1 Timothy 2:11-15 - Women, leadership and preaching

Women in Leadership and Preaching - some thoughts

We now come to five verses and a topic that causes much controversy and argument. We should perhaps bear in mind Paul’s instructions in v8 to be “without anger or disputing”! Anyway, before looking at the verses here I will set out something of my position and a few general thoughts, so you can know where to disagree with me!

Women in leadership is a very contentious issue, and one that raises its head in 1 Timothy 2:11-15. Therefore I will spend a little time on this issue, to let you know where I am coming from. First of all a little general background, and then personal background, then some thoughts. This section is not intended to give a complete exposition of the role women should have in the church, nor to look at the text in detail (we will do some of that when we get to that section), but to give some insight into my thinking. So you can decide where you think I am wrong, and maybe it might even stimulate your own thinking.

There are two main positions on women in leadership: egalitarianism and complementarianism. The former sees no problem with women in leadership and believes that a woman can occupy any leadership position. The latter sees men and women as equal but having different roles, and women should not have authority over men, and should not preach to men. This is putting the two positions quite starkly, and no doubt some will fall somewhere between the two (as indeed I do!).

My own background is that I was brought up in the Methodist church, which has has women ministers for a long time. For the past almost thirty years I have been part of a church that allows women to preach, and we have some women elders. There are some very good women preachers.

So what is my own position? Well I would describe myself as a “soft-complementarian”. What I mean by this will hopefully become apparent as we go on.

First of all some observations. The key Biblical issue seems to be whether Paul’s instructions are intended to be universal, applying to all churches at all times, or whether they are particular to a certain cultural context. A very thorough, balanced and sober assessment of the place of women in leadership and the Bible can be found at https://www.gci.org/church/women . It seems to me that this topic is one where we come to it and use our pre-suppositions to interpret the text. Ie if you are a complementarian you can find lots of support for saying that women should never lead or preach in church. Conversely, if you are an egalitarian then you can equally well make a Biblical case that such a position is perfectly reasonable. That is one of the reasons for giving my background, so if you want to write-off what I say as mere rationalisation of a pre-conceived ideas then you have the ammunition to do so! And I should warn you that the church that put together the previously cited web page does come down in favour of women elders. However, I believe there is much useful material in there, whatever your own view.

Now, let’s dispatch with two very bad arguments. One for each side, so we maintain balance! One bad argument is that there are some bad women leaders who do not believe the Bible. True, there are some truly awful women ministers in some churches who seem to have no regard whatsoever for the word of God. But there are many more truly awful male leaders who have no regard for the word of God! A second bar argument is “In Christ there is neither male nor female”. To quote this as an argument for women leaders or preachers is to take this way out of context.Paul is speaking about salvation, not leadership. In terms of leadership it proves nothing, and wasn’t meant to.

Right, let’s start to get a little more positive. Here are two absolute truths:

1. God created us in His image, male and female He created us. Men and women are God’s good creation, and are of equal worth, and we are equal heirs in Christ.
2. Men and women are different and we should rejoice in the differences.

In seeing how things can work out in a church I think it is helpful to look at the trinity. Jesus and the Father, along with the Holy Spirit, are co-equal. Yet Jesus lived His life on earth in complete obedience to the Father. At the same time Jesus exerted tremendous authority and initiative. Authority in the Kingdom is completely different from the way in which we so often see authority in the world. Jesus told His disciples that they must not lord it over one another, instead because we have authority we serve one another all the more, and Jesus demonstrated the day to day reality of this when He washed His disciples’ feet, and demonstrated this supremely by going to the cross. Jesus was under authority, and He exercised authority.

In Genesis we are told that man and woman were created to work together, to complement each other. Now one could interpret this as there being some clear lines where men do this and women do that, with no cross-over. In some cases this is true, childbearing being an obvious one (though not obvious to the BMA it would seem!). In other cases it might mean doing similar things differently. It would seem perfectly reasonable, and consistent with the tenor of Scripture for a husband and wife to lead a church together.

I personally have no problem with women preachers, nor with men and women serving together in leadership. Indeed, in a healthy church men and women should be working together. I see the one of the greatest problems in the church being men failing to take up their responsibilities properly, and we certainly do need more Biblical male leadership. Men and women are different, and are meant to be different. They are also equal. We can seek to capture that difference and equality legalistically, but when we do so we have a habit of capturing only one side of it, and that not very well. I favour a more organic approach. However, I believe that a church where there is dearth of men exercising godly leadership in a Christlike manner is in serious trouble. Conversely, when men do exercise godly leadership it leads to women being released as well. The problem the church as a whole faces is not women preaching, but a lack of godly men leading in a Christlike manner.

Anyway, I’ll stop there. I am sure I have given you enough so that you can disagree with me! Just a reminded that this was not meant to be an in-depth study of the matter, go to https://www.gci.org/church/women  if you want to read a lot more on this topic, and no doubt there are many complementarian websites as well (Wayne Grudem has written stuff on this, and is referenced in the previous website.).