I want you to do me a favor. I want you to open your Bibles this morning to the book of 2 Peter chapter number 3. 2 Peter chapter 3. The wall says one thing and we're going to get there. But I need you to start with me in 2 Peter chapter number 3. Now if you have found your place there, stick your thumb in your Bible. and just hang on for a few minutes. As you well know, I almost always start with a text and then that's where we go and we're gonna get there. But I need you to just hang on for just a minute or two or 10 if you would. Today I want to address the issue of uncovering the head covering issue. I wanna talk about this, the head covering issue. Now, not everyone here shares the same history in Bible teaching. Not all of us have the same background, the same history. Some of you may have never, ever heard a sermon on the head covering. Others of you may have heard something about it, but it was just mentioned in passing as a preacher hit the fast forward button because he didn't want to deal with it. Others of you may have heard numerous sermons on the subject, maybe even too many sermons on the subject over the years. So what I want you to do with me today is to just let the word speak and have a teachable spirit. Now I'm standing here and this is not an exaggeration and I'm not just trying to milk some drama or some sympathy, but I stand before you today with fear and tremor. Because I'm going to try to teach something that I believe is important. but can have an impact on you and your walk with Christ both now and perhaps even have some effect on eternity. And folks, I take this serious. I mean as serious as I can. I never ever want to mishandle the Word of God or mislead anyone in any way. And especially when it comes to the Bible, I don't want to mislead anyone. Having said that, as many of you are aware, I have been, for the most of my adult life, I have been a strong proponent of the head cover. In fact, of November 2014, I stood right in this pulpit and preached a message strongly in favor of the head cover. A couple of years ago, I began to re-study it again. I've looked at this numerous times. But a couple of years ago, I began to re-study this subject. And as I did, I began to re-think my position on the issue. And one of the reasons that I preached and one of the reasons why I wanted to preach through 1 Corinthians was to force myself to study this in depth, in context again. So let me go ahead and say this. You ready? I don't have it all figured out. Is it okay for me to say that to you? Is it okay for me as a preacher to say, I don't have the whole Bible figured out. There's some of it I still am trying to get my mind around. Is that okay if I'm that honest with you? And the more that I study this subject, the more sure I am that I'm not so sure. Does that make sense to you? Now I want you to understand that as we talk about the head covering issue, this is not a top tier Bible doctrine. This is not a gospel essential doctrine. You can be wrong on this and still die and go to heaven. Right? You can be wrong on the head cover and you can still walk in a life that pleases God. You can be wrong. This is not a top tier cardinal doctrinal truth. We're not talking about the virgin birth here. We're not talking about the deity of Christ. I'm not talking about whether or not did Jesus rise from the dead. Those things are clear and self-evident. Instead, I am talking about an issue that is only mentioned one time in the entire Bible, and regardless, I want you to listen to me, Regardless of what your position is on the head covering, if you're honest with the text, you're gonna have some difficulty. So let me go ahead and say from the outset of this message, I don't believe the head covering like I used to. I don't want you women to sit out here in the church there and go rip your head coverings off and say hallelujah. I want you to listen because you need to make up your own mind. Listen, I'm not your pope and I'm not your priest. You need to study the Bible for yourself and make up your own mind. I'm going to tell you what I believe. I used to be about 95% sure that a woman should veil her head, wear a head cover. I used to be about 95% sure of that until a couple of years ago. Now I'm more like about 40%, 45%. And I realize, now listen to me, I realize that's going to disappoint some of you. It's going to disappoint some people that I love. It's going to disappoint some people I respect. But the only thing that really ultimately matters is what does God say? And what does God think? He's the judge. Nobody else on this earth is gonna stand in my stead come the day of judgment. I'll be standing there. I know some people will be disappointed about this, about me changing my position, but there's some others, they're gonna be happy with me. So either way, either way. And there may be some sitting here saying, what's all the fuss about to begin with? Well, that's a good attitude to have, really. But unfortunately, my friends, this is another one of those issues that our churches have allowed to divide us. Even though this is not a top tier, gospel essential cardinal doctrine, there will be some who will hear this message, and will say that I have abandoned the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Because I no longer say that a woman must veil her head during the worship service. On the other hand, there are others who are more spiritually mature, who realize that this is a complicated issue, and really is not one that's worth fighting about. It's definitely not worth breaking fellowship over, and there are some who will just grant liberty in this. Listen, if I'm wrong, let me be wrong. If you're wrong, I'm going to let you be wrong. If you, at the end of the day, you still want to practice this, keep on doing it. If your conscience compels you to do it, act