Rethinking Women And Teaching In Church

One verse has been used to end conversations, shut down questions, and shrink women’s participation to almost nothing. We decided to do the opposite: slow down, open the Bible, and read 1 Timothy 2:11-12 the way it was written, inside its context and inside the flow of Paul’s argument about order and behavior in the worship assembly.

We walk through why “context” is not a buzzword but the difference between faithful interpretation and convenient proof-texting. That includes a hard look at how the passage has been applied in ways that go beyond Scripture, from banning women from saying “amen” to treating church meetings like male-only spaces. We also tackle the modesty section in 1 Timothy 2 with first-century background, arguing that Paul’s contrast is modesty versus extravagance, not modern clothing rules that change with every culture and decade.

Then we zoom in on the phrase “I do not permit a woman to teach” and ask what “teach” meant to the original audience. Using Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and the pastoral letters, we frame teaching as a spiritual gift and an appointed role, not something every man automatically gets and every woman automatically loses. We also bring in Ephesus and Artemis worship to show why this instruction lands the way it does in that city. If you care about women in church, biblical interpretation, and doing honest exegesis instead of inherited assumptions, this one will stretch you in the best way. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s wrestled with 1 Timothy 2, and leave us a review with the question you want answered next.

Transcript

Welcome And Worship Song

Anderson George 0:10

Alright, I know it's three minutes to the hour, but you guys have been in class with me. You know that hour flies. So I'll take three minutes extra. Good evening, everybody. Good evening. Oh, there we go. All right, all right, all right, all right, all right. Um okay, okay. Let me see if I can get you guys in the room. Um I just went blank.

SPEAKER_10 0:36

Perhaps the best that was.

SPEAKER_12 0:44

All right, I'll go with that. Lord you are more precious than silver. Lord you are more closely than gold. Lord you are more beautiful than diamonds, and nothing is I can bless with you one time singing. You are more precious love you among us with beautiful and nothing and nothing design as we as singing as soon as I lie I love to.

Reading 1 Timothy 2:11-12

Anderson George 2:45

All right, first Timothy, chapter number two. First Timothy, chapter number two. Ah, we'll spend most of our time in verse number twelve. First Timothy chapter number two, verse number twelve. I want you all to see it in your own Bibles, and someone who has verse 11 and 12. Read it for me. First Timothy chapter 2, verse 11 and 12. What does it say in your Bibles?

unknown 3:19

A woman to die and silence with a closed appearance.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man and think it to be found.

Anderson George 3:30

Is that similar to what everybody else has in their Bibles? This text has been controversial in all of church history. Not just within the churches of Christ. This has been controversial in the entirety of church history. In fact, if we were Baptist right now, we would be arguing over this text. I don't know if you know, but the Southern Baptist Convention had a meeting a few months ago, and there's several Baptist churches that are going independent because of this. Right? Um The Churches of Christ, we have argued this verse since Moses was a boy. Right. However, however, the truth is because of how we've argued this and not always done good homeneutics, we haven't always done good exegesis of this text. We have, in some cases, limited women more than the text allows. So I'll give you some examples. Before I get into text, I really want to set this up. So I know some churches where a woman can't actually ask a question, say amen, uh in Bible class or in worship, because they will say, the text says, keep quiet. Ask your husband at home. Right? So that she can't say amen. She can't ask a question, she can't make a comment, and they use this. Right. I know that some people use this verse as the reason why a woman should have no say in a general meeting. We have a general meeting and we want people to speak, and when they say people, they mean the men. Because a woman should keep silent. Right. I

