The True Gospel

Romans 1:14-17 "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."

I would like you to come back with me in your minds to the year AD57 and you are going to come into a room in a house where the preachers have their lodgings.  It's more than likely at night.  In this room there are two men, one is writing, one is speaking.  The man who is speaking is the apostle Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.  God the Holy Spirit is inspiring him to speak the very words of God.  In this room the epistle to the church at Rome is being written.  Paul V16 says "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."     The letter to the Romans, the church at Rome is thought by many people today to be complicated, hard to understand and really only for professors of theology, but that is not the case because the apostle Paul was speaking to the majority of Christians who made up the church of Rome who were uneducated slaves (for the most part) and they understood what it says.  That means that modern educated man is not so smart as what he thinks he is if he finds difficult to understand what uneducated slaves understood in the first century AD. 

What is Romans about?  It is about the gospel. That's it.  V16 and 17 are all about the gospel, the good news.  The gospel is not just the love of God, the gospel is not just the crucifixion, the gospel contained in the bible begins in the book of Genesis with the creator God, man's fall into sin, God's grace and his plan to sacrifice his Son for sinners, and his offer of forgiveness that is given indiscriminately to all and the salvation of those who believe.  The gospel continues on with instructions for Christian life to the final glorification in heaven.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is the whole counsel of God from Genesis to Revelation and its important for us to remember that.  Many churches have a limited view of what the gospel is.  The gospel is not just a little part of the bible.

Let Your Women Keep Silence in the Churches

Let your women keep silence in the churches..  here is another admonition of the apostle Paul that has brought about much debate.. I believe that the main reason for this debate is that many women today do not hold to being submissive to men.  Things today are not what they were in the days when Paul wrote these words.  But does this mean that they are not in effect today?  I believe that they are in effect. Even though we have the bible in completed written form, we are still living in bible times, for the Lord Jesus has not yet returned.  It is easy to lose sight of this fact, that we are part of bible times..

Here are the verses in question:

1 Corinthians 14:34-35 "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.  And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."
As always, it is not wise to take a verse out of context, we have to look at the whole chapter, and in this case at the reason why Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in the first place.  In chapter one we learn that Paul told this church that they should "all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.  For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, ...that there are contentions among you." (chapter 1:10-11)  So we know that this was a church with problems, just as there are many churches with problems today, and so are these teachings not for today also?

In chapter 3:3 we learn that "ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?"

This church had some members that were not walking by the Spirit's leading, but, because they were believers, Paul wrote them this letter to teach them the way that things ought to be, that everything be done "decently and in order" (chapter 14:40)

So with this background, this brings us to the verse in question, that of women keeping silence in the church.  What is the appropriate time that Paul tells these women that they are keep silence? The following verse explains it.  (V35) "And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."