Selective Strictness

It is a known characteristic of Orthodox Christianity that we live with a certain strictness. Our way of life since the first days of the Church has been shaped by faithful leaders guiding faithful followers to a life in communion with Christ. Strictness has always been a part of that life.

That sense of strictness has been maintained through spiritual relationships between spiritual fathers and spiritual children, centered on the Church. All authority comes from the Church since the Church receives her authority from God. There is no strictness in isolation.

In Christianity you cannot choose your own strictness. Restricting yourself is just another form of selfishness and ego. Today’s reading is an example of the Church, through Saint Paul, correcting us to a proper strictness, just as Saint Paul was corrected by the Apostles.

Timothy, my son, this charge I commit to you in accordance with the prophetic utterances which pointed to you, that inspired by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith, among them Hymenaios and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; also that women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire but by good deeds, as befits women who profess religion. Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.

1^st Timothy 1:18-20;2:8-15

With modern technology the Church has experienced both a blessing and a curse. For many ‘well-meaning’ people, certain blogs and websites become the source of strictness. For many the choice of which blog to ‘adhere’ to depends on if the blog supports our opinion.

The irony of this last paragraph is not lost on me. I am posting on this blog, which you are reading. I do not expect you to ‘adhere’ to Be Transfigured Ministries any more than I would expect you to ‘adhere’ to any other blog. Blogs are simply digital books. Books are not alive.

The Church is alive and available for relationships with our spiritual fathers and bishops. What keeps the Church alive? God keeps the Church alive through the Holy Eucharist and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Without Holy Communion there is no Church, no relationship, no life.

Let me return to the topic for today. What do I mean by selective strictness? What stuck out for me in today’s reading was the insistence from Saint Paul that women must not teach, yet the Church has many women saints who taught and had authority.

In other epistles Saint Paul commends our attention toward faithful women, so we should not expect an ‘all out’ prohibition to women in authority or as teachers. The Church honors not only faithful women saints but Empresses throughout history for their faith and leadership.

The point I want to make today is that all authority of leadership and teaching is through the Church. If the Church determines someone is eligible to each, woman or man, then the Church has that authority. We do not have the authority to decide for ourselves.

It doesn’t matter which verse we want to quote ‘out of context’ to prove our point. Our personal track record is for selective strictness. If we want a woman to teach, then we ignore Saint Paul outright. If we do not think women should teach, then we hail his words.

On the other hand, when the Church gathers through synods and councils, authority is given to certain decisions and certain people are assigned to carry out the ‘enforcement’ of such decisions. Here’s a clue. If you weren’t assigned by a bishop to say something, it wasn’t you.

That is the other part of selective strictness that has no place in Orthodoxy. We are not self-appointed ‘Holy Canons Police’ calling anyone out for ignoring one canon over another. If you have a question about the Holy Canons, ask your spiritual father. He has authority for you.

One last comment about strictness and authority. The relationship between spiritual father and spiritual child is a mutual obedience. Proper strictness in Orthodox Christianity is to strictly obey our spiritual father. Trust me on this. That is much harder than selective strictness.

It is better to strictly obey our spiritual father who gives us an ‘easier’ fast, than to self-impose a ‘harder’ fast only to fall flat on our face and resent fasting altogether. Orthodox strictness is more about strict obedience than strict regulations.

The solution isn’t abandoning strictness but keeping it in its proper context. We strictly obey our spiritual father, who strictly obeys his bishop, who strictly obeys his synod. The only thing to abandon is our selective strictness in exchange for humble obedience.