Hey!
I wanted to tell you more about what blessed me during Sunday morning’s discussion, when you were answering Johnny’s mother’s questions. There were three things that really helped me in that conversation.
First, when Barbara was telling her experiences about makeup and jewelry, etc., I felt like some wrong ideas I had about that got washed away. I’ve known for years that it isn’t sin for women to wear makeup, etc., but somehow in my own conscience, I wouldn’t have felt the liberty to wear it. I don’t know how that got so ingrained in me. But hearing Barbara talk about her experiences, I felt like more of that wrong idea got washed away from me. It was a reinforcing of something I knew, but this time it felt like it settled in more. We just need to fit in with the decent people around us, and sometimes that might even require us to wear makeup or dress up more for an occasion. Thank God for that conversation!
Then, I got a clearer understanding about the scriptures that talk about the cutting of women’s hair – specifically where Paul said, “we have no such custom”. I guess I have always read that as if Paul was saying that “we have no such custom for a woman to have short hair and no such custom for a man to have long hair.” But how I understood it Sunday is that Paul was saying we don’t have a custom either way – whether to have short hair or long hair. We are to just blend in with the decent people in our time/culture, etc. Did I understand that right?
And last, about the scriptures in 1Corinthians that talk about speaking in tongues with an interpreter present. I never understood before that the reason 1Cor. 14:28 is misunderstood is because of the mistranslation of the word church. Paul wasn’t talking about a building! He was saying if you speak in the Assembly (to the Assembly) in tongues, to let there be an interpreter. It’s okay to speak in tongues in the building if you’re speaking to God!
That was really good to me. I’m so thankful I got to hear all of that!
Lyn
=========
Hi Lyn.
You are one of several people who later told me that our discussion Sunday morning of the questions Sister Lisa sent helped clarify some things for them. I am thankful for that.
As for the custom Paul mentioned concerning the length of one’s hair, the way you have always understood Paul’s comment was right. Paul was indeed saying that the saints at that time had no custom of short hair for women or long hair for men. But the larger point was what you next suggested, which is that customs change, and wise children of God change with them. No style or custom applies to all people at all times in all places. Only the doctrines of God have unchanging authority over believers at all times and places.
If anything stands out about us, it is to be the goodness, wisdom, and power of God in Christ Jesus, not our style of dress or hair.
Again, I am thankful that you and others were blessed by the answers given to Johnny for his dear mother.
Pastor John