QUESTION
After studying “Educating Angels” what is the Bible’s definition as to the issue of women not cropping their hair. At what point does long hair being cut turns into cropping. Over the years I have seen (in the fundamental Baptist church I used to attend) women from age 18 on up having various hair styles and lengths. I would like to have more clarity on this issue.
RESPONSE
In view of the fact that we have received “the adoption of sons” and God, therefore, is dealing with us as adult “sons and not like children in this present dispensation, there is no specified length given for hair in Paul’s teaching in I Corinthians 11. Hence there is no ‘tutor and governor’ type criterion given that says “long” is so many inches, etc.
Neither am I, nor anyone else, supposed to function as anyone’s ‘tutor and/or governor’ and so specify a length. Instead the decision is to be made as a ‘sonship decision’ by the man and the woman themselves based upon what
Paul teaches. In other words the information he gives is designed to be taken by the man and the woman, and they are to utilize it for making godly decisions about their respective appearance, especially regarding their hair, and not merely operate upon the dictates of others, or be slaves to the customs and/or fashions of the society in which they live. Though no specified length is given, what Paul teaches certainly provides both the man and the woman with the understanding they need to have so that they can each make a confident, intelligent, sonship decision regarding their respective appearances, which thereby enables them to be honoring what God says about them as either a “man” or as a “woman,” instead of having them wittingly or unwittingly honoring the vain customs of ungodly man and the world’s tastes.
Briefly put, as Paul says God has given hair to a woman “for a covering.” And as such she is to use it as such. Therefore in her appearance she is to use her hair to manifest that she is not a man, and that she knows that her man is her “head.” Also she is to use her hair in her appearance to be a “glory to her” for her man, whose glory she is. For these reasons the opposite is true of a man, so that he ought not to cover his head with his hair. For the man is the image and glory of God; hence he ought to look like it. And so long hair covering his head is not only unbecoming but a shame to him, for it isn’t a glory and a beautifier to him as it is designed to be for a woman.
Wherefore a man and a woman are to take such information and understanding, and they are to determine their appearance thereby, regardless of custom, fashion, or the like. A woman, therefore, in understanding and appreciating what she is in God’s sight and purpose, and also understanding and appreciating the position God has given to her, by the appearance of her head should manifest who and what she is; specifically that she is not a man. Likewise a man is to so manifest by the appearance of his head that he is not a woman, but a man. Hence her hair should be longer than that of a man’s, whose hair should not cover his head, but should show his head to be the head that it is. Her hair, though, should cover her head in manifest differentiation to it not covering a man’s head. Moreover her hair should cover her head to the pleasing of her particular man, for her hair is a glory to her for her man.
This is the gist of the issue when it comes to a man and a woman making the godly decision about their appearance, and not making such a decision based upon the dictates of others, or upon the customs, trends, or fashions of society.
Keith Blades
Enjoy The Bible Ministries
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