Empowering Women: Understanding Biblical Roles in the Church

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Let a woman learn if you just stop right there is very controversial in a good way at least we would say a good way back in 2014 April 14 2014 the radical islamist group boo Haram in Nigeria kidnapped uh 20 how many was it 270 girls to enslave them make them their wives and the the very term Bo Haram means uh stop using Western education they didn't believe these girls should be educated they should be uh married out at age 9 or 12 according to one of the quotes let a woman learn is a radical amazing you could say liberating reality. [00:01:21]

Remember Mary um in Luke 10:42 Mary and Martha and Martha complained that Mary was sitting at the Lord's feet listening to his teaching instead of helping with the housework and and the Lord said Martha Martha you're concerned about many things Mary has chosen the good portion and it will be it will not be taken from her so a woman learning in order to know God as fully as she can and use her gifts in appropriate ways as fully as she can is a Biblical mandate. [00:02:49]

Quietness here need not mean a woman never opens her mouth in a mixed group or in church but rather there's a fitting quietness now what kind of quietness is fitting it seems to me the most natural thing to do would be to say it is a quietness that respects the call on the men to be the leaders in the church in other words it reflects her submission to the god-appointed leadership of men. [00:05:25]

Submissiveness is the key underneath the nature of the quietness and then Paul gets more specific with this submission idea I do not permit a woman to teach or to have or exercise authority over a man now the question there is do you mean all teaching Paul or do you mean a certain kind of teaching in relationship to Authority and I think the answer is pretty clear. [00:06:30]

Older women likewise are to be reverent in Behavior not slanderers or slaves too much wine they are to teach what is good that the young women should love their husbands and children and be self-controlled in other words there is a place for this older women to teach so this statement back here here I do not permit a woman to teach is not an absolute statement abstracted from the situation in which this woman finds herself here or in relation to the fact that she's not to exercise authority over the men. [00:07:05]

The key influence in the world probably is the teaching of mothers to their sons and their daughters so it's there's there's not I would argue in in the bigger context that this prohibition of not per not permitting a woman to teach is not an indictment of competence it has to do with the Dynamics between men and women men called to lead and women called to support that leadership. [00:07:48]

Don't teach in situations and in ways that compromise the authority of the men who are called as Elders to lead the church in other words don't usurp or uh preempt the authority of the men by teaching in a way or doing anything in a way that would undermine or contradict the calling of the men to be the leaders in the church but rather stay in quietness in that sense. [00:09:07]

Since teaching and exercising Authority are the two distinct roles of the elders roles that distinguish them from from the deacons it seems to me that probably the simplest way to describe what Paul is saying here is I do not permit a woman to be an elder that is a pastor to be on the ruling Council the teaching Council the council that takes responsibility for the doctrinal Pastoral life of the church. [00:09:43]

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor especially those who labor in preaching and teaching so this ruling here this exercising of authority is done by the Elders of the church no the deacons or the other members in the church are not called upon to rule like that and the elders overseers called here therefore an overseer must be above reproach the husband of one wife sober minded self-control respectable Hospital able to teach. [00:10:38]

The teaching role and the ruling role of the Elder is what distinguishing distinguishes the Elder from from deacons and from the other members of the church and so when a woman is not permitted to teach and to have authority those two roles there correspond naturally to the role of an elder and so I think verses 11 and 12 can be summed up as let a woman learn happily energetically fully under the leadership of the elders and the teachers in the church who are supposed to be spiritually gifted and called men. [00:11:18]

Let a woman learn in quietness begins to get into the controversial part in all submissiveness now we've seen this term quietness before just a few verses earlier chapter 2 veres 1 and two I urge that prayers be made for all people for Kings for all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life Godly and dignified in every way that's the word and quiet life of course doesn't mean a life without any speech in it it means a life that doesn't intrude itself onto other people's Affairs in inappropriate ways. [00:03:20]

We urge you to aspire to live quietly same word live quietly and to mind your own Affairs and to work with your hands as we entrusted you that's to men and women so this term quietly is not a reference to not speaking at all but to not speaking in uh annoying intrusive boisterous inappropriate ways where it's more fitting for anyone man or woman to be silent. [00:04:03]

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