Women in the Church and Silence in the Church

I'm actually delighted to be asked to speak about this: this is a subject that I think is important for the church today.  The whole issue of role relationships is one of the key points in our culture which is being pressed against by an ideology that derives from a pagan agenda which is infiltrating even the evangelical community.  And so I'm always glad to speak to this issue because if you look in our culture at the issues of what defines a family, what are the proper role relationships between men and women, and issues related to sexuality; all three of that cluster of issues relate to a more fundamental assault on the doctrine of the transcendent Creator.  And that assault is coming from a very alien worldview, often very much an Eastern worldview that is being imported into our culture precisely to undermine historic, Judeo-Christian principles which have long under girded our western culture.  And that is the case in the issue that we're dealing with in this conference as well, and so I'm delighted to be able to speak with you about it.

Let me ask you to open your Bibles because we're going to work through a number of passages.  You may want to go ahead and turn to Luke 8, and we'll make some comments on that in just a few moments.  But I want to begin this way:  As we look at the issue of women in the church, and the work of women, and the roles that women have in the church, and then ask the question, "What does it mean then when Paul says that women are to be silent in the church?"; we have to recognize that Paul's statements about women remaining silent in the church and women not teaching or having authority over men are among the most controversial aspects of his teaching today. 

And there are two basic responses to that that you see in large measure in the broader, Christian community but even, to some extent, in the evangelical community.  Some people criticize Paul for his statements on women remaining silent in the church or not teaching or having authority over men in the church.  Some will call Paul a misogynist; he's a woman-hater; he's a chauvinist; he's culturally bound, and he's wrong.  Others say, "No, it's just that we've misunderstood Paul.  Paul's not saying what you think he's saying.  He's really not giving any role distinctions at all to women in the context of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ in general."  Some will say, "We're reading our patriarchalism in to Paul.  Paul's not patriarchal; he's not hierarchal; he's not complementarian.  Paul's really an egalitarian, and we're just reading our patriarchalism onto him." 

Others will take, for instance, his statements in 1 Corinthians 14 and in 1 Timothy 2 and say, "Those instructions that Paul gave in Ephesus and Corinth were meant only for those churches and for those situations.  They're ad hoc instructions and because of contextual abuses in certain situations in those local churches, Paul gave those instructions.  But those instructions are not to be universally applied in the churches."  And others will say, "Well Paul was culture-bound to a point, but you have to read all of Paul's writings in light of Galatians 3:28: "There's neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female."  Now everything else of Paul has to be exegeted in light of our exegesis of that particular passage, and, therefore, that passage overrules anything that Paul might say elsewhere to the contrary about role distinctions. 

But I want to suggest to you, friends, that to truly appreciate the special restrictions that Paul says God in His Word has placed on the roles and functions of women in the gathered congregation, you first have to appreciate a) the larger, positive New Testament teaching and witness to the role of women in the church and kingdom and b) behind that, the larger, biblical teaching on male/female role relationships in home and the church.  What I want to do is outline for you the positive, New Testament witness to the role of women in the church and kingdom; make a brief comment about the larger, biblical teaching on male/female role relationships; and then ask, "What does God mean then when he says that women are to keep silent in the churches?"  That's going to be the outline of what we do together today.

It seems to me that the outline of the role of women in the New Testament church, in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, can be set forth in four main areas: 1) women as disciples, 2) women as disciplers, 3) women as caregivers and helpers in the church, and 4) women in extraordinary roles.  Let's work through each of those four.   

