Are You Equal to Your Husband? Part 1 Equality

Are you equal to your husband?  Do you really have to submit to him?

The answer to BOTH questions is,  absolutely!!

Now you might be wondering how both of those can be yes. How can you be equal, but also submit to him at the same time?

Well as a wife of almost 22 years I’m able to tell you, so hold on tight.

 

What I’ve Learned

Over the last several weeks my pastor has been preaching from 1 Timothy.  A week after the women’s equality march he landed on chapter 3.   In this chapter, Paul is telling Timothy that women should be quiet and not speak in church.

Boy does that chapter cause me to question.  It always has.  In Acts 18, Paul is touting how wonderful certain servents of the church are.  He speaks highly of one women, Pricilla in several places.  Acts 18:2, 18:18-19, 18:26, then again in Romans 16:3, 1Cor. 16:19 and 2 Tim. 4:19.  She is even listed BEFORE her husband Aquila in more than one of those locations. That is never done in that culture, but Paul thought very highly of her.

So after Paul praises Pricilla, he tells Timothy to tell the women in his church to be quiet?  Wait. What??

Ya, so this is where things get interesting.  This is where you have to do some research.  Too many churches take this chapter at face value and never dig any deeper.  They just tell there women to hush.  They don’t allow them to speak in authority or give them leadership over men.  And they are WRONG!

So back in Genesis chapter 3, God hands out the consequences to Adam and Eve for their sin.  Eve gets to have pain in child birth and her desire is for her husband and he will rule over her.

Most people assume the desire will be a sexual desire, but actually her desire is for his position of authority.  God knew that, so he added that her husband will rule over her.  Nuts!  lol

So after I listened to the sermon my pastor had preached and re read some of the scriptures he used, I purchased Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Bible Words.   I love this dictionary.  You find the english word you’re looking for. The OT word is listed along with the definition, the noun or verb of that word, the Hebrew word/s and where you can find it in the Word.  Then it lists the same in the NT.  So very cool.

Sermon Notes

God’s original intent is listed in Gen 1:16-28, 2:18-23
-This is were God made man in his own image and made women, a help mate so that man would not be alone.

Sin’s damaging effect in Gen 3:16
-This is the part where God hands down the punishment for the woman because of her sin.

Christ’s saving restoration in Gal 3:13, Rom. 6:5-7 & Gal 3:26-28
–Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree”.

–Romans 6:5-7 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

–Galatians 3:26-28 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,  for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

1 Tim 2:8-10 list the two issues in the Corinthian church during the time frame Paul was writing the letter.

Men should stop fighting and women should stop flaunting.

1 Timothy 2:8-10 Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.  I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes,  but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

1 Tim 2:11-15 Paul is referring to 3 issues regarding women.

1 Timothy 2:11-15 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.  I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.  For Adam was formed first, then Eve.  And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

1. There were false teachers attaching God’s creation.

   1 Timothy 4:1-4 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.  Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.  They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.  For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,

2. They were targeting vulnerable and divisive women.

   2 Timothy 3:1-7 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,  treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—  having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

    They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires,  always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth
   

   1 Timothy 5:13 Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also busybodies who talk nonsense, saying things they ought not to.  (italics added)

3. These women were undermining the leadership of the Church by spreading false doctrines and abandon the idea of marriage and family.

 

Reflection

So the reason for Paul’s letter to Timothy regarding women in the church was because those particular women were being used by false teachers to attack the church and bring division.  Encouraging the younger women to not pursue marriage and family.  So he told Timothy to tell those women to STOP and be quiet.

Knowing the circumstances of the church during that time period shows us that Paul was talking to those women, not to all women.  We are free as women and equal to our husbands, because in Christ we are all one.

We are the help mate.  We work as a team.  Kind of like football, your husband is the quarterback and you’re the receiver.

Respond

What do you think? How does this information make you feel as a wife/women in the church?

 

My prayer is that the truth will set you free, in Jesus name.

♥Sabrina