Critical Thought
April 2nd, 2025
This week Paul Knight joins the program and we talk about the role of woman in ministry
1. Role of Women in Marriage
1.1. Key Points
The new testament has a number of verses that tell wives to submit to their husbands
Men are told to love their wives
1.2. Discussion Questions:
Biblically, are men and women different?
How do you view Galatians 3:28 in light of other verses about gender in the bible?
If men and women have different biblical roles, is that isolated to marriage, or is that true in other areas?
1.3. References:
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives
But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
2. Women in the Church
2.1. Key Points
Women have been put in important roles by God throughout the bible as prophetesses, active and gifted members of the church who worked to spread the gospel.
No women in the bible ever served as priests
1 Peter 2:9-10 speaks about the church being a royal priesthood, but doesn't specify the role of women in the church
Historically, women as pastors over a church is a relatively new idea.
2.2. Discussion Questions:
Has the church been influenced by culture regarding the role of women, or did they have it wrong for 2000 years?
1 Timothy 2:11-14 points to creation as the reason women can't teach over men. In that context, how can this verse be dismissed as cultural?
When taken together, creation, the examples of women in important roles in the bible (but not priests), and specific verses adressing how women and men should relate to eachother seem to create a narrative that men should lead both in a household and in a church. Do you believe that view is missing something?
2.3. References:
A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.
I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.
Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.
If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.
And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.
Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing.
Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time.
There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.
Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
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Special Guest: Pastor Paul Knight.
