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Paul was not only writing these instructions to the church at Corinth. He was writing this epistle to us!
The modern-day attempt to dismiss head covering as a practice limited to some cultural issue in Corinth at the time is superficial. The cultural position looks down from a 30,000-foot flyover. There’s no attempt to make a close inspection of the truths that can be gathered with a deeper study.
To start, 1st Corinthians is inspired by the Holy Spirit. The suggestion that we ignore 16 verses with a generalized conclusion that these verses only applied back then, ignores the words are inspired.
Paul, the inspired writer, does not preface his comments on head covering as though he was speaking only to those in Corinth. Read 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 and write down all the words indicating Paul is only writing to this one congregation about the head covering obligations.
There’s no indication that Paul in the middle of the epistle with the many problems confronting the church (decided to take a detour to a side issue involving the Corinthian culture).
Does Paul go from the seriousness of eating meat offered to an idol right into a meaningless discussion about women’s attire?
Then he jumps into the Lord’s Supper issues, but only after he gives fashion advice to the women in Corinth.
Without meaning to sound rude, the idea that head covering only applies to folks in Corinth doesn’t even pass the smell test (if we spend more than 60 seconds thinking it over). If we believe the Bible is inspired, then why would we want to discount what it says?
Let’s test this theory that suggests Paul was singling out the brethren in Corinth to see if it’s accurate.
We’ll use the Bible to test the theory.
Paul wrote in his letter that he sent Timothy “who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.” 1st Corinthians 4:17 NKJV (Bold and Italics added)
It seems pretty clear that Paul tells the Corinthians that he teaches the same doctrine in every church.
Observe 1st Corinthians 11:16 where Paul uses “we.”
“But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.” 1st Corinthians 11:16 NKJV (Bold added)
He says, “we” have no such custom.
The word “we” is certainly inclusive of others. A reasonable inference is that “we” includes the other apostles.
It is also fair to assume that Paul’s teaching on head covering was not contrary to the teaching of the other apostles.
We know for certain that Peter read Paul’s writings. 2 Peter 3:14-16
I also believe that “we” included all the apostles because they were all being guided by the Holy Spirit. The apostles were all inspired by the same Spirit.
Otherwise, the apostles were running around teaching different doctrines. Sorry, I don’t buy it!
While we are looking at 1 Corinthians 11:16, it is worth emphasizing that Paul says the “churches of God” making clear this is not only a Corinthian issue, but across all the churches. The word “churches” is plural, not singular.
Maybe I am not very smart, but the text indicates to me that all the churches followed the head covering instructions (or Paul would not have used the plural tense).
I know he uses the word “custom” in verse 16 of the NKJV. Don’t worry! Take a look at the word meanings for “traditions” and “customs”.
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