Hi all,
“Who is your covering” is the belief that all believers must be under the ‘covering’ of a church or church leader. That leader acts in authority over them so God’s blessings may flow to them and they are protected from the devil. That is why very often, an off balance mentoring relationship is based on fear. It makes the person mentored afraid of missing or failing God, but also afraid of what the devil might do if they make a wrong decision or go against their mentor.
Is the ‘covering’ teaching Biblical?
This teaching is what remains of The Shepherding Movement mentioned in part 1. It is widely accepted as Bible fact, but it is not scriptural. Jesus is your ‘covering’, and then after that we are each other’s ‘covering’, and I will discuss marriage order below.
Consider what ‘who is your covering’ teaching says. It says every person must have another person or organization between them and God. It ignores Christ in every believer, directing a submitted person to get instruction from another person, rather than Christ in them, leading them.
It believes that other person (who also has Christ in them), is not capable of making decisions for themselves; that they need someone to make those decisions for them. How evil!
Healthy example of spiritual guidance
A spiritual leader, a mentor, should act as one confirming what the Lord has first put in your heart. The watch is over one’s soul, not their life in the natural world – job, home, school are natural things. A pastor or other leader’s guidance should be focused on spiritual things and of the soul. Of course natural things come into the discussions, but a healthy mentoring relationship will always point the one mentored to Christ in them and doing what He wants.
Acts 20: 22-23 tells us Paul is determined to go to Jerusalem.
He says ‘I don’t know what is going to happen to me, but everywhere I go the Spirit witnesses that bonds and affliction await me there.’ He knew something bad was going to happen. But in Acts 21: 10-11 Agabus the prophet gives a specific word to Paul. He says the Jewish leaders will arrest him and turn him over to the Romans.
These details were confirmation of something Paul already had in him, the core truth that trouble awaits. The details were new, but the core revelation was something already in Paul. The detail Agabus added was a confirmation. Consider also when Simeon in Luke 2: 25-32 came by the Spirit and proclaimed baby Jesus was Messiah, it was not new information to Mary and Joseph – it confirmed what they had each been told by the Lord.
When Peter proclaimed ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God’, Jesus said that no man told him that, he received that word from the Father. Jesus confirmed the revelation.
Initial revelation is within, from the Father or Lord by the Holy Spirit, THEN confirmed by ‘the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses.’
Husbands and wives
The scriptures abusive husbands and pastors use to subjugate their wives or women are: I Corinthians 11: 1-16 about veils, I Corinthians 14: 26-40 about wives silent in church, and I Timothy 2: 9-15 about order in marriage; often used to tell women they can’t talk in church.
In I Corinthians 11: 1-16 the context is the wearing of veils. In that day and that region, wives wore a veil in public, and removed them at home or among family. The veil was the equivalent of our wedding ring today. We are told in Acts 18: 1-9 that they met in the house of Justus, a Roman, and there were Jews, Greeks and Romans all meeting together for ‘church’.
Some wives once inside the home removed their veils as they were among family in Christ. But that act dishonored their husbands in that culture. Paul said removing the veil at ‘house church’ dishonors their husbands, the angels in charge of their family, and the Lord. That was the issue in Corinth with no other ‘veil’ instruction anywhere else in the NT.
In verses 2, 13, and 16 Paul calls wives leaving on their veils a custom. It isn’t a command from God, it is a custom. In some countries today this passage would still apply, but in most of the world the custom of wives wearing veils as a sign of their marriage is not in use.
In I Corinthians 14: 26-40 the context is how to be a guest in someone’s home for ‘church’. This was needed because all 3 cultures were suddenly thrown together with only Christ in them held in common. Paul states the context in v26; let all things be done in a way that builds up all, decently and in order. He states the same in v33 and v40 – three times in 15 verses repeating the subject as concern for decency and order, so there is no misunderstanding. It isn’t about wives being silent, it’s about meetings involving multiple cultures being done decently and in order.
In v27-28 are about having a word but no one to interpret or opportunity to share. He says don’t demand to be heard. If there is no opportunity to share, speak it to yourself and God, you have not sinned. In v29-33 he tells them not to insist on talking, and that if they share something they feel is from God, it will be judged by at least 2 or 3 others. It may be accepted or rejected.
Having said that, he then said ‘the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets’, meaning just because you feel that urge to share, you don’t have to, God leave you in charge no matter what is in your spirit. He says take turns, God is not the author of confusion so be considerate the direction the meeting is going. Go with the flow instead of pushing your private favorite belief.
God is not the author of confusion, but of peace
Telling them once again God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, he tells the wives in v34-35 to ask their husbands at home if they have questions. The subject is confusion in the meeting, not a blanket doctrinal statement for wives to be silent.
He says the law says they must be quiet. There is nothing in the Mosaic law that says that. In Judaism oral law (traditions) were also called ‘the law.’ The ‘law’ Paul is speaking of is the law of the synagogue where the women are separated from the men and have no right to speak.
But now in Christ they are equal and seated with their husbands so the wives are catching up in knowledge, disrupting the flow of a meeting by their constant questions. So he said for the sake of peace, and things done decently and in order, let them ask their husbands at home.
People forget or don’t know this is written to a room full of men and women from 3 different cultures meeting together to learn about Jesus, in a home.
I Timothy 2: 9-15 is about marriage order and not a ‘church service’. In those days Romans women showed their wealth and status by weaving jewelry in braids, with wigs being a common way to add room to add more jewels. Paul said focus on inner beauty not showing off outer beauty and wealth. This instruction has nothing to do with church, it is about husbands and wives and how the wives focus their attention – outer show of wealth, or inner and true wealth in Christ.
He then said he is not allowing wives to usurp authority, or more closely to the Greek, have dominion over their husbands. Again, this is marriage order by context, not anything to do with being in church. I would add that in many marriages the wife is the ‘talker’. We see this in Priscilla and Aquila who are mentioned 6x by Paul, with 4 of those 6x Priscilla is mentioned first, indicating she was the main speaker.
She was not usurping Aquila’s authority when teaching or talking, but by his permission, for he recognized the gifts in his wife. The same is true today. When a couple recognizes each other’s gifts and strengths, we submit to those God-given gifts in them, so each does not usurp authority over the other.
These words to Timothy…
…who was overseeing the body in Ephesus do not supersede his instructions to the Ephesians in 5: 21-33. In other words all three letters; Ephesians and I & II Timothy, are to Christians in Ephesus. They are consistent with each other for Paul is writing to and about the same people. In Ephesians 5:21 he said to ‘submit to one another in the fear of God, wives submit to your own husbands in the Lord’. What he later wrote Timothy does not supersede what he wrote in Ephesus, but compliments it. It isn’t about obedience, it is about a condition of the heart, to follow marriage order set by God.
In Christ that means husbands and wives are equal, but creation order shows God created Adam first and then Eve, showing the husband is to be a picture of Christ and the wife is a picture of the church, in a living parable, married as one in God. Ephesians 5: 21-33.
Submission is of the heart. Obedience is an act. We are submitted to the Lord and obedient to Him – the discipleship process is applying the submission in our hearts to our often rebellious body.
It is a process, but always keep in mind that Christ in you, and you must commune together to consider how you live your life. You and He get together to decide where to work, or go to school or what career to choose, where to live, or what to buy or sell. A mentor you may be submitted to may offer ideas and wisdom, but you don’t have to obey them. They should not demand obedience. In marriage and in any discipleship relationship, submitting to one another has borders of morality, ethics, honoring one’s personal space, and directs such to the Lord.
New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
