By Pastor Dave Farmer
TOPIC #25 OUT OF CONTROL CHURCH - PART 4A
The women were the third group in the church of Corinth, to which Paul gave specific instructions. Part A examines 1 Corinthians 14:34.
An Out-of-Control Church Needs Regulations
1 Corinthians 14:34 [Expanded translation] 1
The women must begin to be silent in the churches, it is not permitted for them to speak [as a pastor] and not only this they are to be submissive, just as the law also says.
Regulating Out Of Control Women
Introduction
We have been in the midst of a cultural shift of major consequence. The wall of protection surrounding our nation that Christian truth has blessed us with is rapidly crumbling. It is so bad that the modern woman reading this article would cry out with alarm and designate me as sexist. This term of vituperation and vilification is defined as "believing that one sex is inferior to the other in a variety of attributes." The Bible does not teach that! The Bible records the history of societies where possessing a good donkey has held far greater value than a woman. We see this attitude today in the Middle East, where women are diminished. As a nation, our treatment of the Black race has a similar history. They were considered chattel and not fully human. Sadly, there is so much misunderstanding and mistrust that the traditional view regarding the differences between men and women and how they function in the home and the church has been cast aside. This is at the sacrifice of God's blessing.
Although this article is not an in-depth look into the grievances that the Feminists have against the Christian culture, we must mention the passages that are at the heart of this controversy and sadly do so only briefly. I am not led to exegete these passages at this time, and one reason is that my audience is not a part of the new theology that twists and distorts the Word of God to prove that women are equal to men. It is my view that the Scripture teaches that women are not inferior to men.
I also believe that their roles are different, and in those roles, women are not permitted to be the head of the home or to hold leadership positions in the church. I believe they are equal in value, worth, and importance; this is an eternal Biblical fact. At the same time, their roles are different, and there are limitations in the function of those roles. For instance, the husband is the head of the home. The wife is to respond to his leadership [Ephesians 5:22-24]. This restriction is also found in the ministry of the church. She is not permitted to lead the church. Limited, not inferior! It is this last comment that brings us to our present subject. The women of Corinth were out of control.
Paul now turns to a third group in the church contributing to the disorder in public worship, the women. We do not have details about what specific behaviors were causing problems, but we know that the three commands in this passage fix the problem. There is a parallel passage found in 1 Timothy that should be studied alongside the current passage, especially these two verses:
1 Timothy 2:11,12
11) A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.
12) But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.
Although this passage in 1 Corinthians fourteen is directed toward women of faith, the parallel passage of 1 Timothy 2:9-15 also broadens the teaching to include unbelieving women. In that Scripture, Paul demonstrates how the instructions for women in the home and the church originate from the woman at creation [1 Timothy 2:13] and at the fall [1 Timothy 2:14,15]. This more extended passage examines the woman in all her roles. We learn that the woman's position is not based upon a calculation of her value, worth, or importance but on her function in the many phenomenal and integral parts she plays, such as being a wife and a mother. These are the unique roles of women. They are to be held in esteem, not ridiculed and treated with such contempt as they are in the Woman's Movement.
The study before us has a narrow focus. The instructions are for the ladies in the royal family of God and their role in the church. This is not about the woman's role in the home, in the marketplace, or on the job, for that matter, anywhere else women gather. This is brought out clearly by the prepositional phrase “in the churches.” It is placed before the verb and, as a "word order device," specifically indicates where this command will be enforced. Women in the churches are to be silent. The noun, women, is in the plural number. The rule applies to all women, not just the handful of troublemakers at Corinth. Again, the article, THE women, is generic and directs this prohibition to women as a group. The Greek text is explicit and essential for proper interpretation.
The prohibition is that women were to be silent during public worship; that is, not to speak. This is not talking about general conversation or greeting one another, which takes place on the Lord's day among the family of God. I remember in one church where I was a pastor, the congregation was so noisy as they assembled for morning worship that someone complained. I said, "I am glad they are talking to each other." In my view, this is not referring to the unmannerly conduct of a woman talking while the sermon is being delivered.
For this reason, no one, a man or a woman, should be talking while the pastor is preaching. It is impolite! It disrespects the pastor, the Word of God, and other brothers and sisters in Christ. It breaks the concentration of those around them who are positive toward the Word of God and effectively listen. This should not be tolerated, whether a man or a woman. "To speak" is technical and refers to public speaking or addressing the congregation as a pastor.
This chapter has been about spiritual gifts, as have the two previous chapters. Speaking in the church requires having the proper spiritual gift. This is what I believe is at the heart of this passage. Women in the church are not equal in the area of spiritual gifts. Certain spiritual gifts are not given to the ladies: the gift of pastor-teacher and evangelism. No one should pastor a church without having the gift of pastor-teacher. Everyone in the Body of Christ is on the team, but we have differing positions. What makes us different is the spiritual gift that we have. It determines our role in the church.
For instance, we are all equal, men and women, in our spiritual lives. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we were placed into the Body of Christ by the Baptism of the Holy Spirit [1 Corinthians 12:11-26 ]. As the gifts of the Spirit were distributed, no woman was given the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher, and no woman was given the gift of evangelism. These gifts were given to men in the Body of Christ. However, men and women must be witnesses and evangelize those around us. In fact, all men and women are ambassadors of Jesus Christ. We all have equal responsibility.
