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In this episode, host Steve Gregg takes callers through an intensive discussion on 1 Corinthians 11, exploring the cultural significance and religious customs of the Corinthian church. The episode navigates the complexities of Biblical teachings on head coverings and the role of angels, shedding light on obscurities in the scripture. Listeners are invited to delve deeper as Steve articulates the correlation between ancient customs and their applicability to modern Christian faith.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Good afternoon and welcome to the Narrow Path Radio Broadcast. My name is Steve Gregg and we’re live for an hour each weekday afternoon with a phone line that you can access during that time if you want to be on the air with your questions about the Bible or the Christian faith or maybe you’d like to share something, a matter where you find yourself in disagreement with the host, either as a Christian with a different viewpoint or maybe as someone who’s not a Christian and disagrees with Christianity altogether. I’d be glad to hear from you in this hour. I’m looking at a switchboard that has a couple of lines open right now, so this would be a good time to call. The number is 844-484-5737. That’s 844-484-5737. And without delay, we’ll go to our phones and talk to Brother Simmons from Little Rock, Arkansas. Hi, Brother Simmons. Welcome.
SPEAKER 08 :
God bless you, Brother Steve. Thank you for taking my call. Thank you for your ministry. 1 Corinthians 11.10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Can you please explain that, sir, and I’ll listen to the answer off the air.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right. You know, I’ve written extensively on this chapter, or this section of this chapter, 1 Corinthians 11, verses 3 through 16, where it talks about a woman wearing a head covering when she prays or prophesies, and a man not doing so. And also about the woman’s hair. Paul indicated it should be long and a man’s hair should be short. Now, I don’t know if you’ve seen pictures of me or not, but my hair is not very short, so obviously I have some ways of understanding that that would differ from some other people’s ways. But my understanding is that Paul is describing a custom that was prevalent in the Greek culture, a custom of propriety of men’s and women’s attire, and he’s urging the Corinthians to not to deviate from it. I believe so that they don’t send a wrong message, for some reason, to their culture. But I don’t believe that the particular customs he describes are universally applicable. I will get to the verse you’re talking about in just a moment, but I just want to say that the whole section ends with verse 16 saying, if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of Christ. Now, He’s just spoken about, you know, at length, the reasons for a woman to have her head covered and have her hair long, and a reason for a man to have his hair short and not to have his head covered when he prays and prophesies. And then he says, now, we don’t have these customs. In other words, I’m telling you how I think you should conduct yourselves in the culture you live in, but we, in the culture I’m in, he says, we don’t have that custom. Paul’s own customs, those of the Jews, which Paul was, didn’t have any customs like that. It’s true women in the Jewish religion did wear hair long and cover their head. Men, however, did not necessarily wear their head uncovered or their hair short. In fact, there was a vow in Numbers chapter 6 called the Nazarite vow, which a man or a woman could take. And during the time of the vow, and that might be any length of time, they would not cut their hair at all. And then at the end of the vow, they would shave their head, and they’d burn the hair that they shaved off as an offering to God. Apparently, the long hair that they grew during that time, representing that period of time, that had been offered to God, that was dedicated to him. Now, what’s interesting about this is that a woman who took a Nazarite vow would, of course, just like a man would, would shave her head at the end. And yet Paul, writing to the Corinthians, indicates that women shaving their heads was not really acceptable in the Corinthian culture. Also, of course, the Nazarite vow among the Jews would include a man growing his hair longer than average. And sometimes people like John the Baptist and Samson and Samuel apparently grew their hair their whole lives. So they’d have very long hair, and they were men. And this they did not because they were men. in disobedience of something, but because they were very devout to God. So it’s obvious that the Jews, like Paul, did not have the customs that he’s recommending here, and he tells them so. He said, we don’t have these customs, so let’s don’t fight over it. He’s saying essentially it’s not one of those essential things that would be worth fighting about because it’s a customary thing in different lands. And Corinth was in Greece, and he’s recommending that they follow the customs of their own culture so as not to send, you know, mistaken messages about, you know, if they deviate from it. I think he’s basically saying, fit in and don’t, you know, don’t do things that might offend people unnecessarily. Now, in the midst of that, he talks about a woman’s hair as a covering, and he says in verse 10 that a woman ought to have power on her head, or in the Greek, authority on her head, exousia in the Greek, because of the angels. Now, this is so obscure in terms of its meaning. There are several different possible meanings that people have suggested. Now, since I believe he’s only talking about customs that were to that land in that time, I don’t think we have to necessarily understand it as well as they needed to. He’s obviously writing in terms that they would understand, but their frame of reference says, was much different than ours. And we find this many times when we read the epistles in the Bible that Paul or Peter or someone who’s writing an epistle will allude to things in their church or in their town which they all knew. And so his allusions made sense to them and they could fill in the gaps from what they knew of their own circumstances, but we don’t. And one of the challenges of