LET YOUR WOMEN KEEP SILENCE

In today’s world to hold on to the biblical teaching that the primary role of women is to love their husbands, love their children and keep the home, Titus 2. 4-5, leaves a believer open to ridicule. Christianity is in opposition to almost everything currently happening in human society. We live in an age when the reversal or interchangeability of gender roles is a high priority for Satan. Tragically this has affected many local churches, causing them to lose their sense of perspective and balance in understanding what a woman’s role should be. Christian women are being put under so much pressure to conform to worldly expectations that they deny the God-given pattern for life, a pattern which ultimately brings the highest joy. Today’s reading indicates that this is not simply a twenty-first century problem. Paul’s letters to a church and to an individual (Timothy) confront a similar difficulty: either through ignorance or by wilful act women were asserting themselves and trying to take over the role of men in the assemblies at Corinth and Ephesus.

It is important to stress that on a spiritual level both men and women are equal, Gal. 3. 28. There is no suggestion in the scriptures that women are inferior to men. On the contrary, both are made in God’s image and enjoy an equal standing in Christ. In 1 Timothy chapter 2 it is possible that Paul is countering a view held by some in Ephesus that, since they considered women to be inferior, it was neither important nor necessary that they learn. Paul insists that women have not only a right but an obligation to learn as they are individuals before God, used in His service and responsible to heed His commands. However, learning does not translate into public teaching for God’s command is ‘be in silence’, 1 Tim. 2. 12. There is plenty of scope for older godly women to teach the younger ones outside of an assembly gathering, Titus 2. 3-5; Acts 18. 26.

The situation at Corinth is similar. Dealing with godly order in the public gatherings of the saints, Paul gives a final word to sisters in verses 34-35. Their position of silence is a sign of obedience and subjection not only to the man but also to the Lord and as such shows a love for Him and His word.