1st Corinthians ā Wayne Barber/Part 102
By: Dr. Wayne Barber; ©2009 |
Weāre talking about order in the church and this part 3, as Paul is trying to get some kind of integrity back into the worship experience of Corinth. Thereās no way in the worldāweāve said it over and over againāthat we can recreate or fully understand the chaos and the confusing situations going on in Corinth. |
1 Corinthians 14:34-35
Contents
Introduction
John Ankerberg: Hi, this is John Ankerberg and today I want to present to you my very, very good friend, Dr. Wayne Barber. For 18 years he was pastor of the huge Woodland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was co-teacher with Kay Arthur for 14 years at Precept Ministries. He studied with Dr. Spiros Zodhiates and co-hosted with him the national radio and TV program āNew Testament Lightā for 10 years. Wayne has taught the message of living grace, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, all around the world. He is president, founder and principle speaker of Living Grace Ministries. And in February 2011 he returned to Woodland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as senior pastor. Wayne has authored several books. The most recent one is entitled Living Grace: Letting Jesus Be Jesus in You. And heās also co-authored the Following God series of studies published by AMG. I hope that youāll enjoy listening to Dr. Wayne Barber.
Order in the Church ā Part 3
Dr. Wayne Barber: Would you turn with me this morning to 1 Corinthians 14. Weāre going to be looking in verses 34-35. And I know youāre thinking, Wayne, youāre go so slow. Will you ever get out of chapter 14? Well, I want to promise you I canāt wait to get out chapter 14. Iām just having to go kind of slow so we donāt get messed up here. I think Iāve made just about everybody mad, so today I might as well complete this picture, as weāre dealing with the women speaking in the church. Oh, dear!
Weāre talking about order in the church and this part 3, as Paul is trying to get some kind of integrity back into the worship experience of Corinth. Thereās no way in the worldāweāve said it over and over againāthat we can recreate or fully understand the chaos and the confusing situations going on in Corinth. Thereās no way. Their public worship was a sham and both the men and the women were to blame. There were no spiritual leaders amongst the men and there were not many women who were willing to submit if there was. And so itās just a real mess there and the women were out of control as well as the men. And so heās trying to put some order back into their service.
I have so much respect for the apostle Paul. He loves these people, and for that reason heās willing to step right in the midst of a really difficult situation, right in the midst of everything they were doing and tell them they were wrong. Now, either heās incredibly stupid or heās an anointed man of God, one or the other, because he just goes against the whole Corinthian denomination. He steps right in their face and says everything youāre doing is nothing more than flesh, and he tries to help them get it back on its feet to where it brings glory to God and not to the experiences of man. That took a lot of love for them and that took a lot of love for the Lord Jesus. And, you know, in 4:14, let me remind you, he didnāt say anything to them to shame them or to try to put them down. He said, āI do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.ā
Well in verses 27-40, after 26 verses of dealing with them speaking in this gibberish that nobody understood, finally he comes down and says, okay, now hereās the way your services are going to have to be. He puts the order back into them. In verse 27 he makes a concession. The little word et is the word thatās sort of a concession, where it sounds like saying, āalright.ā I mean, heās done this twice in this study. You can almost feel the frustration that he has of dealing with people that donāt want to be dealt with. Itās kind of the way it is today. You talk to people about what the Word of God says, theyāll throw their experience right back in your face. They donāt care. And every time you come back to the Word theyāll do the same thing.