How The Verse Gets Misused

Anderson George 5:30

also know that this verse is used not in its original context, but outside its context. So that some husbands, some husbands reach home and tell their wives, do you not hear what the Bible says? You need to keep quiet. You are looking at me funny. I'm just telling you, I've seen this, I've heard this. This is our own heritage. And so, for that reason, this is pertinent. Not just that, I want to be practical. We have a lot of women at Mineral Springs. We have more women than men. Yeah, we do. Oh, that's good odds for me. No, I'm I'm married. Sorry, sorry, I'm married. That's not good odds. I'm married. Um, but but but we do. So the question is, how do we leverage these women? Do we leverage these women? You know, I I I would I let me not get ahead of myself. I was gonna say some things I would like, but let's get to the text first. Because what do we do if Grandpa Ree's number is correct that we have seven women to one men? Right? We have seven times more women, and can those women do something? What can they do, or do they do absolutely nothing at all? Right? We'll see, we'll see, we'll see. So the first thing I want to do is actually set the context. You guys know me by now. My favorite word is context. I told you if I asked a question, nine times out of ten, the correct answer is context, right? You should never, never, never, I can't say never enough. So just add five more. You could never and should never look at a verse without considering its context. Context matters. The example I like to use is this I have a nickname for my wife, and if you were just to read a text from me or a letter from me to her, and you see me saying that I miss Hershey's Kisses, you may think I'm talking about the candy because you don't have a context. So if I'm talking to her and I say Hershey's, I don't mean the candy. I mean my black sweet chocolate wife. Right. It's okay, we're all adults here. Come on, you don't have to be so context matters, and so what's the context here? The context here does not begin in verse number 12. The context here doesn't even begin in verse number 11. The context begins in chapter 2, verse number 1, and it goes all the way to chapter 3, verse number 15, 14 and 15. Now, what I want you to do is grab chapter 3, 14, and 15 first, and anyone who has it could read it. Chapter 3, verse 14 and 15. What does it say?

SPEAKER_06 9:07

These things are running today, hoping to come unto you short. We are in 100, right?

Anderson George 9:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:16

Uh, come to you short. But if I carry along that thou mightest know how thou art behind thyself in the house of the God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the church.

Anderson George 9:29

Oh, I don't want you to miss this, especially if you're taking notes. I want to take my time. You all know I can get fast, but I I really want to take my time because I'm hoping when we're done, I we could lose some women. But but but before we get there, Paul says in verse number 14 of chapter 3, I'm writing these things hoping to come to you. But if I tarry long, I've written them so that everyone will know how they ought to behave in the church. The house of God is a pillar and ground of truth. Whatever Paul said up till this point is about how people ought to behave in the church. So before we even get to what he says about women, we already have the context. He's talking about people's behavior in church. Now, let me give you the group. In chapter two, from verse number one to verse number seven, he gives us the rules for men. So he wants men everywhere to lift holy hands without anger and disputing. That's somewhere around verse number six. He wants men everywhere to pray. So he begins with men, chapter two, verse one to verse number seven. Y'all seeing that? Then from verse number eight to verse 15, he talks about women. Just you want to make sure you're all tracking with this. So he moves from men

