Can Men Wear Hats in Church? The Real Meaning Behind Head Coverings in 1 Corinthians 11

This is one of those videos that's gonna make that old lady in church upset, but we're gonna talk about it. Can men wear hats in church? It's not what you think. Let's have a conversation. Alright, so First Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 1 through 16, the writer begins to talk about whether or not head coverings in church and head coverings and hats and veils in church. And this has been something I've grown up in church my entire life. And one of the biggest questions I've always is, can men wear hats in church? Because women wear hats, but can men wear hats? And is it appropriate? As we look at our music world today, as we look at the world and everything that's out and around us, oftentimes we get hit up about all these singers and pastors and preachers, backwards hats, do rags, all of this. Can men wear hats in church? Let's unpack 1 Corinthians 11, verses 1 through 16 to give historical context and then let's show the answer to the question. So to get this, let's go back to chapter 10. So if you want to have your bibles, do it, but I want to give you some background on First Corinthians, chapter 10. Paul was challenged to write to this wicked church, this fallen place in Corinth, so that they learn from their ancestors mistakes. And in chapter 10 he's telling them, do not screw up this opportunity you have. Because Corinth, remember this was the capital of the province of Achaia. It was in a strategic place that God was using there for a place of commerce. The city was re established by Julius Caesar and was about success in the arts. It drew immigrants, Right. It was a popular space. Culture in Corinth was full of wealth and a culture of abusing the poor. Right? So people were not the greatest in Corinth. They were wealthy, but they weren't wise. Most were poor, most were Gentiles and most were devoted to idols. This was not Paul's first letter that he wrote to them, though he'd written to them on a number of times on how to maintain holiness. He decided to write the same second one with sarcasm, with irony and rebuke because their issues were not between Jews and Gentiles. He writes them because their issues among themselves, among Corinthian believers, and the challenge of Paul was trying to give them. I'm getting to hats in church. The challenge of Paul was trying to give them is, is your heart open to Jesus for them? This wasn't why Paul comes hard in chapter 10 and says, don't screw up this moment. He says, I want you to see. Do you have Jesus? Chapter 10. So if you do, put away idols, don't test Christ. Don't complain and flee from idols. I can show it to you in First Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 31, 33. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews or Greeks or in the church of God. Even as I try to please everyone in every way, I'm not seeking my own good, the good of many that they may be saved. Then Paul transitions to chapter 11, and he begins to levy his argument. And what he's arguing here is, is your heart right? Corinth was so messed up that their hearts were impure that Paul was trying to find various courses of action to correct their course of action. He begins with a very confusing 15 verses. In one section he talks about hair. In another section he talks about head coverings. In another section he tells him, wear them. Another section he says, don't. To understand them, let us look at them separately. So First Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 1 through 12, there's one argument. First Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 13 through 15, there's another argument. He brings out a lot of things, but I want to read this to you. Look what Paul says in First Corinthians, chapter 11. He says, Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ. I praise you for remembering me in everything and holding me. The traditions that pass them on to you. But I want you to realize the head of every man is Christ. The head of every woman is man. Head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. And the same as having her head shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well cut her hair off. But if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head. A man ought not cover his head, since he is the image of glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but a woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. It is this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head because of the angels. Nevertheless, in the Lord, woman is not independent of man, nor is independent man independent of woman. For as a woman comes from man, so man born of a woman, everything comes from God. Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does it? Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it's a disgrace to him? But if that a woman has long hair, it's her glory, for long hair was given to her as a covering. If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we ignore the practice, nor do the churches of God. So I want you to see here. What Paul is doing is delineating between private and public worship. There is no distinction for him of male and female in Christ. He's saying Christ is the head. He's not saying male over female. Rather, each has different responsibilities. But hear this. This is not a God argument. This is a Greek argument. This is why we have to get the foundational rules. Corinth. In verses 1 through 12, Paul is making an argument to the people that since you cannot seem to get this Christian thing right and you're disrespecting Christ, I'm giving you some rules to follow as a baseline as new Gentiles in Christ. In essence, there are some things you need to do just so that you can just not screw this church up. That's verses one through 12, he's saying prophesying. That's preaching and having your head covered. This is a Jewish custom. The Jewish worshiper is always praying with her head in this talith, right? The Jews, like Orientals, generally uncover their feet because the place in which they stood was holy ground. But he covered his head as a way of humility, even as the angels would veil their faces with their wings. Aeneas is said by Servius to have introduced this custom into Italy. On the other hand, the Greek custom was to pray with their head uncovered. Paul, some discrepancy here seems to have arisen and decided in favor of the Greek custom. That's it. Paul said, if we're going to do this, I want you to adhere to the Grecian custom and not to what Servius is brought to the community. And he says, on the high ground in Christ, by his incarnation, Christ has become man, and therefore the Christian who is in Christ, right? A little Christ. The word Christian. Little Christ. Since we are in Christ, we are little Christ. You stand with the unveiled head in the presence of the Father, since we are to be like Jesus. And if you don't do that, you're dishonoring your head. If you dishonor your Head where you're doing it, you're a share of the glory. The head of the whole church. We pray, Tertullian says, with bare heads, because we don't blush. The Christian is no longer a slave, but a son. Galatians 4. May we claim this part of our body as looking and walking like the eternal sun. The head was only covered in mourning. 