This week we continue our series called Chronos. A term which means time. We have decided to study the scriptures this year in the order they were published. It gives us a very unique insight into the early church and the struggles of a growing movement. This review of history is important because The Center’s leadership believes we are on the cuspid of a great awakening in America. An awakening that will challenge the status quo of the current Christian industrial complex. An institution more concerned with Attendance, Buildings and Cash than the Gospel, Grace and Growth of the kingdom.
This week we also continue in the book of the first Corinthians. It’s another book written by Paul around 25 years after Jesus' earthly ministry. Corinth is the original sin city. It was a transitional city and as such there was a lot of anonymity. As a Coastal town people were always coming and going. Some for vacation, most for business. The community was know for their worship of the goddess of sex. They had one of the largest temples devoted to her and the idea of fertility. You can see why when you called somebody a corinthian back then, you were saying they were living without morality. After his 1 ½ years planting the church, Paul left behind Apollos who was an amazing preacher/teacher and yet, we can see from this book the people still had questions. The immorality of the culture was so rampant that Paul had to address everything from why church potlucks should not turn into drunken frat parties and worship of the one true God should not look like a kids first birthday party at a chuck e cheese restaurant.
Last Sunday, Jennifer did a wonderful job of teaching us from 1 Cor 12 about the spiritual gifts and the difference between a gift and a talent. We believe in giftings and God’s calling. We do not put limits on God in either of these areas because scripture, our experience, reason and even Christian tradition doesn’t.
Today, we continue our study by jumping into 1 Cor 14 but before we jump into the text for today, I want to remind everyone that if we reject cultural stereotypes, classism and our own spiritual pride, in favor of unity, love and admiration for God and one another, we will accomplish the mission we have been placed on earth for.
Paul has been trying to help this church entangled in conflict to understand LOVE triumphs over culture and judgment. It is a perfect book for the church (big C) today. In the first part of chapter 14 Paul is dealing with the issue of speaking in tongues. Whether you believe:
Speaking in tongues is a spiritual language or a foreign language
Prophecy is still active in the church or not
are mute points. Paul is trying to get the Corinthians to understand worship can’t be a Christian cage match where anything goes.
Yes. The Spirit is unpredictable but it always points to the character of God which is love.
It’s not loving to talk to people in foreign languages without telling them what you said.
It’s not loving to talk over one another.
It’s not loving to share a prophecy from the Lord without others validating the gifter beforehand.
In our language, Paul is saying “Stop the Madness” and get back to the reason Christian people are supposed to gather. To love and support one another in this life. All are made by God. All are loving. All are worthy. In this scripture, we know there was tension over how to worship, the attitudes of those in worship and where the best learning happens.
Let’s listen to Paul as he jumps into another pastoral issue. Chapter 14 verse 26
26 What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. 28 If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God.
29 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. 30 And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. 31 For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. 32 The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. 33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.
34 Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.
This last verse and one other has split some churches, which I find odd. Of all the things that can create division within the church, why is it there is only a verse or two speaking to the idea? You would think a hot topic issue would have been spoken more about. I mean really, Money is talked about with over 3000 verses. Don’t you think restricting an entire gender would have garnished more thought throughout the ages?
There are a variety of passages, which people on both sides appeal too, about whether or not it is okay for women to preach in church. There are various examples of female “preachers” in the Old Testament like Miriam and Deborah and the female prophetesses in Acts 21:9, and the female apostle in Romans 16:7; Judges 4:4; 2 Kings 22:14; Nehemiah 6:14; Luke 2:36; Acts 2:17.
However, there are only two main texts in the debate about women preachers and female pastors. They are are 1 Timothy 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34.
There are a lot of similar issues with 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:12. There are numerous cultural, historical, grammatical, and contextual issues that must be researched if we are going to understand what Paul is saying and why.
One of the main differences though in this passage is that Paul does seem to be giving instructions to the church about what to do rather than just stating what he himself does (as with 1 Timothy 2:12). Yet even this, does not mean,we have a hard and fast rule for every church around the world and throughout time. After all, the Corinthians church was full of problems, and so not everything Paul writes to them can be applied to every church.
After all, there are few churches who use 1 Corinthians 14:34 to defend the idea that it is wrong for women to preach in church, who then also apply Paul’s instructions that women should wear head coverings (1 Corinthians 11:2-10).
When two groups of Christians are hotly debating an issue, it is because both groups have incorrectly framed the issue, and have not been open to asking and answering all the questions surrounding an issue.
For example, the word “Law” referenced by Paul. Search the Old Testament and you will find no law forbidding women to speak. It’s simply not in the Old Testament or spoken of by Jesus. Even if there were such a rule – and there isn’t – wouldn’t you find it odd that the apostle of grace was preaching law?
So what’s going on here? There was no law but there was a rabbinical tradition that forbade women from asking questions in the assemblies. The Jewish religion of Paul’s day was sexist in the sense that women were not allowed to participate in religious ceremonies or enter the best areas of the temple.
Religion and the practice therein confuses the good news of God’s unmerited favor and forgiveness.
This issue about whether it is wrong for women to preach in church or to be a pastor is just one of the examples. Let’s get real. The simple solution is to recognize that the only groups who really argue about this issue are groups of Christians who meet in buildings on Sunday morning and have paid pastors who do most of the preaching.
You don’t argue if a woman is the boss in the workplace. You accept she has been placed there because she has the skill sets needed. In the same way, we shouldn’t reject a person with a call on their life to teach or preach. God has provided the yearning, the gift and the blessing for doing so.
Look, the issue of whether or not women can preach in church and be pastors is never an issue when groups of believers meet in homes, in coffee shops, or at the local park to encourage one another, to edify one another, or to just hang out. It would be unthinkable to tell the women to remain silent. I have often learned more from the women in these gatherings than from the men.
Does it ever occur to you to raise the question about whether or not women should remain silent in home group Bible study? NOOOO!
The only place this issue comes up today is when we come to “do church” where everybody sits in rows and watches a performance on stage in which songs are sung and one person gives a lecture.
This issue, which has caused so much division within the church, is based almost 100% on a faulty definition and understanding of “the church.” Once we understand what the church is, this debate about whether or not women can preach in church completely disappears and becomes a non-issue.
Sure, we still have to figure out why Paul wrote what he wrote To Timothy and to Corinth (for the churches in Ephesus and Corinth too were meeting in homes as well). But since nobody is going to tell us what was going on in that broken gathering, we need to use our experience, reason and surmise the divine authority to come to a faithful Christian answer.
We believe women can speak and teach in church, because we understand the church to be the people of God who follow Jesus into the world, and so a gathering of the church occurs whenever and wherever believers gather, whether it is around a dinner table, a living room, a coffee shop, or larger gatherings in a building.
Once we understand the definition of “church” the whole debate about whether or not it is wrong for women to preach in church or be a “pastor” fades away into insignificance. It becomes a non-issue.
Afterall, as 1 Peter 2:9 states, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
So let’s be THE church today. Let's gather, sing, praise and encourage one another to be the church outside the walls as one body and one blood.
Reference: Warren Wiersbe Commentary 614-616; https://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_corinthians/14-34.htm;https://escapetoreality.org/2017/10/18/should-women-be-silent-1-corinthians-14v34-35/;https://redeeminggod.com/women-to-preach-in-church-or-pastor/#:~:text=1%20Corinthians%2014%3A34%20and%20Women%20Preachers%20in%20Church,to%20be%20submissive%2C%20as%20the%20law%20also%20says;https://www.adventistbiblicalresearch.org/materials/1-corinthians-1434-35/
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