I. Women as disciples.

We'll begin in Luke 8.  Direct your attention to the first three verses.  "And it came about soon afterwards, that He began going about from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God; and the twelve were with Him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses:  Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of  Herod's steward, and Susanna and many others who were contributing to their support out of their private means."  Women were disciples in the New Testament.  We see here Luke uniquely amongst the Synoptics drawing attention to the presence and role of women in the context of that inner circle of the twelve, male disciples.  We see this again, by the way, in Luke 10 in the famous story of Martha and Mary.  Verse 38: "Now as they were traveling along, He entered a certain village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.  And she had a sister called Mary, who moreover was listening to the Lord's words, seated at His feet.  But Martha was distracted with all the preparations; and she came up to Him and said, ‘Lord, You do not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone?  Then tell her to help me.'  But the Lord answered and said, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.'"  Now the significance of that passage is manifold, but I want to simply zero in on this: It's yet another testimony to the fact that women were included in the circle of disciples in Jesus' ministry.  He did not choose them to be among the twelve, but he did choose that women would be along with the seventy and the twelve and the larger grouping of Jesus' followers and disciples.  And that was somewhat counter-cultural in that day and time.  Against the backdrop of Palestinian Judaism in which women would not normally have been involved in instruction or seen as significant in conveying the faith beyond family boundaries, Jesus included women amongst His disciples. 

And the Apostle Paul indicates the same.  Turn with me to I Timothy.  In I Timothy 2:11, the Apostle Paul says this: "Let a women quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness."  Now when we read that verse in our culture today, what our eyes fall on are "quietly receive" and "entire submissiveness."  When it would have been read in the context of a Jewish culture in the first century, even in a setting where there was a mixture of Jews and Gentiles like Ephesus, what would've struck them is this:  "let a woman receive instruction."  In other words, the Apostle Paul is affirming what Jesus affirmed in His ministry: that women were to receive instruction.  They were to be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Their faith was not to be implicitly based upon assent to what their husband believed.  Their knowledge was not simply to be second-hand; they themselves were to study the Scriptures; they themselves were to listen to the Word of God; they themselves were to be students of theology, students of doctrine; they themselves were to be being nourished in the faith and by the Word.  And, again, this against the backdrop of a Palestinian Judaism in which women did not normally have this role in discipleship was very, very significant.  And so in the New Testament we see women as disciples. 

By the way, I want to point out something very important to you.  Almost all of the positive information in the New Testament on the role of women comes from Pauline material.  Almost all of the information about the role of women in the New Testament which is positive comes from the Pauline material.  I say that because it balances out an attempt to cast aspersion upon Paul as a woman-hater and as someone who is trying to keep women under his thumb or a person who was threatened by women.  If you look at the material that we are going to survey today, most of it comes from Luke, the pastoral epistles, and Acts; all of which come from the Pauline circle in the New Testament.  So there we are: women as disciples in the New Testament. 

II. Women as disciplers.

Secondly, women as disciplers in the New Testament.  Turn with me to II Timothy 1.  In II Timothy 1, the Apostle Paul addresses Timothy in verse 5, "For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well."  Paul here complimenting the grandmother and mother of Timothy on their faith, actually commending to Timothy their faith.  And then if you'll turn over to II Timothy 3:14 and 15, Paul goes on to commend this to Timothy, "You, however, continue in the things that you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them; and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."  One other example, by the way, turn back with me to Acts 16.  Acts16.  And when Timothy is being introduced, here's how Luke does it: "And, behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer; but his father was a Greek."  Now Luke and Paul draw attention to the spiritual influence of Timothy's mother and grandmother on his spiritual formation, on his love for the Scriptures, on his growth in sound doctrine.  And this is just one of the ways that we see the New Testament emphasize women as disciplers of covenant children.  This parental responsibility of nurturing children born into believing families in the faith and encouraging them so that they themselves embrace Christ by faith is something which is stressed in the Scriptures.  And so we see women in the significant role of discipling covenant children.

