Would please turn within your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3 beginning at verse 14. The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.’
To the woman he said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain, you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.’ And to Adam, he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you are taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’
From there we turn to Romans chapter 5 beginning at verse 12. Paul writes, ‘Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given. But sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God, and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
For as by the one man’s disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience, the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And from there we turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2 beginning at verse 8. Paul again writes, ‘I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarrel. 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.’
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us pray.
‘Lord, you have given us your word. You have inspired it, breathed it out for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training us and leading us in the ways of righteousness. Help us to hear you speak and help us to graciously understand the harder passages of scripture, the scriptures that our flesh constantly seeks to revolt against and struggle with. Help us to have understanding and above all to trust in your goodness through all things. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.’
So the second concern we will use the lens of covenant theology to try and discern faithful scriptural applications are related to several questions concerning the issue of gender. And the first question relates to the biblically defined relationship between gender and spiritual authority. As reformed Christians, we believe that the Bible has been inspired and given by God to be the rule of faith and luck. We appeal to scripture as the ultimate authority about everything it speaks.
The divine delegation of some of his authority to humanity as his image and likeness is something plainly taught. However, because of Adam’s original sin and our continuing sinfulness, sometimes our use of our authority is corrupted and gets transformed into abuse or domination. And unfortunately, some of the worst examples of this are those that are inflicted upon members of the opposite sex.
That is why we’re going to consider and seek the answer to these three questions. What is our duty to God? What has he established that we should be upholding related to the spiritual authority granted as was originally established in the covenant of works? What is our obligation of love? How should we exercise spiritual authority in our relationships with members of the opposite sex inside of the church as our faithful response? And what is our obligation of love? How should we exercise spiritual authority in relationships with members of the opposite sex outside of the church as a faithful response?
Now, I recognize that this subject is uncomfortable for everyone because of our modern culture’s changing norms. And it’s because of that discomfort that we need to better understand the scriptural foundation. We need to interpret our culture in light of what the unchanging infallible scripture says rather than reinterpreting scripture in light of what the ever-changing cultural norms suggest.
So we begin our examination of spiritual authority by considering a very uncomfortable verse. 1 Timothy 2:1. Writing to his younger disciple Timothy, the Apostle Paul writes, ‘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.’
Unfortunately, this verse has been made controversial because sinful men with a selfish and misogynistic agenda have broadly applied it to women in an abusive manner. The English translation does seem to convey a very harsh sounding command from the apostle. So some men have wrongfully applied it to try and invalidate women’s individual gifts and their many contributions, minimizing their value as the image of God.
This verse has been used sinfully to forcibly subordinate women beneath men in ways and manners that neither Paul nor the Holy Spirit intended, despite their intention actually being very specific. Their intention would have been plainly understood by Timothy and by anyone he would have shared the letter with. Context is important in helping us understand and interpret scripture. That’s why we study the ancient languages and the culture of the ancient world.
Culture is critical to interpretation because by knowing the world of the biblical writers and audiences, we may better understand their mindset. We try to hear as they heard, to think as they thought, and so understand and apply scripture in a manner that is faithful to its original intention and purpose. But while pushing back against abuse, some interpreters have used the ancient cultural context to try and minimize Paul’s instruction by explaining his remark away entirely.
They argue that it is not culturally relevant for us today. But that assumption goes completely against the doctrine of scripture that it remains eternally effective and relevant. Now Timothy, he ministered in the city of Ephesus which had the great temple of Artemis, and Artemis’s devotees once caused a riot against the gospel and Paul.
Interpreters then assumed that some followers and priestesses of Artemis were converted to Christ and thus joined this congregation. It’s then often suggested that these women may have tried to reassert authority over men in the congregation as they previously held in the pagan temple and that Paul was writing to address this unique and specific problem.
But the biblical evidence and the external textual evidence do not support that assumption. While understanding the particular context of Ephesus does help us to understand and interpret Paul’s letter to Timothy as a whole, it’s not actually the most appropriate or relevant context to understand this particular verse. That context is found in the verse itself and is explained by passages elsewhere in scripture.
Now, the text provides us with specific details or clues that direct us where to look elsewhere in scripture to better understand what Paul is explaining to Timothy. The key is found in Paul’s statement, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.” A straightforward declaration in English, but one that conveys a greater depth of meaning in the original Greek.
