Women In Ministry - Part 1 Series

NOTE: New Light Faith Ministries and Barry Johnson Ministries, founded by Rodney V. Johnson and Barry O. Johnson, respectively, are partnering to offer Bible studies for Christians who are seeking to grow in their relationship with Jesus. This is a Bible study lesson, not a sermon. The Bible studies teach foundational truths that are designed to challenge, encourage, and most importantly, flame the fire of hunger in the Christian who wants to learn more about who they have become in Christ Jesus. The Bible studies you find on this site contain the written version of the lesson. However, these lessons also include a video and an audio file of the study, a PDF version of the lesson, and a sheet for note-taking. If you would like any of the additional resources for these studies, please email us at newlightfaithministries@gmail.com or bjteachingltr@gmail.com for more information or contact us at the email provided on both of our Sermon Central pages. Be blessed.

Women In Ministry – Part 1

(Rev. Barry Johnson and Rev. Rodney Johnson)

Introduction

The question of whether it is proper for a woman to preach or exercise leadership in the church has received much attention in recent years. Some denominations permit and even encourage the unrestricted use of a woman’s gift in all of the offices of the church, while others, based on passages such as First Timothy 2:9-15, First Corinthians 11:2-16 and 14:33-36, consider it unbiblical for a woman to preach or exercise authority over a church congregation that includes men.

In First Timothy 2:12, Paul states “But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.” What is the prevailing thought today about what Paul said? Before you answer, remember the fact that today, 65% of church membership is women. Also, women teach in almost every denomination, sit on the deacon board in some, and on the trustee board in many others.

Each of these represents a leadership position within the church. The fact that most churches have women in leadership positions that require them to be very verbal and lead demonstrates one of three things: (1) We are ignoring what Paul said; or (2) What Paul wrote only addresses a particular group of people or circumstance, or (3) What he said has been mistranslated.

One of the prevailing thoughts is that Paul made this statement to prohibit women from teaching who were not properly trained (instructed in the Word). Another thought is that he was talking to Timothy (and Titus) to keep them from entering into a situation similar to the one in Ephesus where some of the women exercised authority (domineered) over the men. If you consider that Paul often praises the contribution of women in his ministry, recognizing many as fellow laborers with him, then it raises the question – could he have meant that women globally were not permitted to speak or teach God’s Word? Still, some believe that he was responding to his rabbinic training and cultural surroundings of the time when women were not necessarily equal to men.

Rodney, there are two words in this verse that are important to understanding what Paul is writing here First Timothy – “man” and “woman.” These words translated are the same Greek words for “husband” and “wife.” In other texts where Paul uses these two words closely together, they are translated as “husband and wife” not “man and woman.” This means that the verse should have been translated as “I do not permit a wife to teach or exercise authority over her husband” which would make it agree with Paul’s other passages of Scripture.

Now keep this in mind because we will examine this passage in more detail in Part 2 of this study. Having said this, we want to objectively examine the roles of women in both the Old and New Testaments to see exactly how “God” used them and how He viewed their contributions. Please keep in mind that Paul also wrote, “(26) For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (27) For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (28) There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (29) And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29)

We will start with the roles women played in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, women walked in the office of both a prophet (prophetess) and a judge. Let’s begin by defining the word prophetess. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word means “a spokesman, a speaker, or a prophet.” The ancient concept of a prophetess was a woman who had the gift of song, like Miriam, which we are going to see in a moment. The latter meaning, which was more in line with that of a prophet, was one who was consulted to receive a word from the Lord. An example is Huldah in Second Kings, which we will also see in a moment. In the New Testament, the Greek word means “to tell beforehand.” Spoken of a female friend of God, one who lives in communion with God and to whom God reveals Himself by His Spirit. We will look at this aspect in Part 2 of this study.