Well, Paul was going through the same frustration. I get the feeling of that as I studied, and we see some of these words that he uses. And in verse 27 he says, āIf anyone speaks in a tongue.ā And if youāve not been with us, āa tongueā is that gibberish thatās going on. He distinguishes ālanguages,ā tongues plural, from āa tongue,ā with whatās going on there in Corinth. That was nothing more than a gibberish. It came right out of their pagan worship 30 miles down the road, the oracles of Delphi, and then drug it right back into their experience there at the church. They thought it was spiritual. They even thought it was a sign to the believer. And heās already corrected that error. And he says in verse 27, āIf anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each one in turn and let one interpret.ā
Now the little word āif,ā again, is used and heās saying alright, alright, alright. If youāre going to do it, itās going to have to be this way. Thereās an order to it. Two, or at the most three, and you donāt do it all at one time. You do it one at a time. And there are two things heās making sure of. It tells you a lot of whatās going on their service. One is that nobodyās speaking at the same time and thereās no more than three. Secondly, that it be interpreted, that it be interpreted. You see, when somebody speaks in a gibberish it canāt be interpreted. And so you see the subtlety of what heās telling them right here. In other words, heās creating a hypothetical situation. This really canāt happen, but for the sake of argument, if youāre going to do it, youāre going to have to do it this way. He cleverly slips in the nail that just sort of slams it shut. He says in verse 28, āBut if there is no interpreter.ā What, thereās no interpreter? What? Nobody can understand what youāre saying, then he says, alright, ālet them keep silent in the church. Let him speak to himself or to God.ā Because nobody else understands you, and you donāt know what youāre saying. Maybe God can get something out of it, but you donāt know what youāre saying. But donāt bring in the public worship service,ā he said. No one can translate a gibberish, and thatās what heās talking about.
Well in verses 29-33 he addresses those who speak in an understandable language. He moves from them to the prophets. Now remember, the canon was not complete. There was no formal doctrine that had been yet formulated for the church. It was being done as Paul was writing. So they had prophets a little differently, and perhaps these were the prophets of the early New Testament church. We see them phased out. We donāt have them anymore because we have the canon, we have the Word of God. But one would stand and speak and then another perhaps would give fresh revelation to what he had just said, but it all had to be accountable. And he said āLet two or three prophets speak.ā And of course when a prophet would speak you had to understand what they said. āAnd let the others pass judgment.ā And just to say this, not to go back and re-preach what weāve already done, but in review, pass judgment means to have the discernment to be able to hold the one who had spoken or is speaking accountable to what God has said.
And so, again, you see the emphasis on the content of what one says. How can you ever say that speaking in a gibberish has any content to it, because it has no understanding to it? Even the prophets have to be accountable. And they speak in an understandable language. āBut if a revelation is made to another who is seated, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted.ā
Now their way of doing things was drastically different than today. Anybody who would go into this chapter and try to mimic that way of worship misses the whole point. Thatās just the way they were doing it in that time. But the point that we can glean from them is that the one who was speaking, there was respect for him. And so what was being said, everybody else wasnāt chaotic and trying to speak at the same time. Let the one who is speaking speak, let him be accountable for what he says.
Then verse 32, āAnd the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.ā That word āspiritsā has to do with the mind, the understanding. And what heās saying is the prophet who is doing the speaking must be in control of what heās saying. Now, how different is this from those who would stand up and speak in a gibberish that nobody understood, totally out of control? He says, now listen, you prophets, when you speak, the other ones canāt because there wonāt be an interpreter. But when you speak youāre accountable also and you be in control of what youāre saying. Donāt let it be a babbling gibberish.ā Verse 33: āFor God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.ā And the word āconfusionā there is the word that means God is not the God of that which is out of order. God is not the God of that which is disruptive. It had to do with all that was going on in Corinth.
Now, as Paul continues his efforts now to put order back into the church, I believe now he begins to allude to the very root of the problem of all of it. Now, when I read this youāre going to think that Iām saying the women were the root of the problem. I know you are. I know you are. But donāt you do that to me. You let me finish everything Iām going to say today, because youāre going to be a lot happier than you think youāre going to be, ladies. You think Iām going to get on your case. Itās going to be a lot nicer and softer than you thought. Verse 34, however, says, āLet the women keep silent in the church.ā Now donāt get mad at me, I didnāt write this. āFor they are not permitted to speak, but let them subject themselves just as the law also says. And 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.ā
Now what is Paul doing here? I know what heās doing. He wrote this to get me in trouble in the 20th century. He knew that Wayneās going to get everybody mad at him before this thingās over. Now, what is he doing by bringing the women up? What role do they have in whatās going on, and speaking in this gibberish? That is his theme now, of all of chapter 14, is speaking in this babbling, this silliness of saying stuff that nobody can understand. Heās putting it down, putting it down big time. Why does he bring the women now, into the picture?
