Servants: The Biblical Role of Women

We are doing this in an effort to check ourselves and our leadership structure and weighout if we are being a Biblical church or simply a church who follows “man-made” tradition and continue in the “that’s the way its always been done” church model.

It is our desire to be a Biblical church. With that said this is today’s Big Idea:

Men and women serve as co-equals, cooperatively, and contributively to Christ’s Church in mutual submission.

Our belief by definition on the roles of men and women within the church:

Complementarian: The position toward gender roles in the church that argues men and women were created to serve the church and each other in different but complementary ministry capacities and that some leadership roles are intended only for men, such as pastor or elder.

our probing question: What is the Biblical role of Women in Christ’s Church? And are we as a church submitting to Christ’s obedience as presented in the Scriptures?

Men and women serve as co-equals, cooperatively, and contributively to Christ’s Church in mutual submission.

1. Co-equality (; , ; ) The role of women in the church is set forth primarily in the New Testament where God created His Church through the New Covenant and gospel ministry of Jesus Christ. However, it actually started from the beginning of God’s creation narrative.

Genesis 1:26–27 ESV

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Gen

In an article written in Christianity Today, back in 2008, John Koessler writes this:

When God created humankind in his image, he created them to be male and female (). It is often said that men and women bear the image of God equally. But it might be more accurate to say that men and women bear God’s image together. Men and women collectively reflect the divine image; one without the other is incomplete. In addition, the Book of Genesis affirms men and women’s joint mandate to exercise dominion over creation. Men and women share this responsibility; neither can fulfill God’s mandate alone.

Koessler’s article continues to challenge our pre-conceived prejudices in this article, while also asking a very challenging question:

2. Co-operatively (; ; ) The understanding of mutual submission and the creation narrative are extremely important to rightly understand when understand both roles of men and women. The relationship and mutual submission to God and one another by God’s design helps us (the church) better understand how God views the role of women within Christ’s Church.

Too often, complementarians approach theology only through a male lens. But in order to see the complete picture of what’s being taught in Scripture, we need the theological perspective of both sexes. If it is true that men and women see things differently, as we complementarians often assert, then stifling the feminine perspective can only lead to an inadequate theology. Adam’s first sin was his silence in the garden when Eve was being tempted. His subsequent sin has been to silence the voice of his God-given partner.

…why didn’t Jesus commend Martha instead of Mary ()? After all, her work in the kitchen reflected a woman’s traditional role.

While complementarians assume that men and women both have roles to play in society and in the church, we often give the impression that we are most interested in telling women what they can’t do. A colleague of mine, who is a complementarian, recently described her experience to me:

“When people talk about the role of women, I often hear a note of anger over my decision to have a career and be a mother,” she said. “Yet I see no such concern about my male colleagues who are fathers of young children while working long hours. I think part of the problem is that complementarians often extend the designated roles of men and women in the church into all areas of male-female contact—that is where it starts to get offensive.”

Genesis 2:7 ESV

7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Genesis 2:18–25 ESV

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Gen 2:18-

This Scripture speaks to the creative order of men and women. Man in created first, and women second, yet both are image bears of God. So, it also speaks to the co-equalness in which they were and are to live together.

Men and women serve as co-equals, cooperatively, and contributively to Christ’s Church in mutual submission.

The Apostle Paul writes to the Church of Ephesus:

Ephesians 5:22–33 ESV

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Eph

And Paul’s disciple, the doctor and historian Luke who’s gospel account is taken from gospel writer Mark and Paul, records this in Acts:

Acts 17:4 ESV

4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

J.I. Packer a great pastor theologian of the 20th century puts it this way:

“Submission means that you put yourself at the other person’s service to act toward him or her in love with a purpose of making that person great in the way that God reveals that He means that other person to be great.” — J.I. Packer

Men and women serve as co-equals, cooperatively, and contributively to Christ’s Church in mutual submission.

3. Contributively (; ; ) How we as a complementarian church interpret these Scriptures are how we determine as a church how we allow women to contribute to church. These Scripture must be taken into proper context and where Scripture is not clear, me must use Biblical discernment as we see certain text in context within the entire canon of Scripture. Within this section we will explore both arguments for women serving as deaconess, and why they should not be allowed to serve in this office. We will begin with the latter.