Why Context Is Everything

Anderson George 11:10

first to then woman. You all seeing that? So he says, likewise, the woman, I want you to adorn yourselves modestly. Right? After he deals with women, he goes to chapter three. Chapter three, verse number one. If any man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. He's moved from men to woman to now talking about bishop, overseers, pastors, shepherds, all the same thing. From there, that's chapter three, verse number one to chapter three, verse number 11. From chapter 3, verse number 12, he says, Deacons likewise. Y'all tracking with that? And he begins talking about deacons. I don't have time. Inside there, he says, and your wives, or and your woman, depending on the Greek. And people argue whether this is talking about the wives of the deacon or deaconesses. Today is not the day for that. But he mentions the work of a deacon and possibly women separate to the deacons or deacons' wives. And then he says, I've written all these things in verse 14 and 15, hoping to come to you soon. But if I tarry long, everyone knows how they ought to behave. You all see what we just did there? He didn't just speak to women, he began with men, went to women, then he dealt with what we would call the leaders. You all know by now I don't like that, too. Right. Elders, deacons, and then says, I wrote all this so everybody will know how they ought to behave in the church. Church of the Living God, pillar and ground of truth. So the context is behavior in the assembly. Y'all good so far? Here's why that matters. Let's set the stage some more. Ah, y'all could see that? Well, that looks small. I'm sorry. I'll tell you what it says. On the left hand side, I have numbers one to four. And I'm saying there are four things we need to draw from this text that's important. The first one is the fact that Paul is addressing the behavior of the church, and he's not just addressing the behavior of the church, he's addressing how people ought to behave in the context of a worship assembly. This is not instructions for your house. This is instructions for how people behave when they're gathered together. What he said in chapter 3, verse 14 and 15. I'm writing these things, hoping to come to you. However, if I tarry long, if I delay, if I don't show up immediately, what I have written is so that everyone will know how they ought to behave in the church, the house of God, which is the pillar and ground of truth. Right now, let me let me just work on that for two seconds so you're sure you get this. Right before he spoke about deacons, and he mentioned how they should be behaving in their house as a means for allowing them to deacon in the church. So you can't be talking about behavior at home. He's saying because of how you behave at home, this is why you can behave here in church or lead this way in church. Then he does the same thing for the elders. Says he must have a good home, he must have a good reputation. He's talking about your characteristics outside that make you qualified for inside, work, behavior, service. When he talked about the woman, let me let me drop this really quickly. We have done a number on modesty. I am nauseated with all the modesty sermons. Let me give you five quick reasons why I'm nauseated. Reason number one, most of the times we say modesty and we pick on the women. Reason number two, we talk about modesty and we apply our rules on modesty, right? So I remember growing up, women couldn't wear jeans. Paul could not have been talking about women wearing jeans in his day and age because jeans were not invented yet. So when Paul said being modest, he couldn't be saying don't wear jeans. Because jeans didn't exist. Does that make sense? Right? I've I've been in places where they measured, first of all, you you your shoulder must be covered, your arm mustn't be exposed. I've been in places where they pulled out a ruler to measure how long it was. I'm not even kidding. It had to be the right length. Right? You had to go home. Oh, some of the older ladies had shawls that they would cover you with, and if you didn't want to wear a shawl, you were not worshipping today. Yeah, you know. Um, I I hope you call it the same thing, but those tin strap, um, spaghetti straps, it's like, oh, that's a no-no. We've misused and abused what modesty meant. If we just read, problem number three is we don't read because we have our own hobbies, hobby topics that we like to beat people with. If we just read, we would realize that modesty here meant nothing extravagance. Oh, you're looking at me. All right, get your text, get your Bibles, get your Bibles. Anybody, anybody, start at verse chapter two, start at verse number seven. What does it say?

SPEAKER_10 17:50

For this I was appointed a harem, uh huh. An apostle, I am telling the truth.

Anderson George 17:56

I like that. Paul Paul begins by saying, Whatever I'm about to say is not lying. I am lying, I'm an apostle of God. Now, read.

SPEAKER_10 18:05

And the picture of the Gentiles and faith and truth.

Anderson George 18:08

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_10 18:08

Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy things with anger.

Anderson George 18:15

Now, guys, pause for two seconds, Sina. I wish I had time. Because here's what we did with this. I had an old preacher who came to me because I read this, and it said, I want men to pray, lifting holy hands. So I came to him and was like, he just said we should lift hands. And this preacher had the unmitigated goal to say, no, that's not what he said. Like the text just said, Lift holy hands. Said, well, holy is a spiritual posture. So it doesn't mean physical hands. Here's why we need to do good exegesis. In Paul's day and time, people prayed, lifting their hands. They would lift their heads towards heaven and extend their hands as well. If they were not prostrate, they would lift their hands. You could read of Solomon dedicating the temple in Kings, and it would tell you that he lifted his head and his hands towards heaven and began praying. That's how they prayed. Paul's issue here is that the men who are standing up praying, looking like this, are looking holy. But if you could see the spiritual nature of their person, their hands are bloodied. So what he's saying is, I don't need you standing up here looking holy. I need you to be holy. So if you're standing here to pray, I need your hands to be holy without anger and disputing, are two things he mentions. Because the men will brawl us. It's like you can't be a divisive man, and then you get up and say, Our father who art in heaven, I come before you. No, wrong man praying. Y'all tracking with this? Paul wasn't regulated if you should lift hands or not, it was already the norm. His problem was the people who were lifting hands were looking good outwardly, but were dirty inwardly. So he says, This doesn't matter. You could look as holy as you want. You need to actually be holy. Just quick Bible commercial because again, we've done a whole lot of mess with lifting hands. So now people are afraid to lift hands because read Tina.