But we also see, if you'll turn over to Titus 2, a role for women in discipling other women.  In Titus 2:3-5 we read, "Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands that the word of God may not be dishonored."  And so women have a role clearly here in Paul's teaching for discipling other women.  And the language is even used in verse 3 of "teaching" and in verse 4 of  "training" other women in the truths of the faith so that in their practice they will adorn the Gospel.  And, perhaps surprisingly, if you'll turn with me to Acts 18--Acts 18:24 and following--in the New Testament we even find women, or at least one woman, involved in the discipleship of a gifted minister of the Gospel in a private context.  Acts 18:24: "Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures.  This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue.  But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.  And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he helped greatly those who had believed through grace; for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ." 

Now here we see Priscilla and Aquila, not for the only time in the New Testament, but in this unique passage taking aside a man who is a gospel minister and being involved in discipling him into a deeper and more accurate knowledge of the truth.  Now this is one of those instances in which we are reminded that informal learning goes on all the time, but it is also interesting that they deliberately "take him aside" to convey to him this truth.  It would be dishonoring to the preacher of God's word for him to be rebuked and corrected in public.  And so he is taken aside privately, so that the word of God is not dishonored, and so that the preacher of God's word is not dishonored; and he is discipled into a sounder view of Christian theology.  And it seems that Priscilla had a part in that along with her husband, Aquila. 

By the way, I want to make one comment about Paul's relationship to Priscilla, and I'd like you to turn to Romans 16:3 to remind you of it.  Luke always calls Priscilla, "Priscilla."  Paul calls her something else.  In Romans 16:3, he tells the church to greet "Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus."  Priscilla was the diminutive term for Prisca.  Prisca was the more formal name: Priscilla was the diminutive.  Just like you would call someone named Elizabeth, "Liz" or "Lizzy" or "Betty," Priscilla was the diminutive of Prisca.  Luke always calls Priscilla, "Priscilla."  Paul calls her "Prisca."  And I want to suggest to you that rather than intimating Paul's distance from her and formality with her, this may well indicate his enormous regard for her: that he can't bring himself to call her "Prissy," the equivalent of Priscilla.  He calls her "Prisca."  It's like he just can't bring himself to call her "Lizzy"; he's got to call her "Elizabeth."  There seems to be a tremendous regard that's even reflected in the terminology that Paul uses for Prisca.  And, by the way, that's yet another piece of evidence against viewing Paul as a misogynist.  We've already seen him in II Timothy 1 and 3 indicate his tremendous regard for Eunice and Lois.  Now we see him indicating tremendous regard for Prisca, and so we're seeing a pattern of Paul's healthy relationships with women.  And so in the New Testament we see women as disciples and women as disciplers. 

III. Women as caregivers and helpers of the Church.

Thirdly, we also see women as caregivers and helpers of the Church in the New Testament.  They are mothers. We've already mentioned II Timothy 1:5 and II Timothy 3: 14 and 15.  This is enormously important and should not be underestimated.  We have a culture today which says to women that if you do not have a career outside of and separate from the home, you are cheating yourself and the culture at large.  As if crafting the life of a human being or human beings in motherhood were some sort of second-class office.  And we must at all costs resist that kind of attitude.  Nothing could be more significant than shaping the souls of another generation.  The future of humanity literally hangs in the balance, and every sociologist with his eyes open today will tell you that all of the indexes in our culture that are indicating decline can be rooted in precisely the indifference and the apathy to parental involvement in children's lives in the home.  And given that in our culture men generally do their work outside of the home -although technology is gradually changing that so that we're moving back to something like a 19^th century model-because men generally do their work outside of the home, the woman is in a uniquely significant position to keep family stability together.  And we ignore those sorts of things to our peril.  So in the New Testament, women have a very significant role as mothers.