doing biblical studies is to try to reproduce as much as possible what were the circumstances of the time and place and the church and the culture that Paul or one of these writers went to so that we can know, well, what did this mean to them? And many times we do find references to things that are not explained to us because we’re reading somebody else’s mail, really. Now, Biblical studies often can help to put together a picture of what was going on so as to make those things sensible in context. This particular statement about the angels, we don’t have enough information, though we assume the Corinthians did, to know exactly what he’s referring to. The problem with the word angels here, Angeloi in the Greek, it’s the ordinary word for messengers. Now, we know of angels from heaven and so forth that bring messages from God, like Gabriel who brought messages to Mary and Joseph and so forth. But the word angelos doesn’t just refer to messengers from heaven, but messengers in general, so that there are actually messengers in human messengers that are called angeloi in the New Testament, in the Greek, because it is the ordinary word for messengers. So when John the Baptist sent two men, messengers, from prison to ask Jesus a question, Jesus answered them, and the Bible says, and when the angels had left, meaning the messengers from John. Even John the Baptist in one place is called an angelos, an angel. So it doesn’t mean he’s superhuman or anything other than human. It just means that he’s a messenger, but he’s a human messenger. Now, when Paul said, because of the messengers, or angelos, angels, we don’t know if he’s talking about heavenly angels, fallen angels, Or human messengers. Any of those are possible. The word can mean that. And what he says does not necessarily make it clear to us what he’s talking about. If he’s saying that women should wear a covering because of the heavenly angels, I’m not sure how that connects. What do the heavenly angels have to do with a woman wearing a covering? If someone says, well, it’s because the angels would be offended to see a woman with her head uncovered. Well, if that’s the concept that Paul’s getting across, why wouldn’t he say because of God? Isn’t it more important not to offend God than to not offend angels? Now, if he’s talking about fallen angels, as some people have suggested, some have said, well, the fallen angels are attracted to women sexually, and you don’t want to be tempting them or getting yourself into trouble by uncovering yourself and looking immodest. Well, I don’t know. I mean, I’m not sure that fallen angels are attracted to women sexually, but even if they were, there must be some protection that a woman has from that because women, you know, they bathe and they do things like that. Do the angels only see them when they pray and prophesy, or do they see them all the time? There’s really not any one explanation of this verse that makes complete sense to us. If it’s talking about human messengers… He might be referring to the preachers who travel around from church to church and town to town, and that the women, if they are immodestly attired, as the pastor or the visiting preacher is speaking to the congregation, such women might distract him in an impure way. But I’m not saying that’s what Paul means. I’m saying we don’t know what Paul means. Now, what’s worse? Not only do we not know which angels he’s referring to, we don’t even know what he means when he says a woman ought to have power on her head. Now, in the context, Paul has been talking about women wearing a head covering. So there are some translations that have inserted a few words there. So they have Paul saying a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, referring to a covering on her head, a symbol of authority. being under her husband’s authority. But Paul doesn’t say that. Paul doesn’t say a symbol of authority. He says she ought to have authority on her head. What does that mean? Does that mean she ought to have a husband as an authority over her? Or does it mean that she needs to have authorization? in the form of a head covering, authorizing her to make it appropriate for her to speak in the church. These things, no matter which commentary you read, you’re going to get different ideas of what Paul’s saying. When I come to a passage like this, and this verse, I think in the whole chapter, the whole chapter has many difficulties. But in the whole chapter, this verse presents the most difficulties, this verse. And I do deal with it. I deal with it in an article I wrote, which is at our website, at thenarrowpath.com, under the tab that says Topical Lectures. No, I’m sorry, we have a topical here. This is Topical Articles. It says Topical Articles. You’ll find a lecture there about, I think it’s called The Veiling of Women or something like that, or Head Coverings on Women. The title will be obvious what it’s talking about. And I go through that chapter verse by verse very carefully. But the bottom line is, after we’ve done exactly that, we still have to say, well, there’s some things there that could go this way or that way, and it’s not really sure which way it’s meant. But that’s okay because it wasn’t written to us. Paul specifically says he’s addressing customs that were not universal customs, but were local to his readers. And we’re not in their locality. We’re not in their culture. And therefore, you know, whatever he was telling them to do, which he said he doesn’t tell everybody to do, may not be the things he’d tell us to do. I think if it was a very important thing for us to understand, there’d be more than one passage in the Bible that would say something about it, or at least the one passage that does say something about it would be written clearly without such ambiguity. So this is one of those many passages about which I have to say, I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s not like I haven’t studied it. I’ve studied it a great deal, but I don’t know exactly what that verse is referring to. And it’s one of those times where, you know, whenever I don’t understand something of the Bible, and that’s fairly frequently, um, I have to say, well, is this something that’s essential? Is this something that needs to be understood? Am I going to be in trouble for not knowing what