WWUTT 597 I Do Not Permit a Woman to Teach?

Worshiping to Please God Rather Than Ourselves

When you go to church and you worship with the saints, who are you there to please? I think even in asking that question, everybody would say, well, I'm there to please God. So why is it that we try to move heaven and earth to please ourselves, even when we understand the text?

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Paul’s Instructions to Men and Women in 1 Timothy 2

Thank you, Becky. I've been enjoying this time together as we studied through 1 Timothy 2, and I hope you've enjoyed it as well. We come back to the paragraph we've been looking at last week and this week, verses 8 through 15, where Paul writes to his servant Timothy, I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness, with good works.

Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. And that last instruction there, with faith and love and holiness and self-control, that's not just for women.

That's certainly the context. That's who Paul is addressing with that instruction. But men need to be the same. They also need to continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. Just like that first instruction that we have in verse 8, I desire that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

That doesn't mean that instruction applies only to men and not to women. Women also need to lift holy hands and pray and engage in the church and also in the world without anger or quarreling. Likewise, also men should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, not just the women, but also the men with modesty and self-control.

However, you sense that in these instructions that Paul is giving to Timothy to take them to the church in Ephesus, that anger is a problem area for many men and immodesty is a problem area for many women.

And that is certainly the case today. This instruction that we have here about women dressing modestly, I think it goes without saying this applies in our culture as much as it did during the time that Paul was making this particular address.

Same with that instruction to men to lift holy hands without anger or quarreling. Do not use your hands for any unholy conduct or behavior, but rather in everything that you do, what you apply your hands to, the work that you do, let it be done in holiness so that when you lift your hands before the Lord, that they would be guiltless, that there would not be a sin that prevents you from praying before God in a proper way.

Peter addresses that in 1 Peter 3, that we would be holy even within our marriages so our prayers would not be hindered. And David prayed in the Psalms, if I had cherished sin in my heart, you would not have heard my prayer.

And so it is so important that we conduct ourselves in holiness so that our prayers would not be hindered. This is the instruction that Paul gives to men to lift holy hands without anger or quarreling.

The fights that we have with one another, the quarrels that we would start, the grudges that we hold against each other, especially within the body of Christ, would hinder our relationship with the Lord.

So the way that we exercise love with one another is in obedience to God. We read in 1 John that if you do not love your brother whom you see, you cannot love God whom you do not see. So for women, what they show on the outside reflecting the heart that they have on the inside is the good works that they do in the name of Christ.

Just as it should be for the men applying their hands to good works, so women should also apply themselves to good works. And this is their profession of godliness. That profession does not come by what you wear.

Sorry, wearing that Christian t-shirt is not a profession of godliness. I don't have a problem with a Christian t-shirt if the doctrine that's on the shirt is correct. But do not think that wearing that shirt or having the fish decal on your car or wearing a cross necklace, any of these things that would be material attire, are a profession of godliness.

They're not. The good work that you do is going to be the evidence of the faith that has changed your heart. It will be manifest on the outside with the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law. So this is the fruit that will be produced in the life of a person whose heart has been changed by Christ. So that's the heart of these instructions for men and for women.

Modesty, Love, and Consideration for Others

But the instruction for women continues on. Because again, we're talking about a proper orderliness in worship. The way that you conduct yourself in worship shows a love and affection for one another.

You get that in the instruction for men. Don't be angry with each other. Don't fight with each other. To be able to lift holy hands before the Lord means that you're loving one another. That you are considering others' needs ahead of your own.

It's really difficult to be mad at somebody when you have to consider their needs ahead of yours. It's really difficult to hate the person you love, right? So that's the instruction for men and it pertains to loving one another within the body of Christ.

The way that a woman dresses modestly with self-control and not trying to adorn herself in such a way to call attention to herself, that's also being done in love. It's not as obvious as the instruction to men, but for a woman to dress modestly is also in consideration of the other people around her.