Secondly, they have a very significant role in providing hospitality.  Go back to Luke 10:38-42.  Now apart from Jesus' ascription that Mary has chosen the better part and the quiet rebuke which is intended from Jesus to Martha in this passage, let me just state the obvious.  Martha's serving and giving of hospitality is typical of the activity of women in the early church, and Jesus does not censure that.  That serving and hospitality is absolutely essential to life and community.  And it seems so throughout the New Testament.  Somebody has to serve, and somebody has to provide hospitality.  Even at this conference there are many people that are given over to showing hospitality and service.  The teaching of this conference would be impaired if not absolutely abrogated by the lack of serving and hospitality.  I was just talking with a friend about some mutual friends of ours who had just been to a conference and had experienced a lack of gospel hospitality; and it had colored their whole experience there.  So also in the New Testament.  And women throughout the New Testament are seen to be vitally involved in the ministry of hospitality which God by direct command calls upon all Christians to show. 

Thirdly, women are shown a care-giving ministry in the New Testament through mercy-ministry.  Turn with me to I Timothy 5.  In I Timothy 5:9-15, we read this: "Let a widow be put on the list only if she is not less than sixty years old, having been the wife of one man, having a reputation for good works; and if she has brought up children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saint's feet, if she has assisted those in distress, and if she has devoted herself to every good work.  But refuse to put younger widows on the list, for when they feel sensual desires in disregard of Christ, they want to get married, thus incurring condemnation because they have set aside their previous pledge.  And at the same time they also learn to be idle, as they go around from house to house; and not merely idle, but also gossips and busybodies, talking about things not proper to mention.   Therefore, I want younger widows to get married, bear children, keep house, and give the enemy no occasion for reproach; for some have already turned aside to follow Satan." 

Now there' a lot of controversy about I Timothy 5 and all that it entails, but the Apostle Paul is indicating the widow's list is not only a list of widows who are actually cared for or supplemented in their income by the church, but widows who, in turn, having been supported by the church, who then come alongside the deacons in distributing diaconal ministry in the church especially to women.  We know that this is how it worked in the days after the New Testament, and it seems to be that Paul is setting forth this pattern right here in I Timothy 5: that women are to have an integral role in mercy-ministry.  If you look back over to I Timothy 3:11, you'll see this is confirmed. 

As Paul is speaking about deacons, he pauses in verse 11 to say this:  "Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things."  Now, of course, there's a big controversy over that verse.  Does that mean deaconesses?  Does it mean female deacons?  What is that referring to?  Well put that question aside; I'm going to come back to it in a minute.  Get the big picture though.  Paul is talking about women who are working alongside of the deacons in diaconal ministry.  Whatever you call them and whoever they are, they are working alongside the deacons in mercy-ministry within the congregation, and Paul is giving some qualifications for the women who are going to serve  in that capacity helping the deacons.  And so here we see another example of the New Testament involvement of women as caregivers in the church in mercy-ministry. 

There's a larger background to that New Testament ministry of word and deed.  You'll remember that Jesus in John 13 had told His disciples that the world would know that we are His disciples by the way we loved one another.   As we love one another as He has loved us, we witness to the world that we are His disciples. 

And, of course, for Jesus, love is not only in word; it is in deed.  When you get to Acts 6, and you have the conflict between the Aramaic-speaking Hebrew Christian widows and the Greek-speaking Jewish Christian widows, and the feeling on the part of the Greek speaking Jewish Christian widows that they are being shortchanged in the distribution of alms in the local church; the apostles do not say, "This is so important that we're going to have to stop the ministry of word and prayer and start caring for people."  Nor do they say, "Look, the ministry of word and prayer is so important that we're going to have to let these things go, and people are going to have to fend for themselves."  They do say, "Now the ministry of the word and prayer is too important for us to divide our attention and do other things.  Therefore, we are going to establish a class of men who are going to give themselves over to deed-ministry in the church"--deacons.  And so the elders are going to give themselves to the ministry of word and prayer, and the deacons are going to give themselves to deed ministry, or mercy-ministry, in the local church.

Why?  Because you do what you believe.  And the elders especially have the responsibility of cultivating the faith of the church while the deacons especially have the responsibility of implementing the practice of what the church believes.  And if we are to love one another in more than word but also in deed, then there is a whole body in the life of the local congregation which is going to be committed to helping the congregation show proper care and love for those within it; and thus, showing by what we do, what we believe.  And women have a very significant role in that. 