this means and not being in compliance? And my understanding for the 50-something years I’ve been teaching the Bible is that God has never left anything unclear that he wants to make sure we understand and know. And so that is clearly something that it must not be as important for us to understand in those. The subject is only addressed one place in the Bible, in 1 Corinthians 11. And in the one place it’s found, it’s written in a way that the readers who received it 2,000 years ago in Corinth, they no doubt were expected to understand exactly what he’s alluding to. But we’re not there and we’re not them. And therefore, in this case, there’s some very great difficulties in understanding it. And I can’t answer that. All I can say is there are several possibilities, and we don’t have enough information to choose between them. So, brother, that’s a long way of saying I can’t help you, unless it helps you to survey the field, because that’s what I can do. Thank you for your call, brother. Mark in Mission Viejo, California. Welcome to The Narrow Path.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hello, Steve. It’s good to talk with you. And Matthew… 1624, it says that Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. You often use that to describe the Christian life, what it means to be a Christian. And then Jesus proceeds in verses 25 through 27 to give the reasons for to follow him. And he says such things as, For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels and will then repay every man according to his deeds. So the reasons that Jesus gives to follow him are in our best interest, but the alternative of following the pursuits and pleasures of this world are not in our best interest, but will have a serious end result because there’s going to be a coming judgment when he returns. And if anyone decides to pursue the profits and pleasures of this world instead of the will of God, they will be judged for that. And as a result, they will forfeit their life or lose their life at judgment for eternity. But if we lose our life now and die to the worldly self, in order to follow Jesus, we will keep or save our life at judgment. And I believe this is the motivation Jesus gives, uh, to follow him. And it is in our best interest for all eternity to do so.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
So that seems to be a little bit different from what I’ve heard you say in the past.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, actually it’s not different from what I’ve said. Um, I mean, I say more than that, but I don’t deny that. I always have admitted, I mean, I always have asserted and believed that following Jesus is definitely the best thing for anyone to do. There’s infinite benefit to it, not only in the next life, but in this life. I can’t think of any life, I mean, even if there was no heaven or hell. Let’s just say Jesus didn’t come to give us a place in heaven or hell, but he just came to teach us the way that we are made to live and the way that pleases God. And by the way, this is the situation the Jews were in in the Old Testament. God never really talked to them about heaven or hell. In 1,400 years… under the law, God never really revealed the next life to them. Instead, he told them if they follow God’s way, God will be pleased with them. It’ll go well with them. If they don’t follow God’s way, he’ll not be pleased with them, and it won’t go well with them. It had, as far as we know, nothing to do with beliefs in heaven or hell or what will happen after people die. So it must be possible for people like David and Moses and you know, all the righteous of the Old Testament to love God and to want to follow him without any ideas of what happens after people die because God is worthy of being followed. And another thing, he’s not just worthy of being followed, but he made us. You know, if you’re going to run a vehicle, you ought to consult the manufacturer’s instructions about how to maintain it and how to run it or else you’re probably going to wreck the vehicle. You know, when God gives instructions, says, okay, here you go. This is how you should live. This is the way I made you to live. Do it this way, and you’ll be glad you did. Now, that would be true whether there’s a next life or not. Now, in the New Testament, we do have information. There is another life after this one. There is a final judgment. There is a lake of fire. There is a new heaven, a new earth where the righteous will dwell. That’s what the Bible says. But what I say is even if there wasn’t, even if there was no heaven or hell, there’s still every reason to follow God as opposed to any alternative way of life. And that would be affirmed by everyone in the Old Testament who didn’t know about heaven and hell, but did believe that following the way of God is the best way to go. And Jesus didn’t talk very much. about the next life. It’s not as if it was totally absent from his teaching, but maybe a handful of times in all the things Jesus said, really does he talk much about the next life? And he’s mostly talking about how to please God. And if we think that the only reason to please God is so he doesn’t get angry and send us to hell, then we must be, we’re truncating the message because Jesus didn’t really talk that much about that And like I said, the Old Testament didn’t talk about it at all, and yet Old and New Testament agree. God is to be loved with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Our neighbor is to be loved as we love ourselves. There are ways of life that are good, and there are ways of life that are bad. So, I mean, I think what you’re saying, or what you think I’m saying is, there’s no motivation to serve God in the next life. It’s all about this life. Well, I don’t say that. I’ve never said anything like that at all. What I have said is many people think the only motivation is the next life, and that’s the only motivation they present when they present the gospel to unbelievers. They say, hey, you need to go to heaven, not hell, right? So, I mean, except Jesus, you’ll go to heaven. You won’t go to hell. I have to say, I’ve been an evangelical Christian since I was very young. I’ve heard gospel preached by hundreds of different preachers, and that’s almost always what I’ve heard preached. You know, you unbelievers