Women Be Silent?
1 Corinthains Series
CCCAG 3-22-26
1 Corinthians 14:32–40, 1 Tim 2:11-15 (many more)
Introduction
As you can tell by the title of today’s message, and the sermon graphic, I guess the Holy Spirit decided I needed additional time to prepare this message, so a snowstorm dumped two feet of snow on us.
So lets get into this message.
When Tammie and I began to attend our second church, they were in the process of absorbing part of a congregation whose church had recently closed.
The long serving pastor of that church had retired, and the church immediately separated into a conservative and a more progressively charismatic side.
The more conservative block ended up coming to our new church. One of the things we immediately noticed was that many of the women from that church wore a covering on their head in public. Usually a tied handkerchief of some type.
I thought it was odd. I had never seen that before as a spiritual practice. As I got to know these women, they they told me that they felt they were following scripture particularly 1 Corinthians 11 which says that a woman should never worship God with her head uncovered.
In fact, one of them was so strict in her beliefs, that she would insist on stepping outside the sanctuary before even answering a question as she felt it was a sin for her, being a woman, to speak inside the “Holy Place”.
Outside of the sanctuary, she’d talk your ear off about anything and everything, but held she believed the bible taught that women should be silent in the church.
We are going to address that idea today, and look at the verses most often associated with it.
I know that this might bring up some emotion in some people, particularly women. But bear with me. We will all still be friends when we are done, and enjoy our fellowship meal together.
1 Corinthians 14:33b–35:
As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but are to submit themselves, as the law also says. 35 If they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home, since it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.
Prayer
If we are honest, for many people, these verses hit modern ears hard.
What does the bible mean here?
The main way that we can understand scripture is to ask a few questions
1. Does “be silent” mean absolute silence?
2. Is Paul forbidding all women from ever speaking in church?
3. Does that mean women cannot be pastors or teachers?
4. Is this only cultural- something only for this church at this time, or Is it universal and applies to use today?
5. How do we reconcile this with other passages where women are clearly called to pray, prophesy, serve, teach, and labor in ministry?
To be honest, these are the kinds of subjects that many pastors wish were not in the bible, because they are very difficult to teach.
However, I believe in bringing the whole council of God to the church, even and especially the parts that sting a little.
So here we go.
This idea of female submission appears several times in the New Testament, especially in this book of 1 Corinthians, most notably chapter 11. Chapter 11 states that women should not be in church unless they have a covering on their heads. Which is how some of women in my former church felt.
How do we deal with this, and with other hard parts of the bible?
So the first thing we should understand is the concept in bible reading and interpretation that says
The bible interprets the bible.
In other words, we read the entire narrative before we decide what it means.
If you take a a single verse and rip it out of context, you can make the Bible appear to say almost anything—even something God never intended
An example is Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Hosea describe dashing babies against rocks.
Those are not proof texts that show that infanticide is god-ordained. It’s a description of the horror of foreign armies invading Israel.
That’s why we take the entire bible to interpret the bible.
IN doing so, we look to see what else it says about this subject of women being silent in the church.
In addition to today’s verses, and Chapter 11, there is in 1 Timothy 2:8–15.
The Apostle Paul again repeats the instruction about women needing to be quiet to a different church, in a different city, on an entirely different continent.
Let’s see what Paul said to young Pastor Timothy here-
8 Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument. 9 Also, the women are to dress themselves in modest clothing, with decency and good sense, not with elaborate hairstyles, gold, pearls, or expensive apparel, 10 but with good works, as is proper for women who profess to worship God. 11 A woman is to learn quietly with full submission. 12 I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; instead, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed. 15 But she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with good sense.
That section of scripture sounds worse for women than our main scripture for this morning.
That last verse (15) is a huge sticking point for a lot of people. Please bear with me for a moment.
One of the blessings we have available today are bible programs that have direct cross references to the original languages.
The term “She will be saved through childbearing” makes it sound like a woman’s ability to produce offspring is essential to her salvation.
Modern women might hear that and think the bible is saying, “As long as you stay barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen, everything will be fine.”
However, tying childbirth to salvation would contradict the rest of the Gospel message that salvation is found in Christ alone.
This is a great example of the difficulty of translating one language to another, in this case Kione, or ancient Greek to Modern English
Let me explain this quickly without devolving into a seminary lecture.
In Greek, the subject of a sentence is often built into the verb, so translators have to supply separate English words to make the Greek sentence readable to us.
