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1 Corinthians - Part 36
"God's Order"
Copyright 2003
by Pastor David Legge
All Rights Reserved
(Permission is granted to distribute this transcript in its entirety, with no alterations)
I Corinthians 14:29-40 |
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We're in chapter 14, God willing, hopefully finishing off this chapter in particular, and we're going to begin reading from verse 29. You will remember, perhaps you haven't been with us, but we've already looked at the confusion that particularly the gift of tongues caused in the church at Corinth. We looked at the various spiritual gifts, but we saw that they had a real problem particularly with the gift of tongues and it caused tremendous confusion in this church. Then we looked last week at the commission that God gave for this gift of tongues, the reason why it was given in the first place - we saw specifically it was for the benefit of the Jews as a sign of judgment upon them for rejecting the Messiah, and we looked at various other reasons why this gift was given. We also looked at the commands that God gave to the exercise of this gift, it wasn't just a gift that could be exercised whatever way the people who were gifted wanted, but God had actually laid down regulations and principles how this gift had to be operated. We see that the principles that were for tongues are very similar with regards to prophecy, as we begin tonight's reading in verse 29 to the end of the chapter:
"Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. Let 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. And 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. What? Came the word of God out from you? Or came it unto you only? If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order".
For several weeks now we have been looking from chapter 12 through to chapter 14 at the subject specifically of spiritual gifts. As we come to verses 29 to 40 at the end of this chapter 14, we find that the theme of these verses specifically with relation to spiritual gifts is God's order - God's order in the execution of these gifts that He has given by the Holy Spirit to the body, for the edification of the church. Now there are two statements that go together in our passage tonight that are so important for all that we will understand in our study this evening. The first is in verse 26 if you look down to it, and Paul says - inspired of course by the Spirit of God Himself: 'Let all things be done unto edifying' - there is a principle that is general to spiritual gifts, but specific to our situation tonight. Then the second principle and statement is found in verse 40: 'Let all things be done decently and in order'. So in this whole sphere of spiritual gifts, and particularly in the contemporary situation in which we live, where this issue is debated perhaps more than anything within evangelicalism, there are two primary concepts which are foundational to the exercise of anything that God has given to the church as a spiritual gift. Let everything that is done be done to edifying, the gift and the execution thereof must edify other believers; and the second principle is that all things, all things, ought to be done decently and in order.
Now of course, reading between the lines we realise right away that, because Paul is giving these instructions to the church, it infers that there was disorder in the public meetings in the little Assembly in Corinth. Surely by now in our studies we realise that that was of course the case! But one problem in relation to the spiritual gifts specifically was: they were executing these gifts that God had given them to please themselves. God had given them for the goal of edifying one another, helping one another, building one another up - which is simply what 'edifying' means - but they were using the gifts to exalt themselves, to please and gratify themselves, and not to help other brethren but so that they might be seen as the ones who were the great gifted ones, the ones who were so helpful to the church - even though they didn't help it at all, they hindered it. In fact, we could say that the fruit of spiritual gifts in Corinth was exhibitionism rather than edification - they just wanted to be seen as gifted and as able.
Of course in that great chapter 13 we saw that the underlying problem to this disorder in the church was lack of love. Paul came in and said: 'It doesn't matter that you have all the gifts of prophecy to understand all mystery, and all knowledge, and you speak with all tongues of men and of angels: if you do not have love, you have nothing - love must be the underlying motivation for everything that a spiritual gift does'. They were lacking in love, they were not looking out for the other, but looking out for themselves. Now let's just recap, and try to imagine ourselves in this particular church in Corinth. Imagine being there in the morning meeting, and everybody wants to make a contribution - we saw in the previous verses in this chapter that everybody has a Psalm, everybody has a hymn to give out, everybody has a portion of Scripture to read, everybody has a doctrine or a revelation, and they all want to give it at the same time! Because you believe that your revelation or your message is more important than another brother's - because, like them, you're looking out for yourself rather than the other - you are impatient, you want to get up as soon as possible...and probably in Corinth they were all getting up at the one time.