need to get saved so you’ll go to heaven. Well, okay, certainly it is a better thing to go to heaven than to go to hell. It’s just not anything that was ever emphasized in the Bible. I’m not saying it wasn’t mentioned. It wasn’t emphasized. If you read all the epistles, read all the sermons in the book of Acts, read all the sermons of Jesus, you’ll find a final judgment and a life after this one are mentioned a few times, once in a while. But it certainly didn’t make up the majority of what they… Actually, when you read the sermons in the book of Acts, when they’re preaching to unbelievers trying to get them converted, they never once mention the next life. Peter and Paul in the sermons in the book of Acts never mention heaven or hell. The closest thing they come to is like what Jesus says here. There’s a judgment someday. Okay. What happens after that? Well, Jesus never. It’s not something the apostles ever mentioned in the book of Acts. So what I’m saying is this. You seem to be saying the motivation for getting saved is that there’s a judgment and there’s a heaven and a hell, and that’s the motivation for getting saved because it’ll be good for you. I don’t doubt that. I don’t deny that at all. I absolutely believe it’s good for me. If there was no heaven or hell, I would still want to follow Christ if I could because it’s not because of the next life. In this life, it’s beneficial. But even if it wasn’t beneficial to me, it would still be the right way to go because I’m created by God. He owns me. What purpose could there be in living that doesn’t include fulfilling the purpose of the Creator, the purpose I exist, the reason He made me? If there was no reward to me afterward, but I was given a choice, either follow God and fulfill the purpose He made you for, or live a life pointlessly without any object, any meaning, any purpose at all, in both cases you die and you’re just, and there’s nothing. Okay, if that were two choices, I’d want to do the thing that’s meaningful. I’d want to do the thing that fulfills my purpose. I’d want to do the thing that the creator laid out for me to do rather than something else where I’m just groping in the dark trying to find a meaning in life. So, you know, I think you may have misunderstood the position I take because I don’t take the position that that there’s no benefit to us in being Christian. I think there’s very little except benefit to us. But it’s not the real reason. I mean, it’s one consideration, but it’s not the main reason we should follow God. We should follow God because he’s God. In other words, whether I benefit from it or not, I should make it my aim not to deprive God of what he wants. Because if I don’t get what I want… That’s no cosmic crisis. It might be a crisis to me, but who am I that a crisis to me should be considered important? I mean, I’m just a speck of dust on a planetary speck of dust. If I don’t get what I want, if I don’t have eternal life, that’s tragic for me, but it’s not so tragic for the universe. But the whole universe exists for the glory of God, and if I live my whole life and fail to bring glory to God, then I’ve lived my life out of sync with the whole universe and with the whole purpose of existence. And that strikes me as a much greater tragedy. I mean, if I’m not just thinking about myself and people who just think about themselves don’t live very good lives at all. No, if I’m thinking in terms of purpose and God and his glory and what he deserves, it’s much greater crime if God doesn’t get what he deserves than if I don’t get, you know, what I want. So anyway, I think you’re seeing it as an either or, you know, and I’m not. I’m just saying of the two, the benefit that salvation brings to me and the benefit it brings to God for me to do his will, the latter is the more important. But it’s not the only consideration. All right?
SPEAKER 09 :
Steve? Yeah. Can you hear me?
SPEAKER 01 :
Okay, good.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, just on that last point, because you said a lot, and I would like to, I can’t remember it all, but I’m not seeing it as either or, so we can agree on that. But your last statement, after you said, I see it as an either or, which is not true, is that out of the two benefits, you said it’s better you would choose the latter, which is the glory of God. Now, I agree. Well, I don’t agree with that statement in itself, but I do agree that the glory of God is highly important. All right.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I’m going to let you have that last word. I’m out of time for this segment. But I’m surprised you say you don’t agree with the statement. You don’t agree with the statement that God’s glory is more important than my interests? Well, you and I are in different universes then, I’m afraid. But thank you for your call. I need to take a break. We have another half hour coming up. You’re listening to The Narrow Path. We are listener supported. You can write to us at The Narrow Path, P.O. Box 1730, Temecula, California, 92593. Or you can go to our website, thenarrowpath.com. I’ll be back in 30 seconds. Don’t go away.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you for listening to The Narrow Path with Steve Gregg. As loyal listeners know, the Narrow Path Radio Ministry does not have anything to sell you, but does have everything to give you. You can help the radio ministry continue to give and grow by going to thenarrowpath.com and donating your year-end tax-deductible gift. Your giving will help lift the spirits of many more people throughout our nation. Thank you and bless you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome back to the Narrow Path Radio Broadcast. My name is Steve Gregg and we’re live for another half hour taking your calls. Our lines are full right now, but if you want to try to call in a few minutes, maybe a line will be open for you. The number to call is 844-484-5737. And our next call today comes from Justin in the Bay Area, San Francisco Bay Area in California. Justin, welcome.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hi, Steve. Thank you for taking my call. Happy New Year.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 06 :
Same to you. Just wanted to… Quickly, are we at about $100 a minute for your radio time? Is that about right?
