1 of 2
Q."Does the Bible really say I can't teach men?"
A. I grew up in England with a queen on the throne, and was educated at an all-girls' school and women's college in Cambridge by gifted females (and led to Christ by a female medical professional). So, after becoming a Christian, imagine my dismay when I first joined a church where women weren't allowed to do any of the things in which I knew they excelled!
As a budding Bible teacher, I eventually was asked by male church leaders to speak to young women and men in an outreach our congregation hosted. But others challenged my participation. I became hurt and confused. It wasn't that those who challenged me thought I shouldn't be exercising my gifts—it was that they believed "God thought" I shouldn't! This went against the very root of my identity and calling.
The positions Christians take on this issue are based on how they interpret the apostle Paul's writings. Paul told Titus that older women should informally train younger women in practical holiness and everyday Christian living (). These older women were equipped and encouraged to teach.
But what about women teaching men? Paul wrote to Timothy: "A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent" (). The apostle was encouraging the of women, even though traditionally they weren't given that opportunity. But he restricted them from authoritatively sharing their learning with men.
Some people say this prohibition means women must never, ever teach men in the church. They believe Paul felt that because Eve was deceived, women are gullible and therefore mustn't teach men.
Others think Paul was addressing specific circumstances in Ephesus, because in other Scriptures, Paul actually recognizes several women who were teaching and evangelizing alongside him (). During this time period in Ephesus, women were uneducated and secluded, and Paul was warning that they could be misled by the false teachers trying to lure new Christians away from the church Paul wanted to establish. Those circumstances don't necessarily exist today, because many women, when trained, have gifts that can bring blessing to both men and women.
Years ago, when I discovered I had gifts half the Christian church didn't think I should have, it was my husband, Stuart, who encouraged me the most to use them. Once on a radio show, an interviewer said to him, "You take the position you do on a woman's role in the church because of the wife you've got!" My husband replied, "Has it ever occurred to you I have the wife I've got because of the position I take?"
 E-mail this page   Print this article  Post a comment |
