The Women are to Keep Silent in the Churches
(1Cor. 14:34)
let’s all be reminded of:
- The vitally important role godly women play in the church!
| Rules of
Speech |
Elaboration | Justification | |
|
Tongues |
2 or 3,
in turn, one interprets |
no interpreter
= keep silent |
speak to himself
and God, not church |
|
Prophets |
2 or 3,
others weigh, one by one |
revelation to
one sitting, first keep silent |
spirits of prophets
are subject to prophets |
|
Women |
keep silent,
subjection, as Law says |
learn by asking
men at home |
improper for
a woman to speak in church |
Paul’s 4 arguments against women speaking in church
What about women singing, etc. in church?
Universal application (not just to the church in Corinth, not just the culture of Paul’s day, not just to the time of “gifts”) – this subjection was God’s plan from the beginning!
- The gifts of tongues and prophecy have been done away with now that “the perfect” has come (cf. 1Cor. 13:8-10) = God’s completed revelation.
- But let’s still do all things “properly and in an orderly manner” (1Cor. 14:40) = women silent in the churches!
————————————————
This is not a matter of superiority/inferiority – but different roles God has assigned in the church!
- The tongue-speaker/prophet of 1Cor.14:28/30 who was to “keep silent” was not “inferior” to the others!
- Not all men can fill the role of elders in the church, but this doesn’t mean they are inferior to the men who are elders! It’s just different roles.
- Similarly, women cannot fill speaking roles in the church, but this doesn’t mean that women are inferior to men. It’s just different roles.