Hard Questions #2

Welcome! I trust that you have been remembering to pray the secret prayer. If you have no idea what I am talking about, I encourage you to ask someone in church today. I also strongly encourage you to read or listen to last week’s message. Today we continue with our Hard Questions series. There are two questions we are going to tackle today. The first is this: What is a proper Biblical understanding of women’s roles in the church?

I admit that this is a somewhat intimidating topic for me. But they aren’t called hard questions for nothing!

Well, I think the place to start is in Genesis. Much of this will seem basic, but I think it is important that it be said.


Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created human beings in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. – Gen. 1:26-27

We see that both man and woman was made in the image of God, equally in the image of God. It is not true that man is more in the image of God than women. I think this is important to think about, because when we think of the Trinity, we think of God the Father, a man figure, God the Son, also a man figure, and God the Holy Spirit, a figure we don’t know what to make of. I am not saying we should think of the Holy Spirit as feminine, something done in the popular book The Shack. What I am saying is that we need to guard against thinking that women are in any way less in the image of God than man is.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” … God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. – Gen. 1:28, 31

I include this passage because I just want to point out that God blessed both man and woman. God viewed them as a unit in this passage. He didn’t just tell the man to rule over the rest of creation on Earth; He told it to man and woman together. And God didn’t just say that man was good, but that both man and woman were good, in fact, very good. In God’s original plan for man and woman, in their role of ruling over the rest of creation on Earth, He did not leave the woman out. I think you could summarize this by saying that from the beginning, man and woman have had an equal standing before God.

Well, we know that Adam and Eve both sinned before God, and both were forced to leave Eden and live in the world cursed as a result of their sin. And then we know that God sent Christ to die for our sins, the sins of man and woman, to redeem us, and that all who call on the name of the Lord, both man and woman, are saved. Galatians 3 explicitly says,

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. – Gal. 3:28

We are one in what sense? The answer is found in the preceding verses:

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. – Gal. 3:26-27

That is, there is no distinction between men and women with regards to their salvation by faith in Christ. Again, this is basic, but important to say.

Furthermore, and let me word this carefully, throughout the Bible, men and women are equal in the nature of how God equips them for ministry. Here are some examples:

Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. – Judges 4:4-5

Now I want to be careful want I am saying here. Deborah was a prophet, and a judge. This means that she received messages directly from God so as to lead the people. In this period in Israel’s history, Judges arose after periods in which the Israelites forsook God. Eventually they would find themselves in dire situations, taken over by foreign leaders, or about to be overtaken, and they would cry out to God. God would then speak to someone and tell them to lead, and this is what God did with Deborah.

Now it is true that Deborah was the only female judge, and we can discuss why this was so, but the point I am making is that God did do this. God did not have the mindset that because she was a woman, He could or would not directly speak to her as a prophet and judge.

Now at the same time, in the account of Deborah we also see the idea that it was expected that the leader of the army be a man. In the account of Deborah, God chose Barak to lead the army, but he refused to do so unless Deborah went with him. As a result, God said that Barak would lose the honor of the victory, and would deliver the oppressor into the hand of a woman, which is exactly what happened. So in this same account we also see a difference in the expectations God had for men’s and women’s roles; in particular, God expected men to lead armies and fight in battle.

Hilkiah and those the king had sent with him went to speak to the prophet Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the New Quarter. – 2 Chron. 34:22

Here, much later in Israel’s history, we see another example of a female prophet. Again, God chooses to speak directly to this woman, rather than another man, or any of the priests, or even the king directly. When the king, Josiah, spoke with the High Priest, learned what was written in the Law, and realized that they had failed to keep much of what was written, he instructed the High Priest to see the prophet Huldah to learn what they should do. In a very real sense, the fate of Israel depended on what God would speak through this woman.

In the New Testament, an example of a female prophet is Anna in Luke 2.

There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then had been a widow for eighty-four years. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. – Luke 2:36-38

Anna is a tremendous example of a unwavering worshiper of God who is used by God as a prophetess to speak of the future role of Jesus. Another example of a woman used and gifted by God is Priscilla.

Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the believers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchreae because of a vow he had taken. They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. – Acts 18:18-19a

Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. – Acts 18:24-26

The Greek in this passage is clear that both Priscilla and Aquilla taught Apollos. In fact, it is safe to say that they led Apollos fully to the Lord, that they explained the gospel to him. Paul mentions her again in Romans 16.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. – Romans 16:3-4

Note how Paul does not treat her any less favorably than a man in this passage. And right before this, he mentions another woman named Phoebe.

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me. – Romans 16:1-2

Phoebe is a deacon, or deaconess. The Greek word is diakonos, which has a generic meaning of servant, or minister. It is used in dozens of passages, including in the gospels, to simply refer to one who ministers or serves another. At the same time, it is also a term used specifically in I Timothy 3.

In the same way, deacons are to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain. They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons. – I Tim. 3:8-10

In the same way, the women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything. A deacon must be faithful to his wife and must manage his children and his household well. Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus. – I Tim. 3:11-13

It’s not perfectly clear from this passage, but it seems to me that the office of deacon is meant to be a man, since it is described as one faithful to his wife. The “women” in verse 11, does not use the word deaconess, but woman (gyne), and it appears to be referring to the deacon’s wife.

Going back to Phoebe, one way to read this is that she was a servant of Paul and the others traveling to share the gospel; that is, she did all she could for them in any way she could. Another is to say that she was someone who had the office of deacon in the church in Cenchreae. I personally lean toward the former meaning, but that is my opinion.

Now, women of course had a very prominent role in Jesus’ ministry. I don’t have time to go into these examples in detail, but I will list them briefly. In Luke 8:1-3, we see that women are traveling with Jesus and the disciples as He goes from town to town. Not only were these women traveling with them, they were, it says, were helping to support the disciples from their savings. In other words, they were helping to make these travels even possible. In John 11, which recounts the death of Lazarus and Jesus’ raising him from the dead, Jesus has important conversations with women. It was to Martha that Jesus said that He was the resurrection and the life, and that anyone who believed in Him would live, even though they die, and that whoever lives by believing in Him would never die. He then asked her if she believed it, and she said yes, and with insight no doubt given by the Holy Spirit, said that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God.

And in Matt. 28:1-10, it was to women (Mary Magdalene and the other Mary) that the angel appeared, not to men. These women were the ones given the task of going and telling the disciples about Jesus’ resurrection, and on the way, Jesus Himself appeared directly to them, again encouraging them.

When it comes to spiritual gifts, they are all for men and women. Look at how Paul begins his discussion about spiritual gifts in I Cor. 12.

Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. – I Cor. 12:1

And in Romans 12, which also describes the different gifts of the Spirit, it starts with this:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship. – Romans 12:1

And we have this:

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If you speak, you should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If you serve, you should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. – I Peter 4:10-12

The “each” here really means “each and every person, without exception.” I mention this because the KJV translates this as “each man.” If the KJV meant man in a generic sense, that is fine. But for those who might say that it only means man, understand that that is not what the Greek says.

So men and women have an identical standing before God, and both are empowered by God in similar ways. However, capability is not the same thing as responsibility. What I mean by this is that sometimes a subset of people is given a particular task. You even see this in God Himself in the Trinity, in which the Son does only the will of the Father.

When we look at the early church, Scripture is clear that men alone were given the role of church leadership. The apostles were all men, the Scriptures were written by men, and the churches were led by men. Furthermore, Scripture spells out that one of the qualifications for being an elder of a church was that the person be a man.

An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. – Titus 1:6-9

Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. – I Tim 3:1-4

In addition, in the previous chapter we have this:

A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. – I Tim. 2:11-14

Now I will be the first to admit this is a difficult passage to fully understand. The Greek for “assume authority” is authenteo, which only occurs in this passage. It is built up as a compound word from autos, which means self, and hentes, which means worker. The word for “teach” is didasko, which has a range of meanings from simply teaching to instilling official doctrine. (We get the word didactic from this word.) The word for quietness and quiet is hesuchia, and it has a range of meaning from absolute silence to simply not being excessively meddlesome. The full submission is two words, one meaning all and as for the other, I think I prefer the term subjection. For example, a subject of a kingdom is one who lives under the rules of the kingdom, who lives in the kingdom peaceably, and does not try to usurp the kingdom.