Maybe you can't wait until the other brother finishes and you interrupt them at the Lord's table. We know from chapter 11, our detailed study of that, that they weren't waiting for each other when they were breaking bread and drinking from the cup. We read also that some of them were getting drunk at the Lord's table - it's hardly imaginable! We find out in this chapter 14 that the gift of tongues was unrestrained, there was no order in that regard - and if you add to that lack of order in the church, what we're going to see tonight later on, there were liberated women in Corinth who felt that anything went - because they were saved by grace, and there was no longer any distinction in a spiritual sense between man and woman, bond and free, Jew and Gentile, they felt they could do as they pleased! There were no lines of demarcation with regards to the roles of men and women in the church, and they felt they could do as they liked.
I think we can understand, when we recap even some of those few things, why there was such carnal confusion and disorder in the church at Corinth. Let me show you before we go on any further, in verse 26 there is a cameo, a picture of what worship was like in the early church. When they came together everyone had a Psalm, had a doctrine, had a tongue, had a revelation, had an interpretation, but Paul says: 'While you do these things, let all things be done unto edifying'. So we're understanding that each person in the assembly was invited to participate as the Lord's Holy Spirit directed the gathering - but of course that is not a carte blanche invitation to everyone and anybody. I know it says: 'Brethren, when ye come together, every one of you' - but it doesn't mean literally every single one of you, and certainly not all at the one time exercising the one spiritual gift. That was the very reason why there was disorder in Corinth: there has to be some kind of God-given order in the church if edification is to be the result. But there was no God-given order in Corinth, and that is why there was only chaos and confusion, and that is why Paul has to come in in these latter verses and lay down fundamentally God's order.
He says, now mark this: 'God is not the author of confusion, God is a God of order'. That's so important to our understanding - in fact, it is a very deep spiritual principle that if many knew today, it would shelter them and protect them from much of the charismatic confusion that is going on in so-called Christendom. The reason being, we don't have time to do it, but if we were to go to Galatians 5 and verse 23 we would find there that one of the fruit of the Spirit is the gift, as it were, of self-control. When the Holy Spirit is living in you, He manifests, through grace in your life, the likeness of Christ in self-control. So the implication is that if you're filled with the Spirit, if you are walking in the Spirit not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, if you are a Spirit-filled church, you will be a person or church that is marked characteristically by self-control. In fact, one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit within the assembly, and indeed within the whole existence of both the church, creation, and the whole universe, is order, and bringing order out of chaos.
Now turn with me right to the very beginning till I lay down this principle from Genesis chapter 1 first of all. You know that famous portion of creation, verse 1: 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep' - you could say there was, in a sense, confusion or chaos. Then: 'the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light', and the creation week comes into being, and God's Spirit that hovered over the waters brings order. You can't get much more ordered than the creation week, if you read down it: God said this, and this happened - right throughout the whole of that week. God, out of such chaos and confusion, brought order to creation.
Now why should we think it's any different for the church? When we come to chapter 3 of Genesis, we find there that God is not the author of confusion but Satan, the serpent, was the one who came to Eve in the garden and said: 'Yea, hath God said, If ye eat of the fruit of the garden ye shall die? Ye shall not surely die'. And when she and her husband, Adam, obeyed the devil, the deceiver, what happened? Death came upon all men, and we find that the thorns and the thistles came into the garden, and all the confusion that sin brings - but God was not the author of that! God is a God of order, and one of the evidences of a Spirit-filled church is indeed that there will be order in the meeting.
Now in the light of that, let us move on to see these regulations that Paul laid down for order according to God's standard. Here's the first, he says in verses 29 to 33: there must be order among the prophets. Now let's just look at these verses in detail, perhaps you haven't been here in previous weeks - we need to explain to you that the New Testament gift of a prophet was something that was intrinsically specific to the early church. You could go tonight, we don't have time, to Ephesians 2:20 - note it down if you want to look at - and you will see that the New Testament prophet was a gift, a foundational gift to the early church to lay and establish God's word. It was a man who was inspired of God in the midst of a meeting to speak the word of God in a supernatural revelatory way. Now if we had time we could look at the pastoral epistles of Paul, that means 1 and 2 Timothy, and the little book of Titus; and we would find judging them that prophecy ceased in the early church even before the end of the apostolic age. You can read 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus, and you will find that the elders are mentioned, bishops - which is the same as an elder - are mentioned, deacons are mentioned, but prophets are not given a mention at all - and you would think that pastoral epistles would be mentioning prophets if they existed in this particular age. But when we come to Corinthians chapter 14, we find that prophets were still operating in this particular church - and as we read Corinthians we don't find a mention, strangely, of the word 'Pastor', the word 'elder', or the word 'overseer' - because the church had not come into complete fruition and maturity as God had intended, as it has done when we reach 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus.
