church.
People say, “Oh, but it is redemption.” Yes, of course, but redemption was already ours. There was no need to open His side. The opening of His side was to make us understand what God did with Adam when He took Eve out of him.
Through the blood and through the water, God has taken a people—an elect people—for Himself. When the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, it was just as if God were presenting a church to Him, and He said, “This is bone of My bone and flesh of My flesh. She shall be called the church, because she has been taken out of Me.”
When you begin to understand that, you begin to understand the whole matter of covering. I remember Brother Oliphant, in almost the last message he ever gave, saying that Eve was taken out of Adam, and there was a sense in which he always felt that the place of security and safety for her was only when she pressed back into his side.
While she was pressed into his side, she was secure and she was covered. Some of the sisters may say, “Well, why should we have to do that?” But the fact of the matter is that it is a picture of the church.
Do you think the Lord Jesus has to flee to the church for security and safety? Do you think He has to appeal to us to enclose Him, protect Him, and keep Him? Of course not.
Immediately we see it in spiritual terms, the whole thing falls into place. We begin to see that the place of the church is to be hid with Christ: to be concealed by Him, to be hedged in, to be enclosed by Him, to be protected by Him, to be overlaid by Him.
The woman, when her head is covered, is not just by her head covering but in her very constitution, behaviour, outlook, attitude, and dress, to be the sign in the church of this tremendous truth.
She is to remind all the brothers as well as the sisters that the only safety we have is to be pressed into the side of Christ.
O Lamb of God, still keep me
Close to Thy wounded side;
’Tis only there, in safety,
I can abide.
That is the significance of the sister. She is to remind all of us. Some people seem to think that wearing a hat or something on the head is just for sisters, to remind them all to be servile, to remind them all to be subject, to shut up. But it is not that. It is far, far greater than that.
The significance of the woman’s dress, behaviour, and the fact that she is a sign, is to remind the whole church that its only safety is in Christ. We have come out of Christ. Our safety is in Him.
Now, can we have a closer look, in our last moments, at what this sign is? There are five things that I think we could note down and take away to think about.
The sister is a sign to the supremacy and centrality of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why I call it a privilege.
Consider 1 Corinthians 11:7-9:
For a man indeed ought not to have his head veiled, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
For neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
Translate this immediately, in the light of Genesis 2 and Ephesians 5, into spiritual terms, and you have it. Christ was not created for us. We were created for Him.
We came out of Him and have been created for Him. We are His glory. So the sister is a testimony to the supremacy and centrality of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In a sense, she reminds all of us, brothers as well, every single one of us, that the Lord Jesus is everything. We come out of Him. That is our origin and our source: the source of our salvation, the source of our life, the source of our well-being, and the source of our fulfilment.
We have been taken out of Him. We have been created for Him: to please Him, satisfy Him, and be a joy to Him. We are His glory.
The second thing about this sign is that it speaks of the mediatorship of Christ. The woman’s head being covered declares that there is no open heaven except in Christ and through Christ.
The sister is reminding us continually of this one thing. The Lord Jesus said:
I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
Did you know, sisters, that you were a testimony to that when you put something on the head? You were simply saying, “No open heaven except through Him. The veil has not gone except through Him. There is no way except through Him, no truth except through Him, no reality except through Him, no life except through Him, no experience except through Him.”
There is no way to the Father except through Him.
When you begin to understand the Scripture that there is one Mediator between God and men, Himself man, Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself a ransom for all, you begin to understand that this testimony is something in which the angels are very interested.
When they see it disregarded and despised, there is a shock. How can those people disregard this? Of course, the motive may be right, but why disregard it? Why not at least inquire?
There is something solemn in heaven if the testimony we bear says Christ is not supreme, He is not the sent One, He is not all, and we have an open heaven in ourselves. Of course, that would be nonsense.
The brothers and sisters are speaking for the whole church and saying there is no way except this. In Christ there is absolute safety, absolute provision, and absolute fulfilment.
