WOMEN: Called by God to Teach, Lead & Exercise Authority for His Church?

The issue of whether women can lead or preach is an ethical one. By ethical I mean that it is something where we need to explore Scripture to discover what is right/wrong in terms of our conduct as Christians. To do this we must approach Scripture correctly and glean all the relevant information and then process it to end up with the definitive answer.

This is a reply to a question sent by a friend who was confused by 1 Timothy 2, which read with no knowledge appears to tell women they cannot teach men.

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First we have to ask what is the usual way evangelical Christians decide whether something is right or wrong (an ethic). the normal approach is to start with The Bible, and then work on the material in a careful way until it gives you the answer. This process is often described using these two technical theological words

1. Exegesis: which is the process of discovering what the original writer
and the original reader of a piece of Scripture thought it meant & what truth God intended for us to get from it.
2. Hermeneutics: which is all the above plus answering the question of how
that Scripture should be applied in a particular situation.

Let's start with Exegesis.

There are a number of principles in Exegesis, for example:

1. Every Scripture must be viewed and understood in the context of all of Scripture
2. No Scripture can be made to mean something it never meant
3. Jesus is Central to all Scripture
4. The literature of Scripture is true only in the way that kind of literature is true
5. A secondary clause can only be applied in the context of its primary clause

All the above apply to the passage mentioned (1 Tim 2), some in simple and others in more complex ways. The first is a good example. It is often caricatured as "a text without a context is a pretext". But often those who hold what your question calls the 'traditional' view have examined only a few verses on either side of the verses concerned and have not looked to the whole of Scripture for its context. However, all the verses in that passage were written to people in the same situation. It is only when you get the big picture of what the Holy Spirit inspires on that subject in a broad range of situations that you should feel you have a handle on the mind of God. So it is only then that you can start to use that verse to make an ethic that is universal.

So let's start to do this with 1 Timothy 2. We are aiming for an application of this passage (and others in Scripture on the same subject) into today's world. In other words we are looking for the hermeneutic of those particular verses.

To do this we must start with the big picture; the big picture taken from the whole of Scripture. .... starting at the beginning.

The big picture is as follows (using broad brush strokes):

• In Genesis God makes mankind as one being. He then separates the female from the male. He makes them equal (the word "suitable" in "suitable helper" (in the Hebrew) means equal, sufficient, and maybe greater (e.g.: the Lord is my
  helper)).
• Eve is taken from Adam's side. Most Hebrew scholars would say this is to represent her equality. If she had come from his head she would have been understood to be over him. If from his feet, under him.
• Then came the fall (Gen3). Equality broken and women placed under men.
• The Old Testament gives glimpses of God's heart for a return to equality (Sarah, Deborah, Psalm 68 [great is the company of women who proclaimed it... is the original])
• and many other comments about the female being God's image too (wisdom in proverbs, can a mother forget her baby passage in Isaiah, etc)...but the curse of the fall is not yet broken. (nor is it for Gentiles or slaves or the need for sacrificing animals)
• In the New Testament Jesus has two programmes:
  1) to fulfil the law : 12 male, Jewish, free apostles : representing the twelve tribes etc
  2) releasing the beginnings of the New deal: release of the Spirit, bringing into being the church of the living God, in anticipation of the New Jerusalem
• Joel 2 & Acts 2 "Your sons & your daughters will proclamation preach" (and the dual gender promise is repeated the next verse).

We could then pull on texts all over both NT and OT to show that the coming of the new covenant brings salvation. Salvation is both:

1. forgiveness from the past .... and ...

2. a possibility of receiving your inheritance as of the first born son. ie in Christ Jesus (rather than based on your own righteousness, relationship with God, gender or social standing.

In other words, you (male or female) have an authority level not based on your ability, gender, etc, but based on the fact that you are:

1) in Christ .... and

2) which gifts of the Holy Spirit you have been given.

Each of us is the same because our authority is based on being in Christ. But we are different because we have a different calling and gifting. Which calling and gifting we have is Christ's decision (Eph 4). But if we fulfill it faithfully we are now "all one in Christ Jesus" ... assuming we are in Christ Jesus. The only other differential in authority is based on levels of holiness.

By the time Jesus has finished

• The first evangelist is a woman (Mary of Magdalene who was the first to see Jesus after the resurrection) and
• She is told to tell the men (surely authority "over" men?!).
• Mary of Bethany is accepted as a pupil of Jesus' teaching (sitting at Jesus' feet: which in context assumes that Jesus approves her to be trained as a rabbi/teacher.) by saying, "Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken from her" (strong words!!
• Jesus clearly teaches (Matthew 22v30) that in heaven there will not be male or female (although personhood will continue. We cannot conceive of personhood without gender, God clearly can) and that we will all be "like the angels".
• Paul later (Eph 5v32) tells us that male, female and marriage were given in order to reveal something about Christ & his church's future relationship. (Some say that this proves the subservience of women to their husbands, but on the basis of Genesis 2... I think it shows the height to which Christ is calling his church - equality, adequacy & genuine friendship & partnership.)

