In part one, we looked at the curse, and the desire of women to take leadership but is given to the man. Today, let's look at Paul as he reminds us of this.
Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 1 Ti 2:11–14.
Paul reminds us of the curse, that women took the role of leader when sinning, therefore a woman is not to take the leadership role in the church.
Now, many writers and speakers talk about the role of women in the New Testament. There are many that do some great things, and women are elevated by God into much responsibility. It is, however, dangerous to assume that having one type of responsibility means having all responsibility. God has established roles and responsibilities in the home and in the church. The man has been put as the head, and due to the curse, the woman has a sinful desire to usurp that role.
We see examples of this, for example from Titus:
Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Tt 2:3–5.
They are given a role and responsibility to teach younger women. They are not given the role to lead a church. These are delegated roles, and we find the roles explained in scripture. We have to beware not to make an argument from silence. We see women with some authority that are named, they are never called pastors or elders. The issue comes when the Bible is silent and doesn't give an exact role, we make the argument that they "could have been". The "could have been" argument is the argument from silence, and we can't take a lack of information and allow it to supersede the information we do have.
The fact remains that the Bible is clear, and it spells out specifically that a woman is not to be the leader in the family or the church, that God has given that role to a man. It is also clear that this is never going to satisfy women because of the curse in Genesis. The only hope we have is to submit to scripture, even when we don't like it and it doesn't make us feel good. The alternative is disobedience.
