If we want to be completely Biblical as far as we are able, then it is profitable to research in the Scriptural principles, sometimes going back to the Greek and Hebrew to see the meanings of words. Then compare what we know with the traditions we have been following. If there is no Biblical example for what we do, then it would be good to eliminate that tradition from our lives.
Since I have done this, my life is far more peaceful and much less expensive. Most people who enjoy the holidays do not realize just how exhausting they are and how quickly they are forgotten until they eliminate them.
Isn't following Christ and maintaining a peaceful life far better than a faded memory of a happy time. We can live our joy in the present, never having to look back to gain joy from those things that are no longer happening.
Each day is a new day, let this one be lived in the present, in the joy and happiness for this day. Attempting to get back the feelings we had in the past is an exercise in futility. The feelings we had at the time can never be recreated, they really have no value in the present.
Philippians 4:13-14 “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Luke 9:62 “Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Those who live in the past rarely enjoy the present. The yearning for bygone days only tugs at the emotions leaving a feeling of hopelessness that we have lost something we will never get back.
I prefer to live in the present, in the moment, only remembering the lessons I learned that brought me to where I am today. Those who attempt to keep us stuck in the past have not grown into maturity. How can we grow if we refuse to leave what is in the past....in the past.
When we trust in the Lord for each day, we are full of joy, nothing from the past can compare to that present and current joy. Nothing from the past can control or affect our lives anymore, they are gone and done with forever.
Philippians 3:13 "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended it, but this one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,"
There are many cults who teach false doctrine, from women should never speak about the Lord to others to women who speak in the pulpit as leaders over men. Both of these ideas are not Biblical, there is another view that is Biblical but most cannot wrap their minds around .
This other view comes from 1 Corinthians 11 in which the order of the service is explained. Women are permitted to share in the Lord's supper, praying, expounding on the Word and singing as long as they are covered. In most gatherings that have elderships and the women are covered, the woman does not speak during the worship, that being the Lord's supper.
The misunderstood passage that says women must remain silent, is easily explained in the original language.
1 Corinthians 13:33-35 "…33 For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace. As in all the congregations of the saints, 34 women are to be silent in the churches. They are not permitted to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35 If they wish to inquire about something, they are to ask their own husbands at home; for it is dishonorable for a woman to speak in the church."
The word "speak" in this passage does not have to do with sharing in prayer or the Word, it would negate the 1 Corinthians 11 passage that tells a woman to be covered when she prays and prophesies in the gathering. In these passages the woman is not the leader but she does share as led by the Holy Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 13 the women were chattering, asking their own husband in the middle of the teaching, being disruptive, so they were commanded to remain silent and ask their own husbands at home. This was the beginning of the church in which many did not know much about the Bible and did not have the New Testament in their own homes to read.
From Christian Corner "Silence in the Church"
"Sigao" is a verb that denotes not whimpering, complaining or disruptive, it is not that a woman cannot speak at all, it's that she is to be under submission and is to be led by the Holy Spirit. If she is not led by the Holy Spirit then she is to remain silent.
"(1) One who has the gift of tongues is to keep silence if he has no interpreter to use with his alien audience (28).
(2) If a brother is speaking, and another receives a more current revelation, the former is to keep silence (30).
(3) Finally, women are to keep silence (34)."
Unquote
If total silence were the command in these passages then 1 Corinthian 11 would contradict that and allowing women to sing would also violate it.
The woman is not to be teaching in a public setting over men as the leader, however she is allowed to share in the general gathering along with all the other saints in the Lord's supper and teaching the younger women as mentioned in Titus 2.
Titus 2:3-5
"3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, 4 so that they may [a]encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored."
When we are in a gathering that has the rule that woman should remaining silent, we can adhere to their rules without hindering our own worship. There is no place I have heard of that understands these principles, we have lived under the ritual of the woman not speaking at all for so long now, most cannot wrap their minds around it, but that's alright. It's not a salvation issue that we should be arguing over.
A woman who goes into a gathering in which the women are commanded and expected to remain silent, except for the singing, we can adhere to that so as not to draw attention away from the Lord. Our worship toward the Lord is more important than exerting our right to pray or speak on the Word aloud.
I wonder though how the leaders who taught total silence for women came up with the allowance to sing? If anyone has an answer to this I would be interested in hearing it. If total silence were the command as they think, then why are the women permitted to sing. It sounds like a concession toward women that was invented by men. I see no place in the Word that says "women must be completely silent except to sing."
Traditions of men leave many unanswered confusing questions as well as being inconsistent.
This is just one more misunderstanding because of our English translations that were translated in a time when women were expected to be seen and not heard. This too was not Biblical but it was the condition of the culture of the time of the translation.
When an unbiblical rule is in place that is not a salvation issue, then we need to place Christ first and take a back seat to the traditions that men have hung onto for so many years.
It is interesting that men have done away with the head covering as well as the women sharing in the Lord's supper. They seem to go hand in hand.
Please do not misunderstand this post as a stab at "women's lib", anyone who knows me understands how much I despise the women's lib movement. I have spent 47 years at home as the keeper of my home in spite of nearly every woman I know who was asserting their rights to work outside the home and mocking my choice as a homemaker.
It is not my desire to assert myself in the gathering, however, it is my desire to know truth, that is more important to me than fitting in with the traditions of men. And believe me, there is precious few that I fit in with, in this age where the traditions of men are valued over the truth of the Scriptures.
Just saying!