Men and women. She's considering the women, not making them jealous of the way that she looks, not trying to be competitive with each other, not trying to upstage one another. And she's considering the men, not trying to draw their eyes, their mind toward the figure of that woman, the beauty of that woman and away from God and Christ.

Or even defiling a man's conscience in such a way to think something about that woman that he should not be thinking. And that would be the case in today's culture with women generally dressing very revealing.

This would cause a man to look at that woman's figure and potentially lust or be tempted to. And if that woman is truly mindful of a man's conscience, a guy's mind works totally different than a woman's mind does.

And when a woman is mindful of the fact that men's minds work differently, then she's going to dress appropriately so not to cause her brother to stumble. This is not to say that a man is not responsible for the thoughts that he thinks and therefore acts upon.

But a woman in a mindfulness toward her brothers in Christ will want to dress in such a way that she is not causing her brothers in Christ to stumble. That needs to be in mind when we're talking about dressing modestly, because these instructions are not just about how a person personally exercises holiness.

It is also the way that an individual shows love and affection for other members of the body of Christ. In both of these instructions, the one for the men and the one for the women as well. But as the instruction continues for the woman, and once again, I rabbit trailed there a little bit, but once again, we're talking about an orderliness in worship.

The instruction for women continues on with Paul saying, let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet.

What's the instruction we just came out of Paul telling women to dress to be dressed modestly, to exercise self-control, to do good works. Don't be loud, even in your attire, trying to draw attention to yourself.

Women even in their conduct need to learn quietly, and that is their role in the church. Not to be the person at the pulpit teaching the word of God, administering the word of God, but rather she is learning quietly with all submissiveness.

Now there are ways that even men are supposed to be submissive, but a woman learns quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet.

And again, I must emphasize, this is in the corporate setting of worship. We're talking about the church service, following a proper order of worship. The person that is at the pulpit, administering the word of God, teaching the word of God to the people of God, is a pastor, a role that is to be filled by a man.

Pastor is a word that means shepherd. Other words that go with that include bishop, elder, overseer. That person is supposed to be a man. And this instruction applies to all peoples, in all cultures, at all times.

There has never been a culture or a time in the history of the church where this instruction did not apply. We're not talking about something cultural here, something that was just during the time of Paul, some sort of Greco-Roman understanding that doesn't apply to us today at all.

This applies all the time. It has always applied to the church. How do I know that? Well, because of what Paul says in the next verse, verse 13, for Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Paul goes all the way back to Genesis, all the way back to the very beginning, the creation order to verify this instruction that he just gave. Why the church worship service is supposed to be ordered in this way.

The number one reason is because Adam was formed first and then Eve. Eve was made to be Adam's help meat. So a woman plays a very, very important role in the church and she is a great help within the church.

But she is not the person at the head administering the teaching. That is a role that is filled by a man, just as it was Adam's responsibility to lead his wife. He was supposed to spiritually lead his wife.

That was one of the failures of Adam, even within the garden of Eden, because the story that we have in Genesis chapter three of the fall of man with the serpent tempting Eve to eat the fruit, and she does, and then gives it to her husband who was with her.

Go back and read that story in your Bible. It says that Adam was right there. What was the dude doing while the serpent was tempting his wife and he was not even leading the woman. When you see the instruction given in Genesis to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the first time that instruction is given, Eve hasn't even been created yet.

So you get the sense that God gave that instruction to Adam and then he was supposed to tell his wife, leading his bride, being the head of his household. And Adam did say that to her. You get the sense from Eve that she understood it a little bit in the way that she responded to the serpent.

Her response was not quite as what God had said, but she responded, we may eat of every tree in the garden, except for this one in the midst of the garden. We may not eat it. We can't even touch it or we'll die.

And that isn't what God said. He just said that you can't eat of it. He didn't say don't touch it. So her response is already getting legalistic. You kind of wonder if Adam maybe had taught her in a very legalistic way.