This has been fleshed out in two ways that we must consider:

How the text has been traditionally interpreted.

How the text can we interpreted given the biblical context of the Apostle Paul’s reason for dealing with the churches of the 1st century, versus how it can be interpreted in light of our current context without abandoning the central truth of Scripture.

Traditionally, the role of women (as they existed in the cultural setting of the Scriptures) where often viewed as J.I. Packer puts it as “second-class” citizens.

The way we as a society often operate is one of extremes, not balance which leds to overcorrection, due to societial pressures verus instead of a return to Biblical instruction.

Out of the surge of the feminist movement, due to “women who have been hurt” and treated like “second-class citizens,” has developed into what, Packer calls a “rivalry” between men and women.

Packer says, that movement has turned into a battle “to upstage men.” He also says, “At the heart of [the feminist movement] are hurt women…whose very energy in the cause arises out of the bad experience that they have had.”

He goes on to say:

[Because of this experience] the question which the world [clashes and battles] over [is in what is the correct response in] relation to the position of women.”

Alongside of that for us in the Christian Church, there is a parallel question that needs to be distinguished quite sharply fromt he first one: How are we to secure the use of women’s gifts in ministry among the people of God.

Then in the Christian church the [extremists] rise up, take over the discussion, and lead it into fields of exploration which are not always fruitful. There the liberal response is to call for the church to follow the world, to embrace the world’s wisdom and the world’s fashionable thoughts…Climb on the secular bandwagon; that is the deepest motivation of liberal ethics. [That path is] undiscerning and worldly in spirit. In practice, it is disastrous…Following the world in this matter is not the way to go.

Wayne Grudem who is known for his work titled Systematic Theology, says in his book entitled, Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth, (where Grudem seems to almost give a tone of hard-line of complementarianism as if women are not able to teach at all based on , but as we will see, he is primarily guarding the office of elder to be held by men only.

Then the other extreme there is the conservative reaction, which is no more than a reaction…

As we open the Scriptures, Packer advises us to see:

...there are two interpretive guidelines to note. We are servants of Jesus Christ, and we had better say to ourselves explicitly that in this quest of ministry in the church. Christ honored women as friends and disciples in the same way that He took men as friends and disciples. That is a clue. The mind of Christ, when we find it, will take the form of an interpretive scheme that does justice to all the Scripture, all the Scripture teaching about women, including Scripture testimony to the way that Jesus regarded women in His only life.

Scholars and theologians alike (like Packer) will say somewhere in the late 2nd century we saw and un-Christlike view and even the Apostle Paul’s words taken out of context by the Church leaders. Which lead to “what I would call a heretical misunderstanding of God’s created order, which removed the Co-Equal language of & 2. (let me caution just because someone misunderstands one thing about Scripture, we should be careful to label them a heretic or dismiss other things in which they contribute to in the fashion of quite sound teaching—in other words don’t overreact with extremism because of one’s certain ignorance to understanding the Scriptures plainly. We all bring baggage to our interpretation of the Scriptures…so let me remind you, “we shouldn’t always throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

3rd Century, Church father, Tertullian said:

God’s sentence hangs still over all your sex and his punishment weighs down upon you. You are the devil’s gateway. You are she who coaxed your way around him whom the devil had not the force to attack.

Basically, [women] you are Eve…the cause of the fall.

Thomas Aquinas said:

As regards to individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active force in the male seed tends to the production of perfect likeness in the masculine sex, while the production of women comes from a defect…

Packer rightly responds to these early church fathers by pointing us back to the Bible. He says:

“The Bible does not speak in those terms. Scripture affirms the equality of the sexes in creation and in redemption…”

He makes this observation:

In the same way, it seems that is saying that men are better suited for the task of governing and of safeguarding the doctrine of the church. This does not mean that women could not do this task, and do it well, at least in certain cases. But it does mean that God has both established men in that responsibility and has given inclinations and abilities that are well suited to that responsibility.

