In this interaction we will reflect on the roles of men and women in ministry. In 1 Timothy 2:8-15 Paul sets forth the expected role of men and women in the church. Create a post briefly addressing the following 3 questions.
What are the roles?
What reasons does Paul give as to why these roles are in place?
What implications does it have for today?
Here is my response:
I believe that the biblical role of men in the church is one of leadership and authority, while the biblical role of women in the church is one of support and submission. These roles are not dictated by ability, but by faithful obedience. Christ submitted to the will of God by choice, as a way of exalting and honoring God. I believe women are called to submit to male pastoral leadership in the same way, to build up the body by allowing men to lead.
Paul cites Creation and the Fall to support his argument in this particular passage. Some have used this choice by Paul as a way of defending the view that women are inferior: created second, more prone to sin. What it points out to me, however, are the consequences that result when a man fails to lead and teach well. God gave Adam the instructions on which tree was forbidden, before Eve ever entered the world. (Gen 2:15-17) Presumably, it was Adam's duty to teach his wife about God's commandment, but it is clear from Eve's response to the serpent that Adam has not taught God's word verbatim. (Gen 3:3) Also, when the serpent tempts Eve, it is implied that Adam is standing silently beside her. (Gen 3:6) Adam fails to lead his wife in faithfulness to God in this interaction, with disastrous consequences. So I see Paul's use of the Fall as evidence not of woman's inferiority or greater propensity to sin, but as evidence of the consequences that result when men fail to take up the positions of teacher and leader.
The implications for today are endless. Both Christians and non-Christians have misused this passage throughout history to demean women or Christianity as a whole. There has been a great deal of harm done on both sides--those who emphasize submission and those who emphasize equality. For too long, the church and the anti-church have looked at this whole concept through a societal lens. And society, for almost its entire existence, has not treated men and women as equals. In the perfect world that God created, however, and in the way He views and loves them, men and women have equal value and worthwhile purpose.
I think what both extremes in this debate have lost sight of is the beautiful picture of holy submission that Christ gave and that we are to imitate. It does not lessen me if I "give up" certain "rights" in order to glorify God. All parts of a body have essential functions, and no function is greater than another, despite the various values society may place on one or another. When one function fails, the entire body suffers. I believe that men and women in the church need to re-examine their attitudes on this touchy issue. Our goal needs to be the placement of the needs and welfare of others before our own. One of those needs is the need to exercise the unique gifts God has given each of us, and one of those gifts is that of male pastors, elders, and teachers. (Eph 4:11)
If we seek to imitate Christ, then we should all, regardless of gender, seek to pour ourselves out for others, and to show the world a Christlike, selfless, and submissive love.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11
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