SPEAKER_10 20:34

Also, the women are to dress themselves in modest clothing with decency and good sense, not with elaborate hairstyles, gold, pearls, or expensive affair.

Anderson George 20:44

And pause right there. Oh, I just I love scripture. I love scripture, and and I think it's because I'm very pedantic with language that it makes me a better teacher and study all scripture. You know, pedantic is not the word my wife would use when it comes to language and me, but that's the word I would use. I'm very meticulous and pedantic. Paul says, and women likewise, I want you to be modest before you break this down, keep reading. Because what he does is he contrasts modesty with extravagance, and because he contrasts modesty with extravagance, whatever you understand about modesty has to be the opposite of extravagance because that's what he's contrasting it to. Oh, come on inside here, Mineral Springs. He says, I need you to be modest, but what does that mean? Not an extravagant embroidery. Now let me help you. In that day and age, you all need to remember women didn't dress the way we do. Woman, if you see a Muslim woman in her burqa. That's what Jews still wear today. That was their traditional garb. They were covered from head to ankle knot. All right. Yeah, that's that's a local joke. You all wouldn't get that. Right? But the only thing you saw was eyes and nose bridge. A woman was considered a prostitute in those days if you saw above the ankle knot. The ankle knot. She was a prostitute. If you saw above the ankle bow. How much women would be prostitutes in our day? Yeah. Right. So what happened was because a woman would leave the house and had to be covered from head to toe, women who wanted to express themselves would find ways to look extravagant. So they would braid their hair and they would put jewelry in their hair and have a few bands out or ponytails out so you could see it. They would wear rings. Some of them would even rent rings. We'll go to James in two seconds so you can understand this. Some of them would rent rings just so that you could see them and they look expensive. Then they started to change the color. Most of the times they wore uh black, gray, white, off-white, but now they're wearing purple, the color of royalty. Red. And again, purple was hard to get because purple dye was difficult to make. So only persons who had money were the persons who had purple. So now look how this makes a big difference. A woman comes in church, she's still covered head to toe, but she's in purple. Every finger has a ring. And the few locks of here you're seeing has gold and necklace bedazzled in it. And then he says, No, I need you to be modest. Tell me how you get as to get his strap inside there. You don't. Modesty here is not extravagant. Not excessive. So the correct definition of modesty is something that is not excessive and is respectable for the occasion. That's the definition. The moment you start saying, okay, it means jeans, no short pants, you've gone too far. It's whatever is both respectable for the occasion and not extravagant. So sometimes, sometimes, let me let me let me show you something. And then this one might blow your mind. It will blow mine. If somebody were to come here on Sunday morning in a three-piece suit and a top hat, he's not modest. He would be out of place. He would be extravagant, and therefore, he would be breaking Paul's definition of modesty. But he's in a suit. See, you may not have thought that a suit could be modest, but when you understand the context,

Modesty Means Not Extravagance

Anderson George 25:40

it makes sense now, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Well, he's drawing land of attention to himself, exactly.

Anderson George 25:47

That's it. I wish I had time because I really want to talk about women you souping. But y'all looked at me funny, and y'all know when you look at me funny, I assume you don't know something, and I take time to explain the something I think you don't know. Right? Yeah. Modesty.

unknown 26:01

Common sense.

Anderson George 26:04

Common sense is not that common. I've learned that. I know, I know. Common sense is not that common.

SPEAKER_07 26:14

Yeah. Or the children. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Shouldn't know that you can you can't say that. Yeah.

Anderson George 26:22

It is. I will say that.

SPEAKER_10 26:24

It's like to say it's normal. Yeah.

Anderson George 26:30

Yeah.

unknown 26:34

Yeah.