Grudem, then warns:

Yet we must be cautious at this point. We should not say, “Since Paul’s reasoning is based on different general tendencies in men and women, there will be some unusual women who can be elders because they don’t fit the generalizations but reason and relate more like men.” We should not say that because Paul does not say that; he prohibits all women from teaching and governing the assembled congregation, not just those with certain abilities and tendencies. And he does so first because of the order in which God created Adam and Eve (v. 13), and second because he sees something in Eve that is representative of womanhood generally (v. 14) and therefore applies broadly and in principle to all women as they are representatives of womanhood as well.

It is clear that Grudem is speaking to why women are prohibited from the office of Elder and overseer, however the next statement from this book should give us pause. Grudem says this:

Not all teaching is prohibited: [There are other] kinds of teaching and speaking by women that Scripture views positively

Not all teaching is prohibited: Other kinds of teaching and speaking by women that Scripture views positively

: Explaining Scripture privately, outside the context of the assembled congregation

It is important to understand in the light of other passages that view some kinds of teaching by women in a positive way. For example, we read in concerning Apollos, a man competent in the Scriptures but who did not understand fully the good news of salvation in Christ (), that both Aquila and Priscilla explained the way of God more accurately to him:

Luke a contemporary of the Apostle Paul wrote this in the book of Acts:

Acts 18:24–25 ESV

24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately. ()

Acts 18:26 ESV

26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

The word translated “explained” (Greek ektithēmi) is plural and it indicates both Aquila and Priscilla were involved in explaining the way of God more fully to Apollos.

This incident is viewed with approval in the book of Acts, for there is no indication that anything was wrong with this conduct as it fits the ongoing narrative of the spread of the gospel to many Gentile cities. Therefore this passage gives warrant for women and men to talk together about the meaning of biblical passages and to “teach” one another in such settings. A parallel example in modern church life would be a home Bible study [in NT culture all churches were in homes, in our current context our Groups meet and study the Bible before the large, collective worship gathering…but in Group contexts] where both men and women contribute to the discussion of the meaning and application of Scripture. In such discussions, everyone is able to “teach” everyone else in some sense, for such discussions of the meaning of the Word of God are not the authoritative teaching that would be done by a pastor or elder to an assembled congregation, as in

Pastor Brian Lowe of Exodus Church-Belmont says this about their churches view on women deacons and why:

This incident is viewed with approval in the book of Acts, for there is no indication that anything was wrong with this conduct as it fits the ongoing narrative of the spread of the gospel to many Gentile cities. Therefore this passage gives warrant for women and men to talk together about the meaning of biblical passages and to “teach” one another in such settings. A parallel example in modern church life would be a home Bible study where both men and women contribute to the discussion of the meaning and application of Scripture. In such discussions, everyone is able to “teach” everyone else in some sense, for such discussions of the meaning of the Word of God are not the authoritative teaching that would be done by a pastor or elder to an assembled congregation, as in

Another modern parallel to the private conversation between Priscilla and Aquila and Apollos would be the writing of books on the Bible and theology by women.

[Gruden says:] When I read a Bible commentary written by a woman, for example, it is as if the author were talking privately to me, explaining her interpretation of the Bible, much as Priscilla talked to Apollos in .

Grudem points to another passage by the Apostle Paul:

: Praying and prophesying in the assembled congregation

1 Corinthians 11:4–5 ESV

4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, 5 but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven.

Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as if her head were shaven. ()

Paul implies that it would be normal and natural in the church at Corinth for women to pray and to prophesy aloud. If it were wrong for women to pray or prophesy in the church service, Paul would not have said they should have their heads covered when they do so!

This passage also implies that giving prophecies aloud in the assembled congregation is appropriate for women (in churches that allow this gift today).

The covering of a woman’s head is highly contextual to the culture of Paul’s day, we know that this is not practiced in our culture today in Christianity. This is a Middle Eastern cultural difference that even Gentiles would not have known. We still see it upheld in the non-Christian Muslim faith.

Grudem explains what is meant by prophecy also, this is important...

...giving prophecy is simply reporting something that God has spontaneously brought to mind. Prophecy is always listed as a separate gift from teaching in the New Testament, and prophecy is always to be subject to the governing authority of the elders and is to be tested for its conformity to Scripture (see ; ).

