Revealed or Concealed

1 Corinthians 11:7-10 KJV

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.

Now here is a challenging piece of the Bible to say the least. The interpretation gets muddied by the fact that our culture doesn't practice women wearing head coverings and veils and, with the exception of a very few groups who cling to these Scriptures tenaciously while abusing the larger portion of Scripture, especially concerning Christ and salvation,  we would be hard pressed to bring it in to practice in America. Can you imagine the negative publicity the average church would experience if it began teaching women to wear a veil so as not to show their faces whenever they speak in a public setting? Good grief they are already calling us legalistic because we believe that our pastors should be husbands of one wife for one wife for one lifetime and that Scriptural pastors are always men!

Is there a practical way to apply this passage in modern America? Of course there is. I see two guiding principles provided for us here:

That women should dress in modest and non-provocative apparel

Especially in public and in worship settings. There are three possible interpretations of who are these angels.

• They could be evil ones who in Genesis six demonstrate a wicked attraction to earthly women
• They could be the good angels who attend our worship as well as we
• I suggest that the third interpretation makes the most immediate sense and that is that they are the ministers of the services. The pastor is called an angel of the church in Revelation chapter three and four.

In this case the context would be that women who attend the worship services ought to dress modestly so as not to present any sort of temptation to those men ministering in the service.

The second principle comes from verse seven and is suggested by Poole who says that the message of this text is

That the glory of God ought always be revealed and the glory of man always concealed

Since man is “the image of the glory of God” he should pray with his head uncovered in representation of the glory of God. Since woman is “the glory of the man” she should be covered representing that man’s glory is not to be manifested but only God’s glory.

That is a powerful truth that may be applied in a hundred ways. It is a truth that ought to be weighed in every decision a Christian makes; whatever we do and wherever we go, let the glory of God be revealed and the glory of men be concealed.