The walk
The Crowbar Verses
A difficult verse can make a very effective crowbar.
Context determines meaning. Discomfort doesn't.
1 Corinthians 11:2-16 · 1 Corinthians 14:26-40 · Acts 17:10-12
They say
"In some churches, women aren't even allowed to speak. Some make them cover their heads. You don't think Christians have to do that, do you?"
The scene
Maybe you flinched at that. I did. But before you agree or disagree, open the passage.
Paul does tell women to keep silent in 1 Corinthians 14. Read those verses on their own and they can sound absolute.
But a few chapters earlier, Paul gives instructions about women praying or prophesying.
Whatever the command to keep silent means, it has to account for that.
Then look at chapter 14 itself. Paul also tells a person speaking in another language to keep silent when there is no interpreter, and tells one prophet to keep silent when another receives a revelation.
Christians disagree about exactly what kind of speaking Paul is restricting when he tells women to keep silent. But "Paul says women aren't allowed to speak at all" doesn't account for the rest of the letter.
And yes, the head covering is there too.
It's debated. Read it for yourself.
You've been given the passage and somebody's interpretation of it at the same time. If you object to the interpretation before you've read the passage, it can sound as though you're objecting to Paul.
If those two things stay tangled together, the next difficult passage is easier to dismiss: "I disagreed with Paul before. Why not again?"
That's the crowbar.
In Acts, the people of Berea were praised for receiving Paul's message eagerly while examining the Scriptures every day to see whether what he said was true.
They checked the apostle Paul.
So when someone gives you a difficult verse, open it. Read what comes before it and after it. Ask whether the interpretation you've been given actually accounts for what is there.
You may still end up with a reading you find uncomfortable.
The question is whether it's what the passage says.
The point
Open the passage.
Sit with this
When Paul made you uncomfortable, did you read him or decide what he was allowed to mean?