See, ordinarily in the New Testament, the word authority translates the Greek term ‘exousia,’ which refers to inherent power or authority. As in, when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. But that’s not the term Paul uses here. He uses ‘authenteō’ instead, a word that only appears this one time in the New Testament.
That term implies a sense of stolen authority or an unjustified exercise of authority. So rather than commanding a broad and general prohibition against women teaching and exercising authority because of their gender, Paul only prohibits them from doing so like a man in a specific kind of circumstance. He prohibits women from exercising an authority that belongs to men alone.
Then immediately following the prohibition, he explains why. He directs us back to the beginning in the Garden of Eden and writes, ‘For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.’ Paul recalls what God told Adam when he imposed the curse for sin: ‘Because you listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it; cursed is the ground because of you.’
Yet neither Paul nor God does blame Eve for Adam’s sin or for God’s curse. Instead, he’s actually rather sympathetic towards her because, first, Paul affirms that Eve was the one deceived, and she transgressed God’s command because of this deception. Her personal sin was still accounted to her, but she was not wholly at fault for her transgression. Paul reminds us that Adam, because he followed Eve’s counsel rather than God’s command, had the fault of both his and her transgressions belong entirely to him.
Lastly, Paul used Eve being deceived first and then persuading Adam to join her in sin as his justification for why a woman ought not to teach or exercise authority over a man in this circumstance. Paul argues that a woman should learn quietly with all submissiveness and not try to instruct or seize authority over a man because Eve originally was still learning from Adam. But after being deceived, she persuaded him to also eat the fruit even though Adam knew better.
But under what circumstance is it here that he says women are prohibited? This is not a universal command against women from ever teaching men or ever exerting any kind of authority over men. The circumstance becomes clear when we consider the written context around the command, the garden context, and the relationship between Adam and Eve.
See, Paul’s prohibition is limited to just the exercise of spiritual authority and the kind of spiritual instruction that’s given through the reading and preaching of God’s word. This interpretation and conclusion is reached because the preceding text relates to prayer and the practices of worship. Then it gets followed by the qualifications that are expected of church officers.
Furthermore, the garden context also centers around the worship of God. When the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. There’s a spiritual element here because God gave him the purpose to ‘avād’ and ‘shamar.’ But since Adam was still alone, since Eve was not yet created, this purpose was given to him alone.
Now, previously we used this purpose of ‘avād’ and ‘shamar’ to help us understand the broader physical sense intended by the command given to humanity through both Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Now, they will help inform us about the spiritual sense of the same purpose. But let me be very clear. Nothing suggests that this command requires a broad application outside the church.
It is good and proper for women who possess knowledge and wisdom to instruct men and women about what they do not know. It is good and proper for qualified and capable women to serve in positions of authority over men and women when they are the better candidate best suited to the role. Women can and should be teachers, managers, doctors, lawyers, or even politicians if they want when that is their personal gifting or vocational calling.
I mean, my wife knows more about computers than I do, and she’s more capable than I am at using them to their full capacity. So, I’m glad to submit to her on technological matters. I would prefer to have a woman’s surgeon over a man if she’s the one better qualified. And even back in seminary, our professor for my spiritual formation class was a wise woman named Gwenfair Adams.
So, regarding Adam’s purpose and the scope of authority that was given by ‘avād’ and ‘shamar,’ we’re told to look, we are suggested to look at another time when God commanded the same purpose. When the Lord explained the purpose and duty of the Levites and priests to Moses, he said, ‘They shall guard ‘shamar’ all the furnishings of the tent of meeting and keep guard ‘shamar’ over the people of Israel as they minister ‘avād’ at the tabernacle.’
See, that specific responsibility was prescribed only to Levi’s heirs, the men of that tribe. God purposed the Levites and priests to ‘shamar’ the tabernacle and the people as well as to ‘avād’ at the tabernacle. They were purposed to work it and keep it just like Adam was purposed for God’s garden.
So Adam as humanity’s mediator was purposed to ‘avād’ and ‘shamar’ by exercising dominion over creation as a king rightly teaching God’s word to humanity as a prophet after the creation of Eve and by exercising spiritual authority over God’s people as a priest. Since Adam was personally given this spiritual authority by the Lord, it became limited to Adam’s heirs. It was first given to Adam and then passed down through the line of Seth to Noah and then passed from Noah to Shem down to Abraham and on through Isaac and Jacob to God’s people Israel.
