Free Bible Commentary
“1 Corinthians 14:34-40”
Categories: 1 Corinthians“The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church. Was it from you that the word of God first went forth? Or has it come to you only? If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandment. But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues. But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.”
---End of Scripture verses---
Okay, so the assembly was being disrupted by people prophesying at the same time, and speaking at the same time, and in foreign languages at that! To add to the confusion, some women were asking questions and trying to address the assembly as well. Maybe they were “gifted” women who thought they had the right to exercise their gift in the assembly just as the men did. Paul said that this was not permissible in the church at Corinth, nor in any of “the churches”, as far as that was concerned.
The term “keep silent” (verse 34) literally means “to say nothing”. Just like in verses 28-30 where Paul told the “tongue-speakers” and the prophets to “keep silent” while someone else was speaking to the congregation, the women were “not permitted to speak” in the context of addressing the assembly. This was not just a matter of orderliness but also an issue of subjection. Just as “the Law also says” (Genesis 3:16), the man should exercise “headship” over the woman (1 Corinthians 11:3).
Paul made the argument for the submission of women having its foundation in “the Law” in 1 Timothy 2:11-14 as well. There Paul carried the basis for his reasoning all the way back to the Creation. “A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.”
“Was it from you that the word of God first went forth? Or has it come to you only” (verse 36)? These two questions imply that the church at Corinth had no right to teach and practice things differently than what had been delivered to them from authoritative sources. The word of God did not go forth from the congregation at Corinth. It was first issued forth from Jerusalem by the Apostles of Jesus Christ. The Corinthians needed to conform to the revealed, established, authorized pattern that had been delivered by the inspired men who had been given “the keys of the kingdom” by Jesus himself (Matthew 16:19).
The same is true of all local churches that claim to be “of Christ” and that desire to worship and serve the God of heaven. It is essential for all people to study the New Testament pattern that has already and permanently been established for the work, worship and “structure” of autonomous “churches of Christ” (Romans 16:16). No congregation is free to teach and practice what they cannot find authorized by command, example or inference in the pages of the New Testament. The word that “went forth” did not come to the church at Corinth “only”. The same authoritative word revealing the same pattern has gone out into all the world, and it has not and will not change no matter how “old” it gets.
“If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandment” (verse 37). Paul wrote these words, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, nearly 2000 years ago; and they are still just as much the commandments of God today as they were when they were first written. Cultures change, opinions change, attitudes change, but the word of God always stays the same (Matthew 24:35)! No matter how badly our culture twists the definitions and roles and “identities” of “gender”, it is God that still makes us male and female (Mark 10:6)! And the Lord has structured our roles in such a way that men should be in positions of leadership over women. The world will handle its affairs in the ways that it sees fit. But in our homes and in the local churches of Christ, we must honor His will and His divine arrangements.
Please read 1 Corinthians 15:1-10 for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
- Louie Taylor