So, if that is what we are heading for...

• ...the way things should be in the church should be BEGINNING to reflect that .... as much as possible in the present culture and circumstances. God is practical! Where teaching would be in error or sin would run writhe (or the church would be unnecessarily brought into disrepute) he will slow down the progress to his ultimate
  goal.
• He clearly does this with regard to New Testament teaching on slavery (Philemon), the eating of meat offered to idols (Acts 15), and the treatment of Gentiles (the whole Old Testament).
• The issue of the equality of genders is flagged up in the NT (Gal 3v28) as one that will be dealt with before the Second Coming (and completed at it!). Women are encouraged to "be religious" (1 Tim 2) and when they pray or prophecy (1 Cor 11: both speaking) to be concerned about proper authority issues as perceived by the present culture. Both of these were radical departures from the current thinking that only men could "be religious", and only male words were worth listening to.
• However practical problems that caused this progress to need to be slowed down had clearly appeared in Ephesus (where 1&2 Timothy were directed.). There were women dressing up to get influence & men disputing during prayer events. People of both genders were pushing their own programmes. This had caused quite a mess. So Paul calls Timothy to get it stopped, and to tie it all back into holiness.

The specific reference to creation in 1 Tim 2 needs to be read in the context of 1 Cor 11 where the pastoral problems are different so the practical solutions and uses of Old Testament material is balanced differently (male dependant on female as much as the other way round). In each case Paul was inspired by the Spirit to give God's correction to that particular situation; but the situations are different, so the emphasis is different. We must read both (and all the other texts in Scripture) before we can say we have an overview of the heart and plan for God in this area.

Here are a couple of key points:

1) A principle of Biblical ethics is the rule of exception. It goes like this: If there is one exception in Scripture, then there is a circumstance where the rule does not apply. So we as Christians should not be legalistic about the rule that we are inheriting from our tradition, but looking more closely at the point being made.

In the area of whether/who women can teach/lead the Bible is full of women inspired by the Holy Spirit both leading and teaching men (Sarah, Deborah, Abigail, Mary, Mary, Mary, Priscilla .... even Junia in Romans 16 is thought to have been a female apostle). So that is the general rule. But there is one exception (1 Tim 2), so we must not legalistically say that women must lead/teach men!!

2) Another principle of ethics is about the way ethics progress through Scripture history. We see this in God's attitude to Gentiles and also in the teaching on the Sabbath. As a result of the fall Gentiles must not influence the people of Israel through the OT, and the Sabbath must be keep as a day of rest. But in the NT this ethic has progressed to the point where we see that the OT rule was only a "shadow of what was to come" (Col 2v16). By the time we get to heaven we will see this process completed.

In the area of women being brought back into equality with men, it is clear that in heaven those who were female in this life will be equal in authority to those who have been male. The church's ethics should be based in striving towards this, rather than sinking back - but to always do this carefully so that we don't get caught out by one of the Devil's tricks.

3) Often in church these days people say that if we allow an ethic of women being in leadership we will soon have to say the Bible teaches that homosexual behaviour in fine for Christians. But these issues are not the same (and it is offensive to put them in the same bracket. When a woman preaches the Gospel she is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Sexual immorality which is inspired by unclean spirits. So to equate these is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit!!).

To clarify: sexual immorality is treated the same way in all Scriptural texts. Sexual
immorality will not exist in heaven, and didn't in Eden. There is no progression from one
teaching immediately after the fall to another in Jesus & further change in the later NT. The Biblical teaching on sexual immorality is, therefore, consistent and provides for no exceptions. It is, therefore, a completely different issue.

4) Being practical, church history shows us that the Lord has regularly used women in leadership, teaching and pioneering - often with men learning from them and happily following. God is clearly equipping women in leadership ways: Jacqui Pullinger, Gladys Aylward, etc etc. These people are the main leaders (in Biblical language: overseers, elders... even apostles) of the movements that God has founded through their ministries. To say this is wrong is to say that that which inspires them (and they are clearly inspired by something) is not the Holy Spirit. Again, this gets close to blaspheming the Holy Spirit... and I counsel you against doing that (Matthew 12vs31-32). It also shows that this is not a secondary issue but a primary one.