Then at Mount Sinai, the Lord ordained it to only the Levitical men and the unique line of Aaron for the priesthood. Now it belongs to Jesus Christ, his apostles, and his ordained ministers, church elders, and pastors. So although Adam and his heirs were given this spiritual authority, it also came with responsibility.
Not only was Adam given the authority to exercise dominion as king and prophet for the good benefit of God’s creation, he was also given the responsibility to guard, defend, and protect the souls of God’s people by teaching them God’s word truly and leading them in reverent obedience. Not only was Adam given the authority to lead worship as priest and prophet, but he was given the responsibility to lead God’s people in worship rightly according to the desire and requirements of the Lord.
Now this spiritual authority and responsibility reside in Jesus and the elders of his church. Across the testimony of scripture, we find this spiritual authority and responsibility has always been invested in men: Adam, the Levites, the apostles, the New Testament church elders, and so on into today.
The spiritual authority of male eldership has been the accepted practice of the church ever since its establishment, built upon this scriptural foundation. The suggested exceptions found in scripture, women like Deborah or Huldah or Priscilla, are never described as being normative or regular in their exercise and use of authority. Those examples actually help to prove the rule since each one serves to correct and return the church to the right and proper model.
Deborah, the judge and prophetess, was raised up by God because the men of Israel had abandoned their spiritual duty. Through her, Barak became convicted by his negligence and eventually led Israel’s defense as he had been previously commanded by God. Hilkiah the priest went to inquire of the Lord through the prophetess Huldah to confirm the veracity of the rediscovered book of the law instead of going through the Lord’s anointed prophet Jeremiah because Hilkiah did not want to affirm Jeremiah in his prophetic call or vocation.
Priscilla, together with her husband Aquila, taught and properly explained the gospel to the preacher Apollos. She helped to correct his errors and set him onto the correct path even while she was also learning under Aquila’s authority alongside him. These examples, rather than prescribing a change in the historic order, demonstrate God’s grace and mercy by preserving the faith through their correction of sinful men’s failures.
The men who should have been exercising spiritual authority here were either delinquent in their duty, being ignored, or they lacked proper understanding. But why? Why does scripture restrict spiritual authority to men? The reason resides within the covenant of works and in Adam, our mediator.
We often think about the perceived benefit of having authority. But then we forget that it always comes with a string attached. We forget that because Adam was given authority by the Lord to rule over creation in his name, he would also be the one held responsible if God’s rules were broken. Adam was created to be the best of humanity. And Adam was responsible to teach Eve God’s command rightly.
Adam was responsible to prevent her from being deceived by the serpent, Satan. Adam was responsible to stop her from eating from the tree. Adam was responsible to rebuke and correct her after her sin, to encourage her to repent. But Adam failed in his responsibilities. He did not teach Eve God’s command rightly. Instead, he added a prohibition to God’s word against touching it.
He did not protect her from the serpent. He did not rebuke or correct the devil despite being with Eve during the encounter. He did not prevent her from eating the forbidden fruit, but instead joined with her in sinful disobedience. Then together with her, they tried to hide their wrongdoing from God. Adam failed Eve. He failed himself, and he failed us as our covenant mediator.
Adam’s failure led to our condemnation and our particular sinful failures. The Apostle Paul notes that although Eve was the one who sinned first, Adam was the one truly at fault. Adam was to blame because he was spiritually responsible. Just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
According to the covenant of works, because of Adam’s moral and spiritual failure, when the one man sinned, humanity lost our original righteousness. Our nature became corrupted by sin, and we became subject to death. Because of Adam’s failure, we needed a different mediator as our substitute. We needed someone like him, the type of the one who was to come, but someone who would succeed where Adam failed.
So according to the covenant of grace, God’s people are redeemed by the last Adam, Jesus. For if because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through the one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Because Jesus obeyed God and kept his holy law where Adam failed. Jesus suffered the death that we deserve, the death that was earned by Adam so that we may enjoy the life of righteousness that he deserves.
Jesus is the true prophet, priest, and king who spoke and explained God’s word to us as a prophet. He intercedes for us by prayer and through his singular death on the cross as a priest. He rules in heaven for us as king, ruling over our hearts and minds. So we need to understand that receiving spiritual authority and responsibility is not something accepted lightly. This responsibility is not intended for everyone or just anyone but only those men who are called to it by the Lord.