Eve, we can't eat of that tree. We cannot even touch the tree. Well, if Adam's job was to work the garden and cultivate it, then he probably did have to touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

But with Eve's answer, a very legalistic response to the serpent, when the serpent asked Eve, did God really say that you must not eat of any of the trees of the garden? Which was an absurd question. They could eat of any tree.

They just couldn't eat of the one. But it caused the woman to kind of fumble with her answer and the response that she gave with the serpent was very legalistic. I wonder if Adam taught her that way. He didn't teach her that it was a delight to obey God.

Rather, he gave her this very legalistic thing. Hey, we can't eat of that tree. Can't even touch it. Don't even go near it. And so it was not her delight to obey God. It was her delight to eat the fruit and sin against God.

Adam who was right there with her, was not leading his bride. He ate the fruit also and they fell. One of Adam's greatest sins there in that moment was a sin of omission when he knew the right thing to do and he didn't do it.

Eve was a sin of commission. She committed that sin. Adam just didn't do anything. And so therefore caused his wife to sin and then he himself fell into sin. He was the one that was responsible. And because he did not lead his wife properly, then all of sin came into mankind.

Death came into the picture. All of creation was cursed. This is how serious sin is. Rebellion against God has led to chaos in the entire universe. We who were created in the image of God, when we sin against God, we bear false witness against God because we are image bearers of God.

And yet when you with your body as an image bearer of God, sin with that body, you cast onto God's image that he is unholy. He is unrighteous. He is full of evil. And this is the great blasphemy that we commit every time we sin against God.

So this this is the great blasphemy of the universe that was committed there in the Garden of Eden. And and Adam was supposed to be the head of his household, which he did not do. He did not fulfill that responsibility as the first one created in the order of mankind.

So he was supposed to be the one leading his wife and did not. But because he was formed first. Mankind or man, sorry, man is the sex man is still given the responsibility of leading his household. That's still true.

That has not changed because that's the created order. That's the way God meant for things to be. That man is the one who is leading his household. The woman is the help meat of the man. Likewise, women are helps in the church.

They're very important to the role of the church. A church without women would be a dysfunctional church, but she's not the one administering the teaching, the spiritual guidance leading the flock. That is supposed to be a role that is filled by a man.

So we have that right right there as the first reason why the role of pastor is supposed to be filled by a man and not a woman, because Adam was formed first and then Eve. And that no matter what happens after that, that reason still stands.

Then the next reason, the second reason, and Adam was not deceived. But the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. She listened to the voice of the serpent. Adam did not. When the serpent said to Eve, did God really say she doubted and listened to the created thing rather than the instruction of the creator?

And so for that reason, because she was led astray by the serpent's deception, she is not permitted to fill the role of pastor, whether you're talking about a perfect order or a fallen order. So you look at the Garden of Eden prior to the fall.

Adam was formed first and then Eve, even in even in a perfect created order without sin. The man is still supposed to be filling the role as the pastor because the man was created first and even in a post fall world, which, of course, is what we live in.

It would still be the case that the man would be in the role of pastor and not the woman because at the fall, the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. And so these are the reasons that Paul gives for why the role of pastor elder overseer is supposed to be given to a man and not to a woman.

And I must repeat once again that we're talking about the corporate structure in worship. You're talking about the worship service that would include singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in our hearts to the Lord.

It would mean confessing our sins before God and lifting up our hearts in prayer. It would mean the public teaching of the word of God. As Paul instructs Timothy with that will come up a little bit later on in the letter, whoever is standing at the pulpit administering the word of God, they are teaching with authority because it's God's word.

It is our ultimate authority. It's not that the role of pastor has some sort of inherent authority to it, but that's that particular role in administering that teaching of the authoritative word. That's what makes it authoritative.

