Over the past several months I’ve had many conversations with friends and colleagues about the biblical perspective of women in ministry. Of course, I believe the biblical perspective is that men and women are equal in the body of Christ and are equally called to participate in the mission of God. Since, the adjournment of the Church of God General Assembly, I’ve reflected on those conversations. I must admit that I am deeply disappointed in the position that many in our church espouse.
Some are so committed to their traditional reading of Paul’s household code that they are willing to embrace heretical views of Trinity (modalism), the person of Jesus Christ (subordinationism), and even offer explanations as to why slavery is “biblical order.”
All Scripture must be properly interpreted, sometimes that means we must wrestle with Scripture and allow the sacred words to change (transform) our minds. Some insist that Paul is abundantly clear and easily understood. Well, that’s not what Peter said. Peter warned, “. . . our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you . . . in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15-16). It is ironic that the so-called unlearned Peter cautions that those who teach must be learned and stable so that Scripture is properly understood.
All Scripture must be prayerfully studied and carefully discerned. If we affirm “verbal inspiration of the Bible,” then we must also affirm that words mean something, that word’s must be understood in context. Verbal inspiration requires that we seriously consider how Biblical words are used within the redemptive story. Jesus announced his divine mission by reading from the scroll of Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord (Luke 4:18-19; cf. Isaiah 61:1-2).
All of Scripture is shaped by this understanding of Jesus as the Savior of humanity. That means that Paul’s teachings must be informed by who Jesus was and what Jesus did and said. That includes the household code (Ephesians 5:21-6:9). In light of Jesus’ mission to “proclaim release to the captives . . . to set free those who are oppressed” it is utterly ridiculous to suggest that Paul viewed slavery, or the subjugation of women, in terms of biblical order. Paul taught that slavery “is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted” (1 Timothy 1:10-11 ESV). Therefore, Paul’s words to slaves in the household code cannot be interpreted to justify slavery. Likewise, Paul has taught all who are in Christ have received the “adoption as sons,” which means that male and female are of equal status (co-heirs) in the body of Christ (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5).
The subjugation of women and the institution of slavery do not represent divine order, but the order of this corrupted present age.
Paul frames the household code with two phrases that must inform our interpretation. First, he begins his household teaching with the words “be subject to one another in the fear of Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). Any reading of Paul’s household code must be informed by his inspired command to mutual submission. All Christians – male and female, free or slave – are called to deny themselves (Matthew 16:24) and “give preference to one another in honor” (Romans 12:10). The Christian household is to be a place in which love, respect, and honor is given to all. Women are to be loved and honored, children are not to be provoked, and slaves are to be received as brothers.
Second, Paul ends his household teaching by insisting “there is no partiality with [God]” (Ephesians 6:9). Any reading of the household code that suggests Paul teaches the subjugation of any human misunderstands the redemptive mission of Jesus Christ in which captives are released. Further, it distorts Paul’s teaching that in Christ all humans are equal heirs according to the promise of God (Galatians 3:26-29).
If slaves and women are equal heirs in the household of God, then they are to be equal participants in the mission of God.