In this case, the word “childbirth, or “The child’s birth” is seen. That word can mean both things. It’s indirectly saying, “Woman are saved the same way men are saved- through the birth,and then the life, death, and resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ.”
The second word we need to look at is the word “To Be Saved”
Again, a combination word where subject is combined with verb.
When you start to deeply study the bible, you discover something called an Englishman’s search, which takes a word from the original language, and brings up every single usage of that word in the bible.
If you do that with this word (to be saved), you’ll find that especially when Jesus is talking with women, that he always uses it in a way that is translated “To Be Made Whole.” With that definition, we could read that Paul is saying that instead of a woman trying to be in charge, or be the head, or rule over her husband and family, that she find greater fulfillment in doing what women are uniquely created to do- love, nurture, and raise children in ways that only a mother can do.
That’s what verse 15 means. It’s not tying salvation with childbearing.
Back to the subject of this message- Should women be silent?
I’m going to say this right out-
God isn’t telling the church to silence women.
In fact, the Greek word for silent in these verses is sigao- meaning to stay silent to be able to hear what is being said.
It’s an intentional pause in speaking so you may clear hear what is being spoken.
Like my Grandmother used to tell me, “God gave humans two ears and one mouth so we listen twice as much as we speak.”
The reason this principle is being taught in the churches is because of this central point Paul is making throughout the entire book of 1st Corinthians-
God is asking us to observe HIS created order.
You may be thinking, where are you getting this idea from?
Go back to 1 Cor 11:10- (Two Verses)
I. Created Order
First verse 1 Cor 11:10 10 This is why a woman should have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. (Remember that)
The second-
1 Tim 2:13-14
13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed.
What do these two verses, that seem like they have nothing to do with each other, tell us this morning?
What they both point us to is respecting God’s created order.
Now the Bible doesn’t spell out exactly what Paul meant by ‘because of the angels.’
What I’m sharing with you is how I—and several commentators—understand this passage in light of the whole story of Scripture.
Let’s start with the first verse about the angels.
The bible teaches us is that angels are highly sensitive to God’s created order because of their personal history.
Let me explain-
Lucifer was a Cherub (Ezekial 28:14)- a high order of spiritual being, above even the archangels in rank, power, and authority.
(Ezekiel 28:11-19 describes Lucifer in the beginning)
Revelation 12 in conjunction with Ezekial 28:15-17 gives a synopsis of Lucifer’s actions upon God casting him out of heaven.
Lucifer then convinced 1/3 of the angels of God to follow him in his rebellion.
Those angels were cast out of heaven for stepping outside of God’s created purpose and order for them, and now are mostly likely the demons.
The 2/3rds that remained loyal to God are the angels spoken of frequently in scripture.
To those who remained loyal,
This event in their collective history as angels burned into their spirits the need to remain faithful to God’s divine order, HIS will, HIS Word, and HIS purpose. It is central to their entire being.
We as American’s have these same types of moments that changed everything and burned their lessons into our souls.
Examples-
Pearl Harbor
Sept 11th, 2001
Oct 7th – Hamas attacks in Israel
Charlie Kirks assassination.
All of those left deep imprints on our lives.
So it was for the angels with Lucifer’s rebellion. “Never again” wasn’t just a motto meant to gin up heavenly patriotism- it was central to their whole existence.
So, when Paul stresses the need for the church to be in that divine order “because of the angels, he is saying in essence- “Listen- God’s angels are present with us. Let us not offend them or make them uncomfortable with our worship but join them in reverence to God”
That’s the first thought that lays a foundation, lets continue to build on that foundation with the Second verse-
1 Tim 2:13-14
13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed.
Ok, what is being said here?
Th question we need to ask- What was Eve’s sin here? Hint- it has nothing to do with the fruit.
It was stepping out of divine order.
That is the theological definition of sin- to do something contrary to the character, command, and plan of the creator.
But it needs to also be said-
Adam was there listening to Lucifer AKA satan talking to his wife and did nothing.
Remember, Eve didn’t hear God’s command, she heard it from Adam, her husband and head of their family.
That’s why the serpent approached Eve. It was to reverse the order God had established. Satan is doing the same thing to humanity that he did the angels- get them to step away from divine authority by casting doubt in the Word of God.
In doing so, satan also caused Adam to fail by not holding to the divine order he had been shown by God, and in doing so, failed to protect Eve.
Again, It’s all about God’s order.
This is what is being addressed with the 1st Century church, which carries over to us today.
One more thing to consider about the bible’s instructions here.
Their “church services” were nothing like ours.
