Romans 16:4 - God's Roles for Women in the Church, Pt. 5 (05/07/2023)

Good morning, everyone. We got our home crowd today, don't we? Except a lot of them aren't home. I got how many families out traveling today? Six families traveling at once. It's not even summer yet. What's it going to be like in summer?

Well, maybe they'll all have their family will travel here. Just visit them and we'll fill this church up. How about that? That'd be awesome. Great to see you. Some of my favorite Sundays are when we have just a small group.

It's always nice to be that way here. Either way, it's up to the Lord, is it not? I promise you this, though. Everybody that's supposed to be here is here today, and that's awesome. So let's get started.

The Positive Role of Women in the Church

We're in a little bit of a topical study on the proper role of women in the church, and we got started on that in Romans chapter 16, verse 1, where it talks about Phoebe and how she was a servant of the church, and some modern English versions incorrectly translate that deaconess or deacon.

So we discussed why that's a problem for a couple of Sundays. Huge problem in this country and in the world, but really don't think it's a negative topic because probably 10 of what we would say about the role of women in the church might sound negative if you're sort of a modern woman who grew up in this age where you haven't really read a lot about what the Bible says about men and women and how God created us to be, especially after the fall.

So we have to always let this book right here be our authority, not modern psychology, not modern TV or movies. It's this, and so we come back to this. We make no apologies for that, but I would say 90 of what we would say about it is extremely positive because Jesus Christ, if you just studied, not theology, but if you studied the great world religions in college, which I took a course on that, I imagine some of you did, just where you take a survey of the great world religions, Jesus Christ is the only prophet, if it's what they would call him, of God who elevated women to the highest level.

If you look at Moses, if you look at Islam, if you look at Buddhism, if you look at any of them, they always push the woman down and make her not much more than a servant, and Jesus did not do that. Jesus elevated the woman to the highest level.

He said neither, and the apostle Paul said there's neither male nor female in God's eyes. Show me a world religion that says that. There's not one, and so we talked about that a little bit last time, and I want to continue on that.

We were talking about some of the positive things about women, and with Phoebe, you know, that is starting out where Paul is going to commend about 35, what's more than that. We don't know how many people because he listed about 35 people and then their families, so that broadens the number, and he was commending them for being servants in the church, and in Phoebe's case even higher than that.

She's a leader among women in the church. As far as leadership of women in the church, she was like at the top level of that, and then we started talking about some other people that are commended, other things especially with regard to women last time in the church, different things that God points out, and you know both Jesus and the apostle Paul mention large lists of women that ministered with them in their ministry, and I don't know any other world religion that does that.

I know Judaism does not do it, and so none of the great world religions, so-called world religions do, but Christianity is the greatest as far as emancipating women. You don't need women's live if you have a Bible, especially if you have a New Testament in your Bible, and so we've been talking about that a little bit.

I think last time we were talking a little bit about Ananias and Sapphira, and how every time they were Jewish and they'd be persecuted, they have to move to another city, and every time they would, they would start a church in their house, and she was very instrumental and discipling, one of the greatest preachers of the first century in helping his doctrine be better, but she did that along with her husband in their home, and so the exhortations in the Bible about, you know, let not the woman usurp authority over the man or teach a man, that is for the church service.

The official church services is the context. If you go back and read that in 1 Timothy, it's the context it's found in. It does not apply to the home. Now the authority applies everywhere because it starts in Genesis where the man was created first and the woman from the man, and the woman is the help mate for the man, so the authority structure is in the home as well, but the part about not being able to teach Bible to people, that does not apply in the home because women can take part in discipling people, and this proof is in Scripture.

We talked about that last time. All right, so I think last time we mentioned Luke chapter 8 verse 1 through 3 where it talked about several women in the church who would, one was named Susanna and Joanna, and these women would minister with their substance, which meant they were from wealthy families, and they would take their money and help the apostle Paul with his ministry, help other ministers and other churches in the area, so we talked about that last time.

That's where we ended, I think. So then, well, actually we talked about Mary and Martha a little bit, and I'd kind of like to finish up on that as we start today. I think we were in Luke several places, but Luke chapter 10 verse 38.

You don't have to go to that because that was last time, but I'm just reviewing a little bit. It said this is where it shows that Martha is the person who owned the house, and her sister Mary lived with her, and the two, it talks about two women in the Bible that were very instrumental, very close to the Lord Jesus, maybe the closest family was those two women and their brother Lazarus, and it shows how different their personalities are and how different they served the Lord, and both were commended, and we talked about that just a little bit.