The definition
Well, letās just wade into a very controversial area. Some places you go you put on hip boots, and some places you go you put on chest waders. I need a scuba tank. But letās ease into it. First of all we need a definition. āLet the women keep silent in the churches.ā Thatās sort of an oxymoron, isnāt it? I heard somebody say, I was speaking in the book of the Revelation once, and I heard somebody say, āI know thereās no women going to be in heaven.ā And I said āWhy?ā āCause it says right here that thereās silence in heaven for 30 minutes.ā I said no, no, no, okay. Everythingās fine. Iām going to dig a hole for myself before this thingās over with.
One of the things that most women, most men, donāt know is that the word for woman and the word for wife are the same words in the Greek language. And the word for woman is gune. Now we have to determine whether heās speaking to the womenāobviously heās speaking to womenābut is he referring specifically to the wives, because the word means the same thing? There are those who say that Paul is giving a general principle that no woman can speak in church. They have to be silent. They canāt do anything in church, canāt pray, canāt speak, cannot do anything. Now, ladies, I think this is totally incorrect. So relax, Iām on your side. Iām not in the camp that they say what theyāre saying. Now, you say, āWhy is that, Wayne?ā Iām going to explain it to you. Just stay with me.
In making our decision here weāve got to make that determination, however. Is it a woman or is he speaking of wives specifically? Now the same thing you have to do in 1 Timothy 2:12 when it says, āBut I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.ā Now, again, youāve got to make up your own mind. Is he talking about wives there, a wife over a husband, or is he speaking of women and men, because the words are the same in the Greek text. You say,ā Wayne, what do you think?ā Iām not getting into that. Iāve got enough on my hands this morning. Thatās 1 Timothy 2. But thatās the same type of thing you get into when you look at this word. Youāve got to make up your mind.
Well, if youāll look at verse 35, I think he clears up the answer for us in 1 Corinthians 14. To me it clears up the problem. āAnd 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.ā Now, āif they desire.ā Who are the āthey?ā If theyāre just any woman, whose husband is she going to ask? It sounds to me like heās talking about wives. If the wives have a problem, go to their husband. Why he singles that out I donāt know, but thatās the way I see the text. If heās saying a woman must keep silent in the church that canāt be right, because she canāt prayāwe saw that back in chapter 11 where they canāand prophesy, they canāt speak or they canāt even sing. Thatās not what heās saying.
But heās saying something different, and I think heās speaking to the wives right here, has a very direct word for them. And I think heās also saying to the husbands, āhusbands, you be in control of your wives.ā Now what was going on in the Corinthian church, again, we canāt enter into. Thereās no way weāre going to be able to mimic it today. But it was so chaotic evidently there was a problem there with women and he, to set order back in the church, instead of dealing with all the women, dealt with the wives and put them under a principle. āIf youāll get back under submission to your husband then we can have order there, then we can have order within the church.ā
Somehow the women were a part of the confusion that was going on in Corinth. Now, I know some people donāt like that, but heās very clear. He didnāt say, āChildren, you go home and ask your parents.ā He didnāt say, āWives, yank a knot in your husbandās head.ā He said, āYou wives, you women,ā he said āyou be quiet; and if youāve got a question, you go home and ask your husband.ā Now, thereās a cultural piece of the puzzle that might fit in here, because in the setting of the synagogues the women would sit on one side and the men would sit on another. If you go to Eastern Europe normally, now not all of them, but normally the women will be on one side, the men will be on the other side. They still do it to this day. And you can see immediately how that would create a problem. If the husbandās sitting over here and the wifeās sitting over here with another group of ladies, and it gets real emotional, look out, because howās the husband going to keep his wife under submission? So Paul says if you can get that in check, then order can come back into the services they were having.
