R.C. Sproul

It's fluid.

And so we don't require that people wear robes and sandals in our culture because that's what Jesus wore, because those have to do with custom.

The principle is that which transcends local custom and applies to all Christians everywhere at every time.

Now sometimes it's very simple.

to understand the difference between a principle and a custom.

You take the case of Christ's command to His disciples to go out and to not take sandals with them and so on.

Does that mean that we have a universal mandate from Christ always to do evangelism in our bare feet?

Of course not.

because how people took care of their feet in the first century with shoes or sandals or barefoot differs from our own culture.

But it becomes much more complicated when we have issues like this.

How strong is the issue today, for example, of the structure of authority in the home or in the marriage?

Is the idea of male headship in the house a matter of custom or is it a matter of principle?

Now, again, that issue has one that has become fiercely debated in our own day.

I'll take a simple representation of it where in Corinthians, in the Corinthian correspondence, Paul tells the women to cover their heads in worship, right?

And hardly anybody does that today, and if you get ten commentaries on 1 Corinthians,

get ten different opinions, but almost every one of them I guarantee you will tell you that at the time that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians in the town of Corinth, which was a seacoast town known for its immorality and sexuality, that the mark of a prostitute was walking around with an uncovered head.

And Paul was concerned about the decorum of the Christian community, obviously, because he didn't want the Christian women of Corinth to appear to be prostitutes.

And so he tells them to cover their heads.

That's the explanation that you read in commentary after commentary.

I have a problem with that, and here's why.