Women Be Silent? Series

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.