SPEAKER 02 :
Approximately, yes.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay, I’ll try and make my time used here to measure it with the amount of giving that I give. So I’ve got the timer going here. I just wanted to mention just very quickly on the Matthew 713, I was just incredibly impressed because I called previously about something. I think it was a question regarding Finney. And literally, as we were talking, it was being categorized and put up on the website. I thought it was quite remarkable.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s my wife’s doing. That’s my wife’s doing. Oh, wow. That’s remarkable. Let me just – let me take – cut into time a little bit. I’ve been here for some hours, too, here, too. But the – I also donate to the Narrow Path. Okay. You’re referring to Matthew713.com. For those who don’t know, Matthew713.com, 713.com, has a topical index of over 25,000 calls that have come into this program over the past many years. And somebody put together a website where you can have an index. You can look up a subject topic. And it’ll take you to all the calls on that subject. And there’s over 2,000 topics you can go in. And like I said, I think there’s 25,000 calls there. And it’ll show you the different calls on the subject. And you can click on one and listen to the call. That’s free. Anyone can go there. It’s Matthew713.com. Now, what you just said, brother, is that you had a call to me earlier about Finney. And it’s like you say, as soon as we were done, it was already posted. Is that what you’re saying?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I think even while we were talking because I refreshed it just to check and see because I was just curious because there was no subject on Finney previously and then while we were talking. So it’s literally when you look up Finney now, F-I-N-N-E-Y, it’s literally the date that I called. It’s my phone call. But she had it up as I was talking, and I’m thinking, is this like some AI I’ve mined? No, it’s human intelligence.
SPEAKER 02 :
My wife is sitting in the same room, and as we speak, she’s taking down that information, and she posts it up there. I didn’t know it went up there in real time, but she’s busy every day doing that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Very impressive. Extremely impressive. I thought you might have reached singularity before Steve Kurzweil did, or I didn’t know what was going on. But we have a remarkable database there. I just wanted just a very quick question, Steve. I kind of called before, but just to put it in. on the same, still in 1 Corinthians 7. So verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 7, and it’s just related to online dating. So we had kind of spoke, and I had misspoken my question, saying that it kind of seemed contradictory in the text, but what I meant was it just seemed kind of contradictory to experience. Experience, meaning verses like verse 7, chapter 7, verse 2, or 7, 9, where it says, nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife. Verse 9, if they cannot contain, let them marry. It is better to marry than to burn. So he’s obviously saying that there’s a single life to live as Paul, and then it’s obviously to avoid fornication or to marry. For me, it just seems more… Common to experience, especially in a pornified culture, to marry would be the more apt choice. And so as far as finding a wife, I mean, for me, I avoided online dating just because it seems kind of forced and everything else. But I get questions from people regarding online dating, and it just seems to let them not seek a wife. I’ve heard that apply towards things like online dating. that were not to use it and just kind of wanted to get your opinion.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, like I said, when Paul said, do not seek a wife, he’s not giving some kind of an absolute instruction. He’s giving counsel. Chapter 7, verse 1 says, Now concerning the things which you wrote to me about. Now, the Corinthians wrote to him and asked his counsel about the advisability of getting married or staying single. And he kind of talks out of both sides of his mouth because he realizes that not everyone has the same, as he calls it, not everyone has the same gift. Verse 7, he says, I wish that all men were even as I myself, meaning single, but each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that, meaning I have a gift of being single. Some people don’t. So just, you know, you don’t have to be like me, but I wish everyone could. And the reason he wishes everyone could is not because it’s morally better to be single. In fact, he makes it very clear for some people it would be morally inferior to be single. He’s saying, I just wish it would be wonderful if everyone could, without the distractions of family life, be able to go out like Paul and travel around and live on nothing and, you know. preach the gospel, serve God all the time. Now, realistically, he knows that’s not really the way God has set things up. He’s just expressing his sentiments. He’s saying, you know, if you want to be single, and if that’s the choice you’re making, hey, you’ve got my support. That’s what he’s saying. I’d love it if everyone could do that. But they can’t. And that’s what he says in verse 1 and 2. He says, concerning the things you wrote to me, it’s good for a man not to touch a woman. That’d be great if a man never had to be distracted by women. But he says… Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife and let each woman have her own husband. Now, that sounds universal. Let each man and each woman, let them be married. Now, he seems to agree with you that marriage, therefore, is the more normal situation. And I think he said that, too. But he says, however, you know, singleness is an option for some people, he says, like me. And I’d love it if everyone had that option. But not everyone does. He says, you know, I say to the unmarried and to those, it’s good for them to remain single if they can. But if they cannot, then they should marry. Now, Paul assumes that there are some people who simply aren’t made to be lifelong celibate. And he says, you know, do what, you know, fulfill your