Remember, it was Martha was, Jesus said, was she was cumbered about with much serving. She was the person who wanted to get the dinner ready, serve people, including Jesus, make sure everything was right and organized and in place, and the Lord never rebuked her from that, but she tried to tell Jesus that her sister Mary, Jesus, would you make her come help me, because she was just sitting there at Jesus' feet on the ground before him listening to every word that he said, and so Martha came and said, Jesus, tell her to come help me.

I need some help, and Jesus said, no, you know what? Actually, Martha, bless you for being a wonderful servant and everything, but she's doing the better part. She's listening to my word. See that? So, it's a picture of it's important to be a person.

A woman can be a person who is very much into the Word of God. We have those in this church, many women, very much into doctrinal studies, all kinds of systematic theology, you know, topical studies of the Bible, even have women who debate those things on the internet and do a great job, better job than I would do, and so these, you know, this is pictured by Mary, and then we have women that do that, and they also take care of their households, their husbands and their children at the same time, so you're kind of a combination of Mary and Martha, and it's just these two women are a beautiful picture of the proper role of women, and so I'm going to go into John chapter 12, if you would go there with me now, John chapter 12 verse 1, and I want to finish up this discussion of Mary and Martha and the picture that they paint of wonderful roles of women in the church and in the home and in the world, and then we should have time left after that to go into the book of Titus, which is the premier place in the entire Bible to look at the role, the proper role of women in the New Testament church, so that'll close the topic down a little bit just to church, but right now we're talking about in the world and in the home and in the church, it's a little bit broader topic here, so John chapter 12 verse 1, then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been dead, I like that phrase, he ain't dead now because Jesus raised him from the grave in front of everybody, in front of the whole world basically, the whole world knows about it now, and so he had been dead whom Jesus raised from the dead, and there, so now he's back at, he was with them before this happened, he was their friends in their home before Lazarus died, Lazarus died, Jesus raised him to the dead, now he's back in the home and Lazarus is running around the house living his life, and actually, you know, let's talk about a little bit of a rabbit trail, that's not actually a resurrection, that is a raising from the dead, which is almost like a healing, it is a healing, it's a raising from the dead, and it's different, do you know the difference?

We talked about it before, anybody remember? Well, that plus in a resurrection, you never die again, and you get a new body, a glorified body, so there's only two of those in the entire history of the world, one will be at the end of the church age, and the other will be at the end of the millennial kingdom, but these raisings of the dead were different because these people died again, I'm not sure I'd want to be that person, do you want to die twice?

Lazarus had to, he died twice, so anyway, this was God's will for him though, as a great testimony of the power of God, and I'm sure he was very happy to be back with his family, it's a beautiful story, but there are people who create false concepts of the end times, and they try to pretend that there are more than two resurrections, which is not true, at best it's a misunderstanding, at worst it's a lie, there are only two, first and second resurrection.

Now, this was not a resurrection, this was a healing or raising from the dead, it's not really, it's different than a healing too, I just call it a raising from the dead, I don't have a good theological word to call it other than that, different than a resurrection, so here he is back in his house, and Jesus comes back for a visit, and I'm sure a rest from the crowds and so forth, and this was six days before Passover, and there they made supper, and Martha served, there she is again, the servant, that is her gift, that is her ability, that's what she wants to do, that's what she's going to do, Jesus never rebuked her for it, he did say Mary's doing the greater part, which is saying, okay, look Martha, what you need to learn to do is both, you know, learn to stop and sit at my feet sometime, and then you can still serve, now isn't that a great lesson for all of us, because how many of us like to stay busy more than we like to just sit and be quiet and have a quiet time, you know, now some do, but some like would rather stay busy, in fact, there are many people in church who'd rather be doing good works in the church than to be praying or to be studying the scriptures, and Jesus didn't rebuke folks like that, he just pointed out, but this is the better part, and that's all I want to do, so we need to have a good mix of both, and so it's not natural for some of us, for some of us to study all the time, and maybe those on that side need to learn to serve a little more, you see how it is, so there needs to be a balance here, and these two women picture it so beautifully, so here she is serving, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with Jesus, and then took Mary, now here you find Mary, who rather than helping Martha with the food, like Martha probably thought she should be, and the apostles were sitting around watching this and criticizing this woman, Mary, it's very subtle, but very real that they were criticizing her for what she's about to do here, so then Mary took a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, very expensive, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, that's very humbling, wouldn't you say?

