A key element in the work force of the New Testament Church.
Peter, in his discussion of priesthood, never mentions either gender or gift (1 Pet. 2:5-10). Every believing woman is as fully a priest as any man. She has equal access to the Spirit and to the truth of the Word. She is welcome into the Holiest to worship, intercede or supplicate. Thank God for worshipping, studying and praying women!
The woman also has a key role in witness. As a royal priest, she goes forth to show forth the virtues of the One who called her out of darkness into light (2:9). In many countries, certainly in the Middle East, if unsaved women are to be reached personally with the gospel, Christian women must do it. A man witnessing to a woman could bring a charge of infidelity.
As well as her dual role in holy and royal priesthood, when a woman places her trust in Christ, she is given a gift to use for the glory of God as surely as every man. Are there certain off-limit gifts unavailable to women? The Bible does not say.
Women Teachers?
I know some brothers (friends of mine) who insist that the woman is never to be in a formal teaching role, even with other women; is that what the Scripture teaches?
I understand the concern to maintain doctrinal purity in the local church; the elders should lay the doctrinal base for the assembly—and woe betide any who seek to undermine this foundation! Scripture could not be more solemn: “If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him” (1 Cor. 3:17). Here the local church is in view and the words “defile” and “destroy” are the same Greek word.
The elders should teach all the saints so everyone can “give a reason for the hope” within them, explaining why they believe what they believe. Certainly Priscilla is seen actively engaged in discussing Bible doctrine in the home setting with her husband and Apollos. She would not have dominated the conversation, being an exemplary woman, no doubt marked by “a gentle and quiet spirit” (1 Pet. 3:4, nkjv). But the verse declares “…When Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly” (Acts 18:26).
The argument against women holding Bible studies with other women goes like this. Almost all modern cults were started by women (true). One reason for the silence of women in public meetings is that Eve was deceived in the garden (true). The word used for “teach” in Titus 2:4 is sophronizo, not the common word for didactic teaching (true). Therefore the Lord intends women only to train by example, not by expounding the Word. Is that also true?
We should note that all doctrinal error mentioned in the NT is traced to men: Diotrephes, Hymenaeus, Alexander, Phygellus, Hermogenes, and Philetus, to name a few. Only Jezebel (whomever or whatever she symbolizes) is linked with false teaching.
Secondly, it is true that the woman is to be protected (better than Adam did) and she should know she is especially vulnerable. But the application which Paul makes in that passage is also applied to men (2 Cor. 11:3). Surely we will not now restrict men from teaching!
The Greek word used is found only there in our Bible; I would not want to hang an issue on the meaning of that word. The word means “teach to be serious” and what better way than through Scripture? What other authority do sisters have to teach the younger women how to love their husbands and their children, to be chaste and modest, etc.? Especially since the object of the teaching is “that the Word of God” not be blasphemed!
A Distinctive Role
It is common practice to tell the women what they can’t do in the meetings of the church. And it is true that Scripture places one restriction on the woman in the assembly of the saints. She is not to speak as a representative (the word “image” in 1 Cor. 11). In enacting heaven’s great love drama, the man is to play the part of Christ; the woman is given the part of the Church. It would be completely out of character, then, for the woman to teach the man in this setting. Would the Church dare tell Christ what to do?
Of course her silence is not as far as God is concerned. The woman is only silent to us. Her praise is heard with absolute clarity in the presence of the Lord. Yet the woman is free to sing audibly and to say “Amen” at the conclusion of a prayer. Why? Because she is acting as an individual priest, not as a representative of either the men or of the Lord. And of course she has the high honor of being the steward of the coverings, acting as a guardian against any glories competing with the glory of God. Remember the man’s glory is placed under the woman’s covering, too.
Now why don’t we emphasize what the women can do from Scripture? The New Testament is full of examples.
1. Anna: Heroic widow, faithful worshipper, fearless testifier, and godly example of being “fruitful in old age.”
2. Mary: There are actually six Marys in the New Testament, each one a godly example. I keep them straight by linking them with their hometown: i) Mary of Nazareth, the mother of our Lord, “blessed among women,” who expresses one of the finest paeans of praise anywhere in Scripture (see the similarities with Hannah’s prayer in 1 Sam. 2); ii) Mary of Magdala, the women who never got over being saved, who lingered at the tomb and received the commission from Christ to tell His “brethren” that He was alive; iii) Mary of Jerusalem, mother of John Mark, who opened her home for prayer meetings; iv) Mary of Bethany, one of Jesus’ dearest friends, the only one who let Him finish the story of the cross uninterrupted, and therefore anointed Him before He died because she knew she might not have time after; v) Mary of Emmaus, wife of Cleopas, probably the one who constrained the Lord in to break bread; and vi) Mary of Rome, a “mother” to Paul, no doubt caring for him when he was there in the capital.
3. Dorcas: “Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha…this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds” (Acts 9:36), making the gospel winsome to win some.
4. Phoebe: a sister in the family; a servant of the church; a saint, separated from the world; and a succourer (protectress) of many who were the disadvantaged in life.
5. Priscilla: always mentioned with her husband (3x P & A; 3x A & P); willing to lay down their necks for Paul; moved to see a new assembly started; worked with their hands to free up Paul; an assembly met in their home; she and her husband discreetly helped Apollos in the Word.
6. Euodias and Syntyche, Tryphena and Tryphosa and all the other “work-fellows” in the gospel.
There are many other examples of hospitality, giving, prayer, visiting, comforting, teaching younger women and children, good works, encouragement, and more! Carry on, dear sisters! We need you and thank God for you.