Tom writes:

The bit about women keeping silent feels like a stinking kipper round the chops of our church practice. Should women really never preach? The great theologian Matthew Henry thought so - “Our spirit and conduct should be suitable to our rank. The natural distinctions God has made, we should observe.... For this reason women must be silent in the churches, not set up for teachers”. We should commend Henry that he is trying to submit himself to the word rather than have the word submit to him. Far worse is just to dismiss the verses that don’t fit with our desires. Much danger that way lies. But there is good reason to question Henry’s conclusion. What Matthew Henry seems to have done is give these four verses (32-35) primacy over the many other statements in the book that suggest men and women should both be actively involved in church life. The whole of this section of the letter (chapters 11-14) focuses on how church gatherings are everyone getting to play. Throughout this section Paul has used the Greek word that means “men and women” when talking about people receiving gifts from the Spirit to build others up. This chapter includes men and women in the call to eagerly desire the gift of prophecy and in chapter 11 Paul talked specifically about how women should dress when they were giving prophecies in church. Because Traditional understandings of prophecy included many aspects of preaching we can see that the major thrust of this letter is strongly supportive of women vocally engaging in church life.

We also know the wider context of New Testament church practice (which Paul references here) did have people like Priscilla and Junia acting as pastor/teachers in churches. So in our church we do let women preach. More than that; we encourage them to preach and to prophesy so as to comfort, encourage and strengthen the church. Women; we need you and we are deeply grateful for your service to us all. But, with that all said, I must admit these 4 verses still do baffle me. I don’t want to just write them off and therefore I am trying to work out exactly what Paul means in them. Why couldn’t he have been a bit clearer? Thank the Lord that even the bible itself acknowledges some of Paul’s letters are hard to understand (2 Peter 3:16). These stinking kippers aren’t easy. But they can wake us up to the mystery of God’s Presence. They can increase our longing to see Him face to face.

Question for reflection

What do you do with the hard bits of the bible? How do they draw you deeper into God?

1 Corinthians 14 - Tuesday 4th June