A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): In the church today, there is some confusion and disagreement about the role of women in the church. But Pastor John Randall says the word hasn't changed through the years and couldn't be clearer on the matter.

John Randall: According to God's word, the sisters, the women in the body of Christ are not to have the role of pastor teacher in the church. They are not given the responsibility to teach both men and women in the congregation. That's what the Bible says. However, women are given the opportunity to teach and often times have the gift to teach. Who are they to teach? The Bible says they're to teach other women.

Guest (Male): God has established certain roles for men and women in the church. And while a woman's role is different than a man's, it doesn't in any way suggest that they are inferior. Today on a daily walk, we open up 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 8 through 15. In recent years, there's been some discussion within church circles as to whether or not a woman should be a pastor or teach over a mixed crowd. The passage we're about to look at makes it clear what the answer should be. And remember, this is God's unchanging word written for our benefit and good.

Here is John Randall with today's message on how women are to conduct themselves in the house of God.

John Randall: So, first of all, let's consider the passage. Again in verse 11, let a woman learn in silence with all submission, and I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. Now, please keep in mind the context, first of all, concerning the passage. It has to do with public worship, the public gathering of the body of Christ. First of all, make note of this. He says, let a woman learn. You got to pause right there and praise God for that because this was completely liberating for women in that culture.

How much the gospel of Jesus Christ has done for sisters in the body of Christ, for women. Normally, women were not allowed to learn. If you study the Grecian culture, you'll know that there were times when women sadly were treated like slaves. They were placed in seclusion. They could a divorce could easily take place and they would be left destitute. It wasn't right, but that's what was going on culturally speaking. The Roman culture wasn't much better, although they had a little more liberty, they didn't have that much liberty. In fact, often women were seen like a piece of property.

And historically, it got so bad that in 331 BC, they had an epidemic where women were poisoning their husbands to get rid of them. That's one way to deal with the problem, apparently. And in Rome, divorce became very common. Then you move to the Jewish culture, and a women's place in the home was respected as a mother, as a wife. But still, they would be considered inferior and not able to learn like the men. Here's the Apostle Paul saying, hey listen, let the women learn. Let them learn the word of God. Let them become students of God's word.

Don't hinder them from that. The New Testament church was made up of men, women, slaves, free people, poor people, wealthy people, all together as one body. And in that sense, there was no distinction. In Galatians chapter 3 verse 28, the Apostle Paul said, there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, male nor female. You are all one in Christ. We all have this opportunity to come before the word of God and to learn it. Men and women alike. And what a blessing to have women in the congregation that love God's word. Women that study God's word, that have questions about God's word.

My wife reads the Bible daily. And there are things that she will share with me concerning the insight that God shows her as she studied the word that I go wow, I thought through the whole Bible. I never saw that before. That's good. I need to write that down and use it. I mean, it's just a good insight that God showed her because she's a student of the word. Ladies, be students of the word of God. I also think of the ministry of Jesus. When you study through the life and ministry of Jesus, you will find that he respected and elevated women to equal status as it related to his ministry.

Remember in Mark chapter 3 verse 35, Jesus said, whosoever will do the will of God, the same is my brother and my sister and my mother. Men, women, part of my family, Jesus said, who desire to do the will of God. I think of Jesus honoring Mark chapter 5, honoring and rewarding the faith of women. You remember that woman who was infirm for 12 years hemorrhaging, made her way through the crowd, grabbed hold of the garment of Jesus, and Jesus honored her faith. And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. I mean, he he referenced her in that way.

I think of Jesus stopping in Samaria at a well to minister to one singular woman. And when he did, she was surprised. She even said, are you talking to me? I'm a Samaritan, you're a Jew. He's a teacher. It was so not the cultural norm, but Jesus ministered to this one woman who needed to know there was living water. She had no idea. I think of the times when Jesus would teach, and he would use parables. And sometimes in those parables, he would use women as the person he was describing in the story. Again, uncommon in those days, but that was Jesus's heart for women.

Paul says here, let the women learn the word of God. But then he also adds, how are the women to learn the word of God in the public setting of worship? How are women to learn the word of God? Two things he says. I want to underline these. Silence and submission. You say, Pastor John, does it say what it says? At first glance, at first glance, you think, Paul, how chauvinistic can you be? Who does Paul think he is? An apostle? Yes, he was an apostle. But we want to dig a little bit deeper. What is he saying here when he uses the word silence?

