THE TRUTH OF "SILENCE IN THE CHURCH"
1 Corinthians 14:34 – “Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. They should be submissive, just as the law says.” (NLT)
As the daughter of a woman preacher, I face a lot of opposition from the more conservative of my brothers and sisters in Christ. I pity them, really. They don’t understand the true meaning behind 1 Corinthians 14:34. The intention behind it was for the sake of an orderly service. The word “woman” does not mean the female gender. It means the congregation as a whole must keep quiet and submissive.
Today, I got a first hand look at what Paul was trying to prevent. There was a person in church today who kept yelling to the pastor and disrupting the sermon. He started by muttering to himself and clapping, but he got much louder as time went on. He started yelling to the pastor finishing his sentences and telling jokes. What’s worse is that he was in the same pew as my husband and I. It got so bad I couldn’t hear the sermon’s conclusion. Finally, my Sunday School teacher slipped between us. He got the man to finally hush up, and I was able to unplug my ear. Thank God.
It was a very frustrating experience. I now fully understand why Paul was trying to say, and it’s a valuable lesson to be learned. Everyone in the congregation should keep quiet so that the pastor may speak peacefully and the people may hear it. I was unable to hear the sermon effectively today. The disturbance was not caused by a woman, but that didn’t make it any less distracting.
