Sunday, we continued our series at Community Covenant on 1 Timothy and unpacked 1 Timothy 2:8 – 15. If you’d like to watch it, you can do so here. 

One of the reasons I love preaching through books of the Bible is that it keeps us from going to a passage in a vacuum. Paul didn’t just write these verses to Timothy; he wrote them in the context of a letter to a church, wrestling with specific issues. Those issues, as Paul lays out in the first seven verses of the letter, are about protecting the church from false teaching. He doesn’t immediately identify the false teaching or the false teachers (he does that later in the letter), but that topic shapes how we read these verses. 

The role of men and women in the church and the home has been debated for centuries, and as I said on Sunday, it has caused a lot of confusion, hurt, and pain. Leading up to the sermon, I heard countless stories from women in our church and other female church leaders about the hurt they experienced because of how the verses of Paul have been interpreted in some circles. For some of us, these are simply verses; for others, these are personal verses with stories and conversations attached to them. 

I say that because if the goal of a church is to build each other up and help everyone to flourish, we must be aware of how each of us comes to a text. I heard this repeatedly while in seminary: none of us come to a text with a clean slate; we all bring something to every passage we read. So, as I said on Sunday, and as you continue to process this and future sermons, we need to be honest about the lens we bring: what does our background ingrain in us, what do we hope the text says, what do we hope the text doesn’t say, how does being a male or a female affect how we read a text, how does our educational level or skin color affect how we read a text. All of these matter because they shape what we see. To be clear, that doesn’t mean we are wrong in our interpretations, but we need to be humble as we listen to people who see something differently and not brush it off. I imagine Paul ran into much of that in his travels in the first century the further he got from Jerusalem. 

Do we divide over or debate the question of women in leadership?
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The other thing we need to be aware of is where we place when it comes to our theological beliefs. Gerry Breshears has a helpful grid, which I shared on Sunday: 

• Beliefs we die for. 
• Beliefs we divide for. 
• Beliefs we debate for. 
• Beliefs we decide for. 

Beliefs we “die for” are things like the authority of scripture, the virgin birth of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and there’s only one way to God. There are other things on that list, but that gives you an idea. 

Beliefs we “divide for” are beliefs that would cause us to leave a church or start attending a church. They are strongly held beliefs, but we don’t die for them, but we hold them strongly. Each of us has these beliefs. Some churches place the question of men and women in this category. We, as a church, do not. We place it in the next one. 

Next is the beliefs we “debate for.” These are beliefs we hold, even strongly, but they are debated throughout church history, and so we hold them loosely, linking arms with brothers and sisters in Christ who disagree with us. We will even attend churches we disagree with as long as they are in this category. 

There was a time when I held a different view on this question and was in the complementarian camp, and I would’ve put this belief in the divide for category. So would the church planting network we planted in 2008. I’ll share later more about my journey and the shift that has happened over the years. But my point right now in sharing that is we can shift our thoughts on things, and the Spirit of God does change us as we mature. 

As promised, for those who want to go deeper, answer your burning questions, or even learn where I got a lot of the information I shared on Sunday, here you go. This isn’t exhaustive in any way, as there are scores of books, talks, and podcasts on the subject, but this will at least get you started. 

Preston Sprinkle has a helpful podcast called Theology in the Raw, and he has many guests with doctorate degrees, diving into a lot of textual and historical issues around this topic. Here are a few episodes to get you started: 

• Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, Rick Warren, Female Leaders in the Early Church, and much more: Q & A with Preston Sprinkle
• From Complementarian to Egalitarian: A Conversation about Women in Leadership with Dr. Nijay Gupta
• Neither Complementarian Nor Egalitarian: Dr. Michelle Lee-Barnewell
• Paul, Gender, and the Women in Leadership Debate: Dr. Cynthia Long Westfall

Recently, Tyler Staton, the lead pastor of Bridgetown Church, gave a helpful lecture series on women in leadership, particularly around eldership, which we’ll unpack this coming Sunday as we look at 1 Timothy 3:1 – 13. You can watch those talks here and here. 

Books to read on the question of women in leadership.
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Here are a few books I’d recommend checking out:

No matter where you land on this question, there are 3 questions I ended with on Sunday that I think are important for us to wrestle with: 

3 questions every church and Christian must wrestle with as they think through the question of women in leadership.
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• How do we honor each other?
• How do we encourage the full use of spiritual gifts that God has given to each person, male and female, so the body of Christ, the church, is built up?
• How do we ensure that each person, male and female, flourishes?

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I’ve spent the last 3 weeks speaking to the women of our church in our series Beautiful. To prep for it, I read a bunch of magazine articles, blog posts and books on the struggles women have and what teenage girls struggle with.

Reading stats on body image and eating disorders, depression, feelings of loneliness that they have and how most women live with a sense of defeat and that they will never live up to a standard they have in their mind, a standard their parents or spouse have for them.

While photoshop make the struggle women have with their bodies unwinnable, it is almost like they look though the lens of photoshop for everything in their lives.

I preached on Proverbs 31 this past weekend and beforehand I got a number of emails from women saying, “I’ve read those verses, they are impossible so I simply give up.”

The reality is that most everything in the Bible is impossible on your own.

That’s what the Holy Spirit does.

While the standard for women in Scripture is high, it is for everyone. It is meant to stretch us and cause us to rely on God. That is why Proverbs 31:30 says that this woman fears the Lord. The fear of God takes away all fear, all defeat and refocuses on us on what matters and what will get us through what lies ahead.

Proverbs 31 is a story of a woman through the course of her life. Did she do all those things in the season her kids were small or right after she got married? Probably not.

One of the reasons I believe many women are defeated in their lives (besides the impossible standards they or others set for them) is that they often lack a vision of what their life could be like. I’m not sure if this comes from a personality trait, that men tend to be more logical and linear in their thinking but one of the common threads I heard from women after church this week was how easy it is for them to get stuck in the details of everyday life and not lift their heads above the fog to see what God has for them.

One of the challenges of Proverbs 31 is to have a larger vision for your life. To think bigger than what you do. Your life is meant to be more than what it is. Your life is meant to have a legacy. The problem is that most of the time, legacy is talked about strictly to men. We need that reminder. But women do as well. What you do with every minute of your life makes an impact down the road. This is true for everyone.

Yet, we often spend our moments on the wrong things.

Arianna Huntington said, “Eulogies celebrate our lives very differently than how our culture defines success.”

That is important to keep in mind.

I’d add that God celebrates our lives very differently than how our culture defines success.

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