A Sign of Authority

Every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head…the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head. 

 I Corinthians 11:6a, 10b

So picture Las Vegas. Flashing lights, high rollers, bling. Think of the darker side of Las Vegas. Sex trade, greed, addiction, violence. Now think of Las Vegas but way bigger and with way fewer rules and you’ll have a fairly accurate picture of first century Corinth.

Corinth was a wild cultural melting pot of conservative Judaism, pagan cults, and burgeoning Christianity. It was smack dab in the middle of the trade routes, so EVERYONE stopped by Corinth with money to burn…Which ended up to mean that Corinth had a lot of prostitutes. First century prostitutes did not cover their heads so as to advertise that they were open for business. Later, because they were considered defiled creatures, they were not allowed to cover their heads. In the same way, female slaves were also not allowed to cover their heads because they were considered to be lesser humans. So in short, slave women and ex-prostitutes could not have their heads covered so as to visibly shame and isolate the women- a sign of dishonor (something along the lines of the Puritanical Scarlet Letter).

Paul’s command, therefore, to have ALL the women cover their heads as they publicly prayed and prophesied, was crazy. Was totally revolutionary. It was revolutionary because he was breaking some serious cultural taboos by commanding the church to accept the slave women and ex-prostitutes in the same way as they would accept “pure” and free citizens. He commanded the church to allow these previously rejected women to take up their dignity, to cover their heads just as citizen women were allowed to cover their heads. He commanded the church to identify the women not as sinners, not as slaves, but as daughters of God who were clean and blameless before His sight and as full inheritors of every blessing.

This is amazing. God desires to mend the broken. God desires to give spiritual authority to those deemed wholly worthless by society. He doesn’t want us to carry around our shame and our dishonor. He doesn’t want us to be identified by our past, but rather calls us, commands us, to be new creations- servant leaders- that are identified by our love and worship of Him.

Holy God, I am humbled by your love. I am humbled that you accept me and desire me to be free- free from my past, free from my shame, free from my accusers. Free to love, free to serve, free to speak forth.