When this was written, there was no formal building- they were meeting in houses and in fields.
Often began with prayer, and sometimes worship. Then the teaching, then a few worship songs, more prayer, then a meal or communion.
This was done in a mixed crowd of men, women, and children.
When interpreting this scripture, we have to consider the 1st century world it was written to address.
A historical factor to consider- Most women, unless they were of upper class in their society, were largely illiterate.
Anything they learned in life was told to them verbally.
They learned scripture through their mothers quoting it to them.
So they learned through hearing, and speaking.
Men, on the other hand, were largely literate, particular Jewish men who went to Torah school and actually learned to read.
Put that all together in a joint home worship church.
Whoever is teaching is getting constantly interrupted by women who hadn’t heard of that before and simply wanted clarification.
That’s actually a wonderful thing- wanting to know God’s truth, but in these home churches, there were so many questions from the women, who were used to being taught orally, that it bogged down the entire meeting.
The church hadn’t invented women’s ministry or new believer training yet, so Paul is just trying to establish some order in the church.
That’s what Paul is addressing here- order so the message of the gospel was not being lost in a sea of questions.
So when the bible is saying that women should be silent in the church, it is not giving a roll of duct tape to men to keep their women from talking.
It was about keeping order in the church.
It is not misogynistic. It is firmly establishing the man as the spiritual head of the home, and the wife can ask her spiritual head all of these spiritual questions.
That’s the biblical interpretation and meaning behind these verses.
Now, we have to address the elephant in the room.
That historically, these verses have been used by some in the church to keep women from the ministry.
Let’s throw that idea into the garbage where it belongs-
A few things that destroy the belief that woman have no place in spiritual leadership:
#1- With the exception of Adam and Eve, every single person who had ever lived came from a woman.
#2- Even in the “Primitive” Old Testament, many women were in positions of spiritual authority. There are many, but here are four quick examples
A. Miriam saved Moses, without whom we wouldn’t be here today.
B. Deborah- Prophetess and Judge of Israel (spiritual and civil authority)
C. Wise Women of Tekoa- part of David’s advisory council.
D. Esther- saved her entire nation from Haman who tried to destroy all of the Jewish people.
#3- in the New Testament, this continues (Three quick examples)
E. Anna- Prophetess that Proclaims the baby Jesus is the Messiah
F. Pricilla- Teacher who instructed her husband Apollos- one of the main preachers of early Christianity, and even engaged in the formation of Christian doctrine. Apollos is also one of the people that might have written Hebrews.
G. Junia- recognized as an Apostle of Christ.
A few more examples of how God honors and uses women-
#4- The first person to hear Jesus say He is the messiah was a women of mixed race (Samaritan), a woman of loose morality, married multiple times, became the first evangelist of Jesus as Messiah
#5- The first person to see Jesus resurrected was a woman (a former prostitute!)
What does this show us?
God can, will, and does use any willing vessel to accomplish HIS will on this earth.
Regardless of
Their Sex
Their Status
Their Wealth
Their Education
Their Nationality
Their Past
Their Present
Their Sin
Their current level of sanctification and personal Holiness.
If God can use a donkey to correct a prophet, or a person who is as much of a mess as I am to preach the Gospel
Ladies, there is no limit of how God can use you!
Conclusion-
So what do we do with all of this?
We come back to where we started.
“Let the women be silent in the churches…”
But That was never about silencing women.
It was about bringing order to the church so the voice of God could be heard clearly.
Because here’s the truth—
God has never had a problem using women.
He had a prophetess leading worship after the Red Sea.
He had a judge ruling His people.
He had women prophesying in the early church.
He had women carrying the message of the resurrection while the male apostles were hiding behind locked doors in terror.
So the issue was never,
“Can God use women?”
The issue has always been—
Will the church stay in alignment with God’s order while making room for God’s Spirit to move through anyone He chooses?
And let me say something plainly to the men—
Before you ever quote “submit”…
make sure you’re someone worth following.
Adam didn’t fall because Eve was too loud.
Adam fell because he was too passive.
So don’t hide behind verses—
step up and lead like Christ.
And women—
Do not let anyone convince you
that your voice doesn’t matter to God.
If He put His Spirit in you,
He intends to use you.
Not in rebellion.
Not in disorder.
But in alignment with Him.
Because the same God who brings order…
is the same God who fills people with His Spirit—
and when He does…He uses anyone willing.
So the question isn’t—
“Can God use women?”
The real question is—
Are we willing to let God use whoever He chooses?
Worship (Available)
Prayer.
