Women’s Role in Church The passage (2 Tim. 9-15), unfortunately, is very controversial. Some will admit it, and some won’t, for various reasons. As you know, all Scripture is God’s Word regardless of whom He used to write it (2 Tim. 3:16; 1 Pet. 1:20-21). It’s final and ultimate authority rest with God, not man. That’s a foundational truth of the Christian faith. That means we wholeheartedly believe what the Bible says rather than what we want to believe it says (e.g., putting words in God’s mouth). That’s the issue with 1 Tim. 2:9-15. Without giving a lengthy explanation, my basic view is that it teaches the role of women in the church as does 1 Corinthians 11:1-15; 14:34-35. Those passages clearly teach that women should be decent, respectable, humble, and submissive to male authority in the church, a parallel to their role as married women (Ephesians 5:22-24). Many women, including some in the church, in New Testament times were not living up to those standards. That’s why the Lord lead Paul to write those instructions, but it goes deeper. He wrote (still God’s Word), ‘For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.’ This means the man is to be the head of the woman (1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 5:23). Then, ‘And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression’ (1 Timothy 2:14). That deception of Eve is mentioned again: ‘the serpent deceived Eve’ (2 Corinthians 11:3). Eve’s deception meant she and all women need their husbands to protect them from deception, though Adam who wasn’t deceived, failed in his case. Still, God required Eve (and all married woman) to be submissive to their husbands (Gen. 3:16). So, in the church, women are to be submissive to male leadership under which they can teach other women, including female youth and males (under 13 in my view). If they feel called to preach, they should preach only to women (Titus 2:3-5). Thus, I firmly don’t believe the Bible teaches that women can be pastors. All references to such are in the male gender (1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9; Ephesians 4:11-12). Choir membership, Counseling women, handling church finances, missionary service, ushering, visitation, preparing wedding and funeral arrangements, the communion, etc., are all opened to women in the church as long as they are under the authority of a male leader. I realize that’s hard to swallow nowadays, but I believe it’s all biblical. I could say more. The bottom line is, ‘What is God saying?’ You decide.
Blessings!
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