Elders and Face Masking

I occasionally hear of congregation’s Elders who mandate or require face masking in the assembly. In fact some friends of ours were told (by their Elders) that if they didn’t wear a mask in the assembly that they could go find a new church. Amazing and sickening.

Let me kindly suggest that Elders have no authority to require the wearing of masks in the assembly. The work of Elders is purely spiritual… they protect the flock from false teachers and they help their fellow Christians grow to spiritual maturity.

There is no authority in the scriptures for Elders to be in charge of their member’s health… none. People (not Elders) are in charge of their own health.

As usual what proves a little proves too much. If Elders can require face masking can they also require require vaccinations? Can they require that their members lose weight all in the name of health? Where does it stop?

If we can change the work of the Elders can we also change the work of the church and authorize churches to build health clinics or hospitals?

Requiring masks to assemble or even to be considered a member of a congregation goes beyond what is written.

Certainly Elders can make suggestions (and accomodations) concerning health, just as any Christian can do, but they cannot expand their authority and *require* things of members that they have no authority for.

Let There Be Light

“In the beginning was the Word (Jesus Christ)… In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness… There was a man sent from God whose name was John… he came only as a witness to the light. The true light (Jesus Christ) that gives light to everyone was coming into the world” (John 1)

These verses in the Gospel of John are very reminiscent of what was written in Genesis…

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… And God said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1)

Imagine at the creation of the world (in Genesis) that all was dark and black and God flipped on the light switch and the whole world was illuminated.

Something similar happened when Jesus came into the world. The world was dark and black with sin… Satan was running rampant. The God flipped on the spiritual light switch by sending Jesus into the world.

But wait… the light of Jesus is contagious (like a California wild fire) and can light up humanity.

Imagine a dark room and someone lights a candle… one single solitary light and then another candle is lit and another and another until the whole room is fully illuminated.

We’re here to bring light into a dark world. When a room is lit up all those dirty, nasty cockroaches scatter and run looking for a dark place to hide in… and so does sin. Most people try to cover their sin. We’re here to help expose it and bring folks to repentance.

Here’s a problem… sometimes we hole up in our homes or just want our light to shine around other Christians. Take that light out where you can do the most good with it. Take it to some dark, dark places and don’t forget to have your Christian armor on. What’s there to be afraid of? After all we have the Spirit of God on our side.

How to Admonish

There were some bad problems in Corinth. The big one was divisions among the members based upon who baptized them.

So how did Paul handle or approach this?

First of all he attacked the issue and argued that their position was inconsistent with the teachings of Christ.

Then he absolved himself of any blame recounting his behavior and teaching that came from the Holy Spirit himself.

He charged them with fomenting “jealousy and strife” which were the natural results of their contentions.

He said the fault was with them and called them “babes in Christ” and that they had failed to progress spiritually since the day they were born (baptized).

He called them “worldly”

He said his motivation was not to shame them but to admonish them. Certainly being admonished would cause shame but that wasn’t his primary intent.

Lastly he said this…

“What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit?” (1 Cor. 4:21)

Basically he said there were two ways he could handle this… a nice way and a not so nice way… you choose.

There’s a lot we can learn from Paul… arguing the inconsistency of a problem, identifying where that problem might lead. Calling them out and holding them accountable.

His first approach would be “love and gentleness” but failing that he was ready to whip up on them (figuratively).

Admonishment takes a lot of thought and consideration. Thank you Paul for providing a pattern for us.

You Don't Have to be Afraid of Fire

Paul uses the figure of house building in 1 Corinthians 3 to describe how Christians are built. Of course he says that no matter who the builder is they all use the same foundation… Jesus Christ.

However, teachers/preachers can build different things on that foundation. Every teacher/preachers work will be tested with the fire (fires of temptation. RP)

Some build with non-combustible materials… gold, silver, jewels. Others build with things that will burn up… wood, hay stubble.

Verse 17 states that we are temples of God and that if any man destroys the temple of God then God will destroy him.

There were false teachers in Corinth that were building on the foundation with wood, hay and stubble which would be destroyed. What specifically did they build on that foundation?

- That Paul was not a real Apostle and those taught and baptized by Paul were inferior Christians (4:3)

- They built “jealousy and strife” on the foundation (3:3)

- They tolerated sexual immorality in the church

- They were involved in civil lawsuits with each other.

Paul, of course, in this letter was trying to dismantle that faulty structure and replace it with imperishable things. FYI, it’s always better to build it right the first time.

