How to Bring Glory to God Through a Christian Head Covering

There is a headcovering movement brewing in Christianity, but don’t get lost in the falsehoods that are out there. If you’ve read the Christian Headcovering doctrine found here, you know that I already debunked seven of the most popular myths about head covering in Christianity. However, I wanted to dive deeper into why the symbol of “submission to a husband” idea blinds—and has blinded—the doctrine of Christ in the headcovering movement.

First, I explained that the Christian headcovering scriptures were ultimately about the fact that women have the glory of man, which is their hair that brings glory to them. The apostle Paul suggests it should be covered when praying or prophesying.

If you’ve ever seen a shampoo commercial you may understand that a woman’s hair is indeed a “glory” to her. Styling the hair makes a woman attractive whether long or short, however, typically long hair is highly coveted because it adds sensuality, sexuality, or beauty.

As the headcovering movement has reignited in the past few years, there are those who have tried to make Christian women believe that they bring glory to God through the head covering worn as a symbol of “submission to a husband.” The problem with the “submission to a husband” belief is that when women think their Christian headcovering is a symbol of submission for their husband, many of them begin to decorate their head coverings and beautify them. They find ways to become more attractive to their husband. Christian headcoverings become headbands with bows and trinkets rather than the traditional long or plain-covered examples we’ve discovered from our history. This defeats the initial purpose of being appropriate or “comely” when coming to God.

The point of a Christian head covering for a woman is to come to God without glorifying herself. She covers her hair, which is a glory to her and man’s glory, and she reverences God through simplicity and humility. This will bring glory to God.

To falsely interpret the Christian headcovering scriptures as a symbol of “submission to a husband” has created many women who are still doing what the world does; beautifying themselves in a worldly way. This is why it has been so hard over the years for many Christian women to embrace true modesty because the false headcovering doctrine of the symbol of “submission to a husband” has supported the glory and beauty aspect of a woman’s hair. They assume “If the hair or head can be beautified with accessories, why not the rest of the body?”

This belief created the 50’s woman who believed she was modest from head-to-toe, but with style and of course, make-up. She became fashionable and accepted by the world. Over the years, combining that mentality with recycled scriptures buried the truth. If God says “beauty is vain,” why are other new interpretations of the Holy Bible saying “beauty is fleeting”?

“Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.” ~Proverbs 31:30 KJV

When praying or prophesying, Christian women ought to cover their man-given glory that they were endued by default (because the woman was created from the man and not from the earth). A symbol of “submission to a husband,” or a symbol of authority meaning your headcovering is a symbol of a man over you, is not the right interpretation of the Christian head covering. What about the unmarried Christian woman? What about the little girl?

Covering the head is about hiding your glory. Seeing this significant difference between “exalting the glory of one’s head” and “covering the glory of one’s head” to honor God and the angels reveals how important simplicity and humility is in all our bodily coverings.

The headcovering scriptures tell us that it is highly recommended for women for these reasons:

• Our head is the glory of man.
• Our hair is a glory to us.
• It is worn during prayer before God’s presence.
• It is worn during prophesying using God’s gift.
• It is a display of agreement with the angels.
• To honor our head.
• To put power on our head.
• These things support modesty.
• The alternative is to cut our hair very short, which is a statement of removing our glory.

Christian headcovering is not a requirement because Paul does not force this, but leaves it as a high recommendation.  I honestly think that this is to prevent a controlling mentality. Those of us who do it have made our own choice, which also demonstrates a visual separation from the world.  Thus, in fear, a Christian woman who understands Paul’s explanation will toss out her unnecessary beautifying accessories in order to adhere to all the modesty scriptures. This is the right understanding of the headcovering scriptures, which will bring glory to God.

Cite this article: Please update the Accessed or Retrieved date (September 13, 2015).