Think about this. Listen. The word silence means tranquility from within. In chapter 2 verse 2, it's the same word translated peaceable. Let the women learn in a peaceable way, having tranquility within. It's not saying that women can't talk in church, that women can't speak to one another when they walk through the door. It's saying that when they learn and the freedom to learn the word of God that they do it just in a in a peaceable manner, just receiving what's been said with tranquility from within. You know, Paul gave a similar exhortation in 1 Corinthians chapter 14.

In 1 Corinthians 14, you remember they lacked no spiritual gift in Corinth. I mean, they were gifted with all the spiritual gifts, but they did lack love and they did lack self-control. And so Paul had to exhort them. Apparently, some of the women in the church were so excited about their new found freedom, they were constantly speaking out in the midst of the service. Hey, what does that mean? Like hey, hey, hey, ladies. Peaceable, tranquility. You know, just hold on a second. When you get home, ask your husband that question. He'll break it down for you.

That'll make your husband a student of the word. I mean, just ask him when he gets home and he'll have to look it up. Silence, he says. Tranquility from within. And then he uses the word submission. Oh my. Can you give us the Greek tense of submission? It must mean something else. What does it mean? This word submission. It's actually a word that means under rank. It's describing order, order in the church. It's very similar to what Paul described in writing concerning marriage in the letter to the Ephesians. There was an order that God gave, a structure.

It doesn't mean inferiority in any sense. There's equality, but there is order. You have a husband who submitted to Christ. You have a wife who submitted to Christ and submitted to her husband. You have children that are submitted to their parents and submitted to Christ. It's it's a structure. It's an order for the benefit of those who would follow what it says. There's a great fear of submission today. The word carries this negative connotation for some men. You know, if they know one verse in the Bible memorized, it's the one in Ephesians. The wife says something they don't like.

Hey, listen. If there's one verse I know, wives, submit to your husbands. I tattooed it on my back. If you have just look right here. You know, it's like their own it's their you know, you ask a man, what's your life verse? Oh, it's Ephesians 5. You know, they they just that's their life verse. And then the wife always comes back with to Shay, well, you're supposed to love me like Christ love the church. Anyhow, there's an order that God's given us. There's a structure for our benefit. But there's this fear because we live in a society that values individual rights, especially those who are pushed down by the system.

We are constantly encouraged to stand up for our rights, fight back when we're wrong. Self-fulfillment is a supreme virtue in America. We are encouraged to do what we want, when we want to acquire our personal happiness. But I believe the reason there's such a strong aversion to submission is that we're unclear of what the Lord is saying. Submission, again, understand it does not mean inferiority, that women are inferior to men. The word submission has to do with structure or order that God has given within the church. These are God's instructions for our good. He loves us.

Guys, he's given us a manual to follow, a manual for marriage, a manual for the church. You could say, well, I don't like the manual. I choose not to listen to that manual. I'm going to rewrite it or have my own manual. But that'd be the equivalent of like getting a new appliance. Let's say you get a new microwave. Recently, our microwave broke. You don't realize how much you use that thing until you don't have it for a month. But nonetheless, a guy comes out to fix it. But when you get a new microwave, it comes with a manual.

You get it out of the box, you open the manual, this is how you plug it in, this is how you set the time, this is how you cook this, you know, whatever. He's like, I know how to do it. What's the first thing? You know, at 1 minute, 1 minute, 1 minute, 1 minute, 1 minute. You don't care about all the other buttons. Anyhow, that's what you've got all these from I'm speaking as a man. Just one button, keep pushing it. 5 minutes, good. I didn't read the manual. But I tell you this, in that manual, from what I'm told, there's certain things and not only what I'm told, but by experience, certain things you do not put in the microwave.

You ever put something in there that's metallic? Don't do that. And you can have just a tiny bit of metal and the thing begins to spark and blow. But you could say, you know what? I don't care what the manual says about not putting you know, a can of soup in there. I want my soup hot and I want it in the can. So, hit it, hit it, hit it, hit it. And you put it in there and your house blows up. Whose fault is it? Is it the manual's fault? No. It was yours. It was mine.

I disregarded what the manual said. The the manual was put in place for my good, for my benefit, so that I wouldn't get injured, so I wouldn't get harmed. Guys, God loves us so much that he's given us this manual for our lives, for our families, for the church, for our ministry. And he wants us to follow it. He doesn't set these boundaries and these these borders because he he's not wanting to bless us. He wants to bless us. How many of you you have children, you have grandchildren. You set boundaries for them for their good.