Here’s the question… what has been built on your foundation? Have you been so haphazard in your faith that you will listen to any teacher/preacher and swallow whatever they have to offer? Or do you consider carefully what you are being taught so you can withstand the test of fire with imperishable qualities?

Chloe the Peacemaker

In 1 Corinthians 1:11 Paul says this…

“My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you”

Someone from Chloe’s household had informed Paul of some problems in the church at Corinth.

Apparently Paul did not respond… “you’re guilty of the sin of gossip and instead of informing me of this you should have gone to the person yourself (Mt 18:15-17) and handled it”

I sit in Bible classes and the conclusions I see reached sometimes are that you can’t say anything about anyone else or you are guilty of gossip and the Lord may require your soul one day.

Let me suggest that part of defining gossip is intent. My guess is that Chloe saw a problem at Corinth and the problem was too big for her to handle so she communicated the problem to someone of sufficient spiritual stature to handle it.

Obviously Chloe loved the Lord and loved his bride... the church. She wasn’t trying to slander or demean… that wasn’t her intent. Therefore in my opinion she was not a gossip… she was part of the solution.

Certainly Paul made her part of the solution by identifying her as his source.

Let’s all be very careful about the charge of “gossip” and make sure we understand it in the first place because it may not be gossip at all and we might be hammering on someone who is doing their best to help someone else.

Picture This...

Imagine with me if in a church someone had got busy and converted a bunch of Pakastanis to Christ and someone else had converted a group of bikers. And you walked in that church and all the Pakastanis were sitting separately together and all the bikers were sitting with each other… Anglos, Hispanics, etc.

What would you think about that? You might think that church was divided and segregated.

That’s kind of what was happening in the church at Corinth. Some were trying to distinguish and differentiate themselves by who they were baptized by… Paul, Apollos, Cephas, Christ. In other words… I am superior to you because my baptizer is superior to your baptizer.

Paul said they were full of “jealousy and strife” and as such were failing as a church which according to God’s plan was supposed to demonstrate love and unity to the world.

That sort of division could lead to a division of the church itself a la Acts 20:28-30, in which “grievous wolves” drew people away to start a new church. New churches such as the “Followers of Paul” church, etc.

It’s nice to associate with other Christians who might have a similar culture (racially) or to associate with other Christians who have similar hobbies… such as riding Harley’s but we have to be careful how we present ourselves to the world because we might appear to be divided and not united.

As members of a congregation lets develop relationships with all of our other members. Members who are racially different, old and young members, male and female, etc. so that we can demonstrate to the world the wisdom of God that in spite all of our differences we share the commonality of Jesus Christ which is life changing.

Lets be diligent and cautious about presenting the right picture to the world because you might only have one shot at it.

Hair and Head Coverings

There is a little bit of controversy in 1Cor. 11 about head coverings. Was Paul talking about artificial head coverings like a veil or a hat or was he merely talking about hair?

First of all keep in mind that an activity is being regulated and the activity is a man or a woman “praying or prophesying”

If Paul was instructing that a woman had to have long hair during those activities (prayer and prophesy) then it would also mean that for every other activity in her life she could have short hair. Likewise a man would only have to have short hair during those activities. That doesn’t really pass the smell test does it?

Another thing to think about is that if the head covering is just hair… why didn’t Paul just say… you women need to have long hair and you men need to have short hair instead of using up 16 verses on the subject?

So, why did Paul introduce the subject of hair into this discussion?

The discussion of hair begins in verses 5…

“Every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head”

This verse calls for a judgement. The verse compares a woman “praying and prophesying” without a veil/hat to her having her head shaven. If one is embarrassing then both should be.

Verse 13 calls for another judgement to the woman who “prays or prophesies” without her head covered and that is to judge about the teaching of nature… nature teaches that a woman should have long hair (not short or shaven)… and that it is a *type* of covering.

So hair is brought into the discussion as an argument from nature to prove that a woman’s head should be veiled when she is engaged in the activity of “prayer and prophesy”

One more thing in verses 6 and 7 the Greek verb “katakalupto” is used for being "veiled" so you would expect that the verb form would agree with the noun form in verse 15… hair given for a “covering” (“kalumna”). However, that’s not the Greek word that Paul uses for “covering” he uses the Greek noun “peribolaion” whose verb form is “periballo”

Of course I believe that the activities being regulated were miraculous “prayer and prophesy” which no longer exist today. However, I still would not be comfortable with a man leading a public prayer in the assembly with a hat on.