Very humbling thing that she did, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment, and then said one of the disciples, whose name happened to be Judas, Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray the Lord later, here's what he said about that, why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor?

Doesn't that sound spiritual and religious? We have to be careful, if we were in a larger church, I have a friend I grew up with from probably even before first grade, Marcus Sheffield, he's the pastor of First Baptist Church in Mahea, which was the largest, it still is the largest church in town, most likely there in Mahea, still a big church, and he's been the pastor there longer than any other pastor, and I got to spend some time with him this past week, I don't get to see him much, but we were just talking, I said, I bet you have lots of problems in the church, your church is so large, I bet you deal with problems a lot, he said, oh yeah, yeah, he said, I've been through the ringer on that issue, and so we're talking about the concept of people who can be critical about things, and like Judas, and I'm not saying critical people are Judas, I'm not saying that, but there is a spirit of criticism, whereas you could just come talk to the person, and when you saw their heart, it might just dissolve, and it's not even a problem, but if you don't talk to them, it turns into bitterness and defiles many people, it's what scripture says, and it's what happens, Marcus has seen it many times, I've seen it a lot of times, if you go back the whole history of our church, because we started in 1980, and we've been as large as 220 in attendance, and so you know, we've had times where we had trouble, and had to deal with it, and you deal with it in a scriptural manner, right, so the point is, you're going to have people who will think they're religious, and think they're righteous, and saying all the right things, like we should really, she should sell this, and give it to the poor, that sounds good, and right, but it's not what the Lord wanted done here, right, and it's not what Mary was led to do by the Holy Spirit, and yet she's being criticized, I find that interesting, because especially since she's the one that would sit at his feet, she's the one that gets criticized, okay, so when you get criticized, the way to deal with it, it says, if you have a brother has ought against you, go to the brother and talk, there are people sitting in this very room right now, who have done that recently, and come to me in person, and talk, and I respect that, it's exactly biblical, it's how it's done, and there are people who aren't here today, who did that though, who came and talked with me in person, that is the right way to handle things, so when you have trouble with people, remember this, the best weapon against Satan, and his goal to divide, is good godly loving communication, and do it quickly, don't wait, every day you wait, is a day Satan can build imaginations in the mind, and make it a huge thing, when if you go right immediately, it's a little thing, and it gets dealt with usually, so these are just the ways to do it, now look at him, he looked at her, and says look, she's totally wrong, and he's probably talking to Jesus, saying she shouldn't be doing this, she should have sold that, given it to the poor, now happened to be Judas was the treasurer, well let's don't get ahead of ourselves, he says why was not this sold for a lot of money, and given to the poor, this he said, not that he cared for the poor, a lot of times people who criticize, don't really care about the things that they're saying, how it should be done, it's not really why they're doing it, this he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, in other words, he carried the money, and he bare what was put in the bag, he was the treasurer, so if we could give sell this, and create a lot of money, put it in the bag, he could probably get a piece of that action, when no one was watching, is what the scripture says he was doing, and yet he was one of the apostles, all right, so verse 7 says, then Jesus let, he said this to Judas, he said, leave her alone, stop criticizing this woman, leave her alone, she does this against the day of my bearing, and that's why she has kept this, in other words, he said, this is a picture of my death, and my burial, so leave her alone, all right, let's finish, it says in verse 8, for the poor always will be with you, but me you will not have always, there's a whole other study you could do, I'm not going to go there today, but Jesus said, the poor be with you always, but what he said was, I won't be, and so leave this woman alone, now I think, I want you to think about Mary for a minute, with regard to the role of women in the church, how did Mary know that he was about to be crucified, when no one else knew it, or believed it, what did Peter say when Jesus said, you know, I'm going to die, what did Peter say, remember the great man of God, Peter, what did he say, he said, he rebuked Jesus, said, no