Tag: Church

Rock Your Role

Rock Your Role: Jill in the Pulpit? (1 Timothy 2:11-12)

Michelle Lesley

Rock Your Role is a series examining the “go to” and hot button Scriptures that relate to and help us understand our role as women in the church. Don’t forget to prayerfully consider our three key questions
as you read.

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.
1 Timothy 2:11-12

I’ve never met a Christian woman, who, upon reading these verses for the first time joyfully embraced them without the slightest hint of balking, surprise or, “Wait, what?”. I have no doubt that such women are out there, somewhere, it’s just that I’ve never met one of them.

For 21st century American Christian women, these are hard verses. Whether you’re old enough to remember bra burnings and hard line feminists like Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda or you were born into a world replete with female engineers, construction workers, and urologists, you’ve probably been inundated with the “anything boys can do, girls can do better” message since the doctor announced, “It’s a girl!”

And that’s exactly why this passage seems to us like a cold bucket of water. It’s what we bring to the table, our presuppositions, that make these verses feel like a big, fat, arbitrary “no” from a God who just wants to spoil our plans, when everything else in the world says “yes” to whatever we might aspire to.

I’ve struggled with God’s instruction in these verses, trying to stretch it, Silly Putty style, into what I wanted it to mean, so that I could do what I wanted to do and still be “covered” biblically. And, ladies, let me tell you something- that is a sinful, wicked, self-seeking, and self-centered way of approaching this or any other Scripture. An approach from which I have had to repent many, many times.

Looking for loopholes and exceptions and trying to see how close to the line of sin we can get without actually putting a toe over is a characteristic of a carnal mind, not a mind set on pleasing God. Godly women don’t look for ways to get around Scripture. Godly women look for ways to obey Scripture. It’s God’s desire that we flee as far away from sin as we possibly can, and, instead, “pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace.” He wants us to love, embrace, and obey His word, not rebel against it, even in our hearts, even in the name of “ministry” or “serving God.” So let’s keep that in mind as we take a look at this passage.

Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. 1 Samuel 15:22-23a

As always, we must examine every biblical passage in context, which means we need to start off by understanding a little background about the book and its author, and by reading the whole chapter.

First Timothy (along with 2 Timothy and Titus) is one of the pastoral epistles. It was written by Paul to young pastor Timothy as sort of a job description and operations manual for pastors, elders, and the church. So right off the bat, an important point we often miss about 1 Timothy is that it was written to a man, Timothy, a pastor, who would use this letter to train his elders (also men) and, subsequently, his congregation. That doesn’t mean that 1 Timothy doesn’t apply to women, or shouldn’t be studied by women, or that women aren’t required to obey 1 Timothy. It just means that when we open the letter of 1 Timothy, we need to understand that we, as women, are reading somebody else’s mail. Mail that pertains to us, yes, but mail that’s addressed to Timothy, and by extension, to pastors and elders today. That will help us better understand the tone and perspective of the passage.

The focal verse of this chapter is verse 4

God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Everything else Paul talks about in chapter 2 revolves around the idea that God wants to save people. He wants the church to pray for people, including governmental officials so that they will be saved. Paul was appointed a preacher and apostle so that people might be saved. Men shouldn’t detract from the gospel by quarreling or anger so that people can be saved. Women’s attire should not distract from the preaching of the gospel, and their good works should point people to the gospel so that people can be saved.

And, finally – an exhortation to men – Timothy and the elders are to allow women to be taught the gospel so that they might be saved. See that word “let” right there at the beginning of verse 11? Timothy and the elders have the responsibility to step up and make sure women are allowed to come into the church and be taught the gospel. That’s something we take for granted now, but in a time when women were routinely regarded with the same value and intelligence as a stick of furniture or the family cow, this was huge. This just reinforces what we learned from Galatians 3:28: everybody is welcome at God’s table. There are no second class citizens in God’s kingdom. God wants to save women, too. We modern women rarely appreciate how precious this concept would have been to first century women hungry to know and be known by God. And the men were to make sure it happened.

But, as Jesus said, “to whom much was given, of [her] much will be required.” The men had the responsibility to make sure women were taught God’s word so they could be saved and grow spiritually, but the women had the responsibility to listen, learn, and conduct themselves in a way that would not hinder others (or even themselves) from learning and hearing the gospel.

