Women of God
A lot of people bring a charge against Christianity as being anti-female. They say that it oppresses women and denies them rights and so forth. But, the truth is that Christianity is one of the most freeing beliefs one can have. Christianity is the only religion where you cannot work your way into heaven. All others require money, services, and constant rituals. Christianity, on the other hand, requires only belief and trust in God, and asking Him into your heart (Romans 10:9). Women are granted the same salvation, blessing and honor that men have.
Before Adam and Eve sinned, man and woman were to rule together as one, but after they sinned they each received punishment. Eve's punishment was increased pain in childbirth and to be ruled by her husband. Adam's punishment was death itself and the corruption of this world.
In the New Testament, God commands women to love honor and obey their husbands, but men are commanded to give up everything for their wives—including their lives. Think about it. If every man did his part, why would a woman have any reason not to trust her husband? What better way to know what she wants and needs than to ask her? In this way both husband and wife could be as one. He, doing everything for her like loving, caring, protecting, sacrificing and providing. She, loving, honoring and trusting. Where is the oppression?
Sadly though, many men don't follow God's command. It's because of them that this charge has been brought against Christianity. But lets look further at what God has said.
MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Genesis 1:27).
"Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created" (Genesis 5:2).
It is interesting to note that God called both male and female, "Adam" in the day they were created. Adam means "man." Adam and Eve were created with God-ordained differences from each other, but together they made a full "man," or a complete picture of God Himself. There was perfection in their union. Their differences were not a source of discord or inequality, but a beautiful compliment to each other. Together, God gave them the task of overseeing and ruling His creation
"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28).
Notice that God gave the above commission to them both. There is no hint that there was anything but equal authority between man and woman as they existed in a sinless state. What changed things? In the next few chapters of Genesis, we find that sin entered the heart of Adam and Eve. The result was a curse placed upon both man and woman, which would affect the whole earth.
When Eve ate the forbidden fruit and enticed Adam to sin with her, one of the consequences for women was the loss of equality with men, as men were to rule over women, instead of men and women ruling together. She would now be "ruled by her husband."
However, once we are born into the kingdom of God, we become new creatures in Christ. In the Spirit, we find there is "neither male nor female," just as there are no race distinctions nor class separations. The Lord looks on the hearts of His new creatures and therefore does not discriminate when He offers His love and privileges. Women are not excluded from any of God's promises nor callings merely because of their sex.
Galatians 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
GOD'S MASCULINE AND FEMININE TRAITS
As we stated above, the command to have dominion over and subdue the earth was given to both Adam and Eve. They were both to rule and reign over the Lord's creation. The very act of subduing something requires authority, aggressiveness and leadership, as well as humility, tenderness, patience, and the ability to respect the intrinsic value of what we are ruling. Most of all, it requires love.
Within God's own nature we find these same qualities. Both men and women are to become like Him as we are conformed to His image. Since this is true, there are times that under the unction of the Holy Spirit a woman should assert herself boldly. (This assertion, however, should not necessarily be toward others, but rather toward the enemy, Satan!) For men and women to become overcomers they must have this boldness and authority over the devil. God still desires that His people rule and reign with Him. His intention is to qualify us for that position, whether we be male or female. "And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen" (Revelation 1:6).
Even though "kings" is a masculine term, this is the ultimate destination He desires for all of His people. The Lord often uses both male and female terms to refer to both sexes. Women are to live in the "hidden man of the heart" (1 Peter 3:4). Both men and women in the church are referred to as "the bride of Christ." God has both a masculine and feminine nature. The mother heart of Jesus was evident as he prayed over Jerusalem.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (Matthew 23:37).
God has other feminine traits like compassionate nursing (Isaiah 49:15), motherly comfort (Isaiah 66:13) and carrying an infant (Isaiah 46:3). Nearly all Christians admit that (1) God is not literally male, since he has no biological body, and (2) women are not essentially inferior to men. The masculine pronoun safeguards (1) the transcendence of God against the illusion that nature is born from God as a mother rather than created and (2) the grace of God against the illusion that we can somehow save ourselves—two illusions ubiquitous and inevitable in the history of religion.
