Homily 37 — First Corinthians 14, verses 34 to 40

“Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but let them be in submission, as the law also says.” [a]

Paul has quieted the disturbance that came from the tongues and from the prophesying. He has made a law to prevent confusion: those who speak in tongues are to do it in turn, and those who prophesy are to fall silent when another begins. Next, in due course, he goes on to the disorder that came from the women, cutting off their untimely boldness in speaking — and very fittingly. For if those who have the gifts are not permitted to speak thoughtlessly, or whenever they please, and that even though they are moved by the Spirit, much less are those women who chatter idly and to no purpose. So he checks their babbling with great authority. Taking the law along with him, he sews their mouths shut. He is not simply urging them here or giving advice; he is laying his commands on them forcefully, by reciting an ancient law on the subject. For after saying, “Let your women keep silent in the churches,” and “they are not permitted to speak, but let them be in submission,” he added, “as the law also says.” And where does the law say this? “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (Genesis 3, verse 16).

Do you see Paul’s wisdom, and what kind of testimony he brought forward? One that commands them not only to be silent, but to be silent with fear — with as much fear as a maidservant ought to have when she keeps herself quiet. That is also why, having said himself, “they are not permitted to speak,” he did not go on, “but to be silent.” In place of “to be silent” he set down something more, namely, “being in submission.” And if this is so toward husbands, much more toward teachers and fathers and the whole assembly of the church.

Someone says: “But if they are not even to speak, or to ask a question, why are they to be there at all?” So that they may hear what they ought. But the points in question they should learn at home from their husbands. That is why he also added, in verse 35: “And if they want to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home.”

So he says: “Not only, it seems, are they not allowed to speak at random; they are not even to ask any question in the church.” Now if they ought not to ask questions, much more is it against the law for them to speak whenever they please. And what might be the reason for putting them under so great a submission? Because woman is in some way a weaker being, easily carried away and light-minded. Here you see why he set their husbands over them as teachers, for the benefit of both. In this way he made the women orderly, and he made the husbands careful, since they would have to pass on to their wives very exactly what they had heard.

Further, because they thought that speaking in public was an ornament to them, he turns the argument around again to the opposite point, saying, “For it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church.” That is, first he made his case from the law of God, then from common reason and our accepted custom. Even when he was reasoning with the women about long hair, he said, “Does not even nature itself teach you?” (First Corinthians 11, verse 14). And everywhere you will find this to be his way: he puts them to shame not only from the divine Scriptures but also from common custom.

But besides these things, he also shames them by pointing to what everyone agreed on and what was the rule everywhere. He has set down this point here as well, saying, in verse 36: “What? Did the word of God go out from you? Or did it come to you alone?” [b]

So he brings in the other churches as well, as holding this law. He quiets the disturbance by pointing to how new the thing was, and he makes his words acceptable by appealing to what everyone held. That is why he said elsewhere too, “who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church” (First Corinthians 4, verse 17). And again, “God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints” (First Corinthians 14, verse 33). And here: “What? Did the word of God go out from you? Or did it come to you alone?” That is, “You are neither the first believers nor the only ones; the whole world believes.” He said the same when he wrote to the Colossians, speaking of the good news: “just as it is bearing fruit and growing in all the world” (Colossians 1, verse 6).

But at other times he turns the same point to the encouragement of his hearers, as when he says that theirs were the firstfruits and were known to all. So, writing to the Thessalonians, he said, “For from you the word of God has sounded forth,” and, “in every place your faith toward God has gone out” (First Thessalonians 1, verse 8). And again to the Romans: “Your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.” For both things are able to shame people and to stir them up: being praised by others, and having others who share their judgment. That is why he says here too:

“What? Did the word of God go out from you? Or did it come to you only?” “For you cannot say this: ‘We were made teachers of the rest, and it cannot be right for us to learn from others.’ Nor can you say, ‘The faith stayed in this place alone, and we must not accept examples from anywhere else.’” Do you see by how many arguments he put them to shame? He brought in the law, he pointed out how shameful the thing was, he brought forward the other churches.

Next he puts last what is strongest of all, saying: “God is ordering these things even now, through me.” That is what verse 37 says: “If anyone thinks he is a prophet, or spiritual, let him recognize that the things I write to you are the commands of the Lord.” And verse 38: “But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.” [e]

And why did he add this? To show that he is not using force or quarreling. That is the mark of those who do not want to set up their own views but aim at what benefits others. That is why he says in another place too, “But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom” (First Corinthians 11, verse 16). But he does not do this everywhere, only where the offenses are not very great, and then rather to put them to shame. When he speaks of other sins, he does not talk this way. How, then? “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor effeminate men will inherit the kingdom of God” (First Corinthians 6, verses 9 and 10). And again, “Look, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you” (Galatians 5, verse 2). But here, since he was speaking about silence, he does not attack them very sharply, and by this very thing he draws them all the more. Then, as he always does, he brings his discourse back to the earlier subject from which he turned aside to say these things, as follows, in verse 39: “So, brothers and sisters, eagerly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.”