Paul goes on to explain in verse 12 what he means by “quietly with all submissiveness”: Women are not to teach men or exercise authority over them. In the first century church, this would have been relatively easy to understand, since church services were fairly simple and didn’t include programs, parachurch organizations, Christian conferences, etc. But in our day, perhaps a little more explanation would be helpful.

Teaching includes any situation in the gathering of the body of Christ in which women would be giving instruction to men in the Scriptures and/or on spiritual matters (which, in a biblical church gathering, would necessarily include Scripture), whether in an official position of teacher (pastor, teaching elder, Sunday School/Bible study teacher, or other leadership position) or any other situation requiring exhorting, teaching, or explaining of the Scriptures.

Exercising authority includes any official position (pastor, pastoral positions, certain committee positions, elder, teacher, director, or other leadership position) or other situation which places a woman in charge of, over, or responsible for men or places men in a role subordinate to a woman.

But why? Why would God reserve the positions of teaching and authority over male or mixed groups to men? He gives two reasons in verses 13-14. God’s design for male headship, and Eve’s deception and sin.

For Adam was formed first, then Eve– Starting with Creation (not the Fall), God began laying out the pattern of male headship in the foundational institutions of His kingdom: Creation, the family, and the church. Man was created first, woman second. Man was given authority over Creation, woman was specifically created for him, to be his helper. We also see male headship in the family. God requires husbands to take the primary leadership role and wives to submit to and respect their husbands.

And, finally, we see God’s design for male headship in the church, not only in overt passages like 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Corinthians 14, the description of qualifications for pastors and elders, and the precedent of male leadership in the Old Testament temple, but also in the beautiful picture of Christ, the bridegroom, as head of the church, His bride, who lovingly submits to Him. Starting with the very first man and woman, before sin entered the world, God initiated a pattern of male leadership.

And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor– Here, Paul reminds us that, when Eve listened to the serpent, she stepped out from under her husband’s oversight, was deceived, and sinned. Eve’s sin reminds us that she not only was deceived into rebelling against God’s command about eating the fruit, but she also broke His design for male headship in marriage. In establishing male leadership in the church, God is recalling, reflecting, and restoring His pattern of male headship that started in the Garden.

But I’ve been taught that 1 Timothy 2:12 only applied to the particular time and culture in which it was written.

No, that’s not the case. We’ve just seen that clearly spelled out in verses 13-14. God explains exactly why He’s delegating the teaching of men, and authority over men, to men. There’s nothing in these two verses that even hint that this command is temporary or restricted to the women in the first century Ephesian church. The first reason was the Creative order – Adam was formed first, then Eve. The second reason is that Eve was deceived. Both of those reasons are universal (applying to all women and churches everywhere regardless of era or culture). It makes no sense that these two reasons related to Eve would apply only to first century Ephesus any more than it would make sense for them to apply only to tenth century Damascus or seventeenth century Paris.

Next, again, we examine the context of 1 Timothy 2. There are all sorts of instructions to the church in that chapter. Was the instruction to pray for governmental leaders (1-2) limited to the first century Ephesian church? Were only the men of the first century Ephesian church to pray without quarreling (8)? Was modesty (9-10) only required of women in the first century Ephesian church? Then why pick out this one instruction in verse 12 and claim it was limited to that time and culture?

Finally, look at the overall general pattern of male headship and leadership in Scripture. First human created? A man. The Patriarchs? As the word implies – all men. Priests, Levites, Scribes? Men. Heads of the twelve tribes of Israel? Men. Major and minor prophets? Men. All kings of Israel and Judah? Men. Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic Covenants? All established between God and men. Authors of Scripture? Men. The forerunner of Christ? John the Baptist – a man. Messiah? A man. All of the apostles? Men. All of the pastors, elders, and deacons of churches in the New Testament? Men. Founder and head of the church? Christ – a man. Leader and head of the family? Men. Now which fits better with this pattern, women preaching to, teaching, and exercising authority over men in the church, or women not preaching to, teaching, and exercising authority over men in the church?

But what about women in the Bible who served in leadership roles like Deborah, Esther, or Priscilla? Doesn’t that mean it’s OK for women to preach, teach men, and exercise authority over men in the church?

No it doesn’t. The Bible does not contradict itself because its author, the Holy Spirit, doesn’t contradict Himself. If you’d like to read more about how Deborah, Esther, Priscilla and other women of the Bible were actually acting in obedience to God’s role for women, please read my article Rock Your Role: Oh No She Di-int! Priscilla Didn’t Preach, Deborah Didn’t Dominate, and Esther Wasn’t an Egalitarian.

