Is it a sin or shameful for a man to have long hair?

[tonychanyt]

Nazarites had long hair. Numbers 6:

5 ‘All the days of the vow of his separation no razor shall come upon his head; until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. Then he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. 6 All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he shall not go near a dead body.

John the Baptizer and Jesus probably had long hair.

But then in the NT, 1 Corinthians 11:

13 Judge for yourselves:

Paul appealed to the gentile judgment of the Corinthians for social norms.

Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, 15 but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory?

Paul was comparing men's and women's hair in this passage. Women looked good with long hair.

For long hair is given to her as a covering. 16 If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God

i.e., the practice of the gentile churches of God in Paul's time.

I see 1 Corinthians 11:13 as a gentile social issue at the time. It does not need to be applied universally today.

Is long hair on men sinful/wrong?

No, but I prefer short hair myself.

You don't want to be legalistic and judgmental like the Pharisees who strained out a gnat and swallowed a camel. Jesus' focus is on your inside, not so much on your outside.

 

[timothyu]

Seems Paul liked his men manly, and the women in their place.