For this too is his habit: not only to work through the matter in front of him, but, starting from it, to set right whatever seems to him in any way related to it, and then to return to the earlier point, so as not to seem to wander from the subject. So when he was speaking about their harmony at their banquets, he turned aside to their sharing in the mysteries; and having put them to shame from there, he returns again to the earlier point, saying, “So, when you come together to eat, wait for one another” (First Corinthians 11, verse 33). And here, accordingly, he has spoken of good order in their gifts, and of the duty neither to lose heart over the lesser ones nor to be puffed up over the greater. Then he made an excursion from there to the modest conduct that becomes women, and having established it, he returns again to his subject, saying, “So, brothers and sisters, eagerly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.” Do you see how he kept the difference between them to the end? And how he shows that the one is very necessary and the other not so much? That is why of the one he says, “eagerly desire,” but of the other, “do not forbid.”

Then, as a brief summary setting everything right, he adds the words of verse 40: “Let all things be done decently and in order.” [h]

Again he strikes at those who chose to behave in an unseemly way for no reason and to bring on themselves the charge of madness, and who do not keep to their proper place. For nothing builds up so much as good order, as peace, as love, just as their opposites tend to pull down. And one may observe this not only in spiritual things but in everything else too. Whether in a dance, or a ship, or a chariot, or an army camp, if you throw the order into confusion — casting the greater out of their proper place and bringing the lesser into their rank — you destroy everything, and everything is turned upside down. So let us not destroy our order either, or put the head below and the feet above. This is what happens when we throw down right reason and set our cravings, passions and pleasure over the reasoning part of us. Then the waves are violent, the confusion is great, the storm is unbearable, and everything is wrapped in darkness.

And, if you like, let us first look at the unseemliness that comes from this, and then at the loss. How, then, may this become clear to us and thoroughly known? Let us bring forward a man in that state of mind: in love with a prostitute and overcome by a dishonorable passion. Then we will see what a laughingstock this makes of him. For what could be more degrading than a man keeping watch at the doors outside the prostitutes’ rooms, beaten by a whore, weeping and wailing, and turning his glory into shame? And if you want to see the loss as well, remember, I ask you, the money spent, the extreme dangers, the fights with rival lovers, the wounds, the blows received in such brawls.

Such too are those who are gripped by the craving for wealth; or rather, they behave even more shamefully. For while the lovers are wholly taken up with one person, the greedy busy themselves with everyone’s property alike, both poor and rich, and they long for things that do not even exist — which shows more than anything how wild their passion is. They do not only say, “I would like to have the property of this man or that man.” They want the very mountains to be gold, and the houses, and everything they see. They reach out even into another world; they feel this passion without limit and never stop craving at any point. What words can set before us the storm of those thoughts, the waves, the darkness? And where the waves and the storm are so great, what pleasure can there be? None at all — only turmoil and anguish and black clouds that, instead of rain, bring great sorrow of heart. It is the kind of thing that usually happens to those who are in love with beauty that is not their own. That is why those who feel no passionate love at all live in more pleasure than any lovers.

No one would dispute this. But to me, even the man who loves but restrains his passion seems to live more pleasantly than the one who is always enjoying his mistress. The proof is rather difficult; nevertheless, even at that disadvantage, the argument must be risked. The reason it is more difficult is not the nature of the thing but the lack of hearers fit for such lofty moral teaching. So tell me: which is more pleasant for the lover — to be despised by the one he loves, or to be honored and to look down on her? Clearly the second. Then whom, tell me, will the prostitute value more: the man who is her slave and is already led captive at her will, or the man who is above her nets and soars higher than her arrows? Everyone must see it is the second. And about whom will she take more thought — the one who has fallen, or the one who has not fallen yet? The one who has not yet fallen, of course. And which will be more desired: the one who has been subdued, or the one not yet caught? The one who so far has not been caught.

And if you do not believe it, I will bring my proof from what happens among yourselves. Which woman would a man be more in love with: one who yields easily and gives herself up to him, or one who refuses him and gives him trouble? Clearly the second, since that is how longing is kindled more fiercely. Of course, then, exactly the same thing will happen in the woman’s case too: they will honor and admire more the man who looks down on them. But if this is true, so is the other point, that the man who is more honored and loved enjoys the greater pleasure. For the general, too, leaves a city alone once it has been taken, but the one that holds out and keeps up the struggle he besieges with all diligence. And the hunter, once the animal is caught, keeps it shut up in the dark, as the prostitute does her lover, but he pursues the one that flees from him.