But I’ve been told it’s OK for women to teach co-ed Bible classes or preach to co-ed audiences as long as they don’t hold the office of pastor and as long as they’re preaching/teaching “under the authority” of their husband and/or pastor.

No, that’s not OK with Scripture. First Timothy 3 and Titus 1 restrict the office of pastor to biblically qualified men, but, as we’ve seen in this article, 1 Timothy 2:12 prohibits women from carrying out two of the functions of pastors (preaching/teaching the Bible to men, and exercising authority over men) as well, and neither 1 Timothy 2 nor any other passage of Scripture gives husbands or pastors the authority to grant women permission to violate God’s Word. For more information on this question, see my article Fencing off the Forbidden Fruit Tree.

In God’s perfect plan, Janes and Jills are not to serve as pastors. They are not to preach to or teach men at Christian conferences or other gatherings of the body of Christ. They are not to teach co-ed Sunday School classes. They are not to serve in positions or places of authority over men in the church.

But even though we daughters of Eve bear the taint of her reproach in this small way all these years later, God has graciously provided us with many, many ways to redeem the name of womankind by serving Him if we “continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.” (15) One of those ways is the gospel influence mothers are able to have in their children’s lives. Think about it. Samuel had a godly mother. Timothy had a godly mother and grandmother. Jesus had a godly mother. It is no small thing to pour the gospel into your children and raise them up to be mighty men and women of God.

So, ladies, let’s stop clinging to the fence God has placed around the pulpit, bemoaning the fact that He doesn’t want us to cross it, and trying to figure out a way to sneak over, under, or around it. If we’ll just turn around and leave that fence behind us, we’ll find a wide open field of opportunities to serve God in His church, His way.

Photo courtesy of Our State.
If you’re wondering about the title of this article, this is called a Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

Additional Resources:

Rock Your Role FAQs

Women in Ministry and the Authority of Scripture by Mike Stone

No, Women Can’t Preach by Scott Aniol

The Role of Women from Grace Community Church’s doctrinal distinctives

Women Pastors are a Fundamental Problem for Southern Baptists by Gabriel Hughes (The bulk of this article is an exegesis of the Scriptures dealing with the biblical roles of men and women in the church and is not specific to Southern Baptists.)

Ten Things You Should Know About 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and the Relationship Between Men and Women in the Local Church at The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) This is a refutation of the most common egalitarian arguments against the plain meaning of 1 Timothy 2:11-15.

Why Women Should Not Teach the Bible to Men by Josh Buice

Will the Next SBC Resurgence Include a Redefining of Complementarianism? by Tom Buck The springboard issue for this article series was the movement to elect a female president of the Southern Baptist Convention, however, it is largely an exposition of the text of 1 Timothy 2:11-15. Regardless of whether or not you’re familiar with this issue, and even if you’re not Southern Baptist, these articles are helpful and easy to understand. Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4

Only Men May be Pastors at Founders Ministries

What Does It Mean That Women Should “Remain Quiet” in Church? at Crossway

Why Asking Women to Preach Is Spiritual Abuse by Josh Buice

Should Women Be Pastors? by Virgil Walker

Has God Really Said on the Just Thinking podcast

The Paul-Side Gambit: How A Proper Understanding of Apostolic Authority Defeats Women’s Ordination by Chris Rosebrough

1 John Bible Study

Am I Really Saved?: A First John Check Up ~ Lesson 7: Fear and False Teachers

Michelle Lesley

Am I Really Saved? A First John Check Up
Lesson 7: Fear and False Teachers
Please Read: 1 John 4

Previous Lessons: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

2 Corinthians 13:5

1 John 4:1-6

Am I Really Saved? Checkpoint 13: Do I follow false teachers?

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

I’m always dumbfounded when I hear Christian women say – in response to being told their favorite false teacher is a false teacher – something to the effect of, “You’re so negative, judgmental, and nit picky. Jesus just said to love people and not to worry so much about whether their theology is different from yours.”

It always makes me wonder if they’ve ever actually read the New Testament, because that’s absolutely not what Jesus said while He was on earth, and it’s the exact opposite of what God the Holy Spirit spends so much time saying in the balance of the New Testament. This passage of First John is just one of dozens which warn us away from false teachers.