Lord, you will not die, we will die first, you know, you, we won't let you die, and what did Jesus say, he said, get behind me Satan, so does that, do you see that there is spiritual warfare, would you agree with me that Satan had put a thought in Peter's mind that was ungodly, would you agree with that, do you think he can still do that, and did Peter think he was doing the right thing, absolutely, would he have thought that was Satan, or God that put that thought in his mind, God, right, so we have to discern the spirits, so a lot of times we do what we think is right, and it's not right, and the only way we have to discern it is with the Word of God, and that's very, very helpful, that's the revealed will of God, and by prayer, and the Holy Spirit, and an attitude of love, and unity, because the Holy Spirit's grieved when we don't have that, so if we do that, we can discern the spirits, so here, here we see Peter, an example of Peter thinking he was doing God's will when he rebuked Jesus, that was kind of, wouldn't want to be him in that day, would you, and Jesus corrected Satan, told Satan to leave, he wasn't even talking to Peter, he was talking to who was in Peter at that moment, and he rebuked Satan, and made him flee, Peter came back to his senses later, and wept, didn't he, so he was under the influence of Satan, and now here we have Judas, obviously under the influence of Satan, and Jesus corrected him as well in front of the whole crowd, and said this woman's doing exactly what she's supposed to be doing, Peter doesn't understand that I'm about to die, and raise again, but this woman understands it, and she's picturing it, so when you want to talk about the role of women in the church, there's a lot of confusion about it, because of the few things that they're not allowed to do in the actual church, like church and Sunday school on Sunday morning, or anytime we have official services, there's a couple of things they're not allowed to do, and so the people extrapolate that out, and say well they're not like men then, as far as being spiritual, and able to do powerful things, and all that, and that's false, I mean again and again we see women in the New Testament, even in the Old Testament, doing far more powerful things than most of the men are doing, and still taking care of the kids, and the husband, the other kid, right, I'll probably get in trouble for saying that, now the men are going to come after me, all right, so but ladies am I right, come on give me an amen, we give you temporary permission to speak, I'm kidding, okay, so you see you see here this beautiful example, and there are many, and I just chose that one a couple of three weeks ago, when I was working on this, I think it's beautiful, all right, so let's see, look at Matthew chapter 28 verse 5, we'll see another beautiful picture of how God used women, Matthew 28 5, and the angel answered and said unto the women, now do you remember which women these are, this is Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and there are five to six Marys in the New Testament, which can be really confusing, and the reason I say five to six, because some people think two of the Marys are the same person, so that would then be five, and there's debate among theologians on that, but it's clear that this in Matthew 28, it's Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and the angel answered and said unto these two women, fear not ye, for I know that you seek Jesus now who was crucified, so they're at the grave, and they're trying to probably make sure Jesus was, his body was wrapped with spices properly and all that, and they also want to make sure no one steals his body or abuses his body like the Romans might want to or the Jews, so they're there, there they are, now it's interesting that men didn't show up, not one male apostle or disciple showed up, they all fled except for John, but he's not here, two women are here, two women, I want you to think about this, you guys think about this too, how would you have liked to walk up to that tomb and look inside of it, or try to look inside of it, you got Roman guards, they might not have been awake by this time, you had Roman guards who would kill you if you tried to unseal it, you know, no one back then and even today likes the idea of looking at dead people or into a grave at a dead person, right, so how would you like to be there, but these women did it, they had a lot of bravery that the men did not have, and so the angel had to comfort them a little bit and said fear not, you know, I know you're looking for Jesus who's crucified, and verse 6 says he is not here for he is risen, so the first two human beings, the first human being to prophesy in the New Testament, the burial of Jesus was a woman named Mary, a different Mary, this is interesting, and the next two human beings to witness his actual crucifixion were two other Marys, women named Mary, so there's three women, the first human beings to actually prophesy and or witness that he actually was risen like he said he would, were women.

