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Luke admired Paul and pictures him as the hero of the early growing church. Luke was strong for women's equality, and how can it be that we think Paul was opposed to it? Could it be that we have taken a few isolated passages of Paul out of context? Consider Phoebe in Rom. 16:1-2. Many felt she was the carrier of the Roman letter. Paul held her in high esteem, and gave her a very responsive task, and expected the church to treat her as a respected leader. She is called deaconess and helper in the RSV. It usually means one who presides as a chairman or president. The verb means to rule or manage. The deaconesses did teaching of new converts, assisted in baptism, distributed food and funds to the needy, visited the sick and imprisoned, arranged for funerals, and cared for orphans. It was a very important role in the early church.
Acts 1:12-14. The disciples, their wives, and other women prayed together, and we see the sexes as united in the start of the early church. The women are so much in the background that if Dr. Luke had not told us of the presence of these women, the whole account of Pentecost could be interpreted as exclusively male. Those filled with the Spirit are refered to as brethren in verse 15, and men in 2:15, and the only clue we have that women were involved is the Scriptures that Peter quotes in 2:17-18. The three thousand saved on Pentecost could be all males for all we know. There is only one hint of women, and that is in 2:46 when in their homes makes clear that the whole family was involved. In Judaism, the way the man went, so went his wife and children.
ACTS 2:17-18. The Spirit of God is to be poured out on daughters as well as sons. Dr. Luke protrays women as obedient proclaimers of the Gospel. This is not seen in the other Gospels. Mark, for example, is more impressed with the fears of women than with their successful mission in Mark 16:1-8. But see the same account in Luke 24:9-11.
ACTS 5:1-11. Here is women's equality. Women can be equal as sinners as well as saints, and thus suffer equal judgment for folly. The first sin in the Old Testament was of a man and his wife, and both fell. Here is the fall of New Testament saints, and also of a man and his wife. The sin of believers is more harmful than the sin of the unbeliever. But what Christian would survive today if God judged all like He did then. Their sin was in doing good for the wrong reason. You can do good, but because your motive is wrong, it is bad. If we talk high and walk low, we praise the ideal, but perform the real.
Jesus was a man who relate to women without sexual overtones-Matt. 19:12. This text refers to the possibility of renoucning sexual activity for the sake of the kingdom. Women could feel relaxed and free in the presence of Christ. There was not fear of condemnation, nor any fear of His seeking to take advantage of them. Jesus related well to single women like Mary and Martha, and also to married women as in Luke 8:2-3. They could be down, or of high stature, for He loved people of every class.
The question has been raised, did Jesus have any romantic attraction to women, and especially to Mary Magdalene. Romance may embarrass us at times because we relate it so strongly to sex,but God is not bashful about love or sex. The whole book of The Song Of Solomon is a passionate love song of two lovers, and the whole history of its interpretation makes Jesus the male lover. To turn around and say the He can be symbolically linked with deep romance, but could not in real life have any such feelings, is to rob the symbolism of meaning. To deny to Christ one of the good and noble emotions of man is to make Him less a man than ourselves. Romance does not need to imply sex in any way, for one can have a romantic relationship for years before sex enters the picture. The beauty and joy of romance is totally different than the beauty and joy of sex. The first is intended to be the legitimate relation of the sexes before marriage, and the second afterward. We are to love our wives as Christ loved the church. Jesus is the ideal and example of committed love.
Jesus was the spotless lamb of God and had to be perfect without defect. In the Old Testment a man with a sexual defect was not considered a whole man. Jesus Christ Superstar implies there was a romantic relationship with Mary. Logic would tell us that a perfect specimen of a man must have an appreciation for all beauty including that of a woman. The fact is it is possible to have romantic feelings toward a woman without sin. In the middle ages this was a common relationship of knights and ladies who never touched each other.
WOMEN IN TIMOTHY.
In I Tim. 2:12 Paul says he does not permit a woman to teach or have authority over men. Is this relative to the culture of Paul's day, or is it an absolute principle? St Bernard who had a great devotion to Mary was kneeling before her statue one day when her stone lips began to part as if to speak. "Silence," he cried! "it is not permitted for a woman to speak in church." Arguments to support its cultural limitations are:
1. Women do in fact teach men in the church today, and they are not offensive to the men who listen. High School students are often taught by women and these young men are in fact men by New Testament standards.
2. Women missionaries come home from the field and teach us much, and expound the Word from the pulpit. They also teach in Christain colleges and seminaries.
3. Women write books and thereby teach men and women through literature.
4. It was not the woman's place in the ancient culture to teach anyone, but in our culture women teach everywhere, even on the professional level, and they are above men in all fields as their supervisors.
5. Other cultural advice is not applied to life today. In I Tim. 2:2 we are urged to pray for kings, but we have none and so we adjust it to pray for our leaders. In 2:8 we do not lift hands but we fold hands instead. In 2:9 we see the issue of modesty, and even our long dresses of today, and the jewerly of Christian women to day would be immodest by the standard of Paul's day. Costly attire today may cost Christian women hundreds of dollars. A woman entering into discussion, reading of Scripture, and sharing were not acceptable in Paul's day but they are today. In 5:23 Paul suggested wine, but are we obligated to use that today? In 6:1 we see the whole issue of slavery has changed since then.
6. The church today has needs that were not a part of the early church. Women are more needed for Sunday School . But Dr. Luke tells us of Priscilla who was a teacher of Apollos in Acts 18:26. They were active in the church, for Paul sends greetings to at least 8 in Rom. 16:1. Paul had women directly involved in his ministry-Phil 4:3. ISBE says, "Those women who labored with me in the Gospel-undoubtedly participated with him in preaching."
7. ISBE says, "Modern scholarship unhesitatingly affirms that his prohibition was applicable only to the peculiar conditions of his own time." Referring to Paul's Timothy statement on silence.
8. The whole church is portrayed as a bride and so the clergy and layman are all pictured in the female role of the bride.
9. In Gen. 2:18 Eve is a helper to Adam. The Hebrew word is used 21 times with 16 referring to, not subordinate but to super-ordinate. The most common use is of God as our helper-Psa. 33:20, 146:5. The point is the word does not indicate higher or lower rank.
10. The principle is, do not allow women to do anything in the church that could be interpreted by the world in a scandolous way. Or that would be unacceptable in the world and cause the world to rebuke the church.
11. Christianity grew out of Judaism and Judaism is a male dominate religion. It was the best at the time, but now that Jesus has come, all people are equal. Order in the service was a key issue, and the women off by themselves could begin to chatter and disturb the service. They were less educated and may have questions. But now women are as educated as men, and so the context of the church has totally changed.
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