I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.
Summary: Whoo-boy! How do we deal with Paul’s statement about women from two thousand years ago?
Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about this verse in generalities. Nobody likes to be told what to wear, especially if what you wear is important to you. But it gets worse. It almost sounds like Paul is talking down to women. In the next few verses, he digs the hole deeper and even makes the case that Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden is the reason for all of these rules.
So what should we do?
Should we just skip over this section and pass it off as ignorance on Paul’s part? After all, women and men are the same, aren’t they? At least as far as having equal rights goes. Who is Paul to tell us what to do in this day and age?
This is a tempting argument.
All we have to do is decide that God didn’t really mean to include these passages in the Bible, and everything is okay, right?
Well … no.
To do that, we have to do something that duplicates Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden.
If you remember, everything was fine until the serpent, crafty as he was, got Eve to question God’s warning about the forbidden tree (Genesis 3:1-7).
“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Do you see what he did there?
He twisted God’s warning and confused Eve with it. God didn’t say they couldn’t eat from “any tree.” He only warned about one tree. The trick is that the serpent put Eve in the position of agreeing with him.
Eve, now on the defensive, responds with a clarification. “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” she says, agreeing with the serpent. Then she goes on to explain, “but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden … or you will die.”
The problem here is that Eve has moved from a position of doing what God said to one of questioning what God said. That is the same problem we have if we question Paul’s words.
“Did God really say that women shouldn’t dress up nicely to please themselves?”
What do you think? Did he?
Application: Choose to accept God’s Word as God’s Word.
Food for Thought: What do we give up if we decide to pick and choose which verses in the Bible really matter?
Truth.
Proverbs 30: 5 – 6: Every word of God is flawless;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Do not add to his words,
or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.
John 17: 17: Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
John 18: 37: “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
Thanks Rich!
I like it! Your answer is “short and sweet!” 🙂
As soon as I read the question I thought “truth” (but Rich beat me to it). 🙂
I would add that we lose conviction, growth, and transformation. Cherry-picking passages or verses that suit ones current life-choices means they never move forward. The Word exposes the condition of our heart so that we can be transformed into the likeness of Christ.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Wow, Chris.
You said a mouthful. If we disconnect from the Word we discount the conviction and correction too.