purpose. Fulfill the thing that God’s given you the gift for. And if it’s singleness, great. If it’s being married, great. He’s not forcing anything. Now, when he says a little later, I suppose, therefore, this is verse 26, it’s good because of the present distress. It’s good for a man to remain as he is. He means either married or unmarried. If he’s already married, let him stay married. Of course, if he’s not married, then let him stay single. It’s good. He’s not making it. an absolute command, he says, I suppose it’s good for them to stay as they are because of the present distress. Now, there’s quite a few modifiers here. Because of the present distress, what is that? We don’t know. We don’t know what was happening in Corinth at that moment that was called the present distress. Maybe he just meant in this present life there’s distress, and so it’s good if you don’t have the entanglements, if you can live without them. But on the other hand, He says, I suppose. He’s not saying this is a command from God. He’s saying, this is my thoughts. This is the thought that comes to my mind. I suppose it’s good to stay as you are. And if you’re single, don’t get married. If you’re married, don’t become single. He’s not giving some kind of an ironclad moral obligation. He’s made it very clear. It’s not immoral to stay single. It’s not immoral to be married. And Paul is no legalist. That’s the last thing he wants to do. He doesn’t want to make rules that God doesn’t make. That’s what legalism is. Legalism is if God hasn’t made a rule about it, that, you know, if a preacher makes a rule that God didn’t make, that’s legalism. And Paul’s the opposite. So when he says in verse 25, now concerning unmarried people, virgins, he says, I have no commandment from the Lord. I’m giving my opinion, he says. I’m giving my judgment. So the verses you’re concerned about are verses Paul says, I think, I suppose this. This is my opinion. This is my judgment. I don’t have any word from God about it, so obviously I can’t pass along any commandment to you. I’m just giving my counsel. And he doesn’t claim it’s anything more than that. And so I wouldn’t claim it’s anything more than that either. He says, there’s nothing from God about this that I can pass along. And it would be totally legalistic to take Paul’s counsel as if it was a law when he himself didn’t. He disclaims that. So, you know, I don’t think there’s the big problem there. Now, as far as seeking a wife is concerned, obviously seeking a wife is a moral thing to do. Paul’s not saying that it’s immoral to do that or that people should never do that. He’s made it very clear. He said if you can’t contain yourself, marry. Well, how are you going to do that unless you seek a wife, obviously? There’s nothing wrong about seeking a wife. Now, as far as finding one through social media or dating services online, that might be something to be considered separately as to whether that’s wisdom or not. I mean, it could be. People used to meet their mates in their village because everyone grew up in the same village they were born in, and all the families knew each other intergenerationally. And, you know, people would marry someone they grew up with and knew well. Later on, when people were more mobile, moved around more in the industrial age, you know, they’d meet maybe at church or maybe at work or somewhere, you know. There’s lots of places to meet. There are fewer of those. I guess fewer people are meeting in those places now than they used to, and online is where a lot of people meet. Of course, the great risk of meeting someone online is that they may not be what they appear to be. If you meet somebody at a church or in your village where you grew up and you’ve known them all their life, it’s not as easy for them to pretend to be something to you that they aren’t. Whereas online, people can pretend to be almost anything. So it’s just more risky. But I know many people who have met their mates online and who seem to be very happily married. So I wouldn’t say anything negative about… online courtship, except it’s riskier. You need to be more careful. All right? But there’s certainly nothing in the Bible to forbid it. Harry from Vancouver, B.C. Welcome.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hi there, Steve. Thank you for taking my call. I’ve got a question regarding the Orthodox Church. My family background, we’re Evangelical Christians, and recently my son… has been checking out an Orthodox church up here in British Columbia. And my wife and I thought we’d just go to it and see what he’s looking at. And we were there Christmas Eve. And we noticed, and my question to you is, are there any red flags that we need to be aware of? We noticed that they were praying to icons, and their view of water baptism is a lot different in a way than us as evangelicals. Is there something you can enlighten me and help me on on this?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, a lot of people are interested in orthodoxy these days. And a lot of evangelicals are going into Roman Catholicism, too. And I consider both of those to be a similar directional move. I am not inclined to go either direction because I don’t like institutional religion. I don’t like, you know, highly liturgical religion. I don’t think Jesus or the apostles conducted those kinds of services. I’m not sure why the church eventually started doing those things. But I think what happened is that a spiritual movement started by Jesus and the apostles became institutionalized by people who had a religious kind of orientation and turned Jesus’ movement into a religion. And it happened more than one way. Roman Catholic and Orthodox are both different ways that that has happened. And, of course, many Protestant churches have done exactly the same thing. But as far as Orthodoxy is concerned, I probably would have more theologically in common with the Orthodox than with the Roman Catholic. But I would have some differences, and some of them would be the same ones I have with the Roman Catholics. The Orthodox don’t have a both, which is to their credit. But they still have the same doctrines about Mary and the saints, as near as I can tell. And whereas