: Women teaching women

Paul encourages another kind of teaching activity by women when he says:

Titus 2:3–5 ESV

3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

All kinds of Bible teaching ministries from women to other women are encouraged by this passage.

As a matter of fact right now my bride, Stephanee, is leading a group of women on Wednesday night’s through a book written by Jen Wilkin (a female leader in ministry out or Matt Chandler’s church in Dallas) and our ladies are learning how to study the Bible in the same way in which pastor’s are taught to breakdown Scripture. That means guys your wives will be able to help you better study the Scriptures as well…here’s the thing you have to be willing to read the Bible first! So men, be ready to participate and sign up for a class that we will offer you that teaches the same thing. Go ahead and accept the challenge…actually it’s not just a challenge it’s a Scriptural command, and the true of the matter is men are spiritually lazy. Anyway...

Grudem acknowledges and clarifies his point:

[There are] some excellent women Bible teachers will speak to conferences of several thousand women at one time. These are valuable ministries that should be encouraged. They are not the kind of teaching or having authority over men that Paul prohibits in .

Grudem speaks to the ministry of evangelism

and Evangelism

Evangelism of all kinds is another activity not restricted to men alone but open to men and women alike. For example, the woman at the well in Samaria went and told her village about Jesus [John 4]:

[] The women at the tomb became the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection, and Jesus sent them to tell His disciples about the resurrection. This was an affirmation of the principle of women as evangelists in the New Covenant age:

The women at the tomb became the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection, and Jesus sent them to tell His disciples about the resurrection. This was an affirmation of the principle of women as evangelists in the New Covenant age:

Grudem says:

These passages seem to indicate that it would be appropriate for women to do evangelism in any setting, whether privately or in large groups. In speaking to non-Christians,18 they are not having the kind of teaching or governing authority over the church that Paul prohibits in , because the unbelievers who hear the gospel message are not a congregation of assembled believers.

Pastor Brian Lowe of Exodus Church-Belmont says this about their churches view on women deacons and why:

The notion of women serving as deacons is a hotly debated matter even within biblically faithful churches. There are many biblically faithful churches that decide to have women serve as deacons and others that do not. It is important to note however that even in most churches that decide not to assign the official title of deacon, women are almost always still serving in leadership in many important areas (e.g VBS Director). The irony in the debate is that in the end, these women ultimately serve in deacon roles, but they simply do not bear the title.

There are many biblically faithful churches that decide to have women serve as deacons and others that do not. Biblically faithful men come down on both sides of this issue.

While we recognize that the Bible does not answer this question as clearly as many others, the elders are persuaded from our study of the Bible, as well as building on the study of many respected historic and contemporary theologians, that women are indeed allowed to serve Jesus as deacons in the life of the local church.

The principle reasons are as follows:

· Grammar

· “Their wives…”—In , the verse literally reads “Women [γυναῖκας], likewise must be dignified.” Also, there is no possessive pronoun (their) referring to these women. Additionally, there is a specific Greek word for wives, but this word is not used. The females mentioned are simply “women”. Though not its principal meaning, at times this word γυναῖκας can also mean or imply “wives”. However, there really is no justification for it in this context, which may be why scholars felt they had to insert the word “their” to achieve that meaning [the ESV translates “their wives” however the NASB—a better word for word translation, as well as other translations, translate gunaikas as women because of the absence of the personal pronoun “Their”].

· The absence of requirements for elder’s wives—We are also persuaded that this cannot logically refer to deacon’s wives because there is no parallel mention of requirements for elder’s wives. It would seem that if there were requirements for the wives of those deacons actually serving the elders, then there would also be requirements for the wives of those who would lead the deacons—the elders themselves. We realize that this is an argument from silence, but it is a strong one.

· “Likewise…”—In v. 8, this word is used to begin the section on deacons following the passage about elders. Paul is setting aside a group called to a particular role. The same construction is used in v. 11 to refer to the women mentioned in the verse. At the very least, Paul is setting up some role for women in the church regardless of whether or not it is specifically for female deacons.

