some thoughts on women in church from 1 Cor 11 and 14

Paul says that "every wife who PRAYS or PROPHESIES with her head uncovered dishonors her head" [1 Cor 11.5]. Now don't think about the definition of the spiritual gift of prophesy. Don't think about the head-covering issue. Think about the fact that Paul assumes women will PRAY and PROPHESY in church.

This reality in Paul's mind is not posited against 1 Cor 14.33-34, but alongside of it: "Women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak."

So, how is this not a flagrant contradiction? What is Paul's problem? He can't even think straight.

The context of the 1 Cor 14 passage is a discussion on orderly worship and the gift of prophecy. Paul says that when people prophesy, others should "weigh in" [ESV] or "judge" [NASB] or "evaluate" [NLT] the prophecy that was spoken [14.29-33]. It seems that Paul just doesn't want women weighing in or discerning these prophecies.

Just as there is functional subordination in the Godhead [the Son is equal is essence to the Father, but also obeyed Him], there is the same in His image bearers [see Gen 1-2]. The man and the woman bear the image together, but have distinct roles in the image-bearing process.

So, do I think women can participate in church on a Sunday morning? Sure. In what capacity? It appears a limited one. Guess we'll have to dig there later.

church membership?

There has to be some sort of mutual "membership-ish" understanding in the background of 1 Corinthians or else Paul couldn't tell them to "expel the immoral brother" [5.13].

So, what should church membership look like today? Did the Corinthians make each other sign a church covenant? How did they have a mutual and clear understanding of local church unity? It was there somehow.

Here are a few different church membership vows or church covenants that I've been reading over. Some are really incredible. I looked at Joel Osteen's church. Couldn't find one?

• The Village Church, Matt Chandler... here.
• Bethlehem Baptist, Dr John Piper... here.
• Mars Hill Bible Church, Rob Bell... here.
• Mars Hill Church, Mark Driscoll... here.

The straightforward membership summary of Mars Hill Bible Church is really beautiful:

BACKWARD, embracing the roots of our faith.
FORWARD, because the life of faith is a journey.
INWARD, because we want to be whole people.
WITHWARD, because we were made to live in community.
OUTWARD, because Jesus calls us to serve the world.
UPWARD, celebrating God's redemption of all things.

THE SPiRiT AS OUR COMFORTER

John Owen's book "Communion with God" discusses the nature of the Christian's fellowship with each member of the Trinity. Of course it was written in the mid-1600s. Nobody writes books like that any more.

Owen says that "the foundation of all our communion with the Holy Spirit lies in His being sent by Jesus Christ to be our Comforter or Helper." See John 16.1-7.

Jesus told his disciples, "It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you" [16.7].

Owen writes:

So the Lord Christ would have us know this great truth, that the presence of the Holy Spirit with believers as Comforter and Helper, sent by him as promised, is better and more profitable than his bodily presence can ever be.

Owen then writes about the essence of the Spirit's comforting presence.

The Comforter may always abide with us, though not always comfort us.

The Comforter often brings comfort to us when we do not receive it. The oasis is near, though we do not always see it.

The Comforter actually never leaves the believing soul with no comfort at all.

The Comforter, being sent and given, abides with the souls of believers and does not leave them. He reveals Himself in various ways and by various works.

He works effectively [1 Cor 12.11]. All that the Holy Spirit purposes to work in us, He fully accomplishes by His almighty power.

He works sovereignly [1 Cor 12.11]. The Holy Spirit distributes to everyone as He wills. He gives one gift to one person and another to another person. This He does of His own freedom of will, ruled by His own judgment and choice. So the saints are kept in constant dependence on Him and His sovereignty. If the Holy Spirit gives to us as He wills, then we should be content with that which He gives us.

why is love the greatest? [1 Cor 13.13]

I'm glad you asked. There are several reasons.

FIRST of all, the context is about spiritual gifts [1 Cor 12-14]. Paul's point is that the engine of all proper employment of the gifts is love. The gifts will not be needed for all time, but love will stick around.

SECOND, the nature of faith and hope is that they are not eternal. This is closely related to the first point. When we are forever gathered with God and His people, faith and hope will not be necessary. They are gifts in the present that work with love to sustain us until then. The temporal nature of faith and hope help to point to the permanence and greatness of love.

THIRD, the idea of the person of the Holy Spirit is closely tied to Paul's understanding of love [see Rom 5.1-5, Gal 5.22, Eph 4.1-3, etc]. Edwards, Augustine, and Gordon Fee do an excellent job showing this. Thus, love's enduring nature says something about God the Spirit.

FOURTH, isn't real love supposed to be perpetual by definition? Take it, Billy:

Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved

Is 1 Cor 13 Poetry?

Here.

"WALK BY THE SPiRiT" [Gal 5.16]

• The rigidity of Puritan morality.
• The extent of fundamentalism's legalism.
• The historic excess of Rome's ritualism.
• The fluidity of postmodernity's [I don't think this is a cool word anymore?] approach toward doctrine and ecclesiology.
  

I'm not saying that the above list is all bad. However, I do believe that most of any wrongness in these things comes from a specific source: a weak understanding of the Holy Spirit.

