Silence in the Church

 

Monday, February 7, 2022

There were few people left in the villages of Israel—until Deborah arose as a mother for Israel.  Judges 5:7

Women should be silent during the church meetings.  It is not proper for them to speak.  They should be submissive, just as the law says.  If they have any questions, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is improper for women to speak in church meetings.  1 Corinthians 14:34-35

The differences between the Old and New Testament teachings set up apparent controversies.  One of these is about leadership, who should, and who shouldn’t.  Biblical examples of women in leadership abound in Scripture, yet Paul’s take seems to leave little “wiggle-room” in a stark prohibition of women even speaking to ask a question in church.  Why the gag order?  What’s up with this?

It's my personal belief that Paul was settling a local dispute in a young church that was trying to find its way, in the absence of the leader (Paul) who had set them on the pathway of following Christ.  In the middle of a human-rights disaster of the culturally male-dominated era, women of that day received almost no education.  Just as the local school board wouldn’t hire a five-year-old to teach high school, Paul was opting for an end to bedlam during worship in the Corinthian church.  I do not believe Paul was cementing-down a principle, that women cannot even speak, let-alone teach, or minister in church.  Yet, that is the thinking you’ll occasionally encounter as a backlash to female leadership. 

It has been my experience in serving local churches the past 40 years, that many more churches would have closed their doors without women who not only spoke, but taught and preached.  In Paul’s day, women were uneducated because men were shortsightedly keeping them ignorant.  It was commonly accepted that women were, by nature, unable to comprehend deeper-level thinking than the skills needed to handle menial or household tasks.  Leadership was for males only. 

Paul knew this was not right, and would eventually move towards correction.  Consider what he said to the Galatian believers:

There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female.  Galatians 3:28a

In other words, God sees every human being spiritually the same, and has gifted each of us as He sees fit.  We should measure people by the gifts and abilities God has given them, and how appropriately and grandly they use those to glorify God. 

For You Today

For those (males, particularly) who might long for a return to the days of keeping women under subjugation with corsets and cultural mandates to keep silent, and walk three paces behind their men out of respect, here is a newsflash: 

That gag-order has been lifted!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©