And to me, thatās my opinion of what heās speaking of here. And youāve got to check it out for yourself. Iāve never said Iām the authority. Godās Word is the authority. But as I see the text he speaks of wives and he speaks of husbands. And heās saying you wives, you be in submissive to your husbands. And you husbands, you help me handle this problem, because if youāll handle, if youāll take care and put your wife under control, then we can have order within the church. So the women had something to do with the chaotic situation of speaking in a gibberish in the early Christian church. And the way Paul sees order is by telling them to get back under submission to their husbands so that they can have order in both areas.
You remember one of the judgments to Israel in the Old Testament was youāll know youāre being judged by the fact that women shall rule over you and when women get out of control. As a matter of fact, just for a second here, turn over to 2 Timothy. I want to show you something. Now, you do understand that all that went on in the pagan situation down 30 miles of road from Corinth was a very emotional thing when those oracles of Delphi would speak in that gibberish and that babbling. Now, Iāll tell you what, ladies, you understand what Iām saying. Men are not emotional enough, but more often than not, women are very emotional and get caught up in different things and are easily deceived because of it. You say, āNow, Wayne, youāre reading that into Scripture.ā Am I?
Look in 2 Timothy 3:6. Heās dealing with false teachers, and I want to show you who they prey on. A false teacher is one, he says, āFor among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins.ā You see, thatās whatās going on in Corinth. Thereās so much sin nobodyās dealing with it. And he says, āLed on by [what?] various impulses,ā the emotions of the time. Now this is the same way. He said in another passage, he says Adam sinned, but Eve was deceived. And itās very important to understand. If you can get the women and the men to get their act together, and to get the women in order at home, and the men becoming the spiritual leader of that woman, then thatās going to bring order into the church.
The classification
So in the sense of a definition here we need a definition. And I think the woman is the wife. He speaks very specifically to her. But then secondly, all of us also need a classification. What is he talking about? Especially ladies, if you want to know whatās going on here youāre going to have to know what is it you canāt speak. Verse 34: āLet the women keep silent in the churches; for theyāre not permitted to speak.ā Speak what? Well, the verb that is used for āspeakā in verse 34 is the word laleo. Itās always usedānow, it can be used in other placesābut itās always used when it comes to speaking in singular, leo. You wouldnāt use the word lego, which is the word of meaning speaking intelligently. You wouldnāt use that. You would use none of the other words that are used for speak. You only use laleo. And matter of fact, chapter 14 will show you what Iām talking about. Look in verse 2. The only word, now itās used in other verses, but when you bring up āspeaking in a tongue,ā laleo.
And we covered this back in chapter 12, but for the sake of you that havenāt been with us weāll look at it just for a second. Verse 2: āFor one who speaks in a tongue [laleo] does not speak to men but to God.ā Verse 4 of chapter 14: āOne who speaks [laleo] āin a tongue edifies himself.ā Verse 13: āTherefore let one who speaks [laleo] in a tongue.ā Verse 19, and Paul is speaking of himself, but heās contrasting whatās going on, so he uses that word. āHowever, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.ā And then in verse 27, āIf anyone speaks [laleo] in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and let one interpret.ā The root meaning of the word laleo, and again it can be used in other ways, but the root understanding of it is simply by, according to Kittelās, according to all the resources I went to, was simply a babbling; to make a noise, an uncertain noise. It was used of the sounds of animals.
Anybody in here say they understand an animal? Iāve had people tell me that. Iām thinking, you know, you were weird before you told me that, and now youāve convinced me. I mean, understanding the sounds of animals. Itās used of musical instruments that are out of tune. Do you get the picture? Laleo, an uncertain sound, not a certain sound. Whenever God speaks, whenever His Word speaks, when the Law speaks itās never used, the word laleo. Itās the word lego, and itās the word for meaning intelligently speaking.