  • Which Spirit is controlling true Christian teachers? What spirit is controlling false teachers according to verse 3? True or false: If you’re following a false teacher, you’re following a demonic spirit.
  • What does it mean to “test the spirits”? (v1) How did the noble Bereans test the spirits?
  • What do verses 2-3 tell us is the first, most basic test of whether or not someone is a false teacher? What does verse 5 tell us is an indication of a false teacher? Are these the only tests for a false teacher?
  • To whom do the words “we” and “us” refer in verse 6? According to verse 6, do false teachers listen to and teach the same things the apostles taught? How does verse 6 work hand in hand with Galatians 1:6-9?
  • According to verse 6, if you willfully disregard apostolic (biblical) teaching in favor of false teaching, are you really a Christian? Do you argue with people who can demonstrate to you from (rightly handled) Scripture that you’re following a false teacher?

1 John 4:7-12

Am I Really Saved? Checkpoint 14: Is my motivation for love Christocentric?

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

If you could state the theme John’s teaching in one word, what would it be? My answer would be “love.” In his gospel, his three epistles, even in Revelation, the concept of love permeates John’s writing. And here again, John draws our attention back to it. The facet of love he focuses on this time is the motivation behind our love for others.

  • According to verses 7-8, who defines, originates, and is the embodiment of, love? How does this tell Christians Who and what is to motivate any love that we might feel or show to others? Is the “love” that non-Christians feel or show to others motivated by God or by other factors such as affection, selfishness, lust, etc.? Can you truly love others if you do not know God?
  • If the love you show others is not motivated by God, are you really saved?
  • In verses 9-10, what is the ultimate definition and demonstration (what action did God take) of the phrase “God is love”?
  • The word “so” in verse 11 takes us back to God’s ultimate demonstration of love for us in verses 9-10. Think about the people in your life. What are some practical ways you can “so love” one another the way God, through Christ, loved you?
  • Verse 12 tells us “no one has ever seen God.” How can the world know of God’s love if they have never seen Him? What does the remainder of the verse tell us about how they are to learn of God’s love?

1 John 4:13-15

Am I Really Saved? Checkpoint 15: Do my words and actions confess Christ?

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

  • How do we know, according to verse 13, that we belong to Christ? How can we tell if we have the Spirit? In what ways do our actions show that we have the Holy Spirit?
  • John says he and his fellow Christians testify about Jesus. (14) They verbally proclaim salvation through Christ to others. This is a mark of the Christian. Do you share the gospel with others? If not, are you really saved?
  • Does verse 15 mean that anyone who says the words, “Jesus is the Son of God,” is a Christian? What does it mean to “confess” Jesus? Is it just the words we say or is there more to it? What role does the heart play in this confession?

1 John 4:16-21

Am I Really Saved? Checkpoint 16: Am I afraid of God’s judgment?

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Verse 16 makes an interesting statement: “we have come to know AND to believe the love that God has for us.”

  • What is the difference between knowing God’s love for you and believing God’s love for you? Do you both know AND believe God’s love for you?

Verses 17-18 talk about “perfect” love and being “perfected” in love, but will we ever love God perfectly, or perfectly know and believe His love for us? Not this side of Heaven. Thank goodness these verses aren’t about our imperfect love for Christ, but, rather, Christ’s perfect love for us! The Greek word translated as perfect or perfected means to accomplish or consecrate, to carry through completely, to add what is yet wanting in order to render a thing full. In other words, Christ’s love is accomplished or made full in you when He saves you.

  • What does the perfect, saving love of Christ give us, according to the middle part of verse 17? What does the last part of the verse, “as he is so also are we in this world” mean? Who is “he”? Why would this give us confidence for the day of judgment?
  • What word does verse 18 use to convey the opposite of confidence (17)? While Christians will have confidence and face God’s judgment without fear because we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, how will lost people feel about facing God’s judgment? What do they fear according to the first part of the second sentence of verse 18? What punishment will lost people face?
  • What does our love (or lack of love) for others say about whether or not we truly know God? (20) What does verse 20 call people who claim to love God but do not love others? Are such people saved?

 

This week we’ve looked at four more checkpoints in our “Am I Really Saved?” study:

Do I follow false teachers?

Is my motivation for love Christocentric?

Do my words and actions confess Christ?

Am I afraid of God’s judgment?

