To Remain Quiet

To Remain Quiet.  Physics has always had its governing principles, but Sir Isaac Newton is famous for setting those observable principles down into his three Laws of Motion (1687). Google helped me to remember what they are, especially Newton’s Third Law of Action and Reaction, which states: for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. 

The Law of Action and Reaction collided with my week, or better put, potentially collided with my week. I made an action last Sunday morning which might have caused an opposite and equal reaction. I don’t know for sure, but it is conceivable. I indicated that my principal goal for 2023 was simple: more Bible at home, at church, and all points in between. Toward that goal, I created a space in the service for additional Scripture Readings, as they appear in the back of our blue, pew Bibles, with tear-off tabs on the communal cork board.

However, the technically unasked but legitimate question of who itched in my brain. Would someone in the congregation ask about the bearing that 1 Timothy 2:12 has on who can publicly read Scripture in the worship service (i.e., only the pastor, only the elders, only the men, only the members, etc.)? My quick answer to this unasked question was this: anyone and everyone. I still hold to my answer: anyone and everyone can read Scripture in public. Let me show you why I land and remain there, especially considering 1 Timothy 2:12, which is an important verse, but which talks about pastoring, not the reading of Scripture.

Paul wrote: “I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” The pertinent word is quiet. What did it mean to Paul for women in the public worship setting to remain quiet. Significantly, he used the same word back in verse 2, applied to all Christians everywhere (not just Ephesus) to pray for all people (vs. 1) that the entire population “may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (vs. 2). Clearly, quiet does not mean non-vocal in verse 2, and therefore can’t in verse 12. It means living harmonious with the established order that God has for society (e.g., under kings and rulers).

In the very next paragraphs, Paul gets into gender specific ways that peace, quietness, godliness, and dignity are expressed when the church assembles. All Christian males should resist their core temptation of passivity to God, but instead “pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling” (2:8). All Christian females should resist their core temptation of comparison toward others, but instead, “adorn themselves in respectful apparel, with modesty and self-control” (2:9). Our key verse sits here. The male church leaders “teach [and] exercise authority,” whereas the female church members follow, or remain quiet in the sense of living harmoniously within this God-established order in the church leadership.

Throughout chapters two and three, Paul continues his gender specific instructions: spiritually mature men serve as elders/pastors, if qualified (3:1-7), and spiritually mature women follow the elders’ leadership (2:11-14). This is what it looks like for peaceful, quiet, godly, and dignified Christian behavior in the church! It looks like unity, under Christ, in accordance with Scripture. Authoritative “teaching” (4:13b) is clearly distinct from “the public reading of Scripture” (4:13a). Therefore, it is biblical that anyone and everyone can read more Bible anywhere and everywhere, anytime and every time. Although no one technically asked!