Kathy Keller: ‘One woman told me tearfully when she learned Redeemer did not ordain women as elders or pastors, “It was like finding out that your fiancé is a child molester!”’ The subject has certainly made for drama and melodrama.
- Women are not to teach or exercise authority over a congregation.
- 2:11-12. Women and men are both created in the image of God (Gen.1:27), and in Christ are equally redeemed (Gal.3:28). ‘To be subject to’ does not mean ‘to be inferior to’ – see Luke2:51.
- children (Prov. 1:8; 2 Tim.1:5; 3:15); other women (Tit.2:3-4); they are to manage their households (1 Tim.5:14); deacons (Rom.16:1-2); they can teach men in some situations (Acts 18:24-26); help in gospel ways (Rom.16; Phil.4:2-3); the extraordinary prophetic office is open to women (Ex. 15:20; 2 Kings 22:14-15; Isa.8:3; Acts 2:36; Acts 21:9).
- Edmund Clowney considers that it allows women to teach men ‘provided that the teaching not be of the authoritative sort.’ John Stott argued that women can become Anglican priests but not bishops.
- This prohibition goes back to creation and the Fall.
- 2:13-14. Paul does not present an argument based on culture or a lack of female education. He points out firstly that Adam was created before Eve. Secondly, this creation order is reinforced by the Fall. Adam, of course, was guilty (Rom.5:12). Calvin: ‘We can find no merit in ourselves which might make God prefer men to women!’
- The role of mothers.
- 2:15. Some see Christ in mind here (John Stott, George Knight); but Paul seems to be saying, in general terms, that Christian women will be saved by adhering to their God-ordained role, carried out in faith, love, holiness, and self-control. Note the ‘they’.
- for the home (Eph.5:22-24; Col.3:18; Tit.2:5; 1 Pet.3:1). Wayne Grudem called evangelical feminism as ‘a new path into liberalism’.