But I will be told: “The one enjoys what he desires, and the other does not.” But to be free of disgrace, free of being a slave under her tyrannical orders, not to be led and dragged about by her like a drudge, beaten, spat on, thrown out headfirst — tell me, do you think that is a small pleasure? No; if someone examined these things carefully and could gather into one their insults, their complaints, their endless quarrels — some coming from their moods, others from their insolence — their hostilities, and all the rest, which only those who feel them know, he would find that there is no war that does not have more truces than this wretched life of theirs. What pleasure, then, do you mean, tell me? The brief, passing enjoyment of intercourse? But strife quickly overtakes it, and storms, and rage, and the same madness again.

We have said these things as one would speak when reasoning with loose-living young men, who do not have much patience for hearing our sermons about the kingdom and about hell. [i]

But now that we bring these subjects forward as well, it is impossible even to say how great the pleasure of the self-controlled man is, if one pictures in his own mind that man’s crowns, his rewards, his company with the angels, his being proclaimed before the world, his boldness, those blessed and immortal hopes of his.

“But intercourse has a certain pleasure,” they keep repeating, “while the self-controlled man suffers constant pain, fighting against the tyranny of nature.” No, you will find just the opposite. It is the unchaste man, rather, who has this violence and turmoil. There is a violent storm in his body, and no sea in a storm is so grievously tossed as he is. He never resists his passion but is always taking blows from it, like the demon-possessed, who are continually torn apart by evil spirits. But the chaste man, like a noble fighter, keeps landing blows on it, and he reaps the best of pleasures, sweeter than ten thousand of that other kind. This victory, his good conscience, and those glorious trophies are ornaments he can always put on.

As for the other man, if he has a little respite after intercourse, it must be counted as nothing. For the storm comes on again, and again there are waves. But the man who masters himself does not let this turmoil take hold of him at all, or the sea rise, or the wild beast roar. And even if he endures some violence in restraining such an impulse, so does the other man, who is continually taking blows and stabs and cannot bear the sting. It is as if there were a wild horse, raging and struggling: one man checks it with the bridle and holds it in with all his skill, while another, to escape the trouble, gives it the rein and is dragged along by it and carried this way and that.

If I have spoken of these things more plainly than is fitting, let no one blame me. I do not want to put on a show of seriousness in my words, but to make my hearers serious.

That is also why the prophets do not spare such words, wanting to root out the loose living of the Jews; they attack them even more nakedly than we have done now in what we have said. A physician who wants to remove an ulcer does not think about how to keep his hands clean, but about how to rid the patient of the ulcer. The one who would lift up the lowly first makes himself lowly. And the one who sets out to kill a conspirator stains himself with blood along with the other, and this makes him all the more glorious. If someone saw a soldier coming back from the war, stained with gore and blood and brains, he would not loathe him or turn away from him for that, but would admire him all the more. Let us do the same, then. When we see anyone coming back covered with blood after slaughtering his evil desire, let us admire him all the more and become sharers in his battle and his victory. And let us say to those who give themselves to this wild love: “Show us the pleasure you get from your craving. The self-controlled man has the pleasure that comes from his victory, but you have none from any side. And if you should mention the pleasure that goes with the sinful act itself, his is still plainer and more satisfying. From your enjoyment you get something brief and barely noticeable; but he, from his conscience, has a joy that is greater, lasting, and sweeter. Surely a woman’s company has no such power as mastery of oneself to keep the soul undisturbed and give it wings.”

So then, the self-controlled man, as I said, plainly shows us his pleasure. But in your case I see the dejection that comes from defeat; the pleasure, though I want to see it, I cannot find. For what do you consider the moment of pleasure? The time before the sinful act? No, it is not that, for that is a time of madness and delirium and frenzy. Grinding one’s teeth and being beside oneself is no pleasure at all. And if it were pleasure, it would not produce in you the same effects that people in pain endure. For those who strike with their fists and are struck grind their teeth, and women in labor, distracted with pain, do the same. So this is not pleasure but rather frenzy, confusion, and turmoil. Shall we say, then, the time after the act? No, not this either. For we could not say that a woman just delivered of her child is in pleasure, only that she is released from certain pains. But this is by no means pleasure; it is rather weakness and collapse, and there is a great difference between the two. Tell me, then, what is the time of pleasure? There is none. And if there is any, it is so brief that it cannot even be seen. At any rate, though we have eagerly tried in a great many ways to detect it and catch hold of it, we have not been able to. But the time of the chaste man’s pleasure is not like that; it is wider, and plain to all. Or rather, his whole life is spent in pleasure: his conscience crowned, the waves calmed, no disturbance rising within him from any side.

Since, then, this man’s life is spent in pleasure, while the life given to the love of pleasure is spent in dejection and unrest, let us flee from loose living and hold fast to self-control, so that we may also obtain the good things to come, through the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, and honor, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.