The same is true of teaching. Women are by creation, natural teachers. Their God-given responsibility is to exercise authority over their children and teach and nurture them, and this is the glory of a woman. In the Body of Christ, women have been given the spiritual gift of teaching, and our Sunday Schools have been blessed by many spiritually adult and gifted women teaching the children the wonderful Words of Life. We live in a day when women's ministries have exploded. On the radio, I listened to Nancy Leigh DeMoss on Revive Our Hearts and her team of outstanding women speakers, and they are doing a fantastic job in the area of women's ministry. Even in my church, our Pastor's wife Carol, often leads women in the study of Scripture. Women are not hindered from serving the Lord in the local church; instead, the local church is blessed by spiritually adult women serving in its ministry.
Again, the only limitation is in the area of the gift of pastor-teacher. Women teaching in the church is not prohibited, but leadership in the church is strictly forbidden, as Paul said:
1 Timothy 2:12 [Expanded translation]
I do not permit a woman to teach [an adult congregation as a pastor-teacher] or exercise authority over a man; she must be silent.
In the study on the Grace of God, we learned that at the point of salvation, every person, male and female, was given incredible spiritual blessings [see God's Riches At Christ Expense in the Reference Section]. The list contains 39 absolute and irrevocable blessings. The women who come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ have the same number of blessings men possess. They are equal in blessing. When a woman sins, her path to restoration is identical to a man who sins. They will be equally disciplined. Both men and women receive all the provisions they need to execute God's plan for their spiritual lives equally. For instance:
The universal priesthood of the believer is for the man and the woman:
1 Peter 2:5
You [men and women included] also, as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Our priesthood is the only one that includes both men and women, and that is equality in the spiritual life. Women have equal opportunities and privileges in the royal priesthood of the believer. This was not the case during the period of the Law. In the Levitical priesthood, only males occupied various positions in the priesthood. Another illustration of equality is in the objective of the spiritual life. It is the same for every believer without exception. Both men and women can become winners and reach the high ground of spiritual maturity. This is more important than any function in the spiritual life, and being a woman is no hindrance.
The gift of the pastor-teacher was an emerging spiritual gift. It took time to train leaders for the church. It took time for those who had this gift to study the word, and as they grew, they could lead the church. As Paul's ministry drew to a close, he wrote to Titus on the Island of Crete to organize the churches to "set in order" and "appoint men" Titus 1:5,6. Again, to Timothy, he said, "If any man aspires to the office of overseer ..." 1 Timothy 3:1. Why are men only mentioned in Scripture? Simply because women do not have the gift of pastor-teacher.
The Scriptural Support For This Regulation
The second imperative of command clarifies the first, “it is not permitted for them [the women] to speak [as a Pastor].” The subject of the verb "not permitted" is singular and points ahead to "The Law," as the final clause says, "just as The Law also says." The law is technical and refers to the Old Testament Scriptures. Paul is stating clearly that these prohibitions don't come from misogynistic attitudes but from the authoritative, sovereign Word of God. Unfortunately, many expositors have failed to see that Paul is not referring to the Mosaic Law. They quickly dismiss this passage, for we are not under the law but under grace. I can see how they are consistent with their error, for this regulation was given to the Church, not the Jew.
Often, the Law represents the entire Torah, the first five Books of the Old Testament. 2 The meaning of this use of The Law predates what Israel received at Mount Sinai. In fact, it goes right back to Genesis 3:16, which is at the heart of the problem in Corinth, and I would say today's Women's Right Movement:
Genesis 3:16
To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.”
The judgment from God upon the woman was poetic justice. In other words, the Lord gives her the opposite of her sin. It is a twofold judgment. First, she will have a desire for her husband, and this desire is sexual. She did not want to be a wife or mother. She rejected Adam's love. It wasn't just about eating an apple. The second comes with this declaration, "And he will rule over you." Eve rejected Adam's love but sought after his authority. I heard one female shout, "No man is my boss." Her sister Eve felt the same way. The issue of authority was a real problem at Corinth, and the women were out of control.
In addition, the perfective present connotes a fact of Bible doctrine that has come to be in the past but emphasizes existing results. This rule is for “the woman in the church,” and it is related to “the woman at the creation” [Genesis 2:] and “the woman at the fall” [Genesis 3:16]. The existing result is that the woman would never be permitted to pastor a church or to be head of the home. This directive is linked to the original woman's creation and subsequent fall.
The third imperative will be taken up in the following study, which completes Paul's solution to the problem of out-of-control women at Corinth.
1. Her spiritual gift defines the woman's ministry in the church, and no woman has ever been given the gift of pastor-teacher.
2. The woman's equality with man exists in the area of spiritual life:
Galatians 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
3. More importance should be given to executing the plan and design of God for our spiritual lives than the excessive attention Christians pay to spiritual gifts. A woman pursuing godliness will understand the benefits and protections of God's design. Only in arrogance do we kick against the goads.
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1 See Appendix C for the exegesis of 1 Corinthians 14:34.
2 See Luke 24:27,44; 1 Corinthians 9:9 where Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 25:4 and calls it the Law of Moses] and even to the entire 29 books of the Old Testament [Romans 3:2; 1 Corinthians 14:21 where Paul quotes Isaiah 28:11].