Hair

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Please forgive my previous post, it "got away" from me before I was 
ready.

On 28 Sep 96 at 21:04, Ray Harrell wrote:

> their hair. There are references to CUSTOMS concerning women who are 

Greetings Bro. Harrell,

I noticed that through out your post you made several references to 
the cutting of hair to be a CUSTOM.  I assume that you base this 
(please correct me if I'm wrong) on 1 Corinthians 11:16:

But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, 
neither the churches of God. (KJV)

Many individuals and most churches read this to say that the cutting 
of hair is only a custom and if you disagree - never mind.

First of all, I don't believe that anything is in the Bible just to 
take up space.  Paul didn't spend the previous 15 verses of this 
chapter just to turn around in verse 16 and tell us that what he had 
just written is not important.

Secondly, I think it is important to understand who the WE is in this 
verse.  Paul is speaking for the Apostles, so if you insert "the 
Apostle's" in place of "we" you get:

But if any man seem to be contentious, the Apostle's have no such custom, 
neither the churches of God.

Paul is telling us how the church believes and acts, according to the 
direction of the Apostles.  Consider how this verse is rendered in 
the Amplified Bible:

Now if anyone is disposed to be argumentative and contentious about 
this, we hold to and recognize no other custom [in worship] than 
this, nor do the churches of God generally.

This may be a custom, but it is the custom of the Apostles, and the 
church.  It is not to be brushed off just because someone wants to 
argue about it.

>Remember, to the same church, Paul warned of women wearing things that
>pertained to a man....
>
>The Corinthian church obviously had a problem with cross-dressing and
>people taking on traits of the other gender. (for lack of better words).
>This was the only reason this matter came up.

I don't remember this problem in the Corinthian church (though I may 
be wrong - please cite your reference).  Are you refering to 
Deuteronomy 22:5?  That is is not directly connected to a problem in 
the church at Corinth.

Love you, brother
Mike Hughes
mhughes@airmail.net