So please understand that this is a foundational gift that does not exist in its primary sense today in the church. For that reason Paul, inspired as an apostle, had to give four regulations to the operation of this gift. Look down these verses, 29 to 33, we see that the first rule is: only two or three ought to speak in the one meeting - 'Let the prophets', verse 29, 'speak two or three, and let the other judge'. That's the first and second regulation - not only are two or three alone to speak, but the rest of the meeting and maybe perhaps the other prophets who are not speaking, ought to judge what is being said. You don't just take something that a man says because he claims to be a prophet and inspired of God, the meeting and the other prophets that knew God's word had to judge - the first two.
Then there's the third principle: if someone else has a revelation and you're on your feet, you ought to sit down and yield to them and allow them to speak their revelation. Verse 30: 'If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace'. That's very simple, isn't it? If you had this particular gift of prophecy and you're on your feet, and all of a sudden - I don't know the logistics of it, that's not given to us in the passage, but perhaps another man put his hand up or just stood up because he had a revelation from God, and he knew he had it. The other man who was speaking had to sit down provided he had given his revelation, and it meant there was no confusion - there wasn't two up or three up or maybe thirty up speaking at the one time, there was order.
Then we read on and we find: 'For ye may all prophesy one by one', verse 31, 'that all may learn, and all may be comforted'. You weren't to do it together, each was to speak in turn. So there are the four rules and regulations: only two or three are to speak in the one meeting, everybody else is to judge what they say, if someone else has a revelation the first speaker is to yield to him and allow him to speak, and each speaker is to speak in turn. Now this is very interesting, it seems interesting to me - why? The first speaker, if the other person gets a revelation, has to sit down right away - verses 29 and 30 - and it may be possible that when a man was given a supernatural revelation, after he delivered the exact words that God had given to him, he perhaps would go on to preach a little and expound the word of God as it had been revealed to him. I'm not being dogmatic on this, but this is perhaps what happened in the early church. It could be that if that man was doing such, preaching himself, that the longer he talked the more he was apt to speak from his own power rather than the inspiration of the Spirit that he had been given previously.
We would have to say, we preaching brethren, that that is always a danger: that we shift in our exposition from God's word to one's own word, and of course we know that in the church of Corinth these men prided themselves in their own human wisdom. It may be likely that this was the case, and just to make sure that man's wisdom was not coming in Paul was saying: 'Look, once the first man has given his revelation, and if he goes on to expound and another in the meeting is given revelation and he stands up, you yield to him and sit down and say no more'.
Now there are many things we could say on that, but one contemporary application to us tonight that I take from it, which is very general but very needed in our churches today, is this: God's revelation is superior to anything else! It's superior to our interpretation, although of course the Scriptures interpret themselves we would have to say - but the Scriptures must be our final authority and our final appeal, and nothing else - particularly the intelligence and wisdom of men - ought to push them out. So much else seems to be pushing the Scriptures out today in our modern age.
If you look at verse 31, he says: 'Ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted' - no one is to speak at the same time as another, you're all to take your time, because when you take your time there's the greatest benefit to everybody, and everybody gets the real import and application to their heart of what God is saying in His revelation. What is coming through the spirit of this whole chapter is this: if God is in control, if God is in charge, there will be no competition between brethren - you'll not be seeing in the meeting who could get up quickest, or who can say the most, or who can give the best message. Neither will there be, as there was in Corinth, contradiction. One will not get up and say one thing, and another will not get up and say the exact opposite in contradistinction to everything that supposedly God had revealed. If it is the same God revealing the revelations, it will be the same word - God is of one mind, God is not confused even if we are!