So given the range of meanings of these words, how are we to understand the passage? Well, first of all, the context is clearly limited to spritiual matters in the church. This is the context of the passage. I Timothy is a pastoral epistle giving instructions for the church, and the context of this particular passage is the conduct and leadership in the church. Nothing in this passage precludes women from teaching or having authority over a man outside the context of spiritual matters in the church; this passage simply doesn’t speak to that.

We also need to understand that our culture has introduced a concept of teaching that differs from the meaning of Scripture. Teaching today normally comes from an expert whose instruction is free to be ignored. As a professor, I cannot begin to tell you how true that statement is! But Biblically, teaching implies direction and setting of authority. Teaching in the context of Scripture goes beyond reading a passage but includes instruction for how you should apply it. From everything I have read, this is what Paul is restricting. He is not restricting women from sharing Scripture and teaching how they have applied it to their own lives. And He is not restricting women from sharing Scriptural information to men.

If I may give a personal example to help you understand the distinction: Before I was recognized as an elder, I would sometimes do the messages here at church. When I did so, I always felt that I had a responsibility to limit what I said to information, facts, or things I had personally applied in my life. I felt very uncomfortable moving into the you should or you need to type of preaching. And even today, I am still growing in that role. I believe this is the kind of distinction Paul is talking about. And even here, there are some you shoulds that can be said, things that we all know is true, things like you should have quiet times, or you should remember to pray. Well, we all know that. When we say you should in that context, what we are really doing is giving all of us a gentle reminder of something we all already know we need to do. I don’t see this in any way a violation of this passage.

Now please don’t ask me about Paul’s rationale in the rest of this passage. I understand that Paul is talking about a precedent, but I don’t think that we can use that precedent to argue anything else. Does that make sense? I for one am not willing to make any other statement about men’s and women’s roles based on his argument.

Now some read the “I do not permit” part of Paul’s statement as an excuse to ignore the message entirely, as if it was just Paul’s idea alone and not for the church universal. I do not accept this, because we see the germ of the idea in the preceding verse, and we see a kind of universal justification in the following verses. Beyond this, the entire book of I Timothy is a personal letter by Paul to Timothy providing direction for how a church should be. I don’t think we can take one verse and say it only applies to that time; if you can do it with that verse, I don’t see why you couldn’t do it with the entire letter, which uses the first person in various places.

In our sharing times, I have seen no problem with what women have shared or in how they have shared it, or, for that regard, have I seen any problem with how men have shared. I think we have all intuitively understood that the purpose of these times is not to set doctrine or usurp authority, but to simply share what the Lord has been teaching us. I think a good question to ask yourself, if you are wondering if you are about to overstep a boundary, is “Is what I am about to share something that directs or demands a particular, non-universal, non-obvious response in other people?”

Here are a few practical questions that may come up. Can women share the gospel with men? Absolutely. Can they lead a man in a prayer to accept Christ? Yes; there are many ways to do this without exercising authority. In fact, there really shouldn’t be any exercise of authority in this process; it should be completely clear to a person who is being asked to turn their lives over to Christ that the decision is totally theirs. You can provide guidance in the form of a sample prayer, but the person should pray of their own accord. I believe this is true in any case, man or woman, except perhaps when one is leading a young child to Christ.

Can women lead Bible studies with men in them? Yes, there are ways to do this without violating the spirit of this I Timothy passage. Come talk to me any time if you want advice in how to do this. However, for many reasons, if a co-ed Bible study can be co-led, it will probably be a much better environment, and one that is much less complicated.

Can women teach the main Sunday morning message? I think the better question is will we do this at Clemson Community Church? To my knowledge we have never done it, and I don’t see a reason why we should need to.
But again, I want to be perfectly clear that God equips men and women with all gifts of the Holy Spirit, and men and women are called to minister in the same basic ways and with equal significance. It is only the sphere of ministry in which women are limited, and that limitation has to do solely with authority, or with authoritative teaching. Beyond that, there is no limit to what women can do in Christ.