And one other example of that would be in Romans 16.  In Romans 16:1 and 2, the Apostle Paul says this, "I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea; that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well."  Furthermore, Paul says, "Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles."  Now in this passage, Paul refers to the helping-ministry of both Phoebe and Prisca, and says of Prisca and Aquilla that their praise is in all the churches because of the help that they have rendered.  And so here we see even a larger support role in mercy ministry for women in the New Testament.   

IV. Women in extraordinary roles.

So we see women as disciples, women as disciplers, women as caregivers and helpers in the church, and we also in the New Testament see women in extraordinary roles.  Women are featured in the New Testament as prophetesses and prophesying.  Turn with me to Acts 21:8 and 9 where Phillip's daughters are described as prophetesses.  Acts 21:8, "On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea; and entering the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, we stayed with him.  Now this man had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses." 

Now again, without getting into all the implications and questions that you can raise about that passage, just note one very commonsensical thing: this is a fulfillment of Joel 2:28 and 29.  Joel said that when the day of the spirit came, God was going to so pour out that spirit on all mankind-that is Jews as well as Gentiles-that your sons and your daughters would prophesy.  In the New Testament, the presence of women prophesying was an indication of the fulfillment of God's prophesy through the prophet Joel in Joel 2:28 and 29. 

Now what am I trying to glean from all that information?  Just this: From all this we glean that the Bible, and the New Testament in particular, has a very positive and high view of women.  Nothing that is says by way of role-distinctions, then, can be reasonably argued to flow from a denigration of women or womanhood. 

Now that also presses us to the issue of the larger biblical teaching on male/female role relationships.  The teaching in the Bible on male/female role relationships flows from Genesis 1 and 2 and the creation account.  God created male and female both in His image, but unique, distinct, and different.  And if we are not both really and with regard to our roles distinct-male and female-then we cannot image God.  Think about this for a minute, friends.  We cannot image God if there are not both real and role distinctions between male and female.  This is because of the doctrine of the Trinity.  God is one.  But He is also three, distinct persons.  The Father is not the Son: the Son is not the Father.  The Father is not the Spirit: the Spirit is not the Father.  The Son is not the Father in another guise; the Son's role is different from the Father's, and the Son's person is different from the Father's.  And if we are going to be the image of God-and that is what God made us to be and has called us to be-then as males and females in the home and in the church, and in our roles there must be distinctions.  God is not an undifferentiated monad; He's not just "one" with nothing else to say about Him.  He is three in one.  And, therefore, if we are going to image God, there must be real and role distinctions in males and females.  For instance, there is one way that you can demonstrate this without argument.  Well actually people will argue with you about this, but it's beyond any common sense response.  There is a fact which throws itself in the face of all egalitarianism that men and women are physiological different.  We are physiologically distinct.  We are built differently, and those differences issue forth in role distinctions.  Now common sense tells you that however we work against it. 

Furthermore, however, God has woven role distinctions into the very created order.  You see this in Genesis 2:18-25.  Turn with me there.  There are two things that I want to bring out very explicitly.  First, complementarity and, secondly, authority.  In Genesis 2:18 and following, Moses records this of God's words, "It is not good for man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him."  This is an indication that even before the Fall that it was not good for Adam to be alone.  He needed someone who complemented him, who completed him.  He needed a companion, someone who was suitable for him.  And look at what we read in verse 20.  "Man gave names to all the cattle and to all the birds of the sky and to every beast of field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable to him.  And so God created for Adam a helper suitable for him." 