So in the context here what is he talking about? Itās not right for a woman to speak in church. What heās saying is heās tying the women right to the gibberish thatās going on in Corinth. And thatās what heās driving at. This has been the context of the whole chapter. And in verse 34 thatās what heās saying, when itās not well, women cannot speak that gibberish within the church. If he wanted to say women cannot speak intelligently he would have changed the words, lego, but he did not. He left it laleo. His whole discussion is wrapped around the problem, the controversy thatās going on in Corinth. Lalean, the present active infinitive of laleo, has the particular and predominant meaning of make a noise, babble, an uncertain sound. Now what does that tell you? Again of the women being right in the core of this fleshly practice thatās going on in the church of Corinth.
Paul is not speaking of intelligent speak. Itās never forbidden of a woman to speak to a group as long as sheās under authority, as Timothy talks about in, to her husband and to the church. Itās never wrong for her to be able to share, to stand and share the Word of God. There are some who say it is. No sir, itās not. But itās always wrong for her to speak in that babbling in that gibberish.
Now, all of chapter 14 has been addressing this. But in nothing Paul is saying is he putting down women. Now, ladies, donāt get bent out of shape. Donāt get bent out of shape. Donāt get your hair uncurled over all of this stuff. Heās not putting you down. What heās saying is heās identifying the source of the problem, but heās also saying not only is it wrong for you to speak, itās wrong for your husband or any man. Itās wrong for anyone to do that within the congregation, the public worship. Back in verse 13 he says, āTherefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret;ā anyone, it doesnāt matter who it is, man or woman. Verse 27, āIf anyone,ā anyone is the key, āspeaks in a tongue, it must be by two, at the most three and each in turn and then let one interpret.ā If he canāt interpret it, be quiet, men, women, all of them. But the reason heās bringing up the women again is because theyāre at the core of the problem of whatās going on in Corinth. He doesnāt want them speaking in the air. He says in 14:9, āso also you unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, understandable how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air.ā
Now, I want to make sure you understand what Iām saying. Heās not putting the ladies down. Heās identifying the problem. You say, āWayne, youāre trying to read something in.ā Iām not reading anything in. Iām just telling you, I didnāt write this. But the women were at the center, core of it and it was this speaking in a babbling and a gibberish and calling it a spiritual gift and even thinking that it was a sign to believers. And earlier in the chapter he blew that theory completely out of the water. By bringing up the wives of these men, he also is indicting those husbands I want to tell you, because those husbands evidently were not leading their families as they should have been. They werenāt the spiritual leaders that they should have been, because if their wives are out of control in church, you know that theyāre out of control at home.
I wonder thisāand I only wonder it and Iāll probably get letters on itābut I wonder this. If you took all the women out of the movement that has been along ever since Corinth, of speaking in a gibberish and in this other language and calling it spiritual, if you took every woman out of it, what would be left of that movement? What would be left of it? If youāve ever watched, just pay attention; did you know that 80% of all the Christian books, no matter who wrote them, are bought by women? Only 20% are bought by men. And if youāll look at the big conferences and places and watch it on television, look at the audience. And it was the same problem in the church at Corinth. Now, ladies itās no put down to you. But heās going to come now to the answer.
A transformation
The last thing I want to share with you today; itās going to take me the longest, is the answer. You have to have a definition; whoās he talking to? You have to have a classification; what is it they canāt say? And I think weāve got that down. Then we come, thereās got to be a transformation in the Corinthian church, just like thereās got to be a transformation in the church of Jesus Christ today. If youāre going to live after the flesh all kinds of chaotic things are going to come out of your life.
Now, his specific context is this, but there are other things that you can add to that. Now what we need is a change in bringing order back into the family so when the family gets in order then the order can come into the church and the church can be in order. When you see a church thatās out of order youāve got families that are out of order. And no wonder he addresses the wives and no wonder he addresses the husbands. Letās look at this transformation. I think heās alluding to the real problem, not only of Corinth, but of the church today.