Submission is considered to be a feminine trait. However, Jesus submitted to the cross under the direction of the Father. If we walk in the Spirit, we too will possess both the masculine aggressiveness and feminine submissiveness of God.
Both submissiveness and aggressiveness are God-given strengths. Yet, both can be perverted, so that we become submissive and aggressive in the wrong ways, with the wrong attitudes. Because these qualities are so misused and misunderstood by the world, they have become distasteful and despised. If aggression is frowned upon, submission is viewed in an even more negative light in western culture. We equate submission with weakness and lack of spirit. Nothing could be further from the truth. There was never a human being more submitted to God than Jesus Christ-- yet never was there one as completely resistant to the system of the world! It took extraordinary submissiveness and aggression for Jesus to overcome the world. For the Christian, whether we are male or female, He is our model. We are to possess His qualities and use them according to the needs around us.
LIES ABOUT SUBMISSION
Satan wants to divide the sexes and trick us into disobeying God. He wants to destroy humanity. By ignoring God's law and attempting to rid ourselves of any restrictions we are doing more harm than good. We give our children rules so they don't hurt themselves, but they might not understand the need. They complain and fight, but we know they need it. God is our Heavenly father and knows we need rules as well. We complain and fight them just as much, but they are for our own good.
Nancy Leigh DeMoss, in her book Lies Women Believe, gives us four common lies Satan has put into our culture as an attempt to deceive people about the truth of God, the Bible and Christianity.
“'The wife is inferior to her husband.' The Scripture teaches that both the man and the woman are created in the image of God, both have equal value before God, and both are privileged to be subjects of His redeeming grace, through repentance and faith (Genesis 1:27; Galatians 3:28; 1 Peter 3:7). The responsibility of a wife to submit to her husband's authority does not make her any less valuable or significant than her husband.
'As head of his wife, the husband is permitted to be harsh or dictatorial with his wife.' Husbands are commanded to love their wives as they love themselves, in the same selfless, sacrificing, serving way that the Lord Jesus loved His church and laid down His life for it (Ephesians 5:25-29).
' The wife is not to input or express her opinions to her husband.' God created the woman to be a “helper suitable” to her husband. That means he needs her help. He needs the input and insight she is able to bring to various situations. It also means that once a wife has graciously and humbly expressed her heart on a matter, if her husband chooses to act contrary to her counsel, she must be willing to trust God with the consequences of her husband's decision.
These lies and others like them are why some charge Christianity with oppression,
PROMINANT WOMEN OF GOD
Although we have laid a biblical foundation for "neither male nor female" in Christ, certain verses in the New Testament still seem to ban women from ministry positions in the church. Let's examine these verses for the true interpretation.
"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law" (1 Corinthians 14:34).
"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence" (1 Timothy 2:11-12).
In these verses, Paul is not addressing women who were in the ministry, but rather those in the congregation who were out of order. Here is a partial list of women who were all in influential positions of leadership in the early church.
Pheobe (Romans 16:1-2): This woman was a deaconess of the church in Cenchrea, who was beloved of Paul and many other Christians for the help she gave to them. She filled an important position of leadership. It would be a difficult stretch of the imagination to say that this woman fulfilled her duties without ever speaking in the church!
Priscilla (Acts 18:26): Priscilla and her husband Aquila are often mentioned with great respect by Paul.
Euodia and Syntyche (Philippians 4:2-3): Here we see reference to two women who were "true yokefellow" and who labored with Paul in the advancement of the gospel.
Junia (Romans 16:7): In this verse we see Paul sending greetings to Andronicus and Junia, his "fellow-prisoners" who are of note among the apostles. Junia is a woman's name. No church commentator earlier than the Middle Ages questioned that Junia was both a woman and an apostle.
Though there were other women throughout the Bible in positions of leadership, such as prophetesses, evangelists, judges, leaders, etc., the above references should be enough to establish that women were indeed a vital and normal part of church leadership. However, these women were not in a position of absolute authority over the men, it is possible that men would have sought their advice and counsel.
