(11) Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
Remember, Paul is instructing Timothy how to lead God’s Church – the community of people God has set apart, through Jesus Christ, for his new creation.
He’s just talked about how men and women are to come to worship and lead lives of prayer, both being connected to God, and to adorn that relationship with godliness that is particular to manhood and womanhood.
Paul now begins to give specific directions to Timothy as he leads the local church.
First, we should note that women are to be learning in the public setting of the local church, in public worship. They are not to be excluded! They are to learn; they are to hear from God’s word.
And they are to respond in prayer and worship and witness to outsiders, as loved daughters of God.
Learning from God’s word is not for men, but for all God’s children – the whole Church without exception.
Paul describes the manner of their learning – quietly, or in silence, and with all submission.
Now, bear with me – Paul’s about to explain why here. But first we’re going to look at the what. And even before we do that, we need to remember that this is God’s word: we don’t get to argue with it. We submit to it.
Women are to learn quietly, or in silence. In the culture of the day, it wouldn’t be uncommon for there to be more than one speaker. It also wouldn’t be uncommon to have ordered interjection and questioning. Here, Paul forbids women from doing those things (see 1 Corinthians 14:34-35).
Paul further describes this state as being ‘with all submissiveness.’ In other words, there is to be a demeanor of full submission to the teaching in the local church. There isn’t a bent of being able to exercise authority along with the church’s leaders, but rather, full submission to them as they teach God’s word.
(12) (and) I don’t permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet…
The commands that church leaders, namely, evangelists and pastors, are to enforce here are furthered. Again, we’ll get to ‘why’ in a second.
One thing you don’t see in the English translations is the connecting word between verses 11 and 12. These thoughts are very much connected. Quiet is the opposite of teaching. Submission is the opposite of exercising authority.
And among God’s people, women are not to teach or exercise authority over adult men. Now, to be more specific, given the context, God is talking about teaching the Bible to adult men and making decisions in the leadership of adult men. And God forbids those things, and commands church leaders to forbid those things.
(13-14) …for Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not decived, but the woman was decived and became a transgressor…
And now God gives us the rationale for his commands. Not that he has to, by the way. God doesn’t owe us anything. But I think here he wants to protect us against extremes. He wants to make sure that we understand that the commands aren’t rooted in male superiority or value. And he wants to protect us from thinking these commands are culturally relative; clearly, given his rationale, they are not.
There is a distinction God made between men and women that is not based on the nature of men and women or value of men and women – but on the manner in which God desires to be glorified. And to reject the pattern God set up is to reject, in this circumstance, God’s design for his glory.
God’s rationale for teaching and authority among his people is based in the way he created the world. He gives two reasons: Adam was made first, and Eve and not Adam was deceived into breaking God’s law.
At first glance, that may not make sense to you. And that’s understandable. Why would the order that God created Adam and Eve matter? And wasn’t Adam also deceived?
The order God created Adam and Eve matters for this reason. If you look at the way Paul uses the word ‘first,’ he’s often referring to the order in which people received God’s word.
In the case of Adam and Eve, Adam was created first and entrusted with God’s commands and covenant: if you disobey, you will die; but if you obey, you will live (see Genesis 2). Now, later, both Adam and Eve were given charge over all the rest of creation together (Genesis 1); but Adam was given caretaking over humanity – to guard against sin and death.
So, Paul argues, this is the pattern that God has set up among his people: men are to be the ones entrusted with God’s words – for their application to God’s people – and the guarding of God’s people from disobedience. That is the way that God’s people have been structured from the beginning, and to do otherwise is to break God’s ways.
So – wasn’t Adam also deceived? If we look at Genesis 3, yes, he was. And everywhere else in the Bible the first sin that plunged us all into darkness and death is noted as Adam’s, not Eve’s. So what’s going on here?
Again, in Greek, the emphasis here isn’t on ‘being fooled’ – it’s the ‘receiving of deception.’ In other words, Eve was the object of deception. It doesn’t mean that women are more easily tricked. The emphasis is on Satan, not Eve. Satan went after Eve – instead of going after the one who was supposed to be leading the first community of God’s people.
In other words, Satan turned God’s created order – men leading based on God’s word alone and suffering to do so for the lives of God’s people (Adam should have guarded Eve against the devil) – with men and women submitting to God’s word taught and applied.
To put it more simply, the devil himself subverted God’s structure for how his community should work in the application of and teaching of his message.
And I’d suggest he desires still to do it today – via chauvinism (male leaders who are leading for themselves and not God and his people) and feminism (women can teach and lead men).
What’s brass tax, here? God’s word is the authority over men and women. There is no authority which is to be exercised in God’s church but that which is from God’s word. A group of men called pastors/elders/overseers are to teach and apply God’s word to his people, serving them, loving them, and when necessary, suffering for them. The rest of God’s church is to submit to God’s word taught by and the leading of God’s appointed men. Period.
Why? Because God’s word is authoritative. Not our desires, culture, or experience. If we have seen sin that leans to chauvinism, we are not to run to Satan’s lie: feminism. And if we have seen sin that leans to feminism, we are not to run to Satan’s other lie: chauvinism.
Rather, we are to collectively submit to the order that God has set up for his people, period.
Why? Because it honors God and his message about Jesus, a cross, a resurrection, and the salvation of everyone who believes in him.
Summary:
1) Church leaders are to enforce a certain structure of church leadership.
2) They are to do so out of love for their people and love for the world.
3) Church leaders must not permit women to teach the Bible to men.
4) Church leaders must not permit women to lead men spiritually.
5) Church leaders, being men, are to teach God’s word and lead via God’s word alone, suffering for God’s people as her leaders when the times call for it
6) This is all for God’s glory. Human ‘worth’ is not a relevant category here, except to note that this is for the good of God’s people.
7) This structure is also for the good of the world, as God’s glory is shown to the world, and as God draws people to relationship with Jesus.
8) Thus, this structure is to be the structure of God’s communities in every place.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for rescuing us even though we collectively sinned against you and rejected your word. I’m sorry for being a passive man – not speaking up with your word when it’s needed. I’m sorry for being a cowardly man – not leading as your word would have me. I’m sorry for being a selfish man – speaking up to get things that will please me.
And I’m so thankful that Jesus was the perfect man, and that his obedience rescues me.
And I’m thankful that his perfection also rescues your daughters, and they are equal heirs of your Kingdom.
Help me and other churchmen to love our wives and our churches and all women. Help us to live and die to show your glory to them.
Help women to see their worth not in what they do – but as your daughters. Not in service, but in being saved.
Help us all to submit to your word for your glory.
Because of Christ we pray, Amen.
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