Do You Care About Your Hair? God Does

by Tad Lindley

In the Coronavirus shutdown, many people are posting on Facebook about their hair. Men, unable to go to a barber, and not having a wife to cut their hair, have grown quite shaggy. Women who have been in the worldly habit of cutting their hair are now letting it grow. Did you know that the Bible actually tells us how God wants our hair to be?

Men’s hair: got to cut it

Barber’s have to love this, because the Bible actually teaches us that men should not have long hair (standby, I’ll get to Samson in a minute). Here it is: Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame for him? (I Corinthians 11:14) Here is a translation in more modern English: Isn’t it obvious that it’s disgraceful for a man to have long hair? (NLT)

What about Samson?

You remember how the angel of the Lord came to Samson’s parents and told them that he was to live under a very peculiar vow that on rare occasions men undertook in the Old Testament. This is called a Nazirite vow (Leviticus 6:1-21). Jewish men under a Nazarite vow did not cut their hair, they did not eat raisin or grapes, did not drink wine or grape juice, and did not attend funerals or visitations. In Samson’s case the vow was for life. When he broke the vow, he lost his supernatural strength.

What about Jesus?

Don’t all the paintings show Jesus with long hair? All that tells us is that the artist did not read his Bible, or at least quit before he got to Corinthians. Who do you believe more, the Bible, or some guy who painted a picture 2,000 years later? No way did Jesus have hair any different than the average Jewish man. That’s why Judas had to identify Jesus when the Roman Trooper’s showed up to arrest him. If Jesus had long hair, he could have just said to the Trooper’s, “He’s in the garden with a bunch of other guys, and he’s the one with the long hair.”

Women’s hair: can’t cut it

Chances are good that you have never heard your pastor preach this. It gets overlooked. And so many women honestly do not know that the Bible calls for them to have uncut hair. Here are the verses:

•But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head–it is the same as having her head shaved. (I Corinthians 11:5)

•For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head. (I Corinthians 11:6)

•but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. (I Corinthians 11:15)

The woman’s head is to be covered, and that covering is her uncut hair. Just as it is a disgrace for a man to have long hair, it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved. (For instance in chemotherapy the hair may fall out and for a period of time it will be very short as it grows back, if it is uncut, it is the same as the one without cancer and 3 feet of hair).

Prayer Power Up

Apparently there is something that we do not fully understand about the spiritual nature of uncut hair on a woman. It gives the woman power: For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. (11:10) Space does not permit me to show scriptures relating angels to prayers (Psalm 91:11-12), but let me say this, “Obedience to God in her lifestyle, including her hair, boosts her power in prayer.”

I never knew the Bible’s teachings on hair…

…what should I do? If you are a man who has long hair at this moment, but wants to align himself with the Bible, get a haircut. If you are a woman who has been cutting her hair, because you had no idea that your head is supposed to be covered, and that the covering is identified in the Bible as long, uncut hair, simply stop cutting it. Your split ends will look beautiful to God and give you power in prayer!

Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.

Example: 9075434113