Why did God pick that? God is sovereign, why did he pick women? Well, because there's neither male nor female. With regard to your closeness to God, your devotion to God, his devotion to you, your power and ability to get prayers answered and to disciple even preachers who are off, all of that, you have equal power with men because the sex does not matter in that issue, you may have more power than most men if you're in the word more than they are and praying more than they are.

You see, it's a powerful role that women have in the church, so the angel says he is not here, he's risen, and he said come and see the place where the Lord lay and he had already moved the stone out of the way and the Roman guards were taken care of, it scared them to death, they literally fainted and they may have run away by this time, and he takes the women in to see that the tomb is empty.

It wasn't really empty though, what did they see? They saw his grave clothes that had been wound around him, they learned that from the Jews, learned that from the Egyptians, like a mummy with spices all in it, probably weighed a couple hundred pounds, laying on the slab where Jesus' body had been and just kind of settled down as if the body just came out of it and it's still there and just the body's gone now and it just settles down and the face cloth that was on his head was nicely placed over here.

It wasn't like torn to pieces like someone who came and stole the body, it's as if the body removed itself from the windings without disturbing them and then the weight of the spices just pressed it down and that's what they saw when they looked in there.

It freaked them out frankly, but it let them know scientifically that there had been a resurrection, not a grave robbery, plus the Roman soldiers were out there the whole time under penalty of death if they let anyone take that body out, so there's so many proofs of the resurrection it's interesting.

If you ever want to study that, look at evidence that demands a verdict by Josh McDowell, the section on the proof of the resurrection is fabulous. So anyway, here these women are, now look at verse 7, this is very important, it says, and go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead and behold he goes before you into Galilee and there you will see him lo I have told you.

So now we have, it was a woman who was the first human in the New Testament to prophesy that Jesus would be crucified and buried, it was two other women who were the first women to look in the grave and see that it was empty, and then it was two women who were instructed by God through the angel to go and tell all the disciples he's alive now, but why didn't he choose a man to do that?

Why did he choose women, do you think, if you wanted to just conjecture why God chose women to go and tell the disciples he's alive? Do you think that under Moses in the Old Testament that men would think very much about anything women would say?

No, because it's like all the other world religions, am I right? So like did you know that under Judaism, I'm not sure women were allowed to even be a witness in a trial, women could not even testify, had to be a man.

Where it says two or more witnesses had to be two men, that's why so many women could be abused by men and the man get away with it, because you got to find two men that will say they observed it and the woman couldn't testify.

That's how it was and now God chooses two women to testify, the only testimony available yet that he was risen. Why? Because once again Jesus Christ elevates the role of women above all religions in the world and he says, you know what, if you're going to believe I'm resurrected, you're going to believe it at the witness of two women.

Isn't that great? Women, you like that? Okay, I like it, I think it's great. Now we got a little time left since we're starting right on time nowadays, so turn to Titus chapter 2 verse 1 and I'm going to end this little section of just kind of a little trip around the New Testament looking at different amazing things women did in the New Testament.

I'm going to end on Mother's Day with Proverbs 31 and talk about the Old Testament God-inspired concept of the role of women and it'll be very different than the legalist Jewish picture that it came into being 400 years before Christ came in there.

The part of time Ben's talking about in Sunday school, the in between the Old and New Testament time, that 400 years where the Pharisees perverted Judaism and made it really even much harder on the women than it ever was because they were so legalistic.

Legalism always is the hardest on women, but we'll talk about the genuine God-inspired Old Testament view of the role of women on Mother's Day, it'll be awesome I think. So Titus chapter 2 verse 1, there are several, three books in the Bible that are called pastoral epistles, at least three.

The three that I'm thinking of are 1st and 2nd Timothy where the apostle Paul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was teaching Timothy how to set up a church, how to run a church, how to be a pastor and Titus is also considered a pastoral epistle.

It has the qualifications of deacons in it, but it also has this beautiful passage we're going to look at to end up today where it talks about the role of women in the church and I think anyone who's filled with the Holy Spirit will like this and anyone who's in the flesh probably won't like it.

They'll find all kinds of things to criticize, but just remember I'm just going to read it, it's not me, it's not what I believe, okay, it's just what I'm reading, it's what the Bible says. I do happen to believe it, but I did not originate it, but Titus chapter 2 verse 1, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine.

Now he, see this is another reason Titus also is included in the pastoral epistles because here Paul is instructing again on how to be a good elder or a good pastor. Speak things which become sound doctrine.

So make sure that you don't teach things that contradict the doctrines of the Bible. They're in tune with the whole of the Bible. Secondly, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in love, and in patience.

So teach your older men if you're the pastor or one of the pastor, the elder that preaches most, teach the older men that they need to be grave, which means they don't need to be always telling silly jokes.

They don't need to, how's the verse go? I hear it at home sometimes. Yeah, because you know how guys are, we will just do it, and sometimes it's the woman's role to say something. So quite often Ben and I and Matt will hear mom say, she just quotes a verse, she just says avoid foolish jesting, it leads to further ungodliness, and then she walks out of the room, and we shut up, and we start talking about something else.

You should not be laughing, but yeah, it's okay. It happens quite often, doesn't it Ben and Matt? So Dave Huber could tell you too, because they've been living with us while they're building their new house.

I don't often hear Charlotte and the girls doing foolish jesting. Is this a man thing? I don't know, but anyway, it's interesting the Holy Spirit is telling the older men to be grave, which means avoid foolish jesting.

Temperate, which means you have self-control. To be sound in the faith, that means in the biblical Christian faith, you need to understand the major Bible themes. You need to understand systematic theology.