Saved people don’t cling stubbornly to false teachers. They can usually sense when a teacher is “off” in some way, even if they can’t quite put their finger on what’s wrong. They welcome, rather than argue against, people who show them, from Scripture, why a false teacher is false. Their love for others springs from Christ’s love for them, and their words, actions and attitudes confess the Christ who lives in their hearts. They have no fear of God’s judgment and long to see their precious Savior.

Unsaved people are drawn to false teachers and angrily fight against those who try to warn them away. They may demonstrate actions and feelings that seem like love for others, but because God is the definition of love, and they don’t know Him, they can’t truly love others. Rather than confessing Christ, their words and actions testify that they don’t know Christ, and because of this, they are fearful and uncertain about God’s judgment and the punishment they face in eternity.

Additional Resources:

1 John 4– Matthew Henry’s Commentary

Herein Is Love– by Charles Spurgeon

True or False? A Study in 1 John– at Naomi’s Table (lessons 15-16)

1 John Bible Study

Am I Really Saved?: A First John Check Up ~ Lesson 6: What is Love?

Michelle Lesley

Am I Really Saved? A First John Check Up
Lesson 6: What is Love?
Please Read: 1 John 3:10-24

Previous Lessons: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

2 Corinthians 13:5

1 John 3:10-15

Am I Really Saved? Checkpoint 10: Do I love my brothers?

By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Here, John circles back to love versus hate, but he looks at it from a bit of a different perspective than he used in chapter 2. John draws a parallel between the two different types of brothers-  familial and spiritual – and uses these relationships to explain true brotherly love, and why this is a characteristic of Christians.

  • Which phrase in the first sentence of verse 12 compares non-Christians to Cain? How does verse 15 make this comparison?
  • Why, according to verse 12, did Cain murder Abel (his brother)? Was it because Abel provoked him or was evil in some way? Verse 13 indicates that the world will hate us for the same reason Cain hated Abel. What is that reason? How does John 3:19-20 relate to this concept?

God’s righteousness, shining through Abel, reflected Cain’s sin back at him. He felt guilty, convicted, and he wanted to get away from those feelings of condemnation. This is the same foundational reason the world hates Christians today. They hate the Christ who lives within us because, in Him, they see their own evil deeds reflected back at them. They feel guilty and convicted, and, wanting to suppress the truth about their sin, they hate us or do whatever else they can to escape those feelings of condemnation.

  •  How is hatred by the world for being Christlike evidence that we belong to Christ?
  • If hatred is characteristic of the world, what, necessarily, must be characteristic of Christians? (v. 14)
  • How do you feel when you’re around someone you know is a Christian? Do you enjoy open, easy, godly fellowship with her? Do you ever feel guilty or convicted just by being around her? Does talking with her about the things of God make you feel threatened, defensive, or argumentative?

1 John 3:16-17

OK, the Christian’s life is characterized by love for her brothers and sisters in Christ, but what, exactly, is love? Is it just being nice to people? Being a doormat? Never getting angry? Turning a blind eye to sin? How do we know if we’re acting in love or not?

John gives us a very simple definition: he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

Christ sets the standard for what love is. He defines love. Not our feelings. Not our opinions. Not the world’s definition of love. The cross is the measuring stick against which we measure anything we might call “love.” Anything that falls short isn’t love. This is how we know that things like homosexuality, abuse, sinful jealousy, pedophilia, cohabitation, universalism, living vicariously through your children, adultery, and tolerance of sin are not love. Any “love” that doesn’t look like Christ’s holy, righteous, biblical, dying to self love isn’t love.

He laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Did you notice John didn’t say “He died for us and we ought to die for our brothers”? I wonder if that might have anything to do with the fact that there’s more than one way to lay your life down for someone. Certainly, Christ demonstrated His love for us by dying for us on the cross, and, that same love should compel us to willingly die for others if circumstances call for it.

But Christ didn’t just lay down His life for us in death, He laid down His life for us in life, too. Every temptation He resisted, every time He put his own wants and needs aside to put someone else first, every time He humbled Himself to serve others, He was laying down His life for us. And in the same way, we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. We serve people. We provide for people. Even when it comes at a personal cost. We don’t just talk the talk, John says, we walk the walk.

1 John 3:18-22

Am I Really Saved? Checkpoint 11: Am I bearing the fruit of love?

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

  • What does the word “this” in verse 19 refer to?

