Q. I attended your Fellowship some years ago but now live in the USA. My church does not wear head coverings, most churches these days don’t. Some tell me that it was purely a cultural thing for the Corinth church. Others believe a woman’s hair is her covering. It’s hard to figure out which opinion is right; can you help?
A. It is always difficult to advise an enquirer outside the context of a local assembly since the Elders of the fellowship should be the ones who lead and guide the flock through their queries. And certainly we would not wish to stir controversy in any fellowship. However, since you ask, and since you have been in fellowship with the Coastal Assemblies and obviously have been influenced by the teaching you received while with us, we shall endeavour to answer you from 1 Cor 11:1-16.
a) With regard to Head Coverings, were Paul’s writings to Corinth merely a cultural directive and not meant for the guidance of the whole Body of Christ, I am sure that the Holy Spirit would have prevented them from becoming part of what we have received as the Word of God. Nonetheless, what God has put into His Word, the Bible, is vital to every believer, whether we fully understand it or not.
You are being wise in seeking after clarity; after all, that’s the responsibility of everyone who loves the Lord. A godly woman is asked by the Lord to cover her hair, her glory, as a sign of honour and submission to her husband, who is her head.
Her husband, who is in submission to the Lord Jesus, his Head, exposes his head as a symbol of representing Christ. That’s why the Word says it’s not good for a man to have his head covered when he prays or prophesies.
At the end of the day it’s a matter of a submissive heart for both a man and a woman. Perhaps that’s why, in modern times, this subject has become so controversial since Satan has attacked the roles of the man and the woman as God designed them.