Important Context for Bible Verses About Women

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Let’s go back to the verse that we read at the beginning 1st and 1st Timothy.
Um And you were talking about the Temple of Artemis and the women there and how they were distinctive looking.
Isn’t it true that some of those women were going into the church?
And it was causing confusion inside the church?
So when you saw a woman that had the distinctive, like you mentioned red hat, red red shoes, that’s not what it was in, in that context, those gold pearls braided hair.
It’s all, that’s the list that he, that he mentions and what were these women doing when they would go into the church?
So there, there’s a little bit of debate on what’s actually happening here, right?
And it really doesn’t matter where the debate is because it, what matters is how Paul is addressing them, the the identifying marker of them.
And Jesus does this elsewhere when he tells us to treat people like gentiles or tax collectors.
If somebody came into the church and they’re dressed in this way, it’s one of two things, one they’re curious about the gospel, right?
There’s all of a sudden a Jesus who evaluate who redeems and values and, and so they’re, they’re curious, they’re skeptics.
The second one could be and I think this is a valid possibility that they’re coming to disrupt the church, they’re coming to lead them astray.
It doesn’t matter which one you land and both go to the basic foundational understanding that we need to be aware of.
We need to know why, what is the goal so that we can woo them, that we can pray for them, that we can invite them to be part of this family um of God.
And so super confusing if all of a sudden they start dressing like them, right?
And this is even a cultural kind of conversation in today’s world.
The idea isn’t so that you and I look more like the culture, it’s actually an invitation for the culture to reflect the goodness of the kingdom of God that is coming at the end that Jesus is gonna make all things new and bring the new heavens and the new earth together.
And yet there is a real um warning that Paul gives and it’s all over the place.
Actually, the New Testament that we should not be conned into acting like and placing our lot and our affections and our loves into the culture.
We’re supposed to be inviting them to come into the family of God.
So are they the women that he was instructing or that he was referencing when he said they should remain silent in very, very well could be because imagine them being in there and all of a sudden they’re speaking out and they’re causing chaos and there, you know, and then it’s like, yeah, it’s about, it’s about church order and was there also a reason?
I mean, you pointed to it a little bit when we were in the other verse in Corinthians.
But, um, would, would there be a reason for all women to have stayed silent?
It doesn’t, it’s, it’s you’re about to get me going off up.
It is incongruent with the rest of scripture, right?
So this is that, that brought, if this was the case, then Paul would have said by the way, women shouldn’t prophesy, women shouldn’t pray in public.
All of these, it is incongruent with his larger teaching, which then forces us to deal with the cultural context.
And if we deal with the cultural context, now it’s about wisdom of saying, how far are we going to go with this?
And I think this is where we have to be charitable.
It is very possible for brothers and sisters in Christ to look at it and land in different places and personal conviction.
But that personal conviction should not be elevated to a place of you’re in the family of God or you’re not there, there’s a place for disagreement and, and, and um and a difference of opinion in these types of things, but this overarching broad you know, proclamation that all women at all times should never speak.
It’s just not present in the text.
You’ll be hard find to find, you know, actual legit scholars that are going to suggest that it’s just incongruent.
And sometimes when we hit upon verses that are so challenging and there are many different interpretations and, and convictions that people have after reading these verses, I like to say, well, let’s go look at the word made flesh.
Let’s go look at the Jesus context.
And when we go to the Jesus context, Jesus very much was aware of God’s desire. Jesus was very aware.
And so how did Jesus operate with women? How did he handle ministry with women?
And do we find cases where Jesus silenced the women? And if so then why?
But in many cases, if not, then why?
And when I started doing that, I started to recognize like we said in the very first session of, of this series, um or the first episode of this series, I started to recognize that it’s important to bring the value of a woman and how Jesus valued the woman into this consideration.
And I ended the episode one of the series by saying, what if the Samaritan woman had been silenced?
And why would we ever want her to be?
What if Martha, who was the first person that Jesus in the book of John?
That, that Jesus reveals, I am the resurrection in the life. What if she had stayed silent?
And why would we ever want her to be?
And if the women at the tomb, what if they had stayed silent?
And why would we ever want them to be?
I think, looking at the life of Jesus, it’s important to also factor that in here.