Men like Adam and Aaron and the Levites or John the Baptist and Jesus and the apostles and the elders of the continuing church. This spiritual authority is both a privilege and a burdensome responsibility, but it is a worthwhile one. Paul teaches that if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. But then he qualifies it by asserting that such persons must be above reproach. He establishes a high bar and the greatest of expectations for church elders.
The author of Hebrews reminds us that we should obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Church elders are responsible for you and your souls because they must answer to the highest authority. James, the brother of Jesus, warns that not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
He warns us that since they have received this authority, church elders are held to a higher standard. In scripture, it gives us specific characteristics to identify potentially qualified men. But not everyone may be truly qualified if they lack the calling to it. The good news, however, is that scripture repeatedly shows that while God does not always call the qualified to his service, he will still always qualify those called. Consider Moses and David, the apostles or Paul. None of them are people we would have chosen to lead God’s people, but they were God’s choice and his decision has been vindicated throughout the whole of redemptive history.
Furthermore, by simply limiting this responsibility to qualified men is not a negative thing. This restriction is not a condemnation of unqualified men, nor is it a judgment against the capabilities or gifting of women. Rather, it’s an affirmation of our divinely appointed roles and gifts. Everybody serves and participates within the body of Christ differently. Each of us are important and no one is inherently greater than any others. Just as men and women are created equally as God’s image, so too are we both equal in our union into Christ.
Therefore, receiving this authority is not an elevation of status, but rather a reduction, because elders are called to become the servants of everyone as they emulate and follow Christ. Unfortunately, just like everything else touched by our human nature, our spiritual authority gets corrupted and may be abused because of our sinfulness. There is opposition to this authority because of the curse.
The Lord explained to the woman in Genesis 3:16, ‘Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you’ in the ESV. Or ‘Your desires shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee’ in the King James. Regardless of the translation, what is clear is that strife will exist between the two sexes as a consequence of the curse. A wife’s desire may be either for or against her husband’s will, but her husband will now rule over her. This form of rulership is an authority of strict control, of a different word, a different kind.
This control too easily gets corrupted into all the many different forms of abuse, whether spiritual, mental, or physical. Mentally and physically, men and women, husbands and wives, we no longer cooperate in harmony because of our sinfulness. Men oppress women, and women oppress men in retaliation. Conflict breeds more conflict and creates generational strife by the sinful examples of our parents or other life roles.
Spiritually, the true religion becomes disordered and corrupted. My history provides countless examples. Women subverted spiritual authority by exerting control and influence through fertility cults like those of Baal’s consort, Asherah. Women usurped spiritual authority by creating cults that worshiped a feminine divine like in Ephesus. Women opposed the spiritual authority by setting themselves up as idols and objects for men to desire and worship. Meanwhile, men abuse their spiritual authority by wrongfully using religion to oppress, devalue, or dehumanize women. Instead of lifting them up and encouraging them, men abuse their spiritual authority by wrongfully using women to satisfy their own sinful desires.
Men abuse spiritual authority by wrongfully using religion to force women into submission and subservience rather than working together with them. All abuse is inexcusably wrong and sinful, and it must be addressed and disciplined and redressed according to applicable civil and criminal laws and by church discipline. But there is still hope for relationships between the sexes to be restored in Christ. There can be and there is a return to peace and unity, to cooperative harmony between believers sharing this common faith in Jesus.
The sinful strife between the sexes can be repaired. This does not mean that all of our relational or spiritual conflicts cease in this life. Unfortunately, we remain sinners. We still sin, and although the effects of the curse still appear, now we get to repent of our sin. Now we may seek forgiveness from the Lord and from each other when we sin against one another. Now we get to work to repair and restore our relationships and work towards living more in accord with the original biblical intention.
Remember, the spiritual authority that God gave through Adam is not an absolute or unlimited authority. It is limited by God’s word. The best means to restrain any sinful abuse of authority is to hold our elders accountable. Meanwhile, women have their own spheres of authority as well as different responsibilities in life and those are something we’ll look at next week.
