I love to read, so there are days when I log onto blogger and just press the "next blog" button to see what people are writing about. There are some blogs that I immediately pass by, and there are others that I like enough to actually add to my blogger reading list and visit again.
A blog that I recently found was written by a female preacher. As I read a few posts, looking for the place where she explained where it was okay to be a female preacher, I was amazed at how much this person seemed to whine and complain about her chosen profession. Many of her posts were complaints about being a woman in a man's world.
I have seen other posts like this before - from bloggers that claim to be Christian writers and teachers, but support gay rights, abortion, and tons of other issues that are blatantly against the teachings of Christ.
The thing that upsets me the most about this is that there are people out there in cyberspace that are unknowingly being taught false doctrine through these kind of blogs and websites. It's something that we all know will happen. Throughout the Bible, we are warned that people will try to twist the Gospel and teach false doctrine. In 2 Peter 2:1, Peter said, "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction."
I am especially upset by what I call "Christian feminism." Apparently, there are a lot of Christian people (women and men) that get hung up on this issue. There are people that cringe at the sound of the word "submission" when it comes to a wife submitting to her husband. Others believe that the only reason women were not included in church leadership in the Bible is because of the rules of society at the time.
First of all, let's examine the example that Jesus set for us. When it was time for Him to choose His disciples - the top twelve people that would carry on His ministry when He was gone - He chose twelve men. Jesus was not about conforming to the society He lived in. During His ministry, He upset all the religious leaders because He did things that were socially unacceptable. He ate with publicans and sinners. He healed people on the Sabbath Day. He talked to a promiscuous woman at a well in Samaria. None of those things were "politically correct," so I don't think that Jesus did anything to conform to the world. After all, He is the one that told us NOT to conform to the world in His sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:13-16.
There is a reason that He placed men in these leadership roles. From creation, God ordained men to have dominion over all things (Genesis 1:28). Then, when He created women, He created them to be a "help meet" for man (Genesis 2:18). Men were created to be leaders. Women were created to be helpers.
God has filled His Word with instructions to both men and women. Before we examine the roles of men and women in church positions, let's look at the roles God assigned to men and women in the family.
Ephesians 5:22-25 says, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it."
God created man to be the head of the household. Women, no matter how much it makes you cringe to hear it, we are supposed to submit to our husbands.
I think the reason that so many women have problems with these verses is because they misinterpret the word "submit." These verses do not mean that your husband can be a dictator. They don't mean that when he yells "jump" you have to ask "how high?". These verses actually give men a huge responsibility. They mean that men have to strong leaders. Men have to be able to make important decisions. Men should be rooted in the Word of God so they can spiritually lead a family. And men have to be willing to be the protectors and providers for their wives and children.
In reality, those verses should be encouraging for women. In those verses, I read that my husband should love me like Christ loved the church. Do you realize that God is commanding your husband to love you with a love that is so pure and deep and strong that it can't even be fathomed? Basically, these verses are telling us to trust in our husbands and look to them for leadership. In return, our husbands are supposed to romance us and cherish us and love us! I think that sounds like a pretty sweet deal.
So in our families, God expects the man to be the head of the household. Does that mean that He wants all women to stay home and be the picture perfect housewife like June Cleaver? Absolutely not. Read Proverbs 31:10-31. The Proverbs 31 woman worked outside her home and helped provide for her family. She purchased real estate, worked a vineyard, managed maidens, raised children, helped the poor... AND she honored her husband. She submitted to him and trusted him, and he could trust in her (vs. 11).
God created women to be creative. He gave us organizational skills and leadership skills that we can use in many different ways. Women can be doctors, lawyers, teachers, authors...ANYTHING they want to be. And He wants women to work in the church. He didn't give us talents so that we can hide them and let them go to waste (check out the Parable of Talents in Matthew 24). He wants us to use our talents for Him!
In 1 Timothy, Paul talks about the roles of men and women in the church. He makes it clear in Chapter 3 that men are to have the leadership roles within the church. In 1 Timothy 2:9-15, he talks about women being modest and godly and says, "I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." This is especially a touchy verse. Some people like to think that Paul only said this because of the cultural rules of the time, but we've already learned that the customs of the world don't have any influence on the ways of God. Others like to take this verse to extremes and say that women have no place in the church, but that's not the case either.
Titus 2:2-5 says, "The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed."
God chose men to be leaders in the church (according to 1 Timothy 3:1-13), but He has a place for women there, too. He needs us to work teaching children and ministering to other women and supporting the men that He placed in leadership roles over us.
I like the fact that God created women to be the softer more gentle sex. I like that He created men to be our protectors and providers. I like the fact that He has a place for me, even though it's not in the spotlight. After all, working for God is not about gaining glory or recognition. It's about submitting to God's will, trusting His plan and respecting His authority.
In fact, that is exactly why I think God set men in dominion over women. There are many times in the Bible where our relationship with Christ is compared to marriage. We, as the church, are called the Bride of Christ. Christ is often compared to a groom, while God is our Heavenly Father.
Husbands are supposed to love their wives like Christ loved the church. We are to submit to our husbands' authority like we would submit to Christ. According to 2 Corinthians 3:17, "...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." We find freedom when we commit our lives to Christ and submit to His will.
Think about how "free" you would feel if you stopped struggling against the role you were created to fulfill. When we surrender to the fact that we are the weaker sex and let the men in our lives fulfill the leadership roles they were created for, when we submit to our husbands, it takes stress off our shoulders. It makes our lives more harmonious and makes us free to find and fulfill our God-designed roles in our home, church, community and world.