according to your conscience. But I believe I owe it to you to stand before you and explain to you why I've had to rethink my position on this. This is a differing position, I'll confess that. So I believe I owe it to you to explain to you why I've switched my position. And I just hope and pray that through today, listen, we're not gonna get through this today, okay? This will be two part. Next Sunday we'll finish this up. I can stand here for an hour and a half or I can give you two parts. Which one do you want? I think I know the answer to that. You don't have to speak up. My aim is simply to challenge you to consider or even reconsider what the Bible actually says on this with a humble and teachable spirit. This is not a make it or break it issue. We can agree to disagree, I hope. At the end of the day, we can agree to disagree. Now what I find interesting, okay? What I find interesting is this. Is that by, now that I'm able to look at this, these verses within their context, and we're gonna get to 1 Corinthians 11, okay? As I'm able to look at them within their context, Something has leapt in my face that I've never really given a whole lot of thought to before. And it's this, that every credible Bible teacher, Bible scholar, Bible theologian, all agree on one thing. And that is, if you arrive at a certain doctrinal position, based on only one passage of Scripture, you are most certainly wrong. Now Bible theologians, serious, credible Bible theologians will agree that if you say, I believe this, and you've only got one little passage of Scripture, and you don't have others to back it up, you're wrong. Because Bible truth will be backed up by other Bible truth. And we all, really we should all agree with that. And most people do, except when we get to the matter of the head covering. And while I concede 1 Corinthians 11, 2 through 16 address this issue. And it is a lengthy block of scripture. There is not one single shred of biblical text anywhere else in the Bible. that supports the suggestion that a woman must veil her head during the worship service. There is not one single Bible verse anywhere else. If you can bring it to me, bring it to me. I'd be happy to see it. So we say we believe the Bible teaches this, but what supporting scripture do we have? And this is to me something that should be a, and I realize, well you say there's 15 verses, verses two through 16. I realize that. But where else in the totality of scripture do we find supporting passages? In the Bible, I want you to listen to me now, and I've said listen enough, but listen. Hear me. In the word of God, The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things. You need to learn that. The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things. In other words, there are certain Bible truths that are plain in Scripture, and those are the main doctrines you need to know. But when it comes to the matter of the head covering, it's just not a main thing. Now some people are going to get all up in arms and say this has been a Baptist distinctive for 400 years or whatever, you know, whatever. But the main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things. You need to know that. Now I come from a strong pro-head covering background. I've taught it all my life, believed it most of my life. Undeniably, my upbringing in this area has been a great deal of the basis for my belief. Yet I have studied, even though I've studied these passages in the past, I have never studied them in their context. I was talking to a preacher the other day on the phone. And he asked me, why have you changed your position on the head cutter? My answer was this, because I started preaching 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 1. And he said, well, that ain't no reason. I said, oh, yes, it is a reason. That's a very good reason. I began my study, you ready for this? I began my study of this passage where God began the inspiration of the passage, chapter 1, verse 1. We don't have the right, I don't have the right and you don't either, to take any passage of scripture and lift it up off the page and ignore everything else around it. Every heresy and every doctrinal error is a result of not studying a text properly within its context. Every heresy, every doctrinal error is a result of not studying a text within its context. And what has happened? And I'm not pointing fingers unless I'm pointing them at me. is that I have, and others as well, but what I have done in the past is I have taken 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 2 through 16 and picked them up off the page and studied them all by themselves without ignoring the fact that there's 10 chapters before and 6 chapters after. And that matters. It matters a great deal. When I said to my preacher friend, that's not a lame excuse, and I began to explain it to him, then he understood. Because here's what happens. Every Christian, all of you, if you're here today and you're a believer, You've been saved for a little while and you've been saved long enough to have your favorite pet doctrine because we all got some pet doctrine. That's our favorite. We're ready to go to bat at that doctrine before we get ready to go bat on anything else. Whatever it is, we all got our pet doctrines. We are quick to pick a certain Bible verse that we think supports that pet doctrine and use it over and over and over and over again. And much of the time we take it completely out of its context, and in so doing we mishandle the Word of God. Now I know I'm going the long way around, but there's a purpose behind this, okay? I want to share with you how did I get to where I am. And I'm going to do that by giving you an example. I'm going to do that by giving you an example of what I have seen over and over again. In 2 Peter chapter number 3, I want you to look at verse number 9. 