Please do not play in the street. There are cars. Then you know, they might think, well, that's that's so you're so mean. You never let me do anything. You set a boundary. You realize, listen, you you have to live. Someone has to take care of me when I get older. You are the person. You are not allowed to play in the street. I have plans for you. You know, you might think that I'm mean, but this is for your good. I love you, in other words. So, here this manual is set. We cannot allow ourselves, church, to bend to the cultural driven interpretation applied to scripture and think that God is trying to keep something good from us by setting boundaries in our lives.

No, no, no. He loves us. That's why he gives us this order. But what about women teaching? All look at verse 12. Paul writes, and I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. Here the Bible gives us yet another aspect of a woman's role in public worship. The word permit always means to allow someone to do what they desire. Apparently, there were women in the church there in Ephesus, perhaps influenced by false teachers. We do not know for sure, but they desired to be pastors of the churches, to lead, to have authority in the church that was not part of God's design and plan for the church.

When when the Bible speaks of teaching, a teacher to teach, it carries the idea of authoritative doctrinal instruction. Paul saying, the role of the sisters in the church is not the authoritative doctrinal instruction. That is a responsibility, that is a role that has been placed on the brothers in the fellowship, on the men in the church in the simplest way that I can say it. If I was to sum up this entire passage, it would be this. According to God's word, the sisters, the women in the body of Christ are not to have the role of pastor teacher in the church.

They are not given the responsibility to teach both men and women in the congregation. That's what the Bible says. However, women are given the opportunity to teach and often times have the gift to teach. Who are they to teach? The Bible says they're to teach other women. In Titus chapter 2, Paul instructed in the pastoral epistle, let the older women teach the younger women. Teach them how to love their husbands. Teach them how to raise their children. Teach them how to live godly lives. We need that. Ladies, you need to be imparting this to the next generation.

They need to understand what it is to walk with Jesus. You have a great responsibility to disciple, to teach. And many women have that gift to be able to communicate in that way. Also, the women have the opportunity to teach children. You're in 2 Timothy, Paul will remind Timothy that he was instructed and he was discipled by his mother and his grandmother. How did Timothy become this this man that Paul would say, I have no one like-minded who will sincerely care for the state of the flock? How did he develop into that? Through the influence of his mother and grandmother who helped raise him in the ways of the Lord.

What a responsibility that is. Also, we find in Acts chapter 18, you have a couple named Aquila and Priscilla. And it says that Apollos was preaching in the synagogue and they took him aside, probably brought them into brought him into their home and they instructed him in the ways of the Lord more accurately. Together, husband and wife, not in the public setting, but in a private setting, they helped instruct this young man Apollos as to how he was to preach more accurately. And the guy went on to be used powerfully by the Lord. Bible says that women can pray, that women have available to them all the spiritual giftings that that the Bible makes available to any believer.

Every gift in that sense available to us. There is only one thing, one thing in the order of the church that God has set, and that is that the sisters, the women in the fellowship are not to pastor the church. And that would include preaching and teaching the word of God to mix crowds of men and women. For to do so would be to take the position of authority that God reserved for the brothers, for the men, to have that male leadership. If you go back to the scriptures, you will find that God established from the very beginning a patriarchal model.

It says Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel. I mean, that's how God established it from the beginning. It didn't mean in any way that they were inferior. It was just the order. When you look at the New Testament, when Jesus began his ministry, he selected 12 men to be his apostles. But again, that is not to say that there were women who followed and helped serve in the aspects of the ministry. The woman by the name of Mary Magdalene was entrusted, the first person entrusted with the news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I mean, God used women in the church. They were at the foot of the cross, some of them, while the disciples were hiding in a room. I mean, God used these women. But then you come to the next chapter of 1 Timothy and we're going to read next time the qualification for the elders. One of the qualification for elder, meaning pastor, overseer, shepherd in the body of Christ, he has to be the husband of one wife. Doesn't say the wife of one husband. It was a male role that was given. Men were to have that leadership within the church.

In the book of Ephesians chapter 4, Paul said that the Lord gave some to be apostles, prophets, some evangelists, some teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry. And it was used in the masculine form when it was given. There are no women pastors in the New Testament, no women apostles. The chief missionary activity in the Bible was done by men. Not to say that women can't be missionaries. Don't misunderstand. The writing of the New Testament was the work of men. In general, the leadership of the churches was entrusted to the brothers in the church.

Outside of the church, hey, women can be CEOs of companies, firefighters, police women, professional boxers, great athletes. Some can even run for president. I mean, they have that opportunity outside of the body of Christ. But the role in the church in the church, the leadership was to be for the men. Well, why is that? What is the reason? Well, look and we're almost through in verse 13. Paul gives us some reasons here, a little more insight. He says, for Adam was formed first then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell in the transgression.