the Catholic Church has… statues of saints and Mary and Jesus and so forth, the Orthodox Church doesn’t have statues. It has icons, which are painting in Byzantine art style of saints and Mary and so forth, which are on a flat piece of wood. And yet, it seems to me like the Orthodox relate to those icons the same way the Roman Catholics relate to their images. If it’s not the same icon, An onlooker like me can’t say a dime’s worth of difference. And to me, images are one of those things that God flatly forbade Israel to make. The first two of the Ten Commandments are against it. And it was the one thing where God required Israel to be different from all the pagan religions, because all the pagan religions had images of the things they worshipped and the things they revered. And God told Israel, don’t do that. And when Israel did that, that’s when they came under God’s judgment. Now, we have no evidence that Jesus or the apostles ever set up images or icons. I have a feeling that would be intolerable in their day. But when Christianity got modified into a religion made up of religious ceremonies and rituals, it took on a lot of the pagan trappings of representing those things that are revered as images to be venerated, to be kissed, to be bowed before and things like that, to me, that simply is the opposite of biblical religion. Now, on the other hand, having said that, it might seem strange to say, I think that Orthodox people and Catholic people can be saved. I believe they can be Christians. I believe Christians can be wrong about many things and still be saved. But you talk about red flags. That would certainly be a big one. Their doctrines about Mary, I believe, are very similar, if not identical, to those of the Roman Catholics. I think those are red flags. They certainly weren’t taught in the Bible or, as near as we can tell, believed by any of the earliest Christians. So, I mean, those are issues for me. I could fellowship with a Roman Catholic who loves Jesus or with an Orthodox person who loves Jesus, but I would never be drawn to their church. I would see them as brothers and sisters, but I wouldn’t join their group. And when evangelicals do kind of go that direction, either back to Roman Catholicism or to Orthodoxy, I always wonder what it is in their temperament that makes that attractive to them. It’s very unattractive to me. And that’s because for my entire spiritual life, I’ve had a relationship with Jesus that’s not based on pictures and images and rituals and things like that. I consider that we walk with Jesus kind of the way the disciples walked with Jesus. The difference is we don’t see him, but he’s with us. We have his spirit, whoever led by the spirit of God or the children of God. So to me, it seemed to me to be strange if Jesus… was walking around with his disciples, and suddenly he put on these robes and this hat and had this big, you know, ornate shepherd’s crook, and he began setting up pictures of, you know, the prophets and so forth, and said, now, you know, revere these. I mean, it’s like a different religion. I can’t even imagine Jesus doing that or tolerating it, or Paul or Peter. I mean, when When Peter walked into the house of Cornelius, Peter was certainly a saint. And Peter, I mean, Cornelius fell down at his feet and almost worshipped him. And Peter, get up. He said, I’m just a man. You don’t worship me. You know, I think the apostles would have found it disgusting to have images that people bow down to. Even if they represented the apostles themselves. So, I’m just of a really different mind. And… You know, my vision of being a Christian is very primitive. I figured I’m joining the same movement Jesus called the fishermen and the tax collectors to join. And he just said, follow me. He didn’t say develop elaborate rituals and make a religion around it and then, you know, have these religious meetings and so forth. No, he said, follow me. And following him is you obey him. You imitate him. You stay close to him. He becomes the central reality in your life. Now, I’m not going to say that isn’t so for some Catholics and some Orthodox. I’m not writing them off. I know some Catholic people and Orthodox people who seem to be very devoted to Christ. And I wouldn’t say that their relationship with God is inferior to mine. But they have a lot of stuff they add to it, and I don’t think my relationship with God is inferior to theirs. even though I don’t have any of that religious stuff in my life. So to me, it’s all about Jesus, okay? That’s what Christianity is. Christianity is Christ, being a disciple, following him. He’s the Lord. He’s the king. It’s all about him. So that’s been, I guess, the watchword of my spiritual life for over 50 years, and I don’t have any desire whatsoever to compromise that with Christianity. things that don’t enhance that or don’t have anything to do with that. And that’s what the rituals of certain Christian religions have added, which to my mind, if I start doing that, that just distracts me. Those would be distractions from Jesus for me. For others, maybe not.
SPEAKER 10 :
Gotcha. Thank you very much, Steve.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, Harry. God bless. All right. Let’s talk to Linda from Auburn, Washington. Linda, welcome.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hi. Hi. Okay, I wanted to put a word in when the person called in about the head coverings for women and 1 Corinthians. I recently read a book by Chris, K-R-I-S, Valenton, V-A-L-L-O-T-O-N, I believe.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, from Bethel. He’s from Bethel.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
So a lot of people are there that connect well to the Spirit and get words of knowledge from God and have great success with healing. Okay, so what is your question? The book is called Fashion to Reign, Empowering Women for Their Divine Destiny. And in there he says that three of the places the letters were directed to had things going on like goddess worship, at least two of the places, like Ephesus and Corinth. So they had, and Corinth evidently was the worship of Athena, and they had 1,000 temple prostitutes, and they would shave their heads.