2 Peter 3 verse 9. And I'm going to go all the way through that part of the verse that I don't like to get to the part I want to read. Okay, 2 Peter 3 verse 9, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Do you see what I just did? Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I don't know how many times someone has thrown that piece of a verse in my face. I am unashamedly a believer in the sovereign grace of God. I believe in the divine doctrine of election. That God chose, Ephesians 1 verse 4 says that God from the beginning chose who He wanted to save. Now some of you may be uncomfortable with that. But that's what the Bible says. Verse 4, according to Ephesians 1 verse 4 says, according to He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. And when I quote that, somebody else comes back and says, but wait a minute, 2 Peter 3 verse 9 says, God's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And when I have that verse thrown at me, I step back and say every time, do you realize that you just cut out half the verse? You did. You don't get to just take the part that fits what you believe. Very quickly, okay? In 2 Peter chapter 3, Peter is saying, There are blasphemers and scoffers and mockers who are ridiculing the idea that judgment is coming. That's what the context is. You look at it and see. There are people who are mocking the idea that judgment is coming. And Peter says, let me tell you how I know judgment is coming because God has already judged this earth once by water. And He will judge it again by fire. But the scoffers say, well, where is His coming? You Christian people have been talking about the second coming for centuries. Where is His coming? Peter responds by saying, look people, God is not on mankind's calendar. Because one day with the Lord is what? Like a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. It doesn't matter to God. God's not bound by time like we are. And what Peter is saying is that God is merciful and long-suffering and the only reason that He hasn't sent judgment already is that He is not willing that any single one that Christ died for would perish. Now if you'll think about that context and now look at verse 9 with me. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness. I'm going to give you the LKV, the Lois Kiger version. In other words, God's not behind schedule. That's what He's saying in verse 9. God is not behind schedule. He's right on time. But God is, you see, but is long-suffering to usward. You don't get to leave those words out just because they don't fit your theology. Every time somebody throws 2 Peter 3 verse 9b, just the second half, every time they throw it at me, I throw back, you do realize it says that God is long-suffering to usward. To usward. Who is He long-suffering to, to us? Keep reading, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now, why are we in 2 Peter if I'm trying to teach you about the head covering? Because I want you to see what happens. I have had this, and if you've talked to people about the doctrines of grace, Now listen, don't you call me a hyper-Calvinist, don't call me a hard shell, don't call me a primitive Baptist. I believe that God chose, but I believe man is responsible. Every human being has a responsibility to repent or perish. Every single human on earth must flee from their sins and turn to Christ or they will die and go to hell for all eternity. And it won't be God's fault, it will be their own fault. Because God has commanded all men everywhere to repent. So I'm not a hyper, we don't know who those elect are. We preach the gospel to every creature and we warn them to flee from the wrath that is to come. It's not our job to figure out who they are. It's our job to go preach the gospel to all of them and pray that God opens their ears and their mind and their heart to receive the good news of Christ. But somebody has got it in their head that this little piece of verse 9 destroys the whole idea of election and sovereignty. I'll never understand. I wish people would stop and think for five minutes before they'd open their mouth. And I don't mean to be smart. God help me. I'm not trying to be sarcastic. But do you think God is trying? Now just think. You think God is trying to save everybody? Has God ever tried to do anything? Did He try to create the world? Or did He speak and the worlds were framed? Did Jesus try to raise Lazarus from the grave? Or did He say, Lazarus come forth and He came out of there? God and try are not two words that should ever be put together. You hear it? And I wish people would think when they say, well, God's not willing. Well, I'm going to tell you something. The God that I serve, the God of the Bible, He's going to get what He wants. If He can't get what He wants, He's not much of a God. You understand that? So think about that before you start quoting. But what happens is people go to seed. with one part of one verse and ignore the context all together and in so doing they come up with a wrong doctrine. The same thing happens in Mark 16 verse 16. The Bible says he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Now what happens? The Church of Christ runs to an extreme right there and says, you see there, the Bible says you have to be baptized in order to be saved. Well, they ignore all the rest of the teaching on salvation by grace alone to say that baptism is necessary for salvation. It's not. But this is what happens when you study a passage, a text, a part of a verse, when you look at it and ignore everything around it, you're going to come up sideways. And I took you to Peter just to say to you, I'm afraid that's exactly what I've done in the past when it comes to the matter of the head cover. I looked at verses 2 through 16 of 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and ignored all the context that