Verse 34: āLet the women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak [this gibberish], but let them subject themselves,ā now watch this carefully, ājust as the law also says,ā and then he immediately goes to husbands in verse 35. Letās talk about this for a second. āLet them subject themselves.ā What is that word? Now, men, we need to stop being so hardheaded and listen to these two words. Thereās two words for subject, or to obey. And I want you to understand, this word that Iām about to tell you about is not used here. There are some men who take this as if their wife is a doormat and walk right over them. Thatās not it at all. That would be the word hupakouo. That is used when the wind would obey the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. When He spoke the wind obeyed, no questions asked. Itās the word used of a child obeying his parents. Itās the word used of a believer obeying God. But itās never used of a wife obeying her husband except in 1 Peter 3, giving the supreme example of Sarah and Abraham; the word hupakouo. So donāt get in your idea here, āIt says wives, just obey your husbands, whatever they say.ā No sir! Thatās not it, no sir, that is not it.
But thereās another word that is used here and the context is beautiful because heās not putting anybody down. Understand that. Heās trying to build you up. Heās trying to put order back into the family and order back into the church and make some sense out of this. Itās the word hupotasso. Thatās a different word. Hupo means under, tasso means to arrange yourself or to place yourself under. Itās when you have two equals. My wife and I are equals in Godās sight. Itās when my wife chooses to submit to me by putting her life and arranging herself so that I can be in the position to lead, and therefore God can deal directly with me. And if I donāt lead He chastens and disciplines and scourges those who are His own. And so that word has the idea of two equals, but one chooses to submit to the other.
When the Southern Baptist Convention brought up women or wives submitting to their husbands it brought an uproar amongst the liberals all over our country, no matter what denomination or religion. Hey, what does Godās Word say? And why would a woman do that? I can hear a woman now saying, āThat redneck. Iām more gifted than he is. Iām sharper than he is. Got a better personality. Why in the world do I have to submit to that redneck?ā Iāll tell you why. Because God said so. You say, āWell, I donāt understand that.ā What donāt you understand about submit? I mean, what part of it? Is it the first part of the word or the second part of the word? God said it. Itās kind of like a guy following a car. He says, āFollow me.ā āWhereās he going?ā I donāt know. What part of it do you not understand, āfollowā or āmeā? I mean, thatās what God said. Thatās His order.
Now, if Heās got an order in the family He definitely has an order in the church. And what heās saying is, you do it Godās way, period. You donāt do it manās way. Corinth, as knowledgeable as they were, were doing it their way, and not doing it Godās way. This tells me that the fleshly attitudes of Corinth had infiltrated the family and that there was no submission of the wives to the husbands and there was no leadership of the husbands to the wives. And this is the problem when you come together for public worship: what goes on inside that house will come out some way, in a disorder, when public worship is happening. Back in chapter 7 we got a clue about how their families were all upside down. They didnāt have a clue about anything. They even thought that sexual intimacy in marriage was a sin. Paul said, āGood grief, people, what are you doing?ā It took him a whole chapter to straighten them out. So their families were a mess.
But this also tells me; now, men, listen to me, this is not just an indictment to a woman. If youāve got a wife that is out of control in a worship service, youāve got a man somewhere thatās not fulfilling his responsibility of leading spiritually that lady. And see, even though he doesnāt bring men into the picture at all, just by bringing the wives automatically puts the men into the picture. And so thereās a twofold problem. Women that wonāt submit, but men that wonāt lead; not drive, lead.
I think heās saying when you wives are willing to start submitting to your husbands, order can be restored. You know, I can hear some lady now say, āWell, why didnāt he say if you men would start living right the wives would submit?ā Because the men were not the instigators of the problem at Corinth. The women were. Stay in the context. Donāt leave the context. I canāt answer all the questions, Iām just saying heās dealing with the women and heās saying submit to your husbands. Go home, submit to your husband. If youāve got a question ask them, but donāt come into this body of believers and continue to create the chaos and the confusion thatās going on in Corinth.
He says, āBut let them subject themselves just as the law also says.ā Now, that threw me. That threw me. What law is he talking about? I couldnāt find a law anywhere in the Mosaic law that said that women were not allowed to speak. I did find in my research that the synagogues, they wouldnāt let them talk. But hey, where do you find that in the law? They did a lot of things in the synagogue that God didnāt have in the law. Where do you find that a woman cannot speak? I couldnāt find that law. So what law is he referring to? And he leaves it open. Most of the time when itās a specific law itāll be the law of Moses, but he doesnāt put what itās referenced to. The only conclusion I can come up withāand Iām certainly not the authority; the Word of God isābut my conclusion is itās the law of order thatās all around us. The very thing that God does is decent and in order, and therefore thereās an order in the family and thereās an order in the church.
