Male and Female Roles

Premise:

God is good.

All that he does, says, commands is always Good.

God cannot be evil, biased or unfair.

If a scriptual truth seems unfair - we know that it is not.

When confronted with a seemingly unfair scriptual truth we have 2 options:

1: Change to meaning of the test so that it is not unfair.

2: Change our understanding of fair to much that of scripture.

No more do we see this tension that in the position of male or female pastors.

The New Testament commands regarding men and woman, when viewed through some eyes definity look sexist and unfair.

1 Corinthians 11:3 AV

3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

1 Corinthians 11:8 AV

8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.

1 Corinthians 11:9 AV

9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.

1 Timothy 2:11 AV

11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.

1 Timothy 2:12 AV

12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

1 Peter 3:7 AV

7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Given the above verses a few things are clear:

1: Man is the head of the woman.

2: Woman cannot have authority over the man.

Since a pastor is a position of authority, a woman cnnot be a pastor. At least not a pastor over men.

Now to modern eyes, this is about as sexist and predudice as it gets.

However, we know that is cannot be sexist and it cannot be predudist because God cannot be sexist or predujist.

Which means that God must have sufficiet moral reasons for saying this.

We can dismiss God reasons in favor of our own by manipulating the test, or we can humble ourselves and seek what the reasons are and submit to them.

We we must decide how we are going to approach this topic.

1: The Bible is sexist and outdated and we must fix it.

2: The Bible is perfect and we must fix ourselves.

Now we must remeber than on one hand God is the potter and has every right to do whatever he pleases.

He gave these commands and its our duty to obey them.

However, given the nature of the commands, we could be forgiven for asking why he gave them.

And amazingly, God has given us His reasons.

His reasons are always good and always just and always holy.

Let us see what his reasons are:

Question:

1 Timothy 2:11–12 AV

11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

Why does God command that a woman not teach or have authority over the man?

God gives us His morally sufficient reason for this in the following verses:

1 Timothy 2:13–14 AV

13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

So we see that the reason for this command is not arbitray or just mean, but it has a reason.

The reason, it turns out, goes back to creation and the fall.

So let us look at these passges.

God first reason is the creation order:

1 Timothy 2:13 AV

13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.

This is excally what the creation account says:

Genesis 2:7 AV

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

A question we can ask is “Does not the word “man” refer to mankind? men an woman collectivly?”

Lets see:

<a target="_blank" href="https://ref.ly/logos4/Senses?KeyId=ws.man.n.01">Bible Sense Lexicon | man (Bible Sense Lexicon)</a>

As we can see, the Hebrew word Adam is specifically talking about a Male.

Then later in the creation account we see:

Genesis 2:18 AV

18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

Genesis 2:21–23 AV

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

So the New Testamnet appeal that man were created first is indeed true.

However, what does this order have to do with authority?

Men and woman are both created equally in the image of God:

Genesis 1:26–27 AV

26 And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Intresting to note is that the same Hebrew word Adam is used but its gramer refers not to an individual but to a group akin to “mankind”.

Also we are told that mean and woman in Christ have equal value in many New Testamnet passages:

Galatians 3:28 AV

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

And Paul explains the interconnection between the two sexes:

1 Corinthians 11:11–12 AV

11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. 12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.

So that man was created first snd woman second is not inherintly mean tht man is best and woman is second to man.

There must be more to it for it to make sense.

I the reason we struggle is because we are only using half of Go reasoning.

God’s full reason is as follows:

1 Timothy 2:13–14 AV

13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

We have seen that the premise of verse 13 is true to the creation account, but what about verse 14?

Was adam decieved? or was it oly Eve who was decieved?

Lets look at the account:

Genesis 3:1–5 AV

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

and now look at verse 6

Genesis 3:6 AV

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

When God later confront them what does scripture say?

Adam says:

Genesis 3:12 AV

12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

Eve responds with:

Genesis 3:13 AV

13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

So we can see from both the narrative and their own testamonies that the premise is true:

1: Adam was not decieved.

2: Eve was.

This does not imply that Adam never sinned, he did sin, but he was not the one who was decieved by Satan.

This passage is overflowin with implications.

And these inpliations matter, because it is the implications of this passage that God tells us is His sufficient reason for not permitting woman to have authority over men.

Lets carefully examine the evidence of this crime scene to piece together what happened, because perhps there we will discovery Gods reasoning.

First lets establish a timeline:

1: God created Adam (male)

2: God created the command.

3: God created Eve (female)

4: Satan comes to Eve and decieves her.

5: Eve gives to Adam and he eats.

Thus sin entered the world.

Somewhere in the above is God’s reason.

Lets look at a few intresting points:

Point 1:

From 1-3 we see that the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge was givn to Adam. Eve did not get this command from God as she had not been created yet.

However, we see in point 4 and verses Gen 3:2 that Eve wa well aware of this command.

We can safly therefore assume that it was Adam who recieved the command and rightfully passed it into Eve.

