祈りの気 – the spirit of prayer

Quick note: Feeling sick now. Left work yesterday about to faint with low blood pressure. Suspect ear infection causing it. We’ll see. Prayer requested.

I had to cut off a former friend earlier this year because of doctrinal differences. I hate doing that; God hates division in the church and I hate losing friends, but this person proved not to be a friend by doing nothing but posting Bible verses at random things I was saying that he disagreed with. Whacking me over the head with your Bible, which is what he was effectively doing, is not correcting your brother in love. In fact, were I in error (and Scripturally I’m not), it would actually cause me to go further in the wrong direction. You don’t save homosexuals by saying that God hates fags. It’s just stupid.

Anyway, one of the bones of contention was women teaching in churches. “Why do you endorse Lisa Bevere when you know that Paul talked about not letting women speak in churches?” Here we go with Paul again. Let me make a few points here:

1. Paul wasn’t saying that women couldn’t speak at all. He was saying that women shouldn’t interrupt the service with necessary chit-chat. 1 Corinthians 14:34-38 MSG:

34-36Wives must not disrupt worship, talking when they should be listening, asking questions that could more appropriately be asked of their husbands at home. God’s Book of the law guides our manners and customs here. Wives have no license to use the time of worship for unwarranted speaking. Do you—both women and men—imagine that you’re a sacred oracle determining what’s right and wrong? Do you think everything revolves around you?

This is, of course, much easier to read, by those who are not big Shakespearean English fans, than the King James:

34Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.

35And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.

36What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?

Such is an argument for modern translations. But I digress.

Paul wasn’t talking about women not speaking at all in the church. He was talking about keeping proper order in the service. Speaking while the preacher is preaching is disrespectful and interrupts the worship service. Paul is interested in keeping the peace:

33For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints

…which, if you read the entire context just before this passage, talks about proper use of spiritual gifts.

I found another good answer to this while researching the topic here:

They do preach on this and it goes something like this…..
Paul was addressing the body of Christ at Corinth. He was specifically addressing the men, who, considering the times they lived in, were all required to be well versed in the Old Testament scriptures. During this age/era, women in general were not well studied, and therefore, had no foundation or basis to teach or preach.
Today, many women have a solid foundation in the Old and New Testaments. Therefore, this message today would read a little differently. Instead of using the word women, it would read “let your understudies keep silence in the churches.”
When you study the word of God, know these things….
Who is the author, who is the author addressing, when was the text written, and what literary style is being used.Be familiar with other scripture in the Old and New Testament that you can use as refrences. In other words, read scripture in light of scripture.Also, be familiar with the translation you are reading and use more than one. A good mentor or pastor to guide you is most beneficial as well.

Everywhere else in the Bible, God says to let the women speak! Witness Deborah. Anna and the other prophetesses. Mary and Elizabeth. The woman at the well. The women of Israel dancing after the Egyptions drowned at the hand of God. All of them spoke some of the most powerful passages of Scripture in history.

Women need to speak. Pastor David Yonggi Cho, who is pastor of the largest church in the world in Korea, uses women. He says:

Cho: In 1964, when I was almost total infected, I had the choice of one of two steps – to delegate my ministry to lay Christians or keep up the ministry. But when I tried to delegate my ministry to the men, they would all make excuses saying that they were too busy, or not trained, or “You receive a salary not me.” So I had to use women.
In Korean society – for long periods of time — women had no power or voice in the church, and I began to use women. This was a big risk – but I had no choice – it was a step out in faith, and I had no alternative. Then the women made a tremendous contribution to church growth! Now all the Korean churches – even Catholic — have accepted women. When I come to Europe and America encouraging pastors to use women, I always receive a lot of opposition – especially in Europe.

(snip)

Secondly, I want to stress the importance of the use of women. Women are underused in the church. We use them on telephone – they talk constantly – they love to talk on the phone. Put Jesus in their mouth to talk!

So women are a tremendous strength in church because of culture – but in Western culture – you are afraid of using women. But once women were given the freedom to work as fellow leaders there was an explosion of Cell Leaders.

If you don’t let women lead and speak, you’re hindering the progress of the Word of God. If you believe otherwise, you are in error.

2. Second, lest you think I myself am off balance, consider this: Paul was not always right. He allows for this in chapter 7, saying:

For the rest of you who are in mixed marriages—Christian married to non-Christian—we have no explicit command from the Master. So this is what you must do.

The Master did not give explicit direction regarding virgins, but as one much experienced in the mercy of the Master and loyal to him all the way, you can trust my counsel.

Paul recognized that even though he had years of experience, that he might be wrong here. So he explained to those of Corinth that this was his suggestion. He didn’t have a ord from the Lord, so he said, “I’m not sure, but this is what I think.”

Elsewhere we see Paul off base, and if I could speak to him right now, I think he would agree. This is Acts 15:37-41:

37-41Barnabas wanted to take John along, the John nicknamed Mark. But Paul wouldn’t have him; he wasn’t about to take along a quitter who, as soon as the going got tough, had jumped ship on them in Pamphylia. Tempers flared, and they ended up going their separate ways: Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus…

Paul is my kinda guy. Barnabas wanted to take Mark and that made Paul mad. It would probably make me mad too. The fact that ‘tempers flared’, as other translations back up, makes me question Paul’s judgment at that moment. Was he ‘walking in love’ at that point. Probably not. I wouldn’t either.

Who should we listen to above anyone else when it comes to women? Might I suggest Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith? Throughout the Gospels, Jesus recognizes the worth of women. Is Paul to be exalted above Jesus? I think not.

3. I believe myself that male chauvinism is involved here, the same sort of pride that caused pastors to defend slavery (white people thinking they are better than black people). We have the idea somehow that men are better than women, for whatever reason. God called Adam ultimately to rule over the woman, but have her as a helpmate by his side, of equal stature and importance. I think that we need to recognize that ‘the weaker sex’ is also the most important part of the Body. Without women, the Church would not be here. Men need to get it through their heads that the Church is not another men’s only club like golf outings or cigar parlors. Women need to be submissive to the leaders of the church, just as any man needs to likewise be submissive. I believe that women need a strong male covering of leadership, her ‘head covered’, so as to protect her from attack and keep her from doctrinal error, just as we ourselves will seek out when my wife and I begin preaching in several years to come. Women need to be held accountable by people who have their head screwed on right. All of us, both men and women, have our ‘times of the month’, times where we’re not emotionally balanced and we can fly off the handle. We can’t go it alone, and when we try, we’re headed for disaster.

If we don’t discard this primitive notion that men are superior to women, the Church is not going to be able to minister to a world that views women as equal to women. We will be seen as hypocrites, and if we believe thus, we are hypocrites. We need the women, whether you, your pastor, your denomination, or your favorite preacher thinks otherwise. We need the women.

Comments are welcome, however, those of opposing viewpoints who cannot control their emotions will be banned. Also, I reply to every comment. If you post using a fake email address, I will ban you for your cowardice.