Can I say that sometimes in people's prayers I detect a bit of contradiction? Sometimes if one man gets up and seems to pray with a particular doctrinal slant, another man gets up and prays with the opposite doctrinal slant - that is not the place for the tittle tattle and the hammering out of doctrine, in prayer, neither is it in prophecy or in preaching - it's not for the meeting! The point is that the meeting will be edified when God's Spirit is working through His gift, and if God's Spirit works through the gift there will be no confusion, there will be no contradiction, there will be no competition. Whereas in Corinth if these so-called prophets were manufacturing their messages there would be confusion, there would be contradiction, because their motive was to set themselves in the best light rather than to edify the church. Let us beware of making their mistake.
Now here in verse 32 is a very important principle: 'The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets'. Now reading between the lines, which we have to do in one sense, we remember that the Corinthians - many of whom were converted from a pagan background - dragged into the church of Corinth some of their understanding of how to worship God. In fact, we think that probably a lot of them, maybe some who were priests in paganism, believed that an ecstatic experience in a spirit - they thought 'the Spirit' - takes you out of your body, almost, into another realm and close to deity, was the highest spiritual experience possible and should be sought after. They believed that the more a man was possessed with the Spirit of God, the less self-control he would have. He would be beside himself, the less self-consciousness he would enjoy, the less intelligence he would have a grip of. I just wonder in chapter 12 verse 2, if you look at it, Paul, referring to their past as he begins this discourse in spiritual gifts, he says: 'Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led'. Is he speaking of the thought of being carried away, a man under the control of another spirit that is passive, he doesn't know what's happening, he cannot control his thoughts, his actions, his speech - he can't even control the length that he is speaking, because his actions are being controlled by another entity.
Now if that was the Corinthian mistake, which I think it was, there couldn't be anything further from the truth of what God's Holy Spirit does when He is exercising His gift in the life of a believer. Let me give you a literal translation of this verse 32: 'And spirits of prophets are subject to prophets'. I believe it's a general maxim, it is a principle, and Paul is saying that unlike a person under the control of a false spirit, when the Spirit of God takes control of a man He does not bypass his mind, but He uses his understanding, and the one who speaks knows what he's saying and can control and understand what he is saying. Let me just say in passing that the Lord Jesus quoted those words from Deuteronomy, didn't He? That we ought to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. Christianity does not ignore, nor does the Spirit of God bypass the mind in the exercise of His gifts. Therefore the implication is that if the spirit of the prophet, not the Holy Spirit, your spirit and mine, if you're a prophet, if you have that spirit it is under your control as to what you say, when you say it and how long you should say it.
The whole point of what Paul is saying here tonight is that if you have the Spirit, and if He is in charge of your life, there will be self-control that will mark all of you. Incidentally, Warren Wiersbe said that he once shared a Bible Conference with a speaker who, as he says, had 'poor terminal facilities'. He says that he often spoke 15 to 20 minutes past his deadline, which meant that Wiersbe, being the next speaker, had to condense his message at the very last minute. He used to excuse himself, maybe you've heard this one too, by saying: 'You know, when the Holy Ghost takes over you can't worry about clocks'. Wiersbe's reply was 1 Corinthians 14:32, that the spirits of the prophet are subject to the prophet - he had a point! Now don't hound me for five minutes or so tonight at the end! But the fact is that the man who is speaking God's word, even in that revelatory sense in the early church, was in control - the gift did not rule the man, the man ruled the gift. How important that is today in our day of confusion.
Then verse 33: 'For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints'. Now listen, he is saying: 'Corinthians, if your meeting is marked by a scene of pandemonium and utter disorder, you can be sure that the Spirit of God is not the author of it!'. Maybe you're here tonight and you come from a background that is neo-pentecostal, or pentecostal, or charismatic, or something suchlike - and you're wondering about some of the confusion that you see. Often at the end of the Alpha Course that many do now - and I don't take away from some good work that may be done through it - but at the end often is a weekend whereby people are exposed to the so-called gifts of the Spirit. Many are absolutely boggled by the chaos of the phenomenon that seems to be, according to what they're told, from the Spirit of the living God - and they say: 'Why is this happening? What is it?' - and they think we're all mad! Is that not what Paul said: they will think you're mad if you operate in this way, without any rules or regulations. Paul is coming in very categorically tonight and he's saying in our passage that God is a God in order, and if there's no order, if there's no self-regulating control, you can be sure that the spirit is not the Spirit of God that is at work.