Now, as you know, "helper" there is a strong word: it doesn't mean that Eve was created to be Adam's junior-assistant-flunky.  It means that Eve was created to complement and to bring a companionship, an expression of fellowship and relationship, to and for and with Adam that he could not have had in her absence.  And so the strong Old Testament word "helper"...You remember God is called "the helper" of His people?  That certainly doesn't mean that He is the junior-assistant-flunky to His people.  It's a strong word.  He comes to provide for His people what they don't have.  He's their helper.  So also Eve is to be the helper of Adam.  Now what does this point to?  It points to complementarity and to companionship.  Adam and Eve are created in complementarity to one another; they are designed to provide that which neither can have in the absence of the other.  And they are created for companionship. 

By the way, this buttresses the Puritan and Protestant view of marriage: that marriage is not primarily for procreation.  It is, first and foremost, for companionship.  And that's rooted right here in Genesis 2: "It was not good for Adam to be alone."  Apart from any wonderful procreation that comes out of that relationship, it was inherently not good for Adam to be alone.  And so a woman was provided; companionship was primary.  In this way, you see, the Protestants and the Puritans depart even from Augustine.  Augustine said, "If marriage was about companionship, God would have had two men marry."  You see, Augustine was colored by his own culture and had a negative view of male/female role relationships, we could even argue, out of his own past.  He never got out of the inappropriate relationship which he had had with his concubine before conversion.  But, no!  In God's word, marriage is to be a relationship of companionship primarily.

But it's also to be a relationship in which headship and authority is manifested.  Notice this:  Genesis 2:23, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.  She shall be called ‘woman' because she was taken out of man."  Even in the naming of Eve, we see the creational order of authority.  Adam, in the process of naming Eve, shows the headship which God has given to Him.  That headship was clearly given to him.  You see this in the conversation that occurs in verses 15-17, when God charges him to be a covenant keeper.  "The Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in that day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'"  So in this passage, we again see the authority and the role relationship and the headship of males in the context of marriage and the church.  We see that reality set forth.  And from that prime reality, flows all the rest of the Bible's teachings about male/female role relationships. 

So what does God mean then when He says in the Bible that women are to keep silent in the churches, and why does He say this?  To answer this I want to go to four passages with you:  I Timothy 2, I Timothy 3, I Corinthians 11, and I Corinthians 14.  Let's go to I Timothy 2 to begin with.  Look at verses 8-15:  "Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissention.  Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garment; but rather by means of good works, as befits women making a claim to godliness.  Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.  But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.  For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.  And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression.  But women shall be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint." 

Now I want you to notice that in this passage Paul is speaking cross-culturally.  If ever Paul were going to sort of get out of his Jewish culture and change things-because he's in the context of a dominant, Gentile culture-here's an opportunity: he's speaking to a church in Ephesus.  Yes, there are Jewish Christians there, but there are Gentile Christians as well.  And yet in this very context notice that he says two things.  First, that he wants the men to take the lead in praying.  He specifically identifies this.  "I want the men in every place to pray."  He's not saying that women can't pray.  He's not saying that women can't pray in prayer meeting.  But he is saying that he wants the men to take the lead in prayer.  You see this in the contrast in verse 9: "Likewise I want women..."  In verse 8, he's addressing especially the men.  In verse 9, he's addressing especially the women.  And in verse 11, he says, "A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness, but I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man."  Paul's words here indicate the headship of men, and it indicates that the headship of the elders, the authority of the elders, is never to be tested by women in the public assembly.  Instead, they are to receive teaching submissively. 

And he expands on this in verses 12-15.  "Women are not to teach or exercise authority over men in the public assembly."  Paul says, "I do not allow it."  Women are not to teach men in the public assembly; they're not to hold authority over men in the church.  And Paul's prescription here is not just that women can't hold the title.  This is happening all over the place in evangelicalism.  A woman won't be called "pastor," but she'll do the work of a pastor.  She won't be called an "elder," but she'll do the work of an elder.  Notice Paul does not say, "A woman can't be called an ‘elder' in the church but can do all the work of an elder."  He says, "A woman can't do the work of an elder in the church."  A woman can't teach or hold authority over men.  That's what an elder does: he teaches and holds authority over men.  A woman can't do that.  So Paul speaks functionally, not officially.  He doesn't speak about the status or the office; he speaks about the function.  That's a very important point: women are being denied the function not merely the title or the office. 