Anderson George 26:37

Yeah, that's definitely true, you know. Um so that's that's modesty. That's that's what I said is the third thing. We we stop reading too quickly. I have two more. Let me say it really quickly and then we'll come back to you, super authority. The fourth thing is sometimes even when we're reading, because we already have blinders on, because we've already been taught to believe what we believe, we read and we still don't get what we're supposed to get because we're reading with preconceptions. So there are several texts that we read, but because you already believe you know what this text means and what it says and what it should say, you never get to hear it anew because your mind is already locked. The fifth thing is unfortunately, we haven't been taught to read scripture like uh like a journalist or a detective. So that me reading this and he says, dress modestly, I want to look that up one time, right? What does it mean? And then I'm not looking this up in an English dictionary because Paul didn't know English existed, because English didn't exist until some 800 years, 80, 1100 years after Paul wrote this, right? So, what does the Greek word mean? Right, and and this is where we have a handicap because there are things we're supposed to be looking into, digging into that we're not simply because you know we weren't taught to. We should be that's why we're called to be students of scripture. We should be digging, we should be investigating, we should be mining for truth. And when you're mining, you never know how deep a mind goes and how much resources it has. You just keep mining, right? And that's what scripture is it's an inexhaustible treasure trove, and we stop mining too soon. Good. That's the five things. Good. Let's come back now to not you have that behavior. He modified men how they behave, women, how they behave, elders, deacons. In talking about women, right? He says what we've already read. Number two, the second thing that's there that you guys can't see is me emphasizing that the primary context is the assembly. All right, I can't say that enough. The primary context is the assembly. This text addresses what happens in worship, which is why, as he talks to men, he says, I want you to lift hands and pray. All right, women as you assemble, dress respectably, elders, um, bishops. We love the word elders, but the text really calls them their title, is bishop, right? Um, says those who desire the office of a bishop. He says, Bishop, I need you to be able to act in a particular way because you have these characteristics, right? You mustn't be quarrelsome, you mustn't be divisive, you you must be able to do these things. Deacons. I I love what he says about the deacons. He says, Hey, hey, deacons, you're going to interact with people on a personal level. You need to know how to be in people's business, but not be about people's business. Let me say that again. You're in the people's business, so you need to know how to be about people's business. The problem is sometimes, because of the role of a deacon, you know stuff that people disclose to you, you know stuff that the General Assembly may not know, and you need to know how to handle that with sensitivity, how to handle that with confidence, how to handle that with care. Because not everything you know, everybody's supposed to know. I personally believe that's why he brought up the wives. Because the one person you may want to talk to, pillow talk happens, is your wife. So then he has a section on wives, and it says, Your woman also, and then he talks about them being gossip and talking and idle of all the things he could say. It's like, yeah, wives, especially if you're a Dickens wife, you should know what to share, what not to share. Keep your mouth closed most times. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, just just Michael and I had to have understanding. It's like as the minister, you have to understand I'm your husband, but I'm also the minister. As the minister, there are some things that are going to be disclosed to me that are not meant for you because you're not the minister. You might be the minister's wife, but you being my wife does not make you privy to this. Does that make sense? This does not mean I don't love my wife and I don't share it with my wife. It means I understand the call God has placed on me. So if somebody tells me something in confidence that stays with me and doesn't jump to her because she's my wife. Right? Good. So he mentions that and then he summons it up and said, This is all about behavior. The third thing that I said is because we just made sure we had the context, one and two, it helps us apply this. So for instance, a problem that people tend to have with this text is if women are not supposed to teach, how do they teach children's class? All right. Well, let me give you the easy answer first. Number one, it had no children's class when Paul wrote this. So he couldn't be talking about children's class. Had no Bible class when Paul wrote this. We made that thing up. We wanted people in church so much that we tell them, hey, let's come to study the Bible and then sing and study the Bible. We we made that up, right? So Paul couldn't be talking about Bible class either. Before we apply it to everything else, let's apply it to what he meant first and then see how it works elsewhere. Does that make sense? So, if there was no Bible class and no children's ministry, we should pause. Before we start talking about those places, let's understand it, let's interpret it in its proper original context. That's what the third um thing said: that we should look at this in a historical first century setting, as if we were the church of Ephesus, and Paul is writing to us. And then number four is everybody slow down, everyone slow down, right? Before because here's what happens your your mind starts to run. If you don't have questions yet, you know, you're going to have questions, you're going to have comments. That's fine. We'll take them one at a time. You all good?

SPEAKER_07 33:50

What's forward?