· Authority-—, vv. 8-15 are quite clear that women are not to exercise authority over men in the church. So then, how can women serve as deacons? Our understanding of this passage is that the particular authority to which this passage alludes lies specifically with the church elders as they submit to Jesus. The deacons serve under this elder authority, but they do not themselves possess that same authority referenced in . As such there is no conflict between and . Female deacons (and male deacons for that matter) simply do not possess elder authority. Deacons serve and execute their assigned roles (including delegated leadership) under elder authority.

· Wisdom—While we hold that the Bible is the final authority against which all other sources of wisdom and guidance are measured, it is not the only source of guidance in our day-to-day activities. The Bible simply does not speak in detail on every matter under the sun. God intends for us to use biblically informed wisdom and common sense to make many mundane and some not-so-mundane decisions in those places where he is silent or has not provided detailed direction. One such way that we seek guidance when God expects us to use wisdom is by looking to our respected contemporaries as well as our forefathers in the faith

· The early church—In this case, we see that the earliest churches had female deacons with church fathers even referring to them specifically in and . There are also mentions of female deacons serving the church in extra-biblical sources as early as the 2nd century.

· Contemporaries—As we researched this issue, we noted that the following widely known and respected theologian pastors are just a few examples of the many that have female deacons (or deaconesses as they are sometimes called) in their own churches:

· John Piper-—Bethlehem Baptist Church

· John MacArthur—Grace Community Church

· Mark Dever-—Capitol Hill Baptist Church

· Matt Chandler—The Village Church

These are just a sampling of those whose positions we reviewed in our study.

As mentioned already, the Bible is always our final authority and standard, but God gave us the church as a gift to all believers and for “…iron to sharpen iron…” (). To ignore this source of wisdom is to ignore one of God’s precious gifts.

On top of that scholars and pastor/theologians who accept the Biblical office of deaconess would say that women were needed due to the need of rampant sexual immorality that existed in many of the Gentile churches (in which the Apostle Paul deals with in Cornith) older deaconess would have been better suited to minister to young widows, which has Scriptural backing, but for the sake of time I can’t cover today.

prayerfully consider:

In our quest to be a Biblical church, and as we study and pray about our current and future leadership structure, especially in a context where we already have women leading and contributing in (what is considered) a Biblical way, we must come to terms with how we will move forward in our body addressing these roles with a level of clarity and transparency that holds true to our understanding of the text and Biblical roles addressed in the Bible.

The burden is on our body to determine if we continue in our current operation, we should do so openly and honestly without hiding behind “lesser-than” labels, or admit we are doing it wrong. If we are going to be a Biblical church and not a church that continues in the tradition of “this is how its always be done,” either way correction is needed.

May we continue to press into the Lord and by much prayer and devotion to God’s Word follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and come to an agreement in one accord. This is our prayer. To live out our life together as...

Men and women [who] serve as co-equals, cooperatively, and contributively to Christ’s Church in mutual submission.

Conclusion

Christ died on the cross for all. To those in whom He awakens to life He calls His children, both male and female. He has equipped us all with gifts, strengths, weaknesses, yet provides through both man and female the relational example of Christ and His bride the Church.

Within the gospel Christ’s life, death and resurrection gives the narrative of hope for all people.

Our hope as His bride (His local church) is live out His commands that we are given through the authoritative Word of God. That very Word which fashioned man from dust and woman from the rib of man, shows that despite the sin and evil ushered in by the First Adam and his wife Eve, we have restoration through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, in whom we have been called to be His bride, The Church.

It has never been about status…it has always been about our purpose as God’s image bearers and Him preparing us to be Christ’s bride. By the blood of Jesus we are made worthy, not because of what we bring to the table, but because of what Christ has done for us through submitting to the His Father’s will on the cross.

We are called not to argue over position and status, we are called to submit to the Headship of Christ and by God’s creative order honor Him by how we live in mutual submission.

If you have not submitted your life to Christ, the hiearchy of this world will not only consume you, but it will damn you.

Submit to Jesus. Repent of your sins. Be His bride by faithfully submitting to His local church and walk in the newness of eternal life.