Propriety

Propriety is one of those words without much meaning outside of certain churches any longer.  My guess would be that certain of those churches are responsible for the loss of value of that word today.  Those churches whom stressed elaborate lists of do's and don'ts, willing disfellowshipping those whom do not agree and those whom transgressed some part of the THEIR law ... yeah, you drove an entire culture away from the church, their children from God and any awareness of sin or salvation.  Congratulations, you did good (and you get to be judged for that in the here after...).

However, propriety is a valid issue within the Christian body today, does need to be expressed and adhered to - however, adherence is the question of the individual's heart and maturity - not disfellowshipping, judging and condemnation by the pious.  Yeah, as you can tell I do have some strong feelings on this hypocritical standard within the church.

Basically we have two camps within the "church", (within quotes as I do not believe most churches are actually Christian in nature,) however we have to use something to speak from and against.  One the one side we have the Charismatic, Pentecostal, Anglican, Episcopalian and Lutheran movements and style of churches, where basically anything goes these days.  Contrast this against only a hand full of the Four Square's, most of the Baptists, Memmonite, Quaker, Amish and even my beloved Hutterite brothers and sisters - whom have no difficulty at all in calling you out for what they believe to be a forest in your eyes - completely ignoring their own logs in their eyes.  So, very opposite opinions and few willing to say, "Hey, I disagree with you and would you consider contrasting your behavior against these Bible verses?"  Instead, it is more like, "The Bible says, hence you are out of here..."  Rarely does the Bible match what they think it says.

So, what does the Bible say?   

1 Timothy 2:8-15
⁸ Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing. ⁹ I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, ¹⁰ but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.
¹¹ A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. ¹² I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. ¹³ For Adam was formed first, then Eve. ¹⁴ And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. ¹⁵ But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

Paul calls upon the men of the church to be in prayer, at peace with all mankind.  Some people like me not longer can lift up their arms (back injury) but you can pray on your knees, sitting, standing, laying down, driving a car!, it does not matter - it is the posture of your heart that Paul is referring to, it is important, you are yielded to God in true humility.  You are supposed to be a spiritual leader, you expected to be one, by God!  Are you?  Probably not, so you can already see that propriety within the church context is not even possible, from those whom it matters most - because of you and your heart.  I say that to my own condemnation as well.

Paul calls upon women of the church to watch how you present yourselves.  You are supposed to not dress suggestively, yeah  you have breasts, guys are visual creatures, perhaps not displaying them is a good idea?  I smack my head every summer when even in my fairly conservative church, girls grandly parade themselves - and not oblivious to the attention of the males!  And they never figure the disconnect out!  The males are riveted 12" below their eye level.  And disasters happen all of the time in that church - whether it is some unused room during a service, in the parking lot, etc.  Everyone complains, everyone points fingers, no one confronts the parents.  In fact, often the mothers are just as bad or worse than their daughters!  Sickening!

Continuing, since I side tracked myself - women are not to dress fancy and not to put on "airs"!  How unlike the churches my mother went to while I was in high school!  You would have thought it a fashion show the way the women dressed and paraded themselves.  Even as a non-Christian it made me want to vomit - the hypocrisy levels were so high.  I hated God because He must be blind and unable to see past a nice dress or outfit, to the blackness of the heart within.  Yeah, I might not have known God but I knew from others what many of them were up to my own little town!  Grrrrrrr!  And as for guys, I might mention that ought to be true for you as well!  Many years ago I was approached at the end of the service by a woman whom told me that some of her husband's old suits would fit me and be more respective of God than what I was wearing.  Really?  I told her my soul wore a tuxedo and God does not see our clothing.  Yeah, she was offended.

And probably the most important aspect for women is their ability to SUPPORT the leadership within the church.  Of course we are discussing Godly support, of Godly men, involved in Godly pursuits for the church!  Three big qualifications there and the insinuation that there are some mighty powerful Gifts of the Holy Spirit in those women to be used in working with each other in the support of the leadership.  Just pointing out the obvious that no one really pays much attention too....  Yes, the Holy Spirit IS IN women as well, if you don't think so, read you Bible and stop listening to others.

And now we hit some of the hardest verses to discuss within the modern church: 1 Timothy 2:11 - 15.

My mother went to seminary, mostly just to embarrass the Baptist Church over this problem.  I never thought she actually had a desire to be a pastor, and could do so in most of the denominations even back in the 1970's but she wanted to take down the Southern Baptists - and she was successful in court over this issue.

If you want to argue, as my mother does, that Paul was a male chauvinistic pig whom hated women and a reasonable person would not even listen to him, well what were his other problems if you want to kill off more of his writings?

If you want to argue that this was only cultural and applied to just the church of Ephesus because of their female problems in that society, well what other parts of the Bible are also either regional or cultural and therefore can be explained away to fit your view of God and the Bible or to negotiate around your sin nature?

When was the last time you were in a church and had your feet washed or shoes shined for that matter?
When was the last time the women of your church covered their heads when speaking or praying publicly?
When was the last time you prostrated yourself in church?

Just asking, after-all, if the Bible is only cultural, then it is no big deal for you not to do any of these!
And you are told to by the Bible instead.

It is a slippery slope when we want to argue that the Bible is only cultural, then do what we believe is right in our own mind and eyes.  That would be a violation of two of those "Ten Commandments"

But, Paul does not appear to be arguing culturally but from a viewpoint of Creation.  So, it is God's viewpoint we are called to consider, not our own, not history, not culture - just God's view.  Make no mistake that is a rough one because it takes maturity plus humility, to see with the eye's of God.

Of course, every time there is a call to take the Bible literally, there are jokes made by bringing up the Jewish laws, which the Church was NEVER under.  You can take the New Testament literally without much problem, when placed in a first century context - just to kill the stupid arguments.....

Something for you think about, especially if you are seeing problems in your church body.