Eve’s essencially recieved this command second hand.

Even though it was a command from God, it came to her from Adam.

This begs the question:

When Eve doubted the command because of Satan’s deception, was she doubting God or Adam?

Well since she did not exist when God gave the command, the command she is refering to was based on Adam’s word, not God’s.

Point 2:

It is no coincidence that Satan approached Eve and not Adam.

This was not 50/50 change.

Satan waits till the perfect oppertunity.

Luke 4:13 AV

13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

So Satan knew that Eve on her own was a better oppertunity that Adam on his own or Adam and Eve together.

Why was this?

Why did Satan blieve Eve to be a “softer” target?

Is it because woman are spiritually weaker than men?

perhaps, scripture does say:

1 Peter 3:7 AV

7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

However i dont believe this refers to a persons spiritual strength (vessel) refers to the body not the spirit.

Was it because the command not to eat came from Adam and not God?

Also a possibility.

We cant fill the blnk with our imagination, we have to rely on scripture, and we do not have enough raw biblical data to say Satans reasoning with any surety.

However, the case is not solved:

Point 3:

Eve went up alone against the greatest, most cunning nd most subtle creature in the universe.

Eve lost.

Her loss and deception plunged the world into sin chaoes and death.

However, let us look soberly at the incident.

By way of illastration:

If i loose a game of tennis aginst Roger Federer, yes i loose, i am defested.

But, it it worth remembering that i was defeated by the best of the best.

My lose is true and real, but also an almost inevitible loss.

Eve want alone up against the best of the best of the best decevers.

Yes, she lost and her loss cost humanity dearly.

However, lets look at Adam.

The bible makes it clear that Adam was not decieved.

True, he was not decieved by the best of the best, but even so Adam still sinned along with Eve.

What caused Adam to sin? Th best of the best?

No. Adam sinned because Eve simply offered it to him and “he took and ate”.

Eve is in a boxing ring against mankind greatest adverty, Adam rolls over like a scared puppy - not to Satan, but to his wife!

As this scence takes more shape, if we are honest, it is Adam who is looking worse.

Not to mention that when God confront Adam, he, without hisitation, throws the “bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh” under the bus of God’s judgment.

Scene recreation:

If we now ere to try and recreated the crime scene here is how it went down:

God tells Adam not to eat of the fruit of the tree.

God creates Eve and bring her to Adam.

Adam tells Eve about the one rule.

Even though they are one flesh, Eve finds herself isolated and alone, Adam is not at her ide where he should be.

The greatest oppertunistic lion stalks mankind and sees an oppertunity to strik.

He oes so and puts doubt in Eve;s heart.

She resists for a short while, but ultimatly gives in.

Adam reappears from wheverr he was and even having recieved the commna dfrom God Himself, does not even question Eve’s offer, but simply takes and eats.

he then throwshis beloved wife under the buss to save himself.

I dont know about you, but i dont see any “gender” here who is not without blame.

After al, it was not Eve;’s deception that caused the fall, it was Adam’s point blank disobedience:

Romans 5:19 AV

19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

I believe we have sufficient evidence for a case:

Eve was decieved because she went head to head with the Devil, lost and disobeyed her husband.

Adam was disobedient to God because he did not protect his wife, submitted to her offer.

Both failed.

Both sinned.

Both fell.

But that terrible fall which plunged all of humnity into sin and death could have been prevented so easily:

Eve should never have gone head to head with Satan.

She should have submitted to his relaying of God’s command.

Adam should have been ahead of Eve against Satan because he had the command from a greater source than Eve did. And Adam should never have submitted to Eve.

Of this, everyone canm agree.

Now, knowing this, let us revist the point of contention:

Woman Pastors.

1: A pastor is literally a shepherd. And an intergrl role of the shepherd is to fend off wolves.

The pastoral ministry invloves regular demonic contact.

A woman in this position is simply recreated Eve’s loss.

Wives should submit to their husband, as Eve should have submitted to Adam.

Husbands should never let their wives go aginst Satan, He is the head of the house and Satan should have to get through Him.

Husbands are not to submit to their wives without question, thats what plunged us into darkness.

The conclusion is clear:

The rules God laid down for men and woman has gont nothing to do with sexism, biased or unfairness.

The rules are there becasue WE NEED them.

They are for our PROTECTION not our DISCRETION.

And before we still say its unfair that a woman cannot be a pastor, God has some closing words:

1 Timothy 2:12–15 AV

12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. 15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

Look very closly at verse 15.

Authority is granted to men to teach, but authenticy is granted to womn to do that which no man can ever do: Bring a child into this world.

As a pastor, i look at woman in utter wonder as to how God grants that gift and grace to them.

As a father, my child, the love of my life and that on earth which is most precious, i look at mypastoral ministry as a pale comparison to motherhood.

Why cant i have both?

Simple: God has chosen you to that which man cannot.

And God has chonsen man to do what woman should not.