You do it Godās way. When Godās a part of something thereās order, and thereās no disruption and distortion because God does it right. In 14:40 he says, āBut let all things be done properly and in an orderly manner.ā Why? Because thatās the way God is honored. God is not honored in chaos and confusion and distortion and disturbance that can come within the body of fleshly-minded believers. This law of doing things decently and in order would apply to the men as well as to the women. And so, as according to the law, he says, you do not speak, you submit yourselves. Thereās an order in the family. Thereās an order in the church.
Then he goes on and he says in verse 35, āAnd if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home.ā Now, what in the world is he talking about? Well, now you have to bring this in. Thereās a cultural situation here that he might have been talking about, but I think itās deeper than that. But this has got to be factored in. If youāre a true student of the word youāve got to know this. If the synagogue practice had filtered into the church, then the women on one side and the men on the other side, when they had a question the women would shout across to the men and ask them if they had a question. And you can see in a minute how confusing that might be. Is that what heās saying? āGo home, take it home. Donāt do this in church. Donāt shout the questions back and forth in church.ā That makes a lot of sense to me.
But to me thatās not the root of it. If they desire to learn anything. āIf they really desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home.ā Now, hereās where Iām going to interject again my thinking on the text, and you just have to reason it out, see if itād be so. Take your questions home and put the monkey on the back of your husband so he will become the spiritual leader of your family. You know what the problem is? And I see this everywhere I go. I preach all around the world. I go in a lot of places, and because of my relationship with Precept Ministries over the years, which has been a wonderful relationship, but thereās a lot of people that have known me through the video tapes that they put out. And I have watched this, and my wife has watched this.
They line up after a service to tell me that they enjoy the tapes. Now, thatās fine and I appreciate that. They are very gracious people. But what I sometimes pick up is theyāre wanting me to get into Scripture and answer questions and questions and questions. And the thought just comes to my mind, especially when I was studying this, I wonder where their husbands are? Where are the husbands? Do you realize that a woman, by going to her husbandāyou say, āWell my husband is a redneck. He doesnāt know enough about the Word of God. He doesnāt even know where the table of contents is.ā Well, I wonder why he doesnāt know that.
Now, I want to tell you something, ladies. I know us men are going to get burned. We get burned all the time for the stuff that we do and donāt do. And the Word of God just eats our lunch. In Ephesians 5 he says women submit yourself to your husband, or wives, and then he eats the husbandās lunch for about the next 15 verses, so weāre going to get our due. Weāre going to get our due. One of the things Iāve noticed is if a man ever struggles with an immoral thought or whatever, a ladyās quick many times to just burn him because of that. And I understand that. But any man who says heās never struggled with immoral thoughts is either lying or heās dead, if weād be gut honest.
But letās just change it back to the other side for a second. What is the sin that Genesis says that a woman has? And you know what that sin is; āshe shall desire to rule over her husband,ā to be in control. Now, whatās any different? Why donāt we throw rocks back and forth? Men, get right with your sin, your flesh. But ladies, also, the same thing. Go home. Trust God. You say, āWayne, my husbandās an unbeliever. How in the world do I submit to him?ā I donāt know. Ask Simon Peter, because he wrote 1 Peter 3 and he says you ladies in the same way that Jesus submitted Himself to His Father likewise you women submit yourselves to your husbands. And if they be disbelieving husbands youāll win them without ever speaking a word. I didnāt write that. I just wonder where all the problemās coming from. God says thereās an order; trust God in the order. Donāt trust your logic to figure it out. Just go home.
I just wonder if that would not do wonders in turning the whole situation around and getting men to understand their responsibility. And I wonder if it wouldnāt keep women from getting so emotionally caught up in false doctrine that they begin to propagate it just like they did at the church of Corinth.