And so that is an authority that only a man is supposed to fill. And a woman in teaching the word of God is not to be exercising authority over a man. This instruction does not apply to evangelism. So when you're talking about being in the public square and evangelizing, a woman can do that because sometimes the argument is brought up, well, what about Priscilla, who was Akilah's wife, and she instructed Apollos.

So if Akilah can do or I'm sorry, Priscia can do that, Priscilla can do that. Priscia and Priscilla are the same name. Priscia is used in Roman 16. Anyway, if Priscilla can do that, then it must be OK for a woman to be in the role of pastor.

That didn't happen in church. That happened in public. That was with Apollos teaching the word very boldly, preaching the scriptures. But he only knew about the baptism of John. And so you had Akilah and Priscilla who took him aside and corrected his understanding, filled out the parts that he didn't yet know.

He didn't know about the ministry of Christ. He only knew what John the Baptist had taught. And so then once they had led Apollos to an understanding of Christ, then he was able to preach all the more boldly than he had been preaching.

But this was this was an evangelism work that they did. This wasn't preaching, wasn't preaching from the pulpit. And you could even argue that Priscilla was not exercising authority over a brother in Christ because Apollos did not yet know the know the way of Christ.

So she was exercising evangelism. A woman can certainly go into public and do that. I would say do that very cautiously. I think Akilah and Priscilla did that the right way in that they were husband and wife duo.

And then we looked at scriptures last week from Titus chapter three, which shows that a woman can teach children in the church. And she also becomes a mentor to other women in teaching women certain things that men are not as effective in teaching women.

Now, all women will sit under the primary teaching in the church that comes from the pastor at the pulpit. Even women must submit to that role just as well as the rest of the men in the church. But that role itself is not to be filled by a woman because that would then put her in a position of authority over men, which Paul does not permit women to have.

So that, therefore, is the instruction. That's what we've got there. And I hope it makes sense to you. Like I said last week, it doesn't mean that a woman can't preach as in she doesn't have an ability to preach.

She may have a great ability, but that doesn't mean her ability would then supersede the instruction that has been given by God that the role of pastor is meant only for men. He should be the one that is preaching the word of God from the pulpit.

It's not like a woman has an ability to preach and then suddenly the word of God is null and void. Oh, well, we just weren't planning on women having the ability to teach. I guess you can ignore that instruction there.

No, even when a woman has that ability, even if a woman could do that better than a man, she is still supposed to learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.

Rather, she is to remain quiet. We'll talk about that again a little bit more tomorrow and jump into the final verse of this paragraph where Paul says, yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.

What could that mean? We'll talk about that tomorrow. Let's pray. Our Lord God, I pray that in our hearts we would desire to do what is honorable to you. No matter how much we should have to give up ourselves in service to our great king, may we be willing to do so because it is a delight to your heart who on earth deserves to have anything before the God who sits upon the throne ruling over all of creation.

We are but dust. We were formed from the dust to the dust. We will return. We deserve nothing from you. Yet you have shown us love and affection through your son, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins so that through Christ we become fellow heirs of the eternal kingdom of God.

And so since Christ sacrificed himself for the church, may we be willing to sacrifice ourselves for one another, first and foremost, to the glory of God. And it is to your glory that we would love one another, considering others needs ahead of our own.

In doing so, let us seek how we can stir one another up to love and good works. And in the process of doing those good works, we do what you have said is good, not what we think is good, not what the world has set a standard for in terms of good.

We do what God has said is good. And you have set the instructions for what worship is supposed to look like, what right worship is supposed to be before God. So these are the instructions that we are to follow to the praise of your great name.

Let us get ourselves out of the way, doing as John the Baptist said, he must increase and I must decrease. Thank you for considering us. And yet, as David said in Psalm 8, who is man that you are mindful of him, you are indeed mindful of us and you love us with all of the love and affection that you have for your own son.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text. Pastor Gabe is the author of several short books on the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. Topics include the deity of Christ, original sin, resurrection, Christ's incarnation, and many more.

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