You need to understand what's right and what's wrong biblically, doctrinally, and then in love, everything that you do needs to be in love, because men can get prideful and just get after each other and stuff.

It's okay to disagree, but you should do it in love, and Larry, I'd have to commend you for that in recent days. You know how to be serious, but you know how to do it in love, and you know how to do it appropriately.

It's fantastic, and you happen to be, I hate to say it, an older man in the church. This is the way you're supposed to be. I'm an older man in the church, and this is how we're supposed to be. So we do what we do in love and in patience.

Why do we need to be patient? Because we're dealing with human beings, and they're not perfect. Notice I said they, and everyone besides me, right? We're imperfect people, and if you want to start picking at me, you could go on for days, but I could do the same with you, because I watch you from up here.

So Satan wants us to do that, but God doesn't. God says love covers a multitude of sins. What's the practical use of that verse? Pray. You can just easily pray for someone when they're doing something you disagree with, as to talk to someone about it.

Just pray and say, Lord, do you see that? I see it. Would you help David? Help him to stop picking his nose when he preaches, because he does it every time, and it's weird. Lord, could you ask the Lord to do that?

Yeah, I come back, and half my nose is missing, or something, but anyway. Yeah, but we don't like to do it that way. We'd rather just do it ourselves, but if we're going to do it ourselves, let's do it in love and in patience.

That's how we're supposed to do it. Now, this is for the older men. The younger men need to learn this, too, as they get older. Now, look at verse three, because here's the topic. The aged women, likewise.

So everything that he just said to the aged men, he says to the aged women. Do you get that? All right, so the aged women need to be grave. They need to be sober. You know, I left that one out, didn't I?

Sober means self-control. It doesn't mean you don't drink, but it means you have self-control in your life, and it does mean, if you drink, that you don't, it never gets out of control. You don't ever get drunk, and that's an issue I don't even like talking about.

I wish the Bible said, never drink anything alcoholic. I wish it said that, but I cannot say that it says that. But I know when I got saved, God took it out of my life completely, so it's gone. But, you know, I think my best question for that is, show me where it says you can't drink.

My best answer to that is, show me where it says it'll make you a better witness, if you do. I don't know. I just, am I legalistic when I say that? I don't mean to be legalistic. This, I like to get you thinking, though.

So sober can mean, with regard to drinking, but it's much bigger than that. It's self-control. Okay. Grave, temperate, sound, and faith. Does that mean women are supposed to be studying doctrine in the Bible?

Yes. You need to do what you do in love and in patience. Now, it's going to add a few things. It says, likewise, so you got those things, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness. So with the woman in particular, it mentions holiness.

What does holiness mean? Does it mean perfection with no sin in the life? Is that the major connotation of it? Maybe if you use it with regard to God, yes, but to humans, no. What does it mean? Separate, and what's another good English word?

Different. I love it. Separate from the world and different from the world, and more like God, more like Jesus, right? Mentions that for the women, their behavior should be as becomes holiness, not false accusers.

That's interesting that it mentions that to the women. I wonder why. Why didn't it say that to the older men? I guess we're always just joking, and the women would like to talk about people maybe more.

I don't know. Is that true? Is that a woman thing? I don't know if it is or isn't. I'm just reading the scripture. I don't know. It specifically says, though, that they not be false accusers of someone.

Not given too much wine. That one, instead of just saying sober, it said, don't drink much wine. Don't you think that word much proves that it doesn't say don't drink any wine? It says don't drink much.

Now, we could define wine as grape juice, though, and then I'd get my way, right? I've seen people do that. I do think their wine had less alcoholic content in it. I've seen some pretty cool YouTube studies on that.

Must be true. I found it on YouTube. All right, so not given too much wine, and then they should be teachers of good things. Isn't that something? Isn't that general? That's a big topic. Whatever it is that you wish the younger women would be good in and at, you should teach them that.

Good things. Now, it goes on and says that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children. Now, that's interesting because when it references with regard to the official church services, in the official church services, the women's role in teaching is selectively dedicated to other women.

You may teach other women. You can teach young children, even boys, but when those boys get up to be where their hormones are kicking in, probably let them go to a different Sunday school class at that point because all of a sudden, they're not going to want to listen to a woman teaching for whatever reason, how God made men.

So, it's best to put them in a different class. So, your role is to teach young women. What are you supposed to teach them here in this context to love their husbands and to love their children? I don't just think that's funny because wouldn't you think women have a natural love for their kids, a natural love for their husband, but why does it say to the older women to teach them to do that?