Now you might come and say: 'Well how really, David, do you apply these instructions to the church today, since there - as you say - are no New Testament prophets?'. Well, you will note please that Paul did say in verse 29: 'let the others judge'. Well that principle is still the same today - I hope that you're not all evangelical sponges, and we have a lot of them about today, spoonfed by the word of God and never question. I know there's some of you do question every night what I say, but please don't be like that, don't be like people who are just babies who eat whatever they're given without question. I know you trust me, I hope you do, and I trust you - but the fact of the matter is, these men who were prophesying, as they were doing such were being evaluated by everybody in the church - and that's the way it should have been. The other prophets were doing it, the reason being because they had been warned that there were the false prophets. In 2 Peter 2:1 we read: 'there were false prophets also among the people, even as', Peter says to the church, 'there shall be false teachers among you'. Now even though there are no prophets today, so in a very literal sense there aren't false prophets because there aren't true ones, Peter says: 'even as there were false prophets among the people of Israel, there will be false teachers in the church'. All the more reason why we should evaluate what we're hearing on a continual weekly basis. Not only because there are false teachers among us, but believe it or not we make mistakes - and I'm sure I've made many from even this pulpit, I try my best in prayer and in the study of God's word to rightly divide the word of truth - but we're only human. Preachers cannot know everything, and often make mistakes, that's why James said in James 3 and verse 1: 'My brethren, be not many teachers, knowing that we shall incur a stricter judgment' - not just from God, but from God's people!
So there is a principle here that if our equivalent today to this New Testament supernatural gift of prophecy is the teaching of God's word, which I believe it is, we must evaluate everything that we say and weigh it up by the word of God. Here's another principle, even today in our more formal meetings - we would have to say that they are more formal, it's a pity the Spirit wasn't in control of them as He was in the true sense in the early church - we still need to consider each other in our ministry of God's word, or whatever gift that we have. Love should be the motivation, and as we execute whatever particular ability that God has given to us, we must remember the others around us: it is for their edifying - and here's the crux: we must always maintain order, because God is a God of order!
D. L. Moody was leading a service and asked a man to pray, and the man took advantage of his opportunity as many do, and he prayed on and on and on - and Moody, sensing that the prayer was killing the meeting instead of blessing it, spoke up and said: 'While our brother finishes his prayer let's sing a hymn together'. Now you might think that's rude today, but you see those who are in charge in public meetings and worship need to have the discernment - and indeed, I would say, the courage which is sadly lacking - to make sure that there is order in the church. But the converse of that in the assembly is: if they have the authority, the discernment and the courage, they must be respected - but they're not! George Mueller, that early brethren man of God, once stopped a man at the Lord's Table because his ministry, and I quote 'was not profitable for that particular meeting', and he asked him to sit down. Imagine me doing that! On another occasion he stopped an illiterate man reading the word of God, and he said to him: 'Brother, it's terribly important that the reading of the Holy Scriptures are done well, it's an important thing and I'll finish the reading for you'. Was that rudeness? I don't think so - but what the problem is today, why you can't get away with such a thing, is because there is a Corinthian spirit within many believers that feels: 'I want the limelight, I will exercise a gift if I feel I've got it, whether I've got it or not!'.
What is it only self-exaltation rather than edification? We must move on. Not only was there to be order among the prophets, but secondly we'll see there's order to be among the women - verses 34 and 35. Verse 34 really begins, I would say, at the end of verse 33 - now please note that the divisions that you have here in your Bible were not inspired by God, I mean the verses. Even, by the way, the punctuation: the commas and full-stops and so on, were not in the original manuscripts that were breathed of God. They were added, and most of them added well - but I feel, as many others do, that the last clause of verse 33 ought to be the beginning of verse 34: 'In all churches of the saints let your women keep silence in the churches'. The reason being that there would be no dispute that God is the author of confusion in all the churches - of course that would be taken as read, even though they weren't practising it, that is a fact of the omnipotence and all-powerfulness of our God. But what was disputed, particularly in Corinth, was this fact that the women were to keep silence.