St Paul's understanding of the Spirit was that He was vital and active in the church. For Paul, the goal was never to give the Spirit a theological or theoretical head nod. I am even pressed to find an occasion where Paul's purpose is to assert the deity of the Spirit. Yes, he does write about the doctrine of the Spirit with clarity. Yes, he does hint at the deity of the Spirit in such a way that we should not question it. But what is the hub of wheel of Paul's pneumatology?

Paul sees the Holy Spirit as God's empowering presence in the community of faith. The Spirit is experienced corporately and individually as the relational means by which the covenant community lives. He gifts each member of the body for the building up of the body [1 Cor 12.7, 12.11]. 

I tend to think that a better experience and/or understanding of the Spirit's personal work in the church would have rightly nuanced the motives and practices of our friends in the list above.

Yet, we are all guilty of not yielding to His voice. May we learn to listen carefully to our Helper.

A DiALOGUE WiTH DEATH

CHRISTIAN:

Hello, Death, my old enemy. My old slave-master. Have you come to talk to me again? To frighten me? I am not the person you think I am. I am not the one you used to talk to. Something has happened. Let me ask you a question, Death. Where is your sting?

DEATH [sneeringly]:

My sting is your sin.

CHRISTIAN:

I know that, Death. But that’s not what I asked you. I asked, where is your sting? I know what it is. But tell me where it is.

Why are you fidgeting, Death? Why are you looking away? Why are you turning to go? Wait, Death, you have not answered my question. Where is your sting? Where is, my sin?

What? You have no answer?! But, Death, why do you have no answer? How will you terrify me, if you have no answer? O Death, I will tell you the answer. Where is your sting? Where is my sin? It is hanging on that tree. God made Christ to be sin—my sin. When he died, the penalty of my sin was paid. The power of it was broken. I bear it no more.

Farewell, Death. You need not show up here again to frighten me. God will tell you when to come next time. And when you come, you will be his servant. For me, you will have no sting.

O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ [1 Cor 15.55-57].

[unashamedly stolen from here]

church discipline, etc

Maybe we don't take Church [that's an intentional capital "C"] as seriously as the Bible does. Maybe when Jesus said "I will build my church" He meant that that included adding and taking away. It was the design of God to kill Ananias and Saphira in Acts 5. He used that so that "great fear filled the whole church" [Ac 5.11]. This is, of course, one of many examples.

Still, we even think that church membership is some random and modern phenomenon that we do to look like other social groups. The church at Corinth had to have some sort of corporate understanding of someone being a covenant and community member or else they would have had nothing to excommunicate people from. Paul says of wayward church members that he "handed them over to Satan" [1 Cor 5].

This is a fragile, yet needed discussion. There are some pastors and elders that need to grow a backbone. 1 Corinthians 5, Matthew 18, and the pastoral epistles are replete with examples of how the church and its members must be taken seriously. Preachers who pad their membership roles or see how many they can stuff in the bleachers so that they can get on TV or write a book - these guys are earning bonus points for the "False Teacher of the Year" award.

All of this rabid tangent means nothing unless it can positively be fleshed out and not merely negatively called out. So, here's a beautiful chart I recently found from one of Wayne House's books.

He will build His church. He will purge and sanctify His people.

why i read Psalm 51 at the Lord's Supper

Because it’s an appeal to the unconditional covenant love and compassion of God [51.1]. David is flagrantly open and vulnerable concerning his sin. David acknowledges that his sin is against God and God alone [51.4]. The need for purity and holiness before God is clear [51.7-11]. He knows that broken bones will rejoice [51.8]. It reminds me that those things which our Lord delights in are humility, contrition, and joy in His righteous salvation [51.12, 51.17]. Another aspect of this that provokes my spirit is that David prays these things for the sake of others… “Then I will teach transgressors Your ways” [51.13]. And for the sake of God being honored… “Open my lips that my mouth may declare Your praise“ [51.15].

I hope that in doing this, I’m examining myself so I don’t eat and drink unworthily [1 Cor 11.27-29]; I’m remembering Jesus’ work on the cross [1 Cor 11.24]; and I’m proclaiming the glory of His death until He comes [1 Cor 11.26].

but now these three are abiding....

Between the first and second advents of Jesus, there is a triad of Christian character that should mark out those awaiting his return. These traits are faith, hope, and love. Love is greatest of these for several reasons [1 Cor 13.13, 16.14]. It fulfills the law [Mt 22, Mk 12, Rom 13.8-10]. And it will always abide. Faith shall be sight and hope will be fulfilled. But love endures forever. May the Spirit work these in us more and more as we give ourselves to kingdom labor.

Here are a couple places where they are found in close proximity:

• 1 Cor 13.13
• Heb 10.22-24
• Gal 5.5-6
• 1 Ths 1.3
• Rom 5.1-5
• Col 1.3-5

oh, blessed self-forgetfulness!

Never in my life have I heard Christian character and Gospel humility articulated like Tim Keller does here. He paints a picture of humility from the Apostle Paul that is drastically against modern culture and even against what mainline Christianity has posited as walking humbly. You must listen and be challenged.