Let me now turn to the second topic, a continuation of our discussion about we desire to see God do through Clemson Community Church in 2011. I want to start with Luke 14. In this passage, Jesus dines at a Pharisee’s house. Jesus seems to almost delight in seeing how many ways he can offend the host and his friends. It is the Sabbath, and he heals a man suffering from abnormal swelling, knowing that this will bother them. Then, observing how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he tells them not to do that, because someone more distinguished than them might show up, and then you will be humiliated. I should mention that this whole conversation is extremely ironic, because the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is the one telling them this, and yet they don’t have any idea that Jesus is even as important as them. And now that He has offended the guests, He speaks to the host. Here is what He says:

“When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” – Luke 14:12-14

Now it is true that this probably offended and bewildered the host, but what Jesus says is true and powerfully true. Do you believe it? What does it mean when Jesus says you will be blessed? I don’t know exactly, but it has to be pretty good, right? What does it mean to be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous? Again, I don’t know exactly, but it has to be pretty awesome. Well, here is how the Luke passage continues:

When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ – Luke 14:15-17

“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ – Luke 14:18-20

I have shared this passage before, a few years ago when we went through the book of Luke as a church. Are those good excuses? No! They are horrible, offensive, stupid excuses. As a professor I have seen my share of stupid excuses for missing exams, not turning in homework, etc., some really stupid excuses, but nothing compares with these! I need to see my field? Why, are you afraid it is going to wander off? What about the oxen? They can wait! By the way, what should be more exciting? Watching some oxen walk down a field together, or going to a banquet? Well, I’ve been to some pretty bad banquets, so maybe I shouldn’t ask that. But it’s not like he is about to test drive a new sports car. These are oxen. And as for that last excuse, about just being married, I honestly don’t want to touch that with a ten-foot pole. The point here, the cultural context here, is that these are patently stupid and offensive excuses. And you see that in the response.

“The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ – Luke 14:21

“‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’” – Luke 14:22-24

Like many of the greatest parables, there are multiple levels of meaning. One, the most direct and immediate one, is that the invited people are like the rich people at the very party where Jesus is sharing this message. No doubt, if they understood this parable, there were not happy. And we see Jesus live this out. He does go to some fancy parties, but He also spends much of His time going, just like in this parable, to places high-society people never go. He visits tax collectors and women of ill repute. He visits Samaritans, people who were considered like unclean, educated dogs to the Jewish people. Actually, a better animal reference might be pigs. Not to mention that Jesus’ disciples were primarily low-class fishermen and other misfits. Jesus even sought out lepers to visit! In short, Jesus lived this parable.

I am convinced that this parable wasn’t just for those in attendance at that party. It had an important message for all time, for all peoples. And that message is that the good news of the gospel is for everyone. It is equally available to the rich and the poor, to the privileged and the forgotten. And I am convinced that when a church is like Jesus and seeks out these forgotten ones, when it seeks out those that no one else is seeking, God is happy, and eager to help us succeed. This is why for the last several years we have been going quarterly on outreaches not to the better parts of town, but to the opposite. We had a powerful confirmation that this was the right thing to do when, in the first outreach, a man said that he had lived there 25 years, and never before had someone come by to invite them to their church and share the gospel with them. And we will continue this in 2011, with our first outreach later this month.

But as we have prayed, and asked God to use us, we came up with an idea to also go to nursing homes. Now we are still working out the details, but the basic idea is that we are going to go into secular nursing homes offering a time of Bible reading. Ultimately, my prayer is that we would be invited back and able to really build one-on-one friendships with people there, spending time in their rooms reading the Bible and ultimately leading those who are not believers to Christ. But to start we will do this in groups, in public areas in the nursing homes, because after all we are strangers to them at this point. Our first outreach of this kind will be in Februrary, and we will provide more details in the coming weeks.

For many reasons, I am very excited about this, and I will share more as we continue our series of hard questions. But let me just say that, as we ask God to grow our church, from a human perspective it seems utterly foolish to go to a place where, almost by definition, people will be unable to attend our church. Let me just remind you that the foolishness of man is the wisdom of God. Our desire is not to grow by merely human effort, but by the power and blessing of God.