Properly & Orderly

Part 1 - Decency... Order...

There is decay in morality in our culture including steep decline in civility. The way we go about what we do evidences this decline. We harshly press our point and offend. We wear our feelings on our shirtsleeves and explode at negative responses. Children roll their eyes at instruction or correction. I've seen college students and adults do the same. How we proceed to make our point is just as important as the point we make. The apostle Paul puts it this way, "Let all things be done decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:40).

The word translated "decently" is an adverb occurring only three times in the New Testament. It refers to acting respectably and doing things properly. Paul exhorts us to "behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy" (Romans 13:13). Carousing, drunkenness, and sexual promiscuity are improper. Strife and jealousy are equally improper. We shun sensuality and immorality. We wantonly wallow in jealousy and strife. Jealously reigns among siblings for years and even decades and infects the church. Instead of respecting the gifts God disburses within the body, pastors and elders are jealous of the attention church people give fellow pastors and elders.

Husbands and wives perpetuate strife. They effectively train their children by example to live the same lifestyle. Elders in the church foster strife in the same way. They stubbornly fight for their positions. They effectively train younger elders to take hard lines on minor issues. They fail in the prescription, "Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions" (Proverbs 10:12). Expressions of hatred pervade rather than overtures of love. Peter quotes Proverbs 10:12. "Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). We do business improperly in the world and in the church when we perpetuate jealously and strife. We disobey the injunction to do our business "decently and in order."

The words translated "in order" refer to orderliness in conduct and procedure. Corinthian worship was disorderly. The church service was a clamor. Paul urges, "You can all prophesy one by one" (1 Corinthians 14:31). "God is not a God of confusion" (1 Corinthians 14:33). Sometimes congregational meetings and Session meetings are also disorderly. People interrupt one another and even insult one another. Such should not be the case. Paul commends the Colossians. "For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ" (Colossians 2:5). Paul rejoices in the faith of the Colossians and in their orderliness. We should connect faithfulness and orderliness as the Holy Spirit does.

The word "order" appears five additional times in the book of Hebrews referring to the "order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:11, 17). A priestly order involves set procedures followed assiduously. We know this from the Old Testament regulations stipulated by God. We must follow biblical procedures carefully and diligently. Our text exhorts, "Let all things be done decently and in order."

There are three areas of concern here. First, we may have a righteous cause to pursue. Good. Second, how we pursue this cause is as important as the cause itself. We must pursue our causes decently, righteously. Third, we walk by the Spirit when we follow biblical and constitutional procedures and conduct ourselves with common decency. We will work out these three strands of thought as we discuss the text, "Let all things be done decently and in order."