“Doth not even nature itself teach you, that,
if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her:
for her hair is given her for a covering.”
1 Corinthians 11:14-15
In the late 1960’s or early 1970’s there was a rock-n-roll opera produced called “Hair.” It was during the days of change in America’s youth, when all values were being re-examined. Phrases in the theme song were “it will get caught in the trees, a hive for the bees... long as I can grow my hair.” Outlandish hair styles began to be commonplace. The men and boys who had normal hairstyles off the ears and collars began growing hair over their ears, ponytails, afros, and perms. Woman began to cut their hair short like men and dying it bright colors.
Does it mean anything? Does it really matter to God how I wear my hair? God is extremely interested in our appearance (that which meets the eye) since we belong to Him.
SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES
1 Corinthians 11:1-15, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, 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 that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For 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. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, 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. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God. Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.”
The church at Corinth had problems. Corinth was a very wicked city with 2,000 temple prostitutes. There were effeminate men in the city that had been saved. God did not want them to cross the bridge back to the world.
TWO DISTINCTIONS
Men are to have short hair. Women are to have long hair.
There is to be a clear distinction between the sexes. Have you ever had to do a double-take to see if someone was male or female? It’s all attributed to worldly hairstyles.
HOW LONG IS LONG?
The scriptures use the word “over.” A woman’s head is to be covered (and the scripture is not talking about a hat). A man’s head is not to be covered. What gets covered first as the hair grows out on a head? The ears, back of the neck, and then the shoulders.
A man’s ears should not be covered by his hair. Men in America did not begin wearing long hair until 1964, when the Beatles rock band arrived. So our nation adopted hairstyles from the heathen.
EXAMPLE
2 Samuel 14:25-26, “But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. And when he polled his head, (for it was at every year’s end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king’s weight.”
2 Samuel 18:9, “And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.”
Absalom’s long hair revealed his rebellious heart. It made him feminine and proud (he cut his hair once a year and weighed it). It led to his death.
DID JESUS HAVE LONG HAIR?
The pictures and paintings of Jesus depict Christ with long hair. Realize most of the paintings were done 1500 to 1800 years after Christ. The artists never saw Jesus. History tells us that people in the ancient empires wore their hair like their leader. Herod and Nero had short hair, not long. Would Jesus break the scriptural principles in I Corinthians 11? Jesus was a carpenter, not a long-haired hippie passing out daisies