Let’s face it, there are going to be times when we sin big or again, and it’s easy to give in to those thoughts of, “How could I possibly be saved if I act like that?”. But whenever our hearts condemn us that way, John urges us to look back over the general direction of our spiritual lives. Not so we can feel good about ourselves or because our good deeds somehow make up for our sins, but because God says when our emotions are getting the best of us, that’s a good, objective way to calm down and get some reassurance of our salvation. Is it the desire of my heart to act in love for God and love for others? Do I generally carry that desire through with action? God says we can look to these things as evidence of our salvation.

God knows everything. He knows whether or not you belong to Him, and He wants you to know, too. And if the objective evidence shows you’re saved, you’ll have the confidence to put aside those feelings of condemnation, and boldly approach the throne in prayer, knowing that you keep God’s commandments and do what pleases Him.

  • What does verse 20 mean when it says “God is greater than our heart”? How does this show us that God is the judge of whether or not we are saved, not us or our feelings?
  • How do keeping God’s commandments and doing what pleases Him (22) impact the way we pray?

1 John 3:23-24

Am I Really Saved? Checkpoint 12: Do I keep the ultimate commandment?

And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

  • What is the commandment in verse 23? How many parts (notice the second “and”) are there to this command? What does verse 24 indicate about the person who keeps this command?
  • How do we know that God abides in us? (24b)
  • Do you keep this commandment? Is your belief in Christ a simple mental acknowledgement, or have you staked your life and eternity on Christ?

The two parts of the ultimate commandment are inseparable: we are to believe in Christ for salvation and love one another. You can’t have one without the other. Those who keep this command can be certain that they are in Christ. The Holy Spirit bears witness to this.

 

This week we’ve looked at three more checkpoints in our “Am I Really Saved?” study:

Do I love my brothers?

Am I bearing the fruit of love?

Do I keep the ultimate commandment?

Saved people may be hated by the world, but they love their brothers. They can look back over their lives and see evidence of their Christlike love, in word and deed, for others. They keep the ultimate commandment of staking their lives on their belief in Christ and loving their fellow Christians.

Unsaved people often feel guilty, convicted, or defensive around Christians as Christ reflects their sin back at them. They do not have a track record of showing Christlike love for others, and, while they may proclaim belief in Christ, their profession is only lip deep.

Additional Resources:

1 John 3– Matthew Henry’s Commentary

Can I Be Sure I’m Saved?– by R.C. Sproul

True or False? A Study in 1 John– at Naomi’s Table (lessons 13-14)

Rock Your Role

Rock Your Role ~ Order in His Courts: Silencing Women? (1 Corinthians 14:33b-35)

Michelle Lesley

Rock Your Role is a series examining the “go to” and hot button Scriptures that relate to and help us understand our role as women in the church. Don’t forget to prayerfully consider our three key questions as you read.

As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
1 Corinthians 14:33b-35

Whew! That’s a tough passage. It stirs up a lot of thoughts and emotions just by reading it. What does it mean? How does it apply to me and to my church?  Are Christian women never to open their mouths inside the church building?

The most important thing to remember about rightly handling and understanding God’s Word is that we must study it in context. Paul is writing 1 Corinthians as sort of a “user’s manual” of Christianity for the fledgling church at Corinth. Remember, this Christianity thing was brand new to them. The new Christians at Corinth were coming out of paganism or Judaism. They had no idea what they were doing when it came to church and the Christian walk, and they couldn’t run down to their local Christian book store for a copy of Christianity for Dummies. They didn’t even have the New Testament yet, for goodness sakes!

So, for the first 13 chapters Paul has dealt with a variety of things, from the centrality of the gospel to unity to church discipline, marriage, idolatry, the Lord’s Supper- a smorgasbord of things the Holy Spirit thought the church needed instruction about. And chapter 14 is just more of this type of “Christianity 101” instruction.

If you read the entire chapter – which I encourage you to take a minute to do right now – you can see that the overall topic Paul is addressing throughout is keeping order in the church meeting (worship service). He spends the first 33 verses talking about tongues and prophecy and how those should be properly expressed in the service. Whether you’re a cessationist or a continuationist, I think we can all imagine that it would be mass chaos for multiple people to simultaneously stand up and speak out in these ways in the meeting, especially when the first priority was supposed to be listening to apostolic instruction.

This theme of keeping order in the worship service carries over into last portion of the chapter, as well. (My Bible even has a heading prior to verse 26 which says “Orderly Worship”.) The key verses showing this focus on orderly worship are 33: “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace,” and 40: ” But all things should be done decently and in order.” Those verses sort of “bookend” what Paul is saying here in the passage about women.

We saw earlier in the chapter that Paul talks about people prophesying and speaking in different languages with and without interpreters and how that can cause confusion and disorder. Likewise, in verse 26 he says, “When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.” You can probably imagine the resulting hullabaloo with all of those people trying to get a word in edgewise! My MacArthur study Bible adds the cultural note: “Apparently, certain women were out of order in disruptively asking questions publicly in the chaotic services.”

So, zooming out and taking a “big picture” look at this passage, we can see that the main issue here was not women speaking in church, per se, but rather a focus on orderliness in the service. Paul is trying to establish a structure for the worship service and a hierarchy of church leadership, and one of the main ways he can quickly and neatly cut a lot of the chaos (just as he earlier put limitations on speaking out in prophecy and other languages) is to tell the women to be quiet and hang on to their questions until they get home and can talk freely, in more depth, and at greater length, with their husbands. We can see from the rest of the passage that he doesn’t want men being disorderly either. In fact, he’s trying to create an atmosphere where apostolic teaching can take place that will both answer a lot of the women’s questions and equip their husbands to answer their wives’ questions later at home.

So, taking this passage and other passages about God’s design for worship and for men’s and women’s roles in the church hand in hand, it doesn’t seem that what Paul is saying in this particular passage is that no woman can ever say a word out loud in the church meeting simply because she has two X chromosomes. There are occasions when women can speak – in an orderly way – in church, as long as they are not doing it in a way that violates any other Scriptures (e.g. instructing men in the Bible or holding improper authority over men, as prohibited by 1 Timothy 2:12).

For example: if you go to a church (as I do) where people are prone to saying the occasional “Amen” when the pastor says something especially important in the sermon, it would not be a violation of 1 Corinthians 14:34 for women to say “amen” along with the men.

Neither would a woman be disobeying this verse if she stood up to make a general announcement if the church has a designated time of the service for that. Saying something like, “Just a reminder- we’re having a potluck on the 23rd. We could really use some guys to help move tables, and we need some volunteers to bring desserts,” would be fine. What would be disobedient to 1 Corinthians 14:34 is if she suddenly remembered this announcement during worship service and interrupted the pastor’s sermon to make the announcement. (Sounds crazy, I know, but I actually once saw a man do this in church, which means he was violating the biblical principle of orderliness in 1 Corinthians 14).

These are just two small examples. There are probably many other instances in which it would be fine for a woman to say something in church, assuming, as I mentioned, she is not being disruptive or violating any of the other Scriptures that define God’s plan for women in the church. But if there is any question about the biblical appropriateness of the situation, it’s best to have a godly man handle things (in an orderly way) instead. Because the primary focus here, as with any other situation in the church, should not be on how far we can stretch God’s word without breaking it, but on the way we can best glorify God by denying self and submitting to and obeying His word.

As we think about the roles of women and men in the church we would do well to remember how often Jesus said things like this:

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:25-28

We, and the church may prize leadership, position, and recognition, but Jesus prizes servanthood, anonymity, and humility.

 

Additional Resources:

Do Women Have to Remain Silent in Church?at Got Questions

Does 1 Corinthians 14 Mean Women are to Keep Silent in Church?by Bryan Chapell

Only Men May be Pastors at Founders Ministries

The Paul-Side Gambit: How A Proper Understanding of Apostolic Authority Defeats Women’s Ordination by Chris Rosebrough

Christian women, Complementarianism, Rock Your Role

Rock Your Role: All Things Being Equal (Galatians 3:28)

Michelle Lesley

Being a church lady can be really confusing at times, am I right? There are so many questions and Scriptures to sort through and figure out. We want to serve the body of Christ in a godly way, but sometimes it’s hard to know how to go about that.

Rock Your Role is a new series I’m starting today that will examine all of the “go to” Scriptures that help us understand our role as women in the church. Some of these passages are – let’s just be honest – tough. Tough to understand. Tough to accept.

As we tackle tough passages like these, it’s important to ask ourselves a few equally tough questions, search our hearts, and answer honestly. Before reading each article in the Rock Your Role series, I’d like to ask you to prayerfully consider these questions:

1. Do I really believe God’s rightly handled, in context, written Word has the final say when it comes to what I (and the church) should believe and do?

