Filed under: Leadership
So I was reading through 1 Peter 3 this morning for my devotions. And I stumbled upon a verse that I know I have read before, but just found very interesting. It’s clearly not something you’ll hear many pastors preach from a pulpit–perhaps for good reason.
In verse 7 of chapter 3, Peter says, “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.”
Now I couldn’t help but notice that Peter outrightly labels the wife as the weaker partner. I don’t think he is looking to put down wives. It’s not a stab at them. But rather he says it matter-of-fact-ly, as if all of his readers knew what he was talking about.
Those who know me well know that I have the highest respect for women, and do not look down on them. In fact, I know many women who are a lot stronger all around (not just physically, although that too) than many men I know.
Over the past month or so I have been struck by the simple fact that, although in North America we live in a society where freedom is obviously very important to us as individuals and in the past one hundred years the rights of women have been steadily equaled with men (although many women will dispute this, and rightly so).
However, with all this in mind, I could not help but wonder why Christ did not spend any time talking about the need to give women equal rights in society and to allow them to have the same positions in society as the men do and all these other things. He mentions nothing of it. Mind you, those who are looking for support for women in ministry and all of that tend to look to the few passages where Jesus is actually paying attention to a woman in a way that was uncommon in that day. But really, unless we read too much into it, these passages do not elevate women to the status we have given them today. Jesus simply exemplified this teaching in 1 Peter 3, as well as that of Ephesians 5:22-33.
So what can we bring out from all of this? As I have said I have the utmost respect for women and also think that they should be in leadership places, especially in ministry. In fact, my senior pastor at my church is a woman. But is all of this scripturally supported? Or is the fact that I am okay with it and support a result of how my culture has conformed my mind to their thinking? Considering we are told in scripture to be above cultural thinking, towards Godly thinking, where should these justifications be coming from?
As Peter says, is the wife the weaker partner?
I really don’t have any answers to all of this. It’s just something that has been on my mind. I’m sure many of you won’t like what I have written here. But think about it before you respond. I mean no disrespect.
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I would be interested to know what the Greek translation of the word “weaker” is. I suspect it referred to the (voluntary) subordinate role in a male-female spousal relationship.
As far as scripturally supported women’s ministries, please consider:
1. The equality of spiritual gifts prophesied by Joel (v. 17-18)”“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people, your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams, even on my servants, both men and women, will I pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy” (vv. 17-18).”
2. The wealthy, influential business person and church leader, Lydia (Acts 16:40)
3. Co-Pastor/Evangelists Priscilla & Aquila (Romans 16:5/1 Corinthians 16:19)
4. Church leader Nympha (Colossians 4:15)both the NASB and GWT use the pronoun “her”
5. The daughters of Philip who were Prophets (Acts 21:9)
6. My favorite verse that should end all question as to whether women should be allowed leadership roles in the church comes from Galatians 3:28, ““There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
2 Corinthians 13:1 & Matthew 18:16 say “At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established”. I have given you six arguments in support of women-led ministry.
Comment by Alexis 9 July 2007 @ 10:57 amThanks for your input Alexis. Those are all great points to consider in this matter. Those are of course the points that I mention people refer to when arguing for the fact women should be in ministry.
However, that is not my problem, which is probably my fault for not explaining it well. I have no problem with women being in ministry. And as you have pointed out, there are clearly examples of women in ministry in scripture.
However, the issue I wanted to raise is whether all of this male/female equality in all things our culture has taught us is needed–whether it is biblical. Yes, we can cite passages like yours such as Galatians 3:28. But, what about all of the other verses where that say women submit to your husbands. Let’s not forget the kind of culture the New Testament was written in–a very male dominated culture. Now obviously God is above culture so we dont’ necessarily need to do the same simply because of this. However, if that is so, or if having a male dominated culture is wrong, why did Jesus not speak against it?
Obviously all of this is going to cause grievance because I am not female. But I still wanted to encourage the discussion.
Comment by Trevor 9 July 2007 @ 11:06 am