November 01, 2010
Forever a Student
Recently in a phone conversation I was asked if I were a minister at my church. While I was laughing at such a suggestion, I could almost feel the heavenly saints of the Christian Church/Church of Christ sucking air. We just don’t have women preachers in our denomination...that is unless some have crept in when I wasn’t looking. I remember as a teen that the first Scripture I memorized and took ownership of was, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Tim 2:15 KJV) Though it’s flattering to be mistaken for a minister, I still continue to be just a student of the Bible.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Women certainly have a role in the church, and the Bible itself indicates this role can come close to that of preaching. “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,” (Acts 2:17) is evidenced by Philip’s daughters who did prophesy. (Acts 21:9). It was Lydia’s heart which God opened to receive what Paul was preaching. How instrumental was she in establishing the church at Thyatira, where she was from? And furthermore, what connection may she have had with the fact that the person teaching at Thyatira, to whom Jesus gave time to repent, was a woman? (Rev 2:20-21). Yet Paul’s direction for women to remain silent in the church was a command from the Lord, not just his own personal advice. (I Cor 14:33-37). “If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home,” (I Cor 14:35) tends to strictly narrow this directive to a practice even the Christian Church/Church of Christ fellowships do not hold. Yet, the Presbyterian church ordains women to both the ministry and to the eldership, seemingly in outright contradiction to I Timothy 2:11-12, “Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent,” although he commended Phoebe the deaconess to the Romans and bade them to “...help her in whatever she may require from you.” (Rom 16:1).
-----It is difficult to envision a gift of the Spirit, such as prophecy, be given a woman and yet its particular use for the building of the body be denied. Yet we have Philip’s daughters warning Paul concerning his trip to Jerusalem, Lydia’s involvement in Paul’s ministry (to whatever extent that may have been,) and young women prophesying as well as young men. And I benefited from your teaching in past Sunday School classes. Pinpointing exactly what communication a woman might have for the church is problematic.
-----However, that her communication is not authoritative over men is not problematic in its directive sense, nor in its logistical sense. Those who do ordain women into the ministry are sure to point out that the Greek term for ‘have authority’ in I Tim 2:12 is a term meaning ‘to usurp authority’, and therefore, they say, Paul is referring to the manner in which they have come to hold their authority rather than the fact that they do hold it. Yet this small puff of smoke does not obscure Paul’s command that women are not to teach men, and it dissipates even more in face of the probability that this one New Testament address of a woman’s authority over men uses a term expressive of usurpation because usurpation would be the only way a woman could get authority over men if it were not given by God. Furthermore, Paul validates this position by reference to the fact Eve was first deceived, rather than reference to some cultural tradition, fundamentally tying it to certain logistics of the fall itself.
-----Yet the church I attend ordains women, women occasionally teach at the Christian Church/Church of Christ fellowships, and everywhere women speak in church, not just conversationally, but in Sunday School classes, small groups, etc. This is just one illustration of why I think the manifold wisdom of God showing through the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places is His decision to extend His grace and mercy towards the failures and weaknesses of those who desire to belong to Him, and to even make godly benefit of them.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment