Timothy & Countering The Culture (part 25)

Continuing what has turned out to be a rather lengthy dissertation on widows (a normally dismissed and marginalized segment of the populace---Paul’s extensive treatment of widows should tell us quite a bit about the way the church should operate), Paul goes on to write “So I want younger women to marry, raise children, and manage a household, in order to give the adversary no opportunity to vilify us” (1 Timothy 5:14). From whence might this vilification arise?  It could arise from younger widows “going around from house to house,” learning to be lazy, while also being “gossips and busybodies, talking about things they should not.”  Again, the directive to marry, raise children, and manage a household fits well with that which has been said about overseers and deacons.  The overseer “must manage his own household well and keep his children in control without losing his dignity” (3:4).  Likewise, “Deacons must be husbands of one wife and good managers of their children and their own households” (3:12).

To the avoidance of vilification, Paul adds “For some have already wandered away to follow Satan” (5:15).  Here, he still writes about widows.  Lest one think that Paul is specifically singling out widows or that he is calling out women in general for being gossips and busybodies, it can be seen, once again, that the same type of language has already been on offer in his talk of overseers.  One must not allow the thinking that Paul is being overly harsh with the women of the body of Christ.  Rather, he must be heard within the context of his efforts at leveling out the church, realizing that Paul believes that all classes of people are to be treated equally. 

Whenever an initial reading of a passage leads one to believe that Paul is placing general restrictions on a class of people in such a way that could lead to the structuring of spiritual hierarchies, to the demeaning or restricting of a group based on ethnicity (Jew/Gentile), gender (male/female---especially the passages about women being silent in the church), or social status (slave/free/widow/children), or the erection of a spiritual authoritarianism inside the church, it serves the reader well to re-read and re-think the text until the conclusion concerning the text accords with the egalitarian nature of the church as it was envisioned by Paul (as he attempted to live out and encourage what he understood to be the mission and vision of the church as enacted by Jesus and informed by the prophets). 

Paul demands to be heard in his historical and cultural context, as the church found itself attempting to countermand, through the manifestation of the Spirit of the Creator God, the spirit of death that animated the world into which the church had been placed and out of which it had been called, that it may serve that world well (a bit of the paradoxical mystery of the faith---called out to be separate so that it may serve and transform, functioning as the kingdom of the covenant God and being the point of overlap between heaven and earth---the Temple---as an ongoing foretaste of the new creation and restoration of the earth).    

So as one considers whether Paul is being heavy-handed with groups of women, upon returning again to the third chapter, one reads “He must not be a recent convert or he may become arrogant and fall into the punishment that the devil will exact.  And he must be well thought of by those outside the faith, so that he may not fall into disgrace and be caught by the devil’s trap” (3:6-7).  This has followed from “But if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for the church of God?” (3:5), which has followed the fourth verse and talk of managing a household, controlling children, and maintaining dignity.  Remember, an observer needs to encounter the text on the lookout for Paul’s efforts at leveling out the body, in contrast to the culture, rather than setting up hierarchies.  

Corinth's Communion (part 23)

Then, with the honor and shame constructs in mind, and with a profound reflection upon the Jesus tradition as he well understood it, Paul adds: “Instead, God has blended together the body” (1 Corinthians 12:24b)--- noting the flattening out and removal of the kingdom-of-God-obstructing divisions within the congregation and going on to read “giving greater honor to the lesser member” (12:24c).  This would certainly call to mind the portion of the shared Jesus tradition that would eventually come to be well-communicated by Luke, who reports Jesus as having said, in conjunction with the parable of the great banquet, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (14:11). 

There, it is worthwhile to reflect on the fact that Luke’s precise construction has Jesus saying such things in the wake of His insistence concerning the kingdom of the Creator God (in the context of Jesus’ talk that reflects His understanding of the messianic banquet), that “some are last who will be first, and some who are first will be last” (13:30).  All of this, for Paul, is reflected in his own insistence “that there may be no division in the body, but the members may have mutual concern for one another” (12:25).  To that he adds “If one member suffers, everyone suffers with it.  If a member is honored, all rejoice with it” (12:26).  

Capping off his dissertation concerning the body that simply must be carefully regarded along with the eating and drinking, Paul goes on to write “Now you are Christ’s body, and each of you is a member of it” (12:27).  He has made clear his point that the distinctions being set forth by the church in Corinth, which were so unfortunately on display when they gathered together for the meal that they were erroneously referring to as the Lord’s Supper, were all artificial and counter to what Jesus intended because of the divisions and apparent spiritual honor competition.  As has been said, this was a source of some distress for Paul, as it served to undermine the unifying, gathering message of the Gospel (Jesus is Lord of all), as amply pronounced through Jesus’ life and words. 

However, Paul does go on to point out that there are actually going to be some types of divisions in the church, writing that “God has placed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, gifts of healing, helps, gifts of leadership, different kinds of tongues” (12:28).  While he does this, he does it while having already told them that “It is one and the same Spirit, distributing as He decides to each person” (12:11a), while also having made it very clear what he thinks about putting divisions and hierarchies on display at their corporate meals in a way that allows honor to be accrued by one member at the expense of another (honor being a limited good).  So the last thing that he would expect them to do is to take this list of what “God has placed in the church,” and use it to create a spiritual hierarchy that will then be reflected in their table fellowship, so that their gathering looks no different from any other meal gathering of the time.  This will only create a competition for status based on a new set of honor securing instruments---spiritual gifts---that will be used to create the same types of unhelpful social and cultural divisions of which the church of Christ is to have no part. 

If read properly, keeping in mind the sense of narrative and structure that Paul has labored hard to develop, these questions will be heard in light of Paul’s insistence that all of the members of the body (as he speaks to this particular stratifying and dividing church) are equally valuable, with a reminder that “those members that seem to be weaker are essential, and those members we consider less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our un-presentable members are clothed with dignity” (12:22-23).  The questions are also heard according to the statement that “God has blended together the body, giving greater honor to the lesser member, so that there may be no division in the body, but the members may have mutual concern for one another” (12:24b-25).