Ron wrote:
It had a serious point too. We must resist every notion in this thread which would bring in a sense of woman being 'subservient' to man. There is nothing 'less' about the woman. This is voluntary submission, as the church to Christ, not a heavy handed imposition or a servile cringing.
_________________Sandra Miller
Phillip,Thanks for replying to my question. I did not notice your reply until now...About servanthood: Paul in many places identifies himself as a servant of Jesus Christ. The terms servant and lord always indicate a relationship of order in authority. The servant obeys his master who calls the shots. The scripture uses these terms quite liberally.Now about faith. What is faith? Does not the application of faith ALWAYS means action on my part? Consider Hebrews 11. There you have the rollcall of OT saints who acted in belief to God's commands and were accounted for righteousness. It was their behaviours that earned them this distinction. The behaviours resulted from obedience to God's will. The commands God exacted from them were not some that were written down for inspiration, but those that were inspired by their love for God (and likely the prompting of the Holy Spirit although the Scriptures do not explicitly say so.) So then, being free from the bondage or weight of sin, we are free to run with Jesus the race that is set before us. And when you run you are not sitting idly by doing nothing. Heb. 12:1. Nowhere did I indicate that the application of 1 Corinthians 11 will guarantee one entrance into heaven. The application of this scripture is in no sense a bondage, unless you call baptism, communion bondage. Or perhaps loving ones enemy is bondage, or the command to not commit murder, or steal, or commit adultery being bondage. Are his commands grievous? I suggest they are if you serve self. When self has been crucified, these behavious will characterize the life of the believer. It is not the actions one does that impresses God, but they result from our love and appreciation for who He is by being obedient. Jesse Yoder, a now deceased pastor used to say: "Spiritual maturity is reached when obedience becomes a joy!" I agree. This is the essense of my post.ginnyrose