2. If so, am I truly willing to “put my money where my mouth is” and back up that belief with action and obedience, even if I don’t initially like or fully understand a certain biblical concept or command?

3. Is this passage a tough one for me because it challenges my preconceived notions and opinions? Am I willing to put my ideas aside and hear what God’s Word has to say so I can obey it?

Ready to dive in? Let’s get started with…

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
 Galatians 3:28

For those of you who have been around the blog for a while, you might be surprised that I’m kicking things off with this verse. I’m about as complementarian as they come, and Galatians 3:28 is the rallying cry for egalitarians. But this verse is foundational to our understanding of the role of women in the church because it tells us who we are in Christ.

Before we zero in on verse 28, though, let’s zoom out and look at the book of Galatians as a whole. Galatians was written by Paul to the churches at Galatia to combat the false doctrine of the Judaizers- those who taught that the Gentiles must first become Jews (be circumcised and follow the Mosaic law) before they could become Christians. The Galatians were being seduced by this teaching, allowing it into their churches, and many were being drawn away from the truth of the gospel. Paul wrote to straighten them out and remind them – and us – that we are justified (saved and made right with God) through repentance and faith in Christ, not by keeping the law.

Galatians 3 is a perfect showcase for Paul’s theme of justification by faith. Take a moment and read the whole chapter now.

Paul reminds the Galatians that they were saved by faith, not works of the law, just like Abraham was. Paul explains that the law came with a curse attached for those who disobeyed it, but that Christ redeemed us from that curse. In fact, the whole purpose of the law was to teach us we can’t keep it and push us to faith in Christ as our only hope for salvation.

Wait a second. What’s all this talk about the law and faith and salvation and stuff? Isn’t this passage about women being equal to men and that they can serve in any capacity or office in the church that men can?

Wait a second. What’s all this talk about the law and faith and salvation and stuff? Isn’t this passage about women being equal to men and that they can serve in any capacity or office in the church that men can? Um…no. No, it’s not.

Um…no. No, it’s not. And that’s where the wheels fall off of the egalitarian argument. The entirety of Galatians chapter three is about salvation by faith instead of works. It says nothing about women serving in the same roles in the church as men. Nada. Zip. Zero.

It tells us something better. Something far more precious to the women of that time – and to us – than we realize. Let’s look at verse 28 in its immediate context:

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Do you see that? We’re no longer under the guardianship of the law. Anyone can come to Christ in repentance and faith- Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, all are welcome. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. No one is more important than anybody else. We are all equally saved, equally loved, equally forgiven of our sin, equally precious in God’s eyes. In a time when women were considered less important, less valuable, less intelligent, less everything than men, this would have been joyous news, indeed. It should be to us, as well.

But equality in salvation does not translate to equality in church roles. A king and a pauper might have worshiped side by side in the Galatian church, but when it came to the role of giving, the church would not have expected the same offering from the pauper as from the king. This didn’t make the king more important than the pauper, it just gave him a different area of responsibility because of who he was. Likewise, men and women are equally saved and forgiven in God’s eyes, but still fulfill different roles in the body of Christ because of who they are.

Equality in salvation does not translate to equality in church roles.

Let me illustrate this another way. My husband and I have 6 children. Each and every one of us are all equally Lesleys even though I married into the family and the rest of them were born into the family. No family member is more loved or important than another. However, we all have different roles, which come with different blessings and responsibilities. My 12 year old might not be able to drive the car, but he doesn’t have to work eight hours a day and pay bills, either. I no longer have to do homework (thank you, Lord!), but I do have to do housework. Our family would not operate in a healthy way if I tried to take on my son’s role or my husband tried to take on my role.

It’s the same way in the church. God loves, forgives, and saves each one of us equally. But he also loves us each individually. And it’s because of that individual love that He gives each of us unique roles to fill in the church so that it will operate in a healthy way. As we’ll see throughout this series, the role of women in the church is precious and vital to the well being of the body of Christ. So is the role of men. They are both equally important, yet God has specially gifted women to fulfill the roles He has designed for us just as He has specially gifted men to fulfill the roles He has designed for them.

Ladies, you have a Savior who loves and values you as a woman, and your role in the church is no less important than any man’s just because it’s different from his role. There are no second class citizens in God’s kingdom.

Ladies, you have a Savior who loves and values you as a *woman,* and your role in the church is no less important than any man’s just because it’s different from his role.