One version reads like this: 'As in all the churches of the saints let the women keep silence in the churches', all of which is this verse 34 - and I think that's correct. The reason being that Paul is saying: 'Look, this is not something that I'm trying to apply just specifically to you in Corinth, that the women are to keep silence - this is something that I'm ordaining in all the churches'. Now in chapter 11, when we looked at headcoverings, and also in this chapter 14 many expositors and preachers say: 'Oh, this situation of headcovering and women keeping silent is particular to Corinth, it's something to do with Corinthian culture'. Others say: 'Well, the women in Corinth were chattering and gossiping during the meeting, they were maybe even asking questions. They used to sit away from the men, segregated, as people did in the Jewish synagogue, and the women were starting to shout out questions in the middle of the meeting'. Now listen: such an interpretation is totally and utterly untenable, because you can't find anything to do with that within this passage or anything in the Scriptures at all.
Not only that, this word 'speak', 'they are not to speak', is the word 'lalleo' (sp?) which does not mean 'chatter' in New Testament Greek. In fact, over 300 occurrences in the New Testament of this word have the meaning to literally 'speak', not to chatter. In fact, this word in John chapter 9:29, is used of God speaking. In John 17 it is used of Christ speaking. In Acts 28 it is used of the Holy Ghost speaking. There's no one here who would say that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit chatters or gossips, is there? In fact, around 24+ times this word is used in this very chapter, and it's got to do always with speaking, not chattering, and it's got to do with speaking in tongues, speaking in prophecy, speaking in revelation, speaking the word of God - it is talking about speaking authoritatively.
Now that's clear unless you want it to be otherwise - there's no way round it, it's simple, it's clear, it's plain, to me it's authoritative - and it's really pathetic when you see some lengths that people will go to explain this away. Some say: 'Well, verses 34 and 35 should be after verse 40, and they shouldn't be where God's Holy Spirit has put them'. Others say: 'Well, Paul didn't write these words, some later scribe copying out the passage just added it because he was a male chauvinist pig'. Then there's others who say: 'Well, he's just talking about teaching, that women shouldn't teach, but it doesn't mean they can't speak' - even though the fact is here that they're not even allowed to do something as simple as asking a question, that's even forbade! The most popular explanation to this verse is that it's specific to Corinth, he's just talking about a Corinthian situation, when what he says is: this is to all the churches.
I don't have time to show you tonight, but he says it right throughout this book - yet a lot of people today take this book and say: 'This is just for Corinth', yet in chapter 4 and verse 17 he says this is to all the churches, in chapter 7 verse 17 he says it, chapter 11 to do with headcoverings in verse 16 he says we have no other custom in all of the churches - and here, to do with this very thing, 14 and verse 33, he says this is not something that's specific to Corinth, it's to all the churches. They are, as women, to keep silent.
Now what does that 'keep silence' mean. Well, if you look at verse 28 and verse 30 the word is used: 'If there be no interpreter', to do with tongues, 'let him keep silence' - that means what? He is to stop speaking. Verse 30, here's the word again: 'If any thing be revealed to another', that is, the prophet, 'let the first hold his peace' - 'hold his peace' is the word 'silence', what does it mean? Stop talking. The exact same word is used here of the women, that they are to stop speaking publicly. Now, I know what's maybe in your mind: 'Oh, but does he not say', back in chapter 11 we dealt with this in verse 5: 'every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven'. Is he not saying: 'Well, it's OK to pray as a woman or prophesy as a woman as long as you've your head covered'? Has he not legislated it there? The answer is no, he has not, simply because he is either contradicting himself, or he is saying categorically that women are not to speak - you can't have one or the other, because it's definitely saying this in chapter 14, and it's so clear that we must interpret chapter 11 in the light of chapter 14. What we find, I believe, is that Paul is addressing two different issues. In chapter 11 he's not addressing women preaching, he's not addressing them prophesying or praying, he's addressing the fact that there was so much chaos in Corinth that they were all doing it without their heads covered! But when Paul comes to address women speaking and preaching in chapter 14 what does he say? It is not to be done! Chapter 11 is about headship, chapter 14 is about order.
The word of God does not contradict - and just in case you're doubting that Paul reinforces it by saying in verse 34: 'as also sayeth the law'. What did the law say? Well the law, probably the first five books of the Bible, and of course we go right to the very beginning of it and we find right away women's submission to man. Not very popular today, but the fact of the matter is, a result of the fall in Genesis 3:16 was God said: 'Thy desire', woman, 'shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee'. This has got nothing to do with culture, it's got to do with two facts of history.
Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 11: 'Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve'. There is the first reason, a fact of history, Adam was formed first. The second reason, verse 14: 'And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression' - the woman was the first to be deceived. You mightn't like it, but that's the fact! 'Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing', the childbearing, the definite article is there in the Greek, 'if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety'. I believe that means that when they look after the home and their family, they will be saved from the error of usurping authority over the male in the church and in life.
Now, what do we succumb to? Do we succumb to the culture of the day, or do we succumb to the teaching of the word of God? In fact, Paul is categoric, he says in verse 35 that they're not even allowed to be permitted to ask a question publicly in the church - and I think the reason why that was, when the women were told to keep silent - and this isn't a slur on you, but it's hard, isn't it? I know it's hard, isn't it? It's not hard? It's hard! And some of them were getting round this prohibition by asking questions in order to speak, and you can actually - believe it or not - teach by asking a question, and by inference, and by planting a seed in someone's mind, and so Paul said: 'Don't even ask a question'. Then the clever-clogs come: 'Well, this is a married woman, isn't it? What about the unmarried women and what about the widows?'. Well, this is a general principle Paul is laying down, and in fact I think he's saying: 'Look go and ask a man if you've got a question, not in the church, go and ask a man after the meeting'. It might be your father, it might be your brother, it might be the elders - in fact this verse could be translated: 'Let them ask the menfolk', 'andres' (sp?) is the word, 'Let them ask the menfolk at home'.
Can I just say, it is sad to say that many of the menfolk would have to ask the womenfolk when they got home, because the menfolk are so deficient in the knowledge of the word of God. I don't know why that is, but one reason why women increasingly are taking over in authority and leadership in our churches today is not just the ignorance of Scripture - and it is that - but is also the timidity, and I would say the femininity, of some of the men who sit with their mouths shut! They're backward, but if you're in doubt about this thing Paul says: 'It is a shame for women to speak in the church' - equally it's a shame for the men not to do it and allow the women to take over in doing it. I was astounded at being in a Baptist church recently where a woman was in the pulpit for 45 minutes leading the singing, and the pastor was only in the pulpit for 30! You make your own conclusions.
Paul is clear: it is a shame, and the word is 'it is indecent'. Call me what you like, but I'll stand by the word of God! Incidentally it is no coincidence that like Corinth, many of the churches today that practice speaking in tongues and claim these gifts of healing and charismatic gifts, permit women to engage in ministry, have women pastors, women elders, and all the rest - they're in the leadership, they have a speaking ministry. Many of the charismatic groups that have sprung up in our day began with women at their helm, just as many of the cults. Look at so-called Christian Science - Mrs Baker-Eddy was the leading prophet, wasn't she? Seventh-Day Adventism, Mrs Ellen White was the founder of it with her great prophecies.
Now listen, don't misunderstand what I'm saying tonight: Paul is not saying, and I am not saying, that there is no ministry for women. You'll like this one: their primary ministry is the home. Don't shoot me now, I'm only the messenger - it doesn't mean they can't work, I didn't say that, but if your work takes away from your priority of the home there's something wrong, that's not God's order. But yes, they have other ministries, I'm not chaining you to the sink! Women may be highly gifted as teachers, they may be highly gifted as leaders, but that does not mean that they teach and they lead over the men, usurping authority when the church is met together. If you look at Titus 2, you see that they have a responsibility, the older women, to teach the younger women. You need to have a gift of teaching to do that, you need to be able to lead the younger women - is that done? I hope it is. But there are spheres for these things, because God is a God of order, He does not contradict Himself - and I think that are even things that women can do evangelistically in the gospel that is not permitted within the assembly, but Paul is saying that when the church is met together - by the way, the church isn't a building - when the church is met together everything must be done according to God's order, and God's order whether you like it or not, or I like it, is that the women are silent.