surrounds it. And when I began to study this passage in its context, it began to mold me, change me. Do you realize that we actually began studying 1 Corinthians a year ago? Last July is when we began our study of 1 Corinthians, last July. Months prior to that, I started buying commentaries. And you ought to go see some of them ridiculously overpriced commentaries I've got in my study back there. And I started, when I got those commentaries, the first place I turned was chapter 11 of the commentary to see what they said about it. And as we have made our way through the study of 1 Corinthians, getting to chapter 11 when it mentions the idea of a woman being veiled or being covered has a completely different look to me. When I see it through the lens of chapters 8, chapters 9, chapter 10. And I don't have the right to ignore chapters 8, 9, and 10 and just pick up part of chapter 11 because I want to. Now I'm convinced, okay? I am convinced that if you wanna go ahead and turn to 1 Corinthians 11, you can go ahead and turn there. But I am convinced that what Paul is doing in mentioning the idea of the head cover is he is continuing the same line of thought that we have been studying for the last few months. In the last three chapters, 1 Corinthians chapters 8, 9, and 10, Paul has been urging the Corinthians to consider how their behavior and how their decisions affect the kingdom of Christ. Remember, we've been talking about that over and over and over. How should I use my liberties? You have to ask this. How is it going to affect other believers? How is it going to affect non-believers? How is it going to affect my own walk with Christ? How does the liberties that I have, how should I exercise them? How should I behave in public in a way that it will further the kingdom, not hinder the kingdom? And I think that's exactly what Paul is still talking about in chapter 11. Now I want you to do something for me, okay? I want you to understand this. Chapter and verse divisions are not inspired. The Bible was not broken into chapter divisions until the 13th century. So you say, well now, because I've heard, in fact, I've made this argument. You say, you're going to do away with a part of a chapter in the same parts talking about the Lord's Supper. Chapter and verse divisions are irrelevant, really. They help us. They're there to help us, but in this case, in fact, verse 1 ought to be at the end of chapter 10 if you want to get technical about it. I'm not a Greek scholar, not a Hebrew, but I can tell you verse 1 is the same idea behind chapter 10. But you've got to get your mind around this. Just because there's a chapter break, doesn't mean all of a sudden now Paul switched gears. You realize when Paul was writing under the inspiration of the Spirit, he wasn't writing and then he said chapter 10 verse 33, and then go chapter 11.1. That's not how he just kept writing. He was just writing a letter. So don't let the chapter and verse because we have. We have let them. In fact, I'm gonna go out on limb here and I'm gonna tell you that if there was a chapter division made after 1116, if the chapter division was there, there'd be a lot less confusion about the head cover. A lot less confusion about the head cover. Paul is challenging them to consider how their actions will affect their ability to witness to those around them, all right? I've been going at it for 31 minutes, and we're just now reading their text. But we're not going to go too far. We'll come back next week, but I want to read the text, okay? 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 2. Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonoreth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head, for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. 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. Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God. judge in yourselves. Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for covering. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom neither the churches of God. Now, as we approach this, and I'm sorry, I told one of my preacher friends I was thinking about going through Peter to get here, and I said it's like going around my elbow to find my armpit, but we're going to get there. But as we approach this, I want you to consider that this is a major sticking point, okay? I don't think we have any real reason to believe that what Paul is writing here is applicable to only corporate worship. Now, myself included for many years and many others are going to say these verses apply to women during church in no other time. That's what I used to think, that's what I used to believe. And friends, listen, when you take these verses up off the page and you just look at them without their context, I could preach a strong message on the head coverings of anybody in here. I mean, I've been, it sounds like I'm bragging, but I don't know whether to cry or laugh, I don't know what to do. I preached a message one time on a head covering and this guy liked it so much he said, come to my church and preach it. And I preached it up there and another guy said, come to my church and preach it. So I preached a head covering all over the place. And I can't undo it, it's done. But when you lift us up out of the page and ignore its content, I can preach a strong pro head covering message. But I don't know that we have any real reason, in fact, I'm going to say, Rather than this being applicable to the worship service, that's not at all what Paul is saying. Someone's going to say that this is all about how women behave in church, but here's the problem with that, and I want you to just think with me. Almost everything Paul has been discussing for the last three chapters has to do with conduct and behavior outside the church walls, not inside the church walls. Case in point, very quickly, chapter 10, verse 25. Whatever is sold in the shambles. And what is that? The meat market. He's not talking about what you do in church. He's talking about what you do outside of church. Chapter 10, verse 27. If any of them that believe the not bid you to go to a feast. In other words, if an unbeliever invites you to go eat with him, that's not inside the church. It's outside the church. Verse 32, chapter 10, verse 32, give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church. So can you not clearly see he is saying, don't offend the Jews, and he's really making reference to unsaved Jews, unsaved Gentiles, and the church. Don't offend any of them. So why would we automatically assume That now, all of a sudden, Paul is talking about what goes on in worship, in the church service. And in fact, I would urge you to look with me at chapter 11, verse 17. Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when ye come together in the church. So an argument could be made that it's not until verses 17 and 18 that he is now addressing church specific issues. Are you with me? It's not until verse 17 and 18 that he says, now when you get together as a church. That's what to take now when you assemble. Now when you gather as a church, I want to talk to you about what you're doing wrong there. You have to stretch the text to make verses 2 through 16 to only be applicable to the worship service. And I used to do a good job of stretching it, but I just can't do it anymore. I used to do a real good job of saying this is how it ought to be, but I just can't do it anymore. In fact, I want you to look, if you would, and this is all, I'm just laying groundwork. Next Sunday, Lord willing, we'll get into the actual exposition of the text. Right now I'm laying groundwork. I feel like I owe that to you. Right now I'm laying groundwork. But if you're going to say that this means women should be covered in church, And you've got a problem with verse 5. Chapter 11 verse 5 says, Every woman that prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is even all one is that she were shaken. Now, I've done a real good job in the past just easing on past verse 5. Because it didn't fit what I believed. Now, we're going to get there. But I want you to look at chapter 14, verse 34 and 35. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 34 and 35. Now you can get mad if you want to, but I didn't write it, I'm just reading it. Chapter 14 verse 34 says, Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak. But they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. I didn't write it. I'm just delivering the mail. I didn't write the letter, I'm just reading it, right? Now I think, and listen, I really think chapter 14, those two verses, doesn't mean absolute silence, because if it did, you couldn't even sing. And we know that that's not natural in the worship service. It doesn't mean absolute silence. I think clearly Paul is just saying women are not to take the leadership role in the church. Now, we'll get into this more as we get along. But back in our text, verse 5, Paul says that if a woman prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, She dishonors her head. Chapter 14, he says women are not supposed to speak in church. So how in verse 5 is he saying when they pray or prophesy their head should be covered? Praying is what? It's talking to God about people. Prophesying is talking to people about God. And if a woman is to remain silent in the church, how can she do that? How can she pray or prophesy if in chapter 14 he says, let your women keep silence in the churches? And man, I have done some exegetical gymnastics in the past when trying to explain away verse 5. I mean, I done called down, well, women speak by being silent. Well, I mean, come on now, Kyger. Let's just get real about this thing. Just like the heavens declare, but they never speak. Oh, come on. I'm picking on myself here, okay? Verse five makes it clear to me that this is not, this is not limited to corporate worship. Why would he give instructions for a woman to be covered when they pray or prophesy and then three chapters later say they're not allowed to pray or prophesy in church? Now if you're going to say that the head covering means that a woman should be veiled in corporate worship, you've got to reconcile verse 5, not me. You can do like I did for a long time and just slip on past it because it's inconvenient, but you ready for this? Verse 5 is just as inspired as verse 4 and verse 6. It's just as inspired. It has to be dealt with. And further yet, if you're interested, 1 Timothy 2 verse 12 also says that women are to remain silent in the worship service. 1 Timothy 2 verse 12. So instead of doing exegetical cartwheels, it seems clear to me that Paul is addressing, okay, we're coming into the landing zone. We're not there, but we're on the way. It seems clear to me that Paul is addressing a local custom that was practiced every day by most every woman whether in the church or out of the church, that it was a local custom, a cultural practice. Go to the Middle East today. I've been to Israel. I have seen the Palestinian-occupied, Muslim-occupied parts of Israel. And I've seen those women with their shawls or hijabs or whatever, burka, whatever you, I've seen them, I'm not even trying to make nobody mad, but I've seen them actually veiled, actually covered. And so with my own eyes, I can understand what he is talking about. It is still customary in that part of the world that women adorn themselves with some type of a cover. And I'll go so far as to say, if we picked our church up and took it over there and dropped it down in Afghanistan, then you women should wear a veil, but not just a church. You ought to wear it all the time, because that's what the custom expects. That's what the culture expects. Now just for a