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Women In Leadership part 5: Challenging the Status Quo
[audio:WomenInLeadershipPart5.mp3|titles=Women In Leadership part 5|artists=Christian St John]
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Many of today’s Christian women have found it increasingly difficult to find their place in the church. Many have a desire to fulfill their God-given callings and yet for the most part are hindered at every turn. For many years male governed churches have dictated what they can and cannot do with respects to ministry often without question. But some women are no longer just simply accepting this and are now challenging the status quo.
Traditionally women were expected to bring up the children, run a good Christian home, submit to their husbands, and have no part in church leadership. And while many evangelical theologians are now saying that the Bible advocates total equality for men and women, there are still those who hold to this traditional view. Christians who hold this view may still believe that men and women are created equal in the sight of God. And whilst they may believe that men and women are equally important in the sight of God, they point out that men and women were created different with different roles to play in society and the church.
John Murray makes an excellent point with regards to this issue, “I don’t think gender is significant. I think an all male group is odd. I would say the same for a group that was all women… I think it would limit their ability to relate to people.” (1)
A quick search on the internet will prove that 1 Timothy 2:12 is the main, often only, Bible verse used by men to back up their restrictions of women in leadership and teaching men. However, the issue is confused greatly when we look at and consider other seemingly contradicting Bible verses.
In Genesis 1:27 God made man and woman equal, both in his image. Paul, the writer of 1 Timothy 2:12, also wrote Galatians 3:28 in which he states that there is ‘no male or female,’ and that men and women should ‘submit to one another.’ (Ephesians 5:21)
Am I saying that the Bible is contradictory? By no means! The Bible is the very Word of the Living God and therefore must be truth as he is truth. The problem lies not in the Word of God itself, but in the way we interpret it, and 1 Timothy 2:12 is a perfect example of this.
As I have already stated I believe the issue to be a contextual one. Paul had a problem with the women in the church of Ephesus and wrote to Timothy with regards to the problem. He laid down some basic, but inspired rules to stop them from spreading false teachings and falsely teaching Christian doctrine; after all most women in the time of Paul weren’t educated and as such there existed a need for them to be taught in quiet submission.
So does this mean that 1 Timothy 2:12 has no relevance for today? I would be the first to say that indeed there is total relevance in what Paul wrote, but not what the traditionalists believe. I believe that 1 Timothy 2:12 should be taken seriously and that no person, male or female, should be allowed to teach or have authority until they have first learned in total submission to the guiding and illumination of the Holy Spirit. Then and only then, after they have done their “best to present (themselves) to God as one approved… correctly (handling) the word of truth” (1 Tim. 2:15) should they be allowed and empowered into teaching and leadership roles within the church.
Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
July, 2009
Picture by Mihai Andoni
Notes:
1. John Murray, Christianity In Today’s World (Religion in Focus: July, 1997), 16
Nice point on 1 Timothy that everyone should submit to God before being considered a teacher or a leader. I like that.
It’s kind of interesting that in Paul’s second letter to Timothy, after being pretty harsh on the women of Ephesus, he encourages Timothy to remember where he learned his faith from. Timothy’s own mother and grandmother, Lois and Eunice, were instrumental in teaching the truths about Jesus to him from his childhood and the faith in which they grounded him would hold him until the end.
The church of Ephesus sounds like a mess, with all kinds of characters coming out of the woodwork, people claiming to be apostles, who were not, men saying the resurrection had already taken place, male teachers having a bad influence on the “silly women” who were running around “laden with lust”. (Yikes! I wonder what was going on there.) The overall situation appeared to be making poor Timothy’s life miserable. They really would have needed to be in complete submission to God before being considered leaders.
Nice that Priscilla and Aquilla were there for support.
It is very interesting that Paul does indeed remind Timothy where he learned his faith from. I think that this one point we can establish that Paul held women in high regard… unless of course you go with the whole women can only teach boys up to 12/13 years of age theory which I have witnessed in a few churches.
I totally believe that Paul had a high regard for women even though he clamped down on the ones who were causing problems. He did that with men too. You see it all through the new testament – his salutations to the many women he worked with. You also see that at the heart of everything Paul was crazy about Jesus and wanted all people, no matter who they were, Jews or Pagans, men or women, to treat one another with honor, submission and respect out of love for the Lord.
But man, he had his hands full with that gong show in Ephesus and Corinth.