1 Corinthians 11:14 Commentary and Bible Study

What does the apostle Paul mean by nature? He means by natural instinct, instinct. What is our instinct? Do we by instinct today feel that an uncovered lady is doing something shameful? Not at all. We don’t have that instinct. The language of dress has changed altogether. It is not a general instinct in our society, that to have the head uncovered is a sign of immodesty, a sign of immodesty or lack of submission. The apostle Paul, when he talks about nature, he talks about instinct, which is educated by the culture that we live in. It will depend where you live, and when you live. We do notice that the Victorian pictures of Christ – which they shouldn’t have made – always picture him with very long hair; and it was probable that the disciples wore very long hair. But no, this is not accurate. It was certainly the case that in the age in which the apostle lived, and among the Greeks and the Romans, that long hair had become shameful, and that was an instinct among the men to have short hair. So the apostle Paul is talking about instincts. The vast majority of us in this country have no instinct concerning these things. We do not think it wrong if a woman does not wear headgear of some sort in church. But if you go elsewhere in the world, to many parts of Africa and certainly to some parts in the East and so on, where the culture does have a language and it would be a shameful thing; and if you went without a head covering you would be saying something, so you had better wear a head covering, because your Christian duty is not to send out a wrong message. You must watch the dress code, the cultural code.