October 3, 2024
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 10-11
Meditation Verse: 11:16
Thought
This issue of men and women and their differences in life and specifically in the church has been a source of contention from the beginning of the Church. For Paul to mention that if anyone wants to be contentious about it means he has received blowback before, when talking or writing about it. Recent generations were not the first to debate it or reject it. But Paul laid this teaching as a foundation of the Church. Anyone who wanted to be contentious about it needed to understand that all the churches he established, and apparently all churches, held these things to be true. The different roles and responsibilities of men and women, the different order between men and women, were common practices among Christians. But not without controversy.
Application
If all the way back in Paul's day these things were considered controversial, I shouldn't be surprised today if they are controversial, even in the church. But Paul doesn't say that since there is consensus among the churches, therefore this thing is right, he gives multiple reasons why the things are true based on God's created order and from what should be common sense. The one who wants to be contentious needs to understand that all the churches accept the obvious and God's purposes. The churches are not the ultimate arbiters of truth on this matter, God and His creation are. The churches should be wise enough to submit to the truth so that anyone who wants to be contentious has no where else to go to worship God in a different way. Contention doesn't tell me there is good reason to question Paul's teaching on this matter, but that men have been rebellious from the beginning of the Church, especially in this area, and Paul's teachings are still an accurate reflection of God's will and purposes. I don't want to be contentious, but to justify God in all He teaches, even in this matter. Contention is actually a major problem and to be rejected, but contention also reveals who is approved by God and who is rejected. I prefer to stand with God rather than to oppose Him.