What does Remedy Believe about…Women’s Roles

For a little while ahead I will be blogging about certain doctrines and what is Remedy Church’s position on these.
It should be fun.
If you have a certain doctrine you would like to be answered (or really anything), you can email  blog@remedychurch.org. Ask any question and hopefully we can answer it.

What does Remedy believe about… Women’s Roles in the church.

To answer this quickly and easily, we are Complementarians, meaning we believe that men and women complement each other. They are equal in their value, yet distinct in their roles. The roles themselves do not create a hierarchy, they just show that God has created our roles to be different.  So this means, according to Scripture, that a woman cannot be an elder/pastor.  Other than this, she can serve in any way.

To answer this with more depth and Bible, which is what really matters, let’s look at 1 Timothy.

1 Timothy is written by Paul to Timothy outlining what the local church looks like and how Timothy should pastor.
In 1 Timothy 2:12 Paul specifically says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather she is to remain quiet.”  This verse means what it says, that a woman cannot teach or exercise authority over a man in the Church.  This, of course, is a pastoral epistle, so the application is in the local church.  So, this means that a woman cannot be an Elder/Pastor.  There are 3 reasons why I believe the office of Elder, which is the teaching and authority in the church, has been given to men

(1.)  1 Tim 2: 13-14 – 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Here, Paul points to the fact that Adam was created first, then Eve.  Paul is pointing to our first parents in Genesis as a reason.  So what is Paul trying to point out?  It’s in the story in Genesis 2:15-18. 
Genesis 2:15-18 - 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 

Paul is telling us that women were created to be helpers to their husbands and to complement them. (Hence the term, “complementarian”).  One thing to note here is, this role was given to Eve prior to the fall.  The role of helper to the husband was not given as a consequence to the fall as punishment, but how God intended it from the beginning as the way He created the universe to be.

So from this we see God creating Adam first, then Eve.  God is showing us here there is a creation of authority.  Meaning, by calling Eve the “helper”, God has created authority and given it to the man.
So, Paul is showing here, that authority has been given to the man because he was created first.  As far as value goes, both are valued equally by God.  So, this truth that Paul is teaching us is NOT CULTURAL.  What I mean is that this was not just something that Paul was saying was the case for Timothy’s church in Ephesus, or for a particular culture, but for all time.  We know this because it was true with Adam and Eve, and it is true for Timothy in Ephesus, and therefore transcends culture and time as a universal truth and is true today as well.

(2.)  1 Tim 3:1-2 – 1 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

1 Timothy 3:1-7 tell us the qualifications of the Elder/Pastor.  One of the qualifications is in verse 2; “able to teach“. 

From this verse we can clearly see that Elders/Pastors/Overseers are clearly given the exhortation and the duty to be the ones who are to teach the church.  So what we need to answer here, is, “Who are the Elders/Pastors/Overseers?” 
There is no mentioning of women at all in elder qualifications, and it is clear that deacons are not to teach, so he is saying that only the TEACHING goes to elder/pastors/overseers in elder qualifications.  So, who are the Pastor/Elders?
1 Tim 3 & Titus 1, when giving the qualifications of Elders,  list MEN to be the ones who qualify as Elders.  The main qualification standing out by itself is “able to teach”.

(3.)  Titus 2:3-5 –He DOES NOT prohibit women from teaching at all, just teaching and exercising Authority over a MAN in the Church – or from the office of Elder/Pastor.  In fact, in Titus, a pastoral epistle as well, Paul tells them specifically when to teach. Remember, pastoral epistles are when Paul is writing to a Pastor about specifically about Ecclesiology.

Paul says in Titus 2:3-5 – 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Also Acts 18:24-26 – (NASB)  24Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures.  25This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; 26 and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

In Titus it is important to note that we see women teaching, using their God-given gift of teaching.  They are to teach the women younger than them.  EVEN MORE, in Acts 18 we see Priscilla and Aquila taking Apollos (a man) aside and explained (which is obviously teaching) the way of God more accurately.  She taught, she was just not an elder.  Which is the key issue. 

Women who are gifted in teaching should teach and use their gift.  However, according to Scripture, they are not permitted to hold the office of Elder/Pastor.