The Timothy Conference

T H E T I M O T H Y C O N F E R E N C E

The Role of Women in Ministry Don L. Davis, October 16, 2001

While it is clear that God has established a clearly designed order of responsibility within the home, it is equally clear that women are called and gifted by God, led by his own Spirit to bear fruit worthy of their calling in Christ. Throughout the NT, commands are directed specifically to women to submit, with the particular Greek verb hupotasso , occurring frequently which means “to place under” or “to submit” (cf. 1 Tim. 2.11). The word also translated into our English word “subjection” is from the same root. In such contexts these Greek renderings ought not to be understood in any way except as positive admonitions towards God’s designed framework for the home, where women are charged to learn quietly and submissively, trusting and working within the Lord’s own plan. This ordering of the woman’s submission in the home, however, must not be misinterpreted to mean that women are disallowed from ministering their gifts under the Spirit’s direction. Indeed, it is the Holy Spirit through Christ’s gracious endowment who assigns the gifts as he wills, for the edification of the Church (1 Cor. 12.1-27; Eph. 4.1-16). The gifts are not given to believers on the criteria of gender; in other words, there is no indication from the Scriptures that some gifts are for men only, and the others reserved for women. On the contrary, Paul affirms that Christ provided gifts as a direct result of his own personal victory over the devil and his minions (cf. Eph. 4.6ff). This was his own personal choice, given by his Spirit to whomever he wills (cf. 1 Cor. 12.1-11). In affirming the ministry of women we affirm the right of the Spirit to be creative in all saints for the well-being of all and the expansion of his Kingdom, as he sees fit, and not necessarily as we determine (Rom. 12.4-8; 1 Pet. 4.10-11). Furthermore, a careful study of the Scriptures as a whole indicates further that God’s ordering of the home in no way undermines his intention for men and women to serve Christ as disciples and laborers together, under Christ’s leading. The clear NT teaching of Christ as head of the man, and the man of the woman (see 1 Cor. 11.4) shows God’s esteem for godly spiritual representation within the home. The apparent forbidding of women to hold teaching/ruling positions appears to be an admonition to protect God’s assigned lines of responsibility and authority within the home. For instance, the particular Greek term in the highly debated passage in 1 Timothy 2.12, andros , which has often times been translated “man,” may also be translated “husband.” With such a translation, then, the teaching would be that a wife ought not to rule over her husband. This doctrine of a woman who, in choosing to marry, makes herself voluntarily submissive to “line up under” her husband is entirely consistent with the gist of the NT teaching on the role of authority in the Christian home. The Greek word hupotasso , which means to “line up under” refers to a wife’s voluntary submission to her own husband (cf. Eph. 5.22, 23; Col. 3.18; Titus 2.5; 1 Pet. 3.1). This has nothing to do with any supposed superior status or capacity of the husband; rather, this refers to God’s design of godly headship, authority which is given for comfort, protection, and care, not for destruction or domination (cf. Gen. 2.15-17; 3.16; 1 Cor. 11.3). Indeed, that this headship is interpreted in light of Christ’s headship over the Church signifies the kind of godly headship that must be given, that sense of tireless care, service, and protection required from godly leadership. Of course, such an admonition for a wife to submit to a husband would not in any way rule out that women be involved in a teaching ministry (e.g., Titus 2.4), but, rather, that in the particular case of married women, that their own ministries would come under the protection and direction of their respective husbands (Acts 18.26). This would assert that a married woman’s ministry in the church would be given serving, protective oversight by her husband, not due to any notion of inferior capacity or defective spirituality, but for the sake of, as one commentator has put it, “avoiding confusion and maintain orderliness” (cf. 1 Cor. 14.40).

In both Corinth and Ephesus (which represent the contested Corinthian and Timothy epistolary comments), it appears that Paul’s restriction upon women’s participation was prompted by occasional happenings, issues which

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