This testimony of the mediatorship of Christ does not simply mean that Christ stands between us and God, though that is tremendous at the cornerstone. It means that Christ is the means by which we are fulfilled, by which the will and purpose of God are fulfilled and realised in our lives, and by which, through the Holy Spirit, all the fullness of God comes to us. We are complete in Him.
The third thing, of course, is that it speaks of the headship of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 11:3 we read:
The head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
When we turn to Ephesians 5, it is explained: Christ is the Head of the church, being Himself the Saviour of the Body.
So we understand this in a much deeper and clearer way: the authority of Christ, the name of Christ, and relationship to Him. That is what is testified to in this matter.
When a woman marries a man, she takes his name. When you and I were saved, God gave us the name of Jesus. We were named with the name of Jesus Christ, so that we can pray in His name, gather in His name, and do whatsoever we do in His name.
It is not that we tack the name on the end all the time. That could be an empty little epithet. Some people use the name of Jesus as if it were merely a charm. But it is the inward truth behind the use of that name which matters.
When you pray in the name of Jesus, what are you saying? You are saying, “I am in Him, Father. I am married to Him. I belong to Him. I am one with Him.”
The headship of Jesus Christ, the authority of Christ, His mind, His will, and His way: the sister is to remind us all that there is only one Lord, only one mind, and only one will in the church.
She is simply to remind us that we do not do what other people think, but only what the Head says. Covering is being obedient to the Lord, and uncovering is to get out of His will.
Fourthly, there is the question of divine order and distinctions. In 1 Corinthians 11:3-5, if you read carefully, you will see that a distinction is made between men and women.
This is quite important. It has nothing to do with inequality or inferiority. It has to do with difference of function and gift. God has made men and women different.
We live in days when that difference is being obscured, in days of what is called unisex. Anything more diametrically opposed and contradictory to the mind of God you cannot imagine.
Nature itself teaches us that men and women are different, so why try to abolish the difference? It is perfectly ridiculous when you sit down and think about it. We have been constituted physically different and mentally different. We are complementary to each other, not exclusive, but complementary.
The whole question of divine order and distinctions is simply this: God has placed us in a different way—men and women, husbands and wives, and so on. There is difference in function and difference in gift. In one sense, you could say there is difference in position, but there is absolute equality.
If you read Galatians 3:28, it says:
There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus.
There is absolute equality of every saved soul. But we are still male and female, and as such we have an essential part to play in the church.
We are living in days when the whole pressure of society and teaching is to destroy distinctions in the home and to destroy distinctions in every other part of society. They cannot be disregarded.
I know of no subject over which people can get so easily uncovered as the matter of divine order. It is the easiest thing in the world to disregard divine order and contradict divine order. When we come up against flesh and blood, we get our eyes so filled with flesh and blood that it is easy to lash out—and then discover afterwards that we have come right up against divine order.
We have come into collision with something divinely ordained and appointed of God. Therefore, God takes it up. When that happens, there is uncovering.
You remember, we went right through the Old Testament, example after example: Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; Miriam and Aaron—case after case given to us as examples for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
It is so easy to set aside divine order. We can do it in the home, at work, and in society. This goes far beyond the question of position in the church.
If you read 1 Corinthians 12, you will see that there is diversity in humanity. It is not a question of inequality; it is a question of diversity. This one is this, this one is that, and the other is something else. God has set some in the church in different ways.
The wearing of something on the head is a testimony to divine order. It is not in itself so important, as if God simply wants people to wear something on their heads. There is something deeper. The sister reminds us of divine order in all things.
Lastly, there is the mystery of God. If for no other reason, we ought to stop and reflect deeply on the phrase in 1 Corinthians 11:10: “Because of the angels.”
Is it not evidence that there is no fear of God if we can chuck overboard—and I use the word chuck deliberately—a whole passage with something like that in the midst of it?
I would have thought that one phrase would halt even the most fearless, at least to make us think. This whole matter is much more than something physical, or even something only to do with visible things. It somehow affects the angels.
How does it affect the angels? I can only say that the whole subject is lifted by this phrase onto another level—something that we need to take more serious note of.
We touch the mystery of covering—the whole mystery of it. Somehow, it affects the unseen world, the unseen hosts, fallen and unfallen. It affects principalities and powers, because it is not merely to do with people wearing something on the head. It is the significance of it. It is what that action signifies.
We ought also to note something that has amazed me. In 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 we have two things mentioned which are often confused.
On the one hand, we have the hair, also called the woman’s glory in verse 15. Secondly, we have the veil or covering, also called authority on the head in verse 10.
These two things are often confused because of the statement of the apostle in verse 15 that the hair is her covering. Another Greek word is used altogether in that connection.
This is what I mean by weak or false facts. People read the Authorised Version, which uses the same word, “covering,” all the way through, and then they say, “Oh, now it is quite clear. The hair is the covering.” But it does not say that.
Professor Bruce, in his paraphrase, inserts the word natural: “The hair is her natural cover.” The apostle’s argument is that because the hair is the natural covering, it needs to be covered.
If you think about that, it is a very strange, almost irrational argument, is it not? He says that if she has not got something on the head, let her cut off all her hair. Therefore, the point he is arguing for is that if she has long hair, let her wear something on it.
Do you remember Isaiah 4:5? “Over all the glory shall be a covering.” Over all the glory, a covering. It is mystery. I cannot explain it. I only know that the hair of a woman is called her glory, and that the authority on the head is something covering it—something, a token, a covering that signifies.
I think we must leave this subject this evening. You have enough there at least to cause you to reflect and to think. We are touching divine and eternal mystery.
This is what the sister reminds us: there is something here beyond us. We believers have been introduced into a sphere which we do not fully comprehend or understand. In Christ we are safe. We are covered in Him. But beware that we are all really abiding in Him.
That is really the significance of it. It is the sisters’ privilege to remind all of us concerning this vitally important matter of covering—by their presence, by their attitude, and by their dress.
She is an encouragement to the whole church, an exhortation to the whole church, and a comfort to the whole church, to take his or her position in Christ, praise the Lord, come before the Lord, and intercede before the Lord.
On the other hand, she is a solemn warning and reminder of the danger of being uncovered.
Most people, when they come into a Christian gathering, bow their heads. What do you say? Sometimes it is so empty that I have known people say, “Lord, what we are about to see, make us truly grateful,” because they are not thinking.
When next you see a sister there with something upon her head, think, “Aha,” and bow your head and say, “Now, Lord, I take my place in Christ. Here I am, in Him, clothed with the garments of salvation.”
We must trust that all the sisters shall be lifted out of bondage in this matter so entirely that their faces will shine under those hats and so help everyone to rejoice in the Lord.
There is nothing more terrible when there is awful bondage and rebellion. What is the point of wearing a hat if it is something like that?
I do not wish to be cheap, but what would you think of the Lord’s Table if the bread were mouldy? You would be shocked. You would be shocked. You might say, “Well, we know it is a sign, and there is not much in the sign itself,” but should not we all be careful?
That goes for the brothers too. How we need to be careful so that we really are a testimony to the Lord for something very wonderful in this whole matter.
Only God can throw more light upon it, because a study like this can create as many problems as it seeks to solve. But by opening up the whole matter, and with openness of heart and spirit, the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit as our Guide and Teacher, we can search out the Scriptures whether these things be so.
May the Lord help us all, above everything else, to be covered—not merely physically, but truly and inwardly covered by abiding in Him.
Our Father, we need divine enlightenment. It is so easy, Lord, to do something because someone says it ought to be done, or because we feel, dear Lord, that everyone else does it.
But our prayer, beloved Lord, is that there may come to us divine enlightenment. Oh, may we begin to understand that there is more in this whole matter than perhaps we ever realised.
O Lord, tackle anything that is just rebellious, or dark, or bound, or dead. Grant, we pray, Lord, that the glorious privilege of being in any way a testimony may come to each one of us.
We pray for the sisters, Lord, that there may truly be a testimony; and we pray for the brothers, that they also may be a true testimony. Help us, then, in this matter, we pray. We ask it together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.