Can Women be in Ministry? Let's Rightly divide the Word!

 

Years ago I had a dream that I knew was from God.  In the dream I was sitting alone at a picnic table.  I was trying not to be rude, but I couldn't help staring at the table next to me.  It was filled with Christians, laughing and playing games.  I yearned to join them, but I somehow felt I wasn’t allowed.  One of the women walked over to me and with a huge smile said, “Come join us!”

I shook my head sadly and said, “No, I can’t.  I’m a . . . woman.”

The woman laughed and said, “So what?  So are we!!”

I looked again, and sure enough, everyone over there was indeed a woman.  Now I felt worse, because I knew that even though those women could participate, I knew that I couldn’t. 

Then I awoke, and immediately, some verses regarding women came to mind.  That day, starting with those verses, I began searching and studying the scriptures concerning women.  The picnic table dream gave me hope that maybe what I had been believing about women was totally wrong.

When it came to women, the church we attended at that time lived by the doctrine of 1 Timothy 2:9-15:

In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.  Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.  But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.  For Adam was first formed, then Eve.  And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.   Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.  (KJV)

This passage and other New Testament verses like it led me to believe that God was still angry at women because of Eve.  Not only were we still under her curse, ruled by men, we must walk around somber, plainly dressed, silent and with shamefacedness.  We might squeak into Heaven, but overall, grace and joy didn’t really apply to us at all.  

In my church, although it was (mainly) unspoken, men were the “superior” Christians, and the only calling of a good Christian woman was to take care of her husband and kids.

They seemed to feel that since these verses regarding women are in the New Testament, they are the rule under the New Covenant.

But as I studied, I began to realize that this is not true.  Even though these verses are in the New Testament, they are actually part of the Old Covenant, the Law.

Paul made this clear in 1 Corinthians 14:34. He tells women they must be silent and then adds – “as saith the Law.”

What in the world was going on here?

Why would Paul, who says “Christ is the end of the law” (Romans 10:4) suddenly command women to go back under the law?

Is there no “end of the law,” no grace, for women?

I was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. 

Using a technique that Paul called "rightly dividing the Word" (2 Timothy 2:15), I gathered verses concerning women.  Some verses tell women to keep silent and let men do the work in the church.  

Other verses are totally the opposite.  These verses encourage and commend women for their work in the church.

I took all those contradictory verses and divided them into two sections – Old Covenant (Law) and New Covenant (Grace).  For a quick reference chart of these verses, please see "Rightly Dividing the Word for Women."

Studying these contradictory verses, we see that under the Old Covenant, women were to be silent in the church and be "under obedience" to men.  

In the church I attended at the time, the above Old Covenant verses regarding women were the backbone of every women's Bible study, every marriage seminar, and every marriage counseling session.  

How horrible.  

Under the New Covenant, however, "there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."  

What glorious freedom!  

I can only imagine how differently my church would have looked if the New Covenant verses had been the backbone.

The above New Covenant verses clearly prove that in Christ, women and men minister together in sharing the gospel.  Obviously, the women that Paul commended went to churches that embraced the New Covenant, where they worked as pastors, deacons, and apostles.  

If I hadn't found any verses that contradicted the Old Covenant Law, I would have to concede that my church was correct that even in the New Covenant, women had to continue to keep silent and let the men rule over them.

But because I found multiple verses where women are not silent and shamefaced, I can joyfully conclude that the blood of Jesus has broken Eve's curse for women, and under the New Covenant, they are on equal status with men.  They have the same gifts, responsibilities, promises, and blessings.

I'll have to admit, as a Christian woman, I really wish this subject wasn't so confusing...

I wish that Paul didn't have different rules for different churches.

But we can't forget that Paul reminds us that the Law is still alive and well for two groups of people:

1) Those who profess to be Christians yet live immoral and ungodly lifestyles: 

We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers... (1 Timothy 1:9,10 NIV)

2)  Christians who believe they must follow even one law to be saved:

I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.  (Galatians 5:2-4 NIV)

Unfortunately, according to Paul, once you start obeying one law as a means to justification, you are obligated to obey ALL the laws, even the ones about women walking around in shamefacedness, sobriety, and silence because of the curse of Eve.  

In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul commands the women of that church to wear head coverings to show their submission to men.  But then, in verse 16, he makes the stunning admission that in other churches of God, there is "no such custom." (see KJV and original Greek manuscripts)

Why is one church instructed to follow Old Covenant Law while others were allowed to enjoy New Covenant Grace?

Most likely the church at Corinth fell into one of these two categories at the time: either they were immoral or they were trying to be justified by following parts of the law.     

The exciting takeaway of the above New Covenant verses is that Paul had multiple female friends that didn't keep silent, sober, and shamefaced, and he commended them, worked alongside them, and bragged on them!

Every Christian, as well as every church, is on a different point on the continuum between Old Covenant Law and New Covenant Grace.  Because of free will, we get to choose our point.  My previous church understood grace as far as salvation being by faith, but that’s about as far as they got.  They were definitely much closer to the Old Covenant Law side – at least as it concerned women.

So was I, when I had the picnic table dream.  The women at the fun picnic table were on the other end of the spectrum, as were Junia, Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Euodia, Syntych, Phebe, Priscilla, Persis, and the four daughters of Philip.  All of these women understood grace and lived in its fullness.  

The good news is, we don’t have to stay on the point we start on.  We can choose to grow in grace.  I’d like to have that dream again; it would end much differently today.

We do not tell them that they must obey every law of God or die; but we tell them there is life for them from the Holy Spirit. The old way, trying to be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments, ends in death; in the new way, the Holy Spirit gives them life. (2 Corinthians 3:6 TLB)

 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. . .

I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live (Deuteronomy 30:15,19 NIV)

For a study on more of those "keep the women silent" verses, please see Grace is for Women too! 

 

References:

Strong, James. Strongs Exhaustive Concordance: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Together with Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of the Original, with References to the English Words. Baker Book House, 1983.

 

Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV  Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.  Used by permission of Zondervan.  All rights reserved worldwide.www.zondervan.com.  The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.