Now he gives a rational, and it's a three-fold rational that you see in verses 13-15.  First, he says, Adam's priority in creation shows this.  Now feminists mock this all the time.  And if I had made the argument that women can't teach in the church because Adam was created first, I would welcome you to mock me.  But I didn't make that argument, Paul did, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  And, therefore, Paul is right whether we like it or not.  And Paul says, because Adam was created first, therefore, that priority of Adam in creation is to be witnessed to in the headship of the elders in the local congregation. 

Two, he goes on to say that the deception of the woman in the Fall is behind this particular description.  It was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman "who being deceived fell into transgression."  Now, oftentimes, people say, "You see, what Paul is saying there is that women are more gullible than men.  And that's a chauvinistic, that's a misogynistic kind of thing to say."   Well I don't think that's actually what Paul's getting at all.  Paul is drawing attention to what happens when role reversal occurs.  Let me ask you a question, a Bible question.  Where was Adam when Eve took the fruit?  Right there with her.  She did not have to go on a full-scale search mission to find him.  She turns to him, and she says, "Hey, take this."  So the question is: Hey, Adam, what were you doing?  While this conversation is going on between Eve and the serpent, Adam says nothing.  And the Apostle Paul is saying that's what happens when you reverse creational roles: Disaster takes place.  That's Paul's argument here in I Timothy 2:14.

And then the hardest verse of the three, verse 15, the Apostle Paul says, "Women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint."  The bottom line of that verse is, I think, simply this:  Paul is saying that it will be good for women-it will serve their own well being-if they will heed proper role relationships in the early church.  There are obviously different, competing attempts to interpret Paul here.  Some would say that Paul is saying that women are saved by the birth of Christ.  Others are saying that if they're obedient they'll be spared in childbirth.  Others are saying that they're literally saved by being child bearers.  And others are saying that women will find salvation and significance realized in performing their divinely assigned role.  But the bottom line is: Whatever Paul is saying, it's clear that what he means is that women will benefit themselves from heeding this particular role distinction.  So there's I Timothy 2. 

Now look with me at I Timothy 3:14.  This passage, among others, we are told by feminist interpreters of Scripture, is an ad hoc passage; it's a passage that only applies to the Church of Ephesus.  But look at what Paul says in I Timothy 3:14:  "I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; but in case I am delayed, I write so that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God."  Now this is right after his instructions for officers, which are right in between his instructions about male/female role relationships in the Church. 

And then he says, "Timothy, what I'm writing you is how it ought to be."  How it ought to be where?  In the Church of Ephesus?  No!  In the household of God.  This is how it ought to be in the Church.  In other words, "Timothy I'm not just giving you some good suggestions.  I'm not just telling you about how it should be in Ephesus, but when you're in another culture, it can be different.  I'm writing you to tell you how it ought to be in every local assembly of Christians anywhere in the world." 

Now it's very interesting that Paul says something like that in every passage where he addresses male/female role relationships.  Do you realize that?

Turn with me to I Corinthians 11: that's our third passage.  I Corinthians 11:1,  "Be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ.  Now I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.  But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every men, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ."   And then he goes on to argue that men needed to pray one way and women another in the public assembly.  And it's the whole issue over head coverings.  Is he talking about a literal head covering, or is he talking about long hair?  There are big debates about that, what the reason for it was.  But the thing that's very clear, you see, is that Paul is saying that women are to do it one way and men are to do it another in order to honor the role distinctions that God has created.  In fact, he says in verse 14, that nature itself teaches us that it ought to be this way.  I don't even need a Bible verse to show you this; even Gentiles ought to understand this from the very state of nature.  But notice what he says in verse 16: "If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God."  In other words, Paul is again not just saying something that applies to a particular situation in Corinth.  He's saying, "This is how it is--everywhere.  We have no other practice in the churches of God." 