First of all, Paul mentions, make note of this, the reason was order in creation. Order in creation. When God created mankind, he started with the creation of the man. He made him out of the dust of the ground and breathed life into him. And in the same way that God ordered creation, he created Adam and then he took something from the man and created the woman. He has given order in the church. The leadership role in the church and in the family was reserved for a man. Order in creation was one reason. Second reason, deception in the garden.

He says in the next verse, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. Now, this doesn't imply that the woman was more gullible or that women are more gullible than men. But in the book of Genesis, Adam Adam was instructed by God, in the day that you eat of that tree, you will surely die. Adam was the leader. God gave him the instructions. He was then to instruct his wife. Hey, listen, we're not to be partaking of that tree because we're going to surely die. Both Adam and Eve knew the instructions.

Adam was given them. He was then to impart them to his wife. But what happened in the garden? Genesis chapter 3 tells us that Satan tempted Eve in the garden. And he began to question what God said. Question what God had said. That slippery serpent. Remember he said to Eve, has God said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? I mean, how do you translate that? You know, he's asking her this question. And you remember how Eve responded? She said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.

But that's not what God said. God actually said, you may freely eat of the trees of the garden. He I mean, it was freely. It's like she detracted from what God God said, you're you're free to do it. But then she added, but the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Actually, God didn't say anything about touching it. He said you're not supposed to eat it. And God also said, in the day that you eat it, not just you're going to die, you will surely die.

The emphasis is removed. Now, either Adam didn't instruct Eve. You know, sometimes maybe, you know, wives they want more details. And guys, we don't always have all the details. You know, what happened? I just let me just summarize, okay? You know, just and maybe Adam, what did you know, I'm just suggesting here. But maybe Eve says, Adam, what did God say about the tree? He just Eve just don't even don't touch it. Don't get near it. Don't eat it. Just just don't even touch it. But God didn't say that. He said don't eat it. Whether it was that Adam didn't instruct her properly or she did not listen to the instructions that God gave, regardless she's detracting from the word of God.

But Eve takes of the fruit. She then gives it to Adam. And at this point, Eve is leading where Adam was supposed to be leading. She's not under the covering at this moment of her husband who was to be leading. It seems from Genesis chapter 3 that Adam was very possibly even there when Eve took of the fruit and he did nothing about it, but he listened to his wife and he ate the fruit that she offered him. In that instance, someone said, in the instance of deception in the garden, Eve's sin involved overturning the order of creation and teaching her husband.

Adam's sin came from relinquishing his role as the leader. And in that moment, he reversed the order that God had established. Eve was deceived in her sin, whereas Adam, he sinned openly. When you talk about the fall of man, who gets the blame? Adam. It's always Adam's sin. Adam fell in the garden. Adam blew it. And here we are. He was held responsible. Why? He was the leader. And in that sense in the garden, the deception that took place, the roles were reversed. And the Lord said, this is the order from creation. This is the way that it's supposed to go.

When it doesn't go the way that God established it, you're going to have problems. There's going to be issues that will take place.

Guest (Male): And we see that today, don't we? Problems have surfaced due to disregarding what God has to say about the roles of men and women in the church. You're listening to a daily walk with Pastor John Randall and a study based in 1 Timothy chapter 2. Listen to today 's message again or catch up on what you may have missed at a dailywalk.org or oneplace.com. And you can hear Pastor John's messages shortly after they're delivered by getting our church app. It's free. Just do a search for Calvary South OC to download our app and start listening to the latest teachings from Pastor John.

Pastor John records encouraging daily devotionals that are accessible at a dailywalk.org. Start the day with Pastor John, a cup of coffee, and your Bible. Our offer to you throughout the month of August is redeemed, a journey through Ruth by Michelle Randall, John's wife. Ladies, I know you'll be encouraged as you read about the story of Ruth and how it applies to your daily walk. It would make for great summertime reading. You might even suggest it for your next ladies Bible study at church. You can get a copy from us at a daily walk for the cost of just $10.

We can take your request at 877-242-0828 or if you'd rather, visit our e-store at a dailywalk.org. That's 877-242-0828 and a dailywalk.org. And if you could include a little extra, that would be a huge help as we are listener supported. No gift is too small for God to use in great ways. Again, donating online is super easy at a dailywalk.org. We'll continue our through the Bible study next time on a daily walk with Pastor John Randall and may God richly bless you and strengthen you in your daily walk. This program is brought to you by Calvary South OC and made possible through your generous support.