But concerning the original three questions we began with: What is our duty to God in relation to this spiritual authority as originally established? The biblical pattern of spiritual authority that’s been demonstrated through men like Adam, the Levites, Jesus, and the appointed elders of the New Testament church teaches that the formal leadership of Christ’s church has always been the responsibility of qualified men called by God. But it also shows that they are unable to do everything alone or on their own.
Elders need our help and support. We are each responsible to raise up our elders in diligent prayer. We should be praying for their knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. We should be praying for them to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit. We should be praying for them to be compassionate and expressive of God’s grace. We should be praying for their health and well-being. We should be praying for their families and for everyone who helps to support them.
We should also be praying for one another and for our own selves so that we may submit to their authority graciously. We should be praying for opportunities to help them and to work with them in fulfillment of the great commission in our community. We should be praying for the ability to work together and grow the peace and unity of Christ’s kingdom.
Not only should we be supporting our elders through prayer and supporting them by cooperation in their work, we also should be faithful and diligent to heed their counsel, to trust and submit to them as they prayerfully lead and guide our congregation through all challenges in life for the benefit of the church and God’s glory.
And we must remember that despite being charged with spiritual authority, there is no guarantee of masculine infallibility. Like Adam, church elders sometimes get things wrong. Elders try to do their best, but their best is not always good enough, and they fail. They make incorrect decisions. They fail to lead as they should. They fail to guard, guide, and protect God’s church as they should.
But they also make good and correct decisions. They also succeed in their purpose to ‘avād’ and ‘shamar’ as they should. So by God’s grace and by the help of the Holy Spirit, we should pray that they will do as they ought and succeed more often than not.
Next, what should our response of love be when exercising spiritual authority in our relationships between members of the opposite sex inside of the church? Grace is the key. Through Christ’s covenant, we are reconciled to God our Father in heaven. We are united together into Christ, we have been adopted by the Lord as his children, and we have been restored to a right relationship with him.
So just as we are reconciled with God, we may also be reconciled with each other. We are no longer bound by sin’s curse to suffer strife and experience conflict between the sexes. Now we may cooperate together again in harmony and unity. Our goals may be united and shared. We may work together instead of against one another. We may ordinarily presume the better of other people’s motivations rather than assuming the worst of intentions.
We may exercise authority and submit to authority without oppression or fear, without suspicion or denigration. Elders can, should, and must love the women of the church as Christ loves his church. They ought to always seek the women’s good, working for both their earthly and eternal benefit. The elders ought to serve them as their service to Christ.
The elders ought to love them sacrificially without any expectation of gratitude or reward in return. Believing women and men both can, should, and must submit to the elders of the church as the church submits to Christ. They ought to honor and obey the elders’ spiritual authority as they work for their benefit, as they minister to and serve them. They ought to be grateful to the elders as they love them, and they should love the elders in return as they are grateful to Christ Jesus.
Last of all, what should our response of love be when exercising spiritual authority in our relationships outside of the church? Grace again remains the key, but we must also remember to whom we belong and to whom they belong. Although church elders in the church have this spiritual authority and responsibility, the people who belong to the world outside do not recognize it, accept it, and they will not wholeheartedly agree to submit to it.
But we should still share the love of God with them. We should be patient with them as we explain the good news about what Christ has done for them and the great benefits he offers. We should not respond to them harshly even when we are treated poorly first. We should still be praying for them. We should be praying that God would convert them and reconcile them to himself for his glory.
But we should not enter into spiritual unions with them. We should not join them even in worldly efforts or works of charity where confusion or misunderstanding might be caused by that relationship even when there are shared or common values. Nor should we purposefully seek out to unite with them in marriage, hoping that through the relationship they might eventually someday possibly maybe come to faith.
So after considering our divine duties in relation to the spiritual authority God has given and our obligation to respond lovingly, let us love the Lord by submitting to him in love by gracefully submitting to the elders he has delegated his authority to. Let our elders love the Lord by exercising their authority justly and mercifully in obedience, faithfully to Christ and his word.
Let us each love our neighbors within the church by continually working together in peace and unity to achieve God’s will and holy purposes in the world as we’re instructed to through scripture. Let us each love our neighbors outside of the church by demonstrating a more excellent way to live by our obedience, our love, and faith in Jesus Christ.
Lastly, let us each share the good news of Christ with them, teaching them to become his disciples and following him in all things according to his word and his authority. Amen.