R.C. Sproul

Paul never says in 1 Corinthians that the reason I want the women to cover their heads is so they won't look like prostitutes.

Now, think carefully.

If the apostle gives an admonition like that that is puzzling to us because it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense in our culture, I think it's a legitimate

work of the biblical interpreter to examine what we call the Zitzenleben, the life situation in which the text was written.

And I think it's helpful in aiding us in understanding the Bible to read what the contemporary culture was like and ask ourselves, how would people in the first century understand this text or this admonition?

That's a legitimate approach to biblical interpretation.

But here's what isn't legitimate.

When the apostle gives one reason for his injunction, it is not legitimate to dismiss his reason, his rationale, and replace it with a speculative rationale that we draw from our study of the contemporary culture.

Do you follow what I'm saying here?

The apostle Paul not only does not say that the reason he wants the women to cover their heads is because

of the prostitutes.

Not only does he not say that, but he gives a reason.

And the reason has to do with the sign of the subordination of the wife to the husband in the family, and when Paul gives that case, he does not appeal to the local culture in Corinth, but he appeals to creation.

And I say to people, be very careful before you dismiss a mandate of God.

as a local custom that is not binding upon you or upon me."

If we are going to err between custom and principle, there's even a biblical principle to teach us how to err on that, and that is the principle that if it is not of faith, it's sin.

In other words, the burden of proof when we come to a mandate of Scripture is always on those who would say it's a custom

rather than those who would say it's a principle.

Because if the Bible tells me to do something and it actually tends that it was a custom and I'm too scrupulous and I treat a custom as a principle, all I'm doing is being overscrupulous.

But if I take a principle that God establishes for His people and dismiss it as a mere custom,