We looked at 1 Timothy 2:12 last week in context. This leaves one other scripture which also talks about women being quiet in church, 1 Corinthians 14:34 which says, “The women should be respectfully silent during the evaluation of prophecy in the meetings. They are not allowed to interrupt, but are to be in a support role, as in fact the law teaches. If they want to inquire about something, let them ask their husbands when they get home, for a woman embarrasses herself when she constantly interrupts the church meeting.”
What we first need to do is look at those verses in the context of the other verses around them so we can see what the Apostle Paul was talking about. If we look at 1 Corinthians 14, we will realise that in verses 1-25, Paul is talking about the proper use of our spiritual gifts. He is saying, “I love your passion for Jesus but I heard you have all been speaking in tongues in your church services and speaking over each other. Speaking in tongues is wonderful, but you all don’t understand each other so no one is learning anything.”
Imagine being in a church service where people speak a different language that you don’t understand, God may very well be there, but you do not gain much from the service. Faith comes by hearing the word of God, Romans 10:17. You need to be able to understand or comprehend what you are hearing.
In verses 26-40, Paul gives guidelines for how we are to use our spiritual gifts in the church setting. He talks about people giving prophetic words. 1 Corinthians 14:30-33 says, “For you can all prophesy in turn and in an environment where all present can be instructed, encouraged, and strengthened. The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is the God of harmony, not confusion, as is the pattern in all the churches of God’s holy believers.”
These verses come right before he says women should be quiet. So in context, it looks like there was a lot of chaos in these meetings and Paul is saying, “Hang on, there is an order to how we should do things. Wives, if your husband is giving a prophetic word, now is not the time to question him about it. Talk it out at home. Yes, it feels personal. Yes, it may even feel like its directed to you or your mother, but it’s ok. Let’s not disrupt the meeting. Talk it out at home.”
So this is about maintaining order in the service. Verse 30 is clear that all, including women, can prophesy in a church meeting. Women can teach and speak in church, but in a manner where all present can be instructed, encouraged and strengthened.
Speaking of context, we also need to realise that the people of Corinth were also known to worship the goddess Artemis. If you remember from last week, we talked about the Temple of Diana (Artemis) where women were predominantly the ministers. So these Corinthian women are coming from a place where they were large and in charge in their idol temple to having a man saying he heard from God and wants to share his prophetic word. It was an adjustment. You can see why the women coming out from the background of idol worship would probably question it or have much to say about it.
These verses, 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:12, were never made to silence women or say they are less than or lack authority. Taken out of context, they have the tendency to make women sit back, sit on their God given gifts and remain quiet where they should be speaking up. Taken out of context, they are weapons against the daughters of God and against the image of God being revealed in the church.
Genesis 1:27 says, “Then God said, “Let us make a man and a woman in our image to be like us. Let them reign over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the livestock, over the creatures that creep along the ground, and over the wild animals.”
We all carry a piece of God. God’s image is made complete when men and women work together in unity. When God’s sons and daughters stand in their God given authority and do what they are called to do. This is not a time to sit back and wait for someone else to do it. My Pastor Esther says, “You are the one you have been waiting for.” So stop hiding, be who God has called you to be.
Love and blessings,
Melissa Tsingano.
Heavenly Whispers Blog 
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