SPEAKER 02 :
Actually, Corinth had a temple of Aphrodite, and they did have 1,000 temple prostitutes who were the priestesses of that religion. You’re right. Now, I’m not going to go further on this because we have people waiting. We only have a couple of minutes. But I would say what Chris Vallotton is saying there, there’s something true about the culture that he’s saying. But to say that that has any relevance to what Paul’s instructions were, that by numerous books have made that point. And I don’t find them persuasive to me, but many people do. And so they think that Paul’s instructions are based on Aphrodite worship, you know, avoiding it. And, of course, Paul would tell them to avoid it. But I don’t know that his instructions with the headcomers were directly related to those things. But maybe they were. Okay. Let’s talk to Pastor Mike in Los Angeles. Hi, Pastor Mike.
SPEAKER 05 :
How are you doing?
SPEAKER 02 :
Good. Go ahead. We don’t have much time.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Yes. If Abraham is the father of the Jews, who circumcised Abraham? In other words, was he the first to be circumcised? Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, he circumcised himself or maybe had a servant do it. I mean, he probably had someone. He had 318 servants. He was a wealthy man. It’s possible that one of them was, you know, physician or something and had him do that or he could have just cut it off himself or he could have just you know his servants probably were well well trained in dissecting animals for sacrifice and for food and things like that butchering animals I’m sure that someone there could cut off his foreskin if he wanted to he and his son Ishmael and all of the servants were circumcised on that same day we don’t know who actually held the knife it could have been anyone but it was obviously at Abraham’s command I don’t know that Abram did the cutting himself, but it could have been done by any of his servants at his request. Okay, let’s talk to Tyson from Concord, California.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hi, Steve. What does it, I believe it’s Matthew 28.3, where it indicates that call no man teacher.
SPEAKER 02 :
No, that’s 1 Corinthians. No, I’m sorry, you’re in Matthew 20, I think it is, or 23, Matthew 23. Okay. There’s several passages similar, but yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
So to make it quick, what did our Father mean when he made that statement to call no man teacher, to call no man rabbi, and to call no man father? And I’ll take my answer off the air.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right, yeah. In the context, Jesus is saying that the Pharisees liked, to be called by these religious terms of respect. He said they love to be called Rabbi, Rabbi. That’s actually Matthew 23, 7. He says they love the greetings in the marketplace. They love to be called Rabbi, Rabbi, which is a term of honor as spiritual superiors to the average person, they thought. He says, but don’t you be called Rabbi, for one is your teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father, He who is in heaven and do not be called teachers for one is your teacher, the Christ. Now, what he’s saying is don’t be don’t adopt religious honorary titles. You’re all equal. Don’t don’t have people call you rabbi or teacher or father as a religious title. Now, he’s not saying don’t ever be a teacher. So that you could, you know, don’t ever be in a position where if someone says, what do you do for a living? I’m a teacher. Oh, Jesus, call no one teacher. No, that’s not what he’s talking about. Same thing with father. He’s not saying never call your dad father. Or never call anybody father in a sense that Paul himself in 1 Corinthians 4 said that he was essentially the father of the Corinthian church, which he was. He’s not asking them to call him father. He’s not asking to have a title called. He’s just reminding them that that is the relationship he bore to the church. They are like his children in the faith. Timothy was like his son in the faith. I mean, there’s a sense in which Peter referred to Mark as his son in the faith. In that sense, suggesting I’m his father in the faith. But he didn’t ask to be called father. All that Jesus is talking about, he’s not saying you can’t be a father. You can’t recognize somebody who is, in fact, a father. But to call somebody father who isn’t your father, it’s just a religious thing. term of honor, don’t do that. Don’t do that. You’re all equal. Don’t treat some people like they’re better and give them great titles. I’ve known some pastors and some preachers who have almost insisted on being called reverend or even doctor, so and so. And this is, to my mind, a violation of what Jesus is saying. They’re asking to be called by honorific titles that somewhat differentiate them and status from the ordinary believer. And Jesus said, don’t talk that way. You’re all brothers. He’s not saying that if someone’s really your father, you can’t call him father. Or if someone’s really a teacher, you can’t call him teacher. But to take on that title is, I think, forbidden. That’s what he’s talking about. You’ve been listening to The Narrow Path. My name is Steve Gregg. We’re on Monday through Friday. We’re listener supported. If you’d like to know how to help us stay on the air, you can go to our website. Everything there is free. The website is thenarrowpath.com. Have a good weekend, and let’s talk again Monday.