Where are the men that love God and that live a life not perfect, nobodyās perfect, but live consistent and predictable, and when they sin they come back to the cross? My wife told me years ago, she said, āWayne, about the only thing that made me want to submit to you was finally I saw you learn to you submit to Christ and it made it so much easier for me to submit to you.ā You get order back in the family, friend, youāre going to have order in the church. And you check out where all the emotionalism comes from. I didnāt write this, but, boy, Iāll tell you what, itās like reading the newspaper in the 20th century. Paul doesnāt speak to the young people. He doesnāt speak to the husbands. He speaks to the women, and I think reference to the wives. And if you want to get the women under control, get the wives under control. Then they can become the influence for the single women and then you begin to have order coming back into the church the way God wants it to be.
Well, wonāt you be glad to get out of chapter 14? He goes on and says, āFor it is improper,ā itās out of place, āfor a woman to speak,ā laleo one more time, coming right back to his text; itās been there all the way through, āin the church.ā This gibberish, the women had a ton to do with it and itās improper. Now, ladies, letās put order back in your family. Men, you take your leadership where you ought to have it, the right kind of leadership and then weāll have order back in the church.
We have a definition: What women is he talking about? I think heās talking about the wives to their husbands. We have classification: What is it they canāt speak? The gibberish, the babbling that was going on in Corinth. And we have, and I pray we have, a transformation to where the families can get back into order the law of God which does things decently in order. And once the families are in order, that order can also be in the church.
I hate to read directions. Thatās one of the faults of men again and thatās why weāre so hard-headed I guess. One Christmas Eve I was going to put together my sonās Christmas present, a Big Wheel. Youāve got to know our family. Youāve got to know our family. My wife looks at me when I have a screwdriver in my hand, she trembles. Iām very destructive. I can take it apart that quick, but I can never get it back together. But I said, āIām going to put this thing together.ā She said, āAre you going to read the directions?ā Directions! Itās just a Big Wheel. A kid could put this together! I worked on that thing. It wasnāt that much to work on, I mean, I put all the pieces on. It looked good. It had those big old wheels. It was a one of those sick looking greens. Remember those greens. It was sick green, had little tassels coming out of the handlebars. Had the big old wheels on it, plastic thing. And I could just envision him riding that thing the next day, and I even thought about myself trying it, but it was a little too small.
And I put it together and I was so proud. There was one thing, when youāre putting it together, thereās one thing youāve got to do. The last thing you do, you better make sure everythingās there, and thatās to put those little cap nuts on there, because if you put a cap nut on and you realize youāve made a mistake and you take it off that cap nut, it never goes back on like it first went on. Itās loose from then on. Youāre dead in the water. Is it all ready? I looked around. I couldnāt see anything. Put that thing on, those cap nuts on all the sides, and I was so proud. And I rolled that thing out across the room, and it was wobbling, and Iām thinking, wait a minute. Thatās a different way to ride. And I threw it across and it was just wobbled everywhere. And my wife walks in the room at the wrong time. āHow you doing?ā āOh, good, good, good, really good.ā āLet me see it.ā And they can tell. And she looked in the box and she said what are these four red little things right here? Oops!
Directions; the order in which you put it together; and the little things, you put them as it says so when you get it together the big thing will work like it ought to work. And I had forgotten to put those sleeves in there which would keep the thing from going, and itād go straight. So I had to take the cap nuts off. I put the wheels on after I put the sleeves on. I thought it would be okay. No! All Christmas day I spent trying to calm my son down. He was crying because his wheels fell off, trying to find the stupid cap nuts somewhere in the grass. I finally got a thing of spray paint and I spray painted them a real loud, I think it was orange or something, but some real bright color so I could start finding those cap nuts because they kept falling off.
The big thing failed because the proper order of putting the little things together wasnāt there. If you want order in the church, it doesnāt start in a church, it starts at home. It starts with a wife and husband and a family. And those families become models for those singles. And when that submission is there and the fatherās taking the leadership and you bring that back into the church, youāre going to have order in the church.