minute, think. If you step into some Islamic area, where they expect women to wear a burka or a veil, and you go around with spaghetti straps on and nothing, you will offend people, will you not? And I think this is exactly the heart of what Paul is writing. Paul is writing to them and saying to them, The culture expects you to do this. And if you don't do it, you will offend them and slam the door on the gospel. Because of your behavior. Because you don't want to give in. You say, but wait a minute, I'm free in Christ. I have liberty. Paul said, yes. But in your Corinthian culture, it is customary that women veil themselves. And if you ignore that, You will not be able to reach them with the gospel, because they will be offended by your very sight. If somebody had said that to me a few years ago, I'd have said, you're going off the deep end. But listen, let me remind you, this was, man, I didn't even thought about this until yesterday. Paul is answering questions that the church asked him. You remember that back in chapter 7 verse 1? Chapter 7 verse 1, he says, Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me, Paul is answering questions that the church asked him. And I don't think it is unreasonable to say that the church at Corinth asked Paul Now that we are Christian, and now that we are one in Christ, some people took this idea of saying in Christ there's neither male nor female to say that there should be no gender distinctions. But that's not what Paul is saying. And that's why he begins with saying, God ordained headship. We'll get into that next week. But I'm convinced now that this church, I can't prove it, study seems to me to lean towards the church. Ask Paul, now that we're Christian, do women still have to veil themselves in public? Do they still have to wear these things even though we're one in Christ? And Paul responds to them by saying, yes, you need to keep doing it because the culture expects you to do it. And if you stop doing it, you're not going to be able to witness to them and reach them with the Gospel. In first century Corinth, a woman showed her submission to men, male figures, either husband or father, by wearing a shawl or some kind of a covering. It was commonplace. In fact, the only people that didn't do it were prostitutes and feminists. That's just a fact. In 1st century Corinth, the only ones that did not wear a veil were either temple prostitutes, and there was a big, huge 1st century Roman feminist movement. You know, we think everything's new. There's nothing new under the sun. There was a huge feminist movement in 1st century Corinth where women were shaving their heads off to look like a man. And so the question that these Corinthians probably asked was something like this, Paul, should we still keep on doing this? And he's saying, I don't care about the feminist movement. I don't care about the temple prostitutes. What I care about is you doing what your culture expects you to do in order that you may win them to Christ. Don't forget, Paul has just said, I'm going to become all things to all men that by all means I might save some. Don't forget that. So here's the roadmap for next week. This is all groundwork. This is the roadmap for next week, okay? Next week, I wanna answer three questions. What is Paul talking about specifically? What is he talking about? Number two, why is he discussing it? And number three, how does it apply to us today? That's next week. Let me give you, I'm going to leave you with this, and I'm cutting and cutting and chopping. I want to leave you with this thought because I want you to chew on it for the week. Look up here at me. What does this mean? What does it mean? God won't kill you if you speak out, I promise. I don't promise. It means what? I'm married. Ask a nine-year-old child, they'll know that, right? Ask a 19-year-old, they'll know that, right? Ask a 90-year-old person what that means, they'll know that. In first century Corinth, when a woman put a veil on, it showed submission to male headship. And everybody knew that. Just as much as this is a symbol of marriage in first century Corinth, the veil or covering of a woman meant submission. Everyone knew that. It was just as evident there as a wedding ring is today. And so what Paul is saying to them is if you go out in public without that sign of submission, you'll be showing rebellion and insubordination and you will not be able to share the gospel of Christ with people. And if we lived in a culture where it was expected today, I would say you should do it. All right, listen, my grandmother, God rest her soul, would not allow us boys to sit at her dinner table with a kappa. I bet that some of you still feel the same way sitting right here. Why? Because to you it is a sign of disrespect, right? It was the grandma. And at sporting events, NASCAR race was on last night when they gave the benediction, what did they say? Everybody, remove your caps. Why? Because people understand to some degree that that symbolism matters. But when people walk into a church like ours, and they see women wearing a head cover, they don't know why that is. The question I've been asked over and over and over again is, why are those women wearing those things on their heads? I've been asked that, why? Because it's no longer a symbol. It's no longer a symbol like this is. If it was, then you should wear it. But in our culture, it's not. Now, do what you want to do. We're going to get into the actual exposition next week because if you think Paul's just talking about hair, you need to rethink. We'll get into that next week, okay? But I wanted you to hear this. I felt like I owed it to you to explain to you why your pastor has changed positions on this. But listen, love me. You think I'm wrong? Love me. I'm gonna love you even if you're wrong. And grant each other liberty in this, all right?