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Greetings,
The apostle Paul’s words to his spiritual son Timothy were not meant to be instructions of law or rules for the church. They were written to encourage Timothy to be strong in his responsibility as a shepherd of God’s flock. Some of Paul’s words to Timothy can be confusing to us when we don’t look at the principle for which they were written.
1 Timothy 2:11-15 Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
In these verses, the context of a woman learning in silence and submission is a wife to her husband. Paul’s instructions were about proper relationship, not rules for men and women. The word for woman here is the Greek word γυνή gynē (GSRN 1135); probably from the base of GSRN 1096; a woman; specially, a wife. In these verses the context is that of a husband and wife, since the reference is to Adam and Eve – a one flesh union of a man and a woman (Gen. 2:23-25). Paul was not addressing women being in submission to men. He is addressing a wife being subject to her own husband. The text is implying the relationship of a wife and her husband where the man is the head, and the wife is the testimony of the body in their one flesh testimony in Christ. The inference is simply a way of relationship and life, not a structure for ministry. Leaders must deal with real life situations and real-life relationships in an everyday world.
Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
I believe that Paul’s words in his letter to Timothy are not intended to be a law against women teaching, but a guideline for proper relationships and submission in the church. Wives are in submission to their husbands and are not contentious, striving to be separate from relationship. A woman learning in silence with all submission is not a woman without a voice. It is a woman learning with an attitude of relationship with her husband. It is an attitude of the heart, not a rule of law for church organization. At the time Paul wrote this, there was a huge need for wives to learn, since men had not sought to bring them alongside of them in the things of God in times past. There was a need for both men and women to grow in the faith.
These verses were not intended to restrain the voice of women in the body of Christ. There are examples of women teaching in the early church, such as Persilla, who with her husband Aquila were somehow fellow workers with Paul in the gospel (Rom. 16:3). Phoebe was an influential woman in the church and commended by Paul in the work that she did in the church of Cenchrea (Rom. 16:1, 2). Adronicus and Junias, were relatives of Paul who had been imprisoned for testifying of Christ (Rom. 16:7). These were known among the apostles for their testimony. Junia was likely a woman with a notable testimony for Christ. Paul wrote that Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis were “women who work hard in the Lord” (Rom. 16:12). Julia, the sister of Nereus, and the mother of Rufus was a woman involved in the church (Rom 16:13, 15). Several women were mentioned by Paul that clearly imply that women had a prominent role in church life.
The testimony in this text is one of being a married couple. It is one of being a family unit. It is a testimony of being one flesh. This is not a woman to all men; it is a woman to one man. It is the testimony of a wife and her husband as Adam and Eve were husband and wife as a testimony of one flesh before God. The statement of being saved in childbearing is not a salvation unto heaven, but a testimony of a healthy family before God that lives in the grace of salvation in a testimony of faith, love, and holiness with self-control. Again, it is a healthy lifestyle and not a means or method of ministry. It is a testimony of a life empowered by grace, not rules subjected by leaders for law and order in the church. It is a characteristic of believers that comprise the church, not requirements of members in an institution. The church is a body, not an organization, and leadership serves a role of responsibility in helping the members of the body of Christ live their lives with a good testimony as the body of Christ.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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