Thirdly and finally: there must be order among the churches. Verse 36 to 40, and this is so important as a summary of everything that we've said. Verse 36: 'What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?'. Now Paul realised, just as I realise tonight, that his teaching was going to cause contention. People say to me sometimes: 'David, you'll never ever get a call to another church, because of all the views you take' - now I don't want a call to another church yet, I don't want a call - but the fact of the matter is I don't care, and I mean that, who likes me or who dislikes me...I have to stand by this word. It's all I've got, it's all the church should have. Do you know what Paul is saying? 'Did you write the word of God, Corinthians?'. Oh, we could say that to some of our churches and denominations tonight, and I would love to hear their answer - and I challenge them for their answer! Have they written the word of God? Or did the word of God come out of them changed? His implication is: they're claiming to know more about the word of God than the great apostle Paul, and they're changing the word of God to suit themselves! That's what's happening, say what you like, but there are many denominations who put the church tradition as legitimate as the Scriptures. There are these new charismatics who put new prophecies against the word of God, and claim that they are legitimate and at times even overrule the Scriptures - but Isaiah said: 'To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them!'.
It's their own ideas, Paul says, it's their own interpretations - but in verse 37 he says these that I give to you: 'are the commandments of the Lord'. My friends, Paul wasn't giving his own prejudices, his own opinions, his own conclusions, he is giving the word of God - and he says in verse 38: 'If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant'. In other words, if a person refuses to acknowledge the inspiration of what I say and bow to obey the word of God, he'll just have to continue being ignorant because there isn't an alternative. There isn't an alternative - in fact one translation translates it like this: 'If he ignores this', ie Paul's authority as an apostle, if he ignores Paul, 'he himself will be ignored by Paul and by the churches'. There are men who occupy pulpits in our land, and who were known as great teachers of the word of God, and tonight they are nowhere because they left the word of God!
Fellowship is based on the word of God, and those who wilfully reject the word, they shouldn't need to be ostracised, they should be automatically broken off because they have laid God's word aside. So he sums it up in verses 39 and 40: 'Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues'. There's a relative importance here: the church should desire prophecy because it edifies the most, but you shouldn't despise the gift of tongues - and please do not misinterpret us as doing so. We do not: we believe it is of God, as it was in the New Testament - we don't believe it's around today in the claimings of the charismatics and pentecostals, that is of the devil most of it. But we believe God gave this gift by His Spirit, and if He wanted to give it to somebody today for His own purposes He could in His own will - but He doesn't choose to it would seem.
Desire earnestly, and don't ban any gift, and in verse 40 here he concludes the whole matter with this principle overarching everything: 'Let all things be done decently and in order' - all things, everything! Now I couldn't conclude better than the way Paul did to the church at Thessalonia, and I read these words as I close tonight on this sub-series until we meet after Christmas to look at the subject of bodily resurrection in chapter 15. Listen to Paul's words in verses 19 to 23 of 1 Thessalonians 5: 'Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ'. Amen.
O our Father, we thank Thee tonight for the word of God, and we thank Thee our Father that it is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. It fully furnishes us unto all good works, and our Father we pray that we will take it and, like Ezekiel, that we will devour it, and it will be digested in our being until all that we are and have will always be in accordance to God's order. Father we live, we believe, in a day when there is a famine of the word of God. It grieves us to see, at times. what we turn to as Thy children. Forgive us, revive us again, and may there be a revival, even in our land, of the preaching of God's word. Deliver us from the gimmicks, the methods and the madness of men, and our Father let us have fresh enthusiasm and belief that God's word does the work. Lord, we pray even here, that as a testimony to the power of Thy word, and the authority of Thy word, and the sufficiency of Thy word, that You would show even this corner of the vineyard to be a place where God honours His word, and where God blesses it. May we go away, Lord, even tonight, and search the Scriptures to see if these things are so, and if anything that has been said has been in discord to Thy word, forgive us and retract it we pray. For it is Christ's glory we ask, and in His name we part with Thy blessing, Amen.
Don't miss part 37 of the 1 Corinthians Study Series: "The Evidence For The Resurrection"
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Transcribed by:
Andrew Watkins
Preach The Word.
December 2003
www.preachtheword.com
info@preachtheword.com
This sermon was delivered at The Iron Hall Assembly in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Pastor David Legge. It was transcribed from the thirty-sixth tape in his 1 Corinthians series, titled "God's Order" - Transcribed by Andrew Watkins, Preach The Word.
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