2nd Samuel, chapter 2, Samuel 15:30 and Jeremiah 14:13. But the worship of the Christian is joy filled. So let me say this, this text is nothing to do with a baseball hat. Like, you know, can a person go to church wearing a baseball hat? This was a Jewish custom to remove something because you were in mourning. And Paul says we're not in mourning. When we know Jesus, we are joyful. So you don't have to wear a hat. It's a Greek. It's a Greek custom, right? So it makes it so confusing is. Then later Paul negates the argument, right? So this is a cultural argument. Like I want to be really clear. This was not like in America, don't wear a baseball hat. This was a cultural argument. So then we have to continue reading because then it's like it gets confusing. Verse 13:15. He makes then an argument from nature. So he says this is the Greek argument, verses 1 through 12. But here's the argument from nature. Hear me. I believe in merging scholarship with this. So Paul is making an argument from nature as he understands nature and that the issue is not disgrace or not. But for Paul, verse 13, to judge for yourselves, is it proper for a wife to pray to her God with her head uncovered? Again, this whole thing is an argument from nature. He's going to answer the question, he's going to think about nature. And he talks about a woman having long hair. And he says this woman's long hair is her glory. He says, for hair is given to her like a covering. So the hair is supposed to be a covering. What is the covering? He's talking about the word covering for the passage in the Greek is the Greek word parabolaion. Now Troy Martin in his work Paul's argument from the nature of the veil in First Corinthians 11:13, 15 dives into this. What Martin suggests in the Greek and Roman medical text, particularly focusing on ancient views of physiology and sexuality. According to these ancient medical authors, men have more hair because they carry more semen and they are believed to fill the hollow hairs. They believe that things were like suction cups on the male brain in the genital area. On the other hand, women were thought to draw up semen into their fetus. Troy Martin, in his work, argues that Paul, being familiar with this ancient worldview, incorporates this understanding in verses 13:15 on his recommendations of head coverings and hair length. What Martin gets into and he discusses, you can read it for yourself. Is the sexual nature of the content, but also emphasizes and reflects ancient medical and scientific thinking that may not align with modern scientific knowledge. We've evolved. We know that to have children you don't suck the hair up in semen. But at the time, they didn't know that. Paul's argument from nature contrasts long hair with women with testicles in men. He states that women are giving long hair as their glory, which enhances their ability to draw in and retain semen. Paul asks for the Corinthians to judge for themselves whether women ought to display their genitalia when praying to God. Drawing from Jewish tradition, which is all about modesty, you cover your genitalia in worship. Paul argues that women should cover their heads when praying and prophesying. Although the physiological conceptions informing Paul's argument are are no longer accepted, the conclusion to display your genitals in worship is relevant. But many of us in churches we've been in have abandoned this practice of covering women's head due to our shift in physiological understanding. This confusion is when we misinterpret the scriptures and mistake a testicle for a head covering, leading to convoluted interpretations of Paul's argument. Ancient physiology and phyology indicate that both Paul and the Corinthians likely understood this argument. Argument from nature for the veiling of women. In essence, Paul was giving a broken satirical argument. In essence, here's the question Paul is asking. Would you come before God without underwear? No. The answer would be, of course not. That's lewd, right? That's why Paul says, of course you should have your hair, which is a part of virgin Italia, covered. You would cover your hair in church when praying to God. How lewd is it to. To bring your genitals to God? It's very natural for Paul to look at the Corinthians and say, listen, if you can't figure this out, you can judge for yourselves whether or not someone should leave their hair uncovered to display genitalia when praying. You got a problem. This is obvious. Remember, this is the same reference we get Back to Exodus 28, where the priests had to wear undergarments when they ascended because you could see under their robe. You don't display genitalia when you're doing priestly Things. That's the argument of the text for the New Testament says every believer is a priest. So Paul's thinking, we're engaged in God's service, we're praying to God. Of course, we would seek to be modest in our worship unto God. So what's the long story short? Like, if we're putting all this together, what's the long story short? Pastor Justin none of this crap matters. Can men wear hats in church? Totally. And there's no argument against it. Do women have to wear hats in churches? No, you don't have to wear a hat and men can wear hats. None of this stuff matters. Because let me tell you, if your heart isn't right, praying without a hat isn't going to change it. If you have a hardened heart to the gospel, you wearing a hat is not going to make you more holy or less holy. If your heart is right, praying with a hat, then God is not going to stop listening to you. I want you not to judge other people based upon what they wear at church. Clothes and hats and positions and church and titles and all that doesn't equal holiness. None of this stuff matters. Paul was making a satirical argument based upon medical documentation from Hippocrates and making a satirical argument to a broken church that was wicked at the time. And he uses the satirical argument to get them to listen to him and say, listen, why does this crap matter to you? And I think the question comes to us, why does this crap matter to us? Hats don't make you right with Jesus. Not wearing a hat doesn't make you right with Jesus. This is just another part of the handful of acts, positive or negative, that set away people from God's church. Being a Christian is not wearing a hat or not wearing a hat. It's perverse to think that God would not listen to his people if a man wore a hat to church. We love policing people, but in Jesus, we are free to worship him in rituals and practices because we have another authority and it's not the authority of people's opinions. So to say that some hats are a symbol of respect, a shaved head with a little dirty heart is disrespectful to Jesus. Judging or ruling out someone because of their clothing is a dirty heart. That's the problem. The problem is not the hat. The problem is the heart. So is your heart open to Jesus? And if it is, forget your clothing. Hope that was helpful. I linked the Troy Martin article below. If you want to take a read of it, read the Scriptures for yourself. Go ahead and comment below if you want to. I'm here to give the truth of the Gospel, even if it's weird and uncomfortable. Remember, this was a while. It's a prophetic book. The Bible was an historical book. We have to look at the context to understand what God is saying to them then and what God is saying to us now. God bless and keep you. Please please like and subscribe and turn on notifications so we can engage in the Gospel.