With all this in mind, what then do we make of the troubling verses that command women to be silent in the churches? First of all, we must interpret those verses in light of what we have just established--that there were women in leadership positions of the church. Obviously, Paul is not writing to them. He is must be addressing another issue entirely--the women who were loud and unruly during the service, causing disorder and confusion..
When he wrote the Corinthians, he was dealing with a church that was very disorderly in their services. Much of the letter was spent correcting excesses and abuses. Some of these pertained to women in particular and some were to the entire church. Paul is not being prejudiced against women when he instructs the Corinthian women to keep silence. In the early church the seating arrangement was quite different from our modern day churches. Men were seated on one side of the church while the women and children were seated on the opposite side. This is still practiced in many cultures today.
The women of Christ's day were generally uneducated and usually only the men were privileged with an education. Due to this situation, when the church met the women were tempted to shout across the room and ask their husbands the meaning of whatever was being taught. This disturbed the service. Paul was simply saying during the service, "Women, keep your children quiet and you be quiet, and if you have anything to ask your husbands, wait until you get home." Because of the new equality that Christianity brought to women, it could be that some of them were taking their freedom too far, to the point of being obnoxious.
When Paul wrote to Timothy, he gave him a similar directive. Again, it is important to understand the context in which the letter was written. In I Timothy, a careful reader becomes aware that many severe heresies and false teachings that were being dealt with. We can draw a conclusion here that many of the proponents and victims of the false teachings were women. Timothy pastored in Ephesus, and it has been suggested that goddess worship might have played a large part in Paul dealing so severely with the women. Ephesus was a primary center of the worship of Diana or Artemis. The heresies being taught might have suggested that women were authoritative over men and had higher access to spiritual knowledge than men did.
WHAT EARLY CHURCH LEADERS THOUGHT
John Chrysostom (344-407 AD), “This is the chief point of all that is good in a household: 'that a man and his wife agree together.' For where this exists, there will be nothing that is unpleasant.
Homilies on Titus (In epistulam ad Titum), TLG 2062.166
Tertullian of Carthage (155-230 AD), “But he who is both the head of the man and the beauty of the woman, the husband of the church, Christ Jesus, what sort of crown did he put on, for both male and female? A crown of thorns!” On The Crown 5.14, Cetedoc 0021
Hilary of Arles (401-449 AD), “The head can easily corrupt the members of the body, but Peter addresses himself to the latter first, lest it be thought that the lesser might somehow despise the greater. But then he goes on to exhort the greater to treat the lesser members properly. This means, fist, husbands must respect the times set aside for prayer and fasting and not demand their marital rights if these are going to be a distraction from other things. Second, men must accept that they are stronger than their wives and therefore have a duty to protect them. Third, both parties are heirs of eternal life which God gives by grace, not by any merit which we may posses, and we do well to remember that 'it depends not on man's will or exertion, but on God's mercy.'” Introductory Commentary on I Peter. Cetedoc 0508.
Theodoret of Cyr (393-466 AD), “ Human laws demand that woman be chaste and if they are not they are punished for it, but they do not demand the same from men. Since it was men who made the laws, they did not make themselves equal with women but allowed themselves extra indulgence. The holy apostle, however, inspired by divine grace, was the first one who made the law of chastity apply to men as well.” Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians 201, TLG 4089.030
John Chrysostom (344-407 AD), “Having talked about [women being] the glory of the man, Paul now reestablishes the balance so as not to exalt the man beyond what is his due nor to oppress the woman. In the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman....Each one of the two is the cause of the other, God being the cause of all.” Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians 26.5, TLG 2062.156
CONCLUSION
According to the Bible, women are a gift from God, and the last act of creation. If someone gives you an expensive vase, do you throw it away in the corner? No, you cherish it and protect it. This is the way the Bible and Christianity has treated women. God trusted women with the responsibility of caring for new life not men. Jesus was born from a woman, God could easily of just made him out of nothing. Women were the first to see the risen Christ.
The only restriction given to women in the church is that they cannot be authoritative over men. In the secular world, society will always make its own laws. Some will be biblical, some not. My only concern here is what matters to God.
The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness. (Deuteronomy 6:24-25)
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Joshua 1:8)