Order in the Lord’s House

Lately, there are wolves that have entered different churches and I don’t mean brothers and sisters that just believe different beyond the fundamentals of the faith. It looks like the enemy knows his time is short and is coming after the “restrainer”, or the church in these last days.

First, I would like to go back and look at the original 1st century church from the word of God to see what Apostle Paul was saying about the order of things in the assembly of believers or saints (saints by the blood of Jesus). Our text to look at is 1 Corinthians 11, but I will focus on the first part of the chapter which talks about keeping order.

1 Cor. 11:1-16

1 1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.

Head Coverings

2 Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. 3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. 5 But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. 6 For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. 7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man is not from woman, but woman from man. 9 Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. 10 For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. 12 For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God.

13 Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? 15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given [a]to her for a covering. 16 But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.

The early church was just getting organized with the help of the leadership of the Apostle Paul and the other leaders that we call the “early church fathers”. It is very clear from scripture that it was meant to be a gathering of the believers to worship Jesus and stir up the gifts in one another; not really the open door policy that we see today in seeker sensitive churches. Back then you had to be “vetted” so to speak even to attend the assembly because there were undercover roman spies pretending to be Christians in order to gather names or find those who do not worship Caesar. We see this in the underground church in China today. It is a matter of trust around the sheep of our Lord. Shepherds must protect and feed them. It was also a given that entering the assembly, the believer had received Jesus as Lord and followed in water baptism. Then they would be prayed over to receive the separate baptism of the Holy Spirit. See the whole book of Acts for this; however, this article is about order in the house. We see in the above verse an order of authority that is to be in place, just as it is in heaven. Heaven is NOT a disorderly place. God’s creation screams order from the smallest of small to the vastness of the universe.

Here is a good place to define order as viewed by the kingdom of God. Order is whatever the Holy Spirit wants to do through the leading from the authority structure in the church assembly. Some manifestations of the the Spirit may make those in the flesh very upset and nervous; however, the Spirit’s goal is the same: lift up Jesus and set people free from the works of the devil. I say this because sometimes “man’s order” my be way off from what Jesus wants to do with His body! We forget who owns us and the church.

Now to the meat of the matter. What should we allow in the gathering of saints? Should we allow a lot of skin to be shown, crossdressing, bathing suits, or even nudity? This is the theme of what the Apostle Paul was saying to the church at Corinth, that anything which draws attention away from what the Holy Spirit is doing is from the demonic. The demonic wants to STOP the moving of the Spirit in our assemblies any way he can, and if it is sending lost wolves in our midst, then he will do it. So are all welcome to visit our churches? Sure, but scripture is clear, they must follow the rules of the house. Do we have no rules in our homes for our kids? Of course not. Then how much more does our Lord care about His house, and so should we. Just like in the early church, we would send an inappropriately dressed person home to change into proper clothes, that would not cause others to stumble and create lust in the environment, and then they would be welcome back to hear the gospel. We really need to get this straight! The church is the “heaven on earth” stations where saints go get filled up with the Holy Spirit oil to bring it OUT to the lost world! Lord we pray, bring the day when even demons can’t enter the house!

In summary, Apostle Paul was dealing with “distractions” in the early assemblies. We have different issues concerning what we wear today because we dress different as we have different cultures around the world. This in no way belittles women, but is just showing the structure that our creator God put into place. Women have been used of the Lord in Acts and in other places in the Bible, so lets keep things in context. The bottom line here in these last days is to hold to “pure religion” as stated in James 1:27b, “…, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” So, yes, the biblical house is the house like the tabernacle which hosts the presence of God.

1 https://biblehub.com/nkjv/1_corinthians/11.htmView draft history