This one seems to send a mixed message. However, one thing is clear: Men taking the lead is not considered by this piece to be making women less than equal.
STATUS OF WOMEN IN CHRISTIANITY
From a friend in Canada comes a question as to the proper status of women in the Christian system, and whether the Bible does not teach that the woman is to be invariably subordinate to the man.
The Bible most certainly shows that in the home and the family the husband is to be the head. See Genesis 3:16; Ephesians
5:22-24; 1 Timothy 2:11, 12. The stronger physically, upon the husband God placed the responsibility of the family's support, the wife's protection. This by no means, however, predicates that the woman is not to be the equal of the man. Genesis 2:21-25 clearly indicates the woman's equality with man, for she is of "one flesh" with him. Man was to be first, but first of two equals. It is because the wife is on the same plane with the husband that Paul instructs husbands "to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself." See Ephesians 5:25-33. It is one of the glories of Christendom that woman has been accorded her true dignity. It is one of the shames of non-Christian lands that woman has been degraded and treated as the man's chattel. Where in non-Christian countries women are coming into their own, it is the example of Christian civilization in this respect which is largely accountable for this rightful status. The present-day Turkey of Kemal Pasha is a well-known case in point.
As to 1 Corinthians 14:34, 35 seeming to indicate inequality of the sexes, this is a wrong conclusion. We must remember the social conditions of Paul's day to understand why this was necessary. The Jews did not allow women to preach or to teach in their assemblies, nor even to ask questions. And, of course, the heathen in the degradation in which they placed their women would not tolerate such action by the weaker sex. Paul, therefore, to protect Christian women from social disgrace and reproach, advised that "the women keep silence in the churches. Women's social status being now different, due to the influence of Christian teaching, this advice of Paul's would not now apply. On 1 Corinthians 14:34, 35, and 1 Timothy 2:11, 12, M. C. Wilcox writes: "That the above Scriptures forbid women lording it over men in church matters, assuming authority which they do not possess, making themselves unduly prominent, domineering, or arrogant, all sensible people will admit. Such conduct, which has been at times manifest in professed Christian churches, brings good neither to the women nor to the church, and is shocking to good taste and common sense.
"But does the text forbid women's bearing testimony for Christ or speaking at all in public? Emphatically, no. Let him or her who so thinks read of Deborah the prophetess, who helped Barak (Judges 4 and 5); of Huldah, who instructed all Israel (2 Kings 22:12-20; of Anna, who gave public thanks in the temple (Luke 2:36-38); of Priscilla, who instructed more perfectly the mighty and eloquent Apollos (Acts 18:24-26); of Philip's four daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9); of Phoebe, the deaconess (literally) of the church at Cenchrea, commended by Paul (Romans 16:1); and of the other women mentioned by the apostle in Romans 16. Read the instruction he gives to women who speak in public. 1 Corinthians 11:5, 6.
"In the light of this let any and every woman, if she has a testimony to bear for God, not seek to usurp authority over a man, but on proper occasions bear her testimony in Christ's name with all assurance, but with becoming modesty. 'With the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' Romans 10:10. This includes women as well as men. See Romans 10:12, 13; Galatians 3:28."
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Topic: ST Oct. 23, 1934 on 1 Cor. 14 & 1 Tim. 2 (Read 3796 times)