Then turn forward three chapters to I Corinthians 14:26-40, and look very closely at verse 26.  Write these words down if you're taking notes: teaching, revelation, tongue, interpretation.  Top to bottom: teaching, revelation, tongue and interpretation.  Listen to this.  Paul says this (verse 26):  "What is the outcome then, brethren?  Edification."  Now notice what Paul does: he begins to work through this list in the reverse.  He starts with tongues and interpretation; then he moves to revelation; then he moves to teaching.  It doesn't say anything about the psalm, presumably because there was no controversy about that: it was self-explanatory.  So watch what he says: "If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and let one interpret; but if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God."  So there he deals with the last two things: tongues and interpretation.  Then "Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment.  But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, let the first keep silent.  For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints."  And so there he deals with the revelation.  So he's dealt now with tongues and interpretation; he's dealt with revelation. 

Now what does he say next?  Verse 34: "The women are to keep silent in the churches."  Now what does that correspond to?  It corresponds to teaching.  So this is not a universal gag order on women.  You know, when you walk through the doors on the way into the sanctuary, "Better zip it, honey.  No more talking."  That's not what Paul is talking about; he's talking about teaching in the gathered assembly of God's people.  "Women are to keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak, but they are to subject themselves, just as the Law says.  If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home for it is improper for a woman to speak in church." 

What's Paul's proscription there?  His proscription is against women teaching authoritatively in the church.  And he even suggests that they ask their own husbands questions at home because you know how questions can be used to make a statement.  I'm a seminary professor on occasion, and about half the questions I get are really comments.  "I'd like to ask a question about that last, very fallacious statement that you just made."  You know, and then you get the three-point rebuttal followed by the pseudo-question.  Well Paul's saying here, nothing, nothing should be done which undercuts the authority of the elders teaching God's word in the church, and, therefore, women are not to be engaged in teaching in that way or challenging it in any inappropriate way. 

And notice what he says in verses 37 and 38.  Once again, "Let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandments.  But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized."  Once again, the Apostle Paul stresses that this is not an ad hoc directive, but it is something which is to be universally applied in the life of the church. 

Listen to how John Piper and Wayne Grudem summarized this answer to this question.  "When Paul says in I Timothy 2:12, ‘I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent,' we do not understand him to mean an absolute prohibition of all teaching by women.  Paul instructs the older women to teach what is good, then they can train the younger women.  And he commends the teaching that Eunice and Lois gave to her son and grandson.  Proverbs praises the ideal wife because she speaks  with wisdom and faithful instruction on her tongue.  Paul endorses women prophesying in a church and says that men learn by such prophesying.  And that members should teach and admonish one another with all wisdom as you sing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs.  And then, of course, there is Priscilla at Aquilla's side correcting Apollos.  It is arbitrary to think that Paul has in mind every form of teaching in I Timothy 2:12.  Teaching and learning are in such broad terms that it is impossible that women not teach men and men not learn from women in some sense.  There is a way that nature teaches and a fig tree teaches and suffering teaches and human behavior teaches.  If Paul did not have every conceivable form of teaching and learning in mind, what did he mean?  Along with the fact that the setting here is the church assembled for prayer and teaching, the best clue is by coupling teaching with having authority over men.  We would say that the teaching inappropriate for a woman is the teaching of men in settings or ways that dishonor the calling of men to bear the primary responsibility for teaching in leadership.  This primary responsibility is to be carried by the pastors or elders.  Therefore, we think it is God's will that only men bear the responsibility for that office." 

Now why is all this significant?  Well it's significant because we need to explain to our people that proper, biblical role relationships are vital both to their good and well- being and to God's glory.  God is robbed of glory in His church when His people do not reflect His image in biblical role relationships. 

Amen.