Anderson George 33:52

Slow down. Now we could actually look at the text. I that's half an hour. That was the introduction. I told you. You you introduction, half an hour. We're just setting the context. The first thing Paul says, when I learnt this, when however long I learned this in King James. If you hear me speaking word, it's because I'm I learned this in King James. King James is stuck in my head. I have not used a King James Bible in probably over eight years. Right? You check the Bible. I have the last time I saw a King James Bible was when Um Light for Christ gave me a Bible for their program in the park. That was the last time I saw. And then you also try to use it two Sundays, and I was like, nah, no. I

Behavior In The Assembly

Anderson George 34:40

tried to use that for two Sundays. It's like, nah. So it's in the office, and I'm like, it's a nice Bible, I would like to use it, but King James is rough.

SPEAKER_09 34:48

I got on the JC button now.

SPEAKER_07 34:54

Yeah. Yeah, but you can tell what you said the telephone of you didn't tell the telephone also.

Anderson George 35:00

Yeah, I threw a couple of you off while I was reading as well. I noticed that because I was like, Yeah, we can't do this. We can't do right, but all that to say, I haven't except then touch a King James Bible in close to eight, nine years. The Bible I used was a New American Standard Bible, but for the life of me, when I recall scripture, it's just King James. That's that's what comes out of me, right? So in King James, Paul says, I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over a man. That's what King James says in verse number 12. Hopefully, I could deal with the two because he says two things that sometimes we treat as one. He says, I suffer a woman not to teach, one, nor to usurp authority over a man. That's two separate things. I want to take my time today with the first one. What does Paul mean when he says he suffered not a woman to teach? King James says, I suffer, that's an old English word that means permit. I do not allow, I do not permit a woman to teach. Here's where putting context back in its rightful place is important. If you are first century Christian and you read this, you had no problem understanding it. We are 25th century Christians, 20th century is removed from when Paul wrote this. So it's almost as if you are hearing one side of a conversation and you don't have the context. Right.

SPEAKER_10 36:44

Women were not allowed to give their opinions or speak their better.

Anderson George 36:53

In particular context, so you're getting close. So in many official capacities, a woman could not serve. But it wasn't that she didn't have a place to give her opinion, she did. It's just those places were limited, right? The same thing is true in the church. The very last thing I'll talk about is if God is misogynistic, right? I think we live in a day and an age now where we have to answer that because let me let me just be transparent for two seconds. Women's liberation and women's rights have done more than it should have. I mean, I don't know how how many of you have gotten into this, but when women's rights started, it was simply about making sure women had right rights. That was it. That has now moved to, if you hear the message, the messages now, anything a man could do, we could do. That has let me finish. It has now moved from what a man could do, we could do, to now we could do better. The newest movement, and and again, this is not everybody in the movement. I'm just showing you the progression of various arms of the movement. The newest movement says we don't even need a man. So we've moved from we want to have a voice, we should be able to vote to, we are people, to now we don't need men. Right? And so what has happened is we live in this culture where all our young girls are hearing is be a boss female dog, I can't say the word, right? But be a boss babe, right? Be an independent queen, right? And that's that's the message that is being perpetuated, so it becomes necessary when we speak about scripture and we say scripture says there are some things a woman can't do, is God misogynistic? So the very last thing. Now, this may not some of you may say, I don't need to answer that, but I want to be honest with anybody who's here that may have had the question and not have the ability to voice it or the courage to voice it. Is God misogynistic by saying I as a woman can do this? Right? Um, that'll be the very last thing we talk about in this series. Um, you want to hear the short answer? Coming three weeks. Um the short answer is no, because what happened is we've taught ourselves to focus on what you can't do, that you fail to realize that the restrictions are not just on you. Some of these restrictions God puts has nothing to do with gender because some men don't even meet the qualifications. So you're thinking about God, God says, I mean, I'm I'm putting getting ahead of myself here, but God says I can't be a bishop, elder, pastor, and it's like he has a thing against women. No, he also said 98% of men shouldn't be. Right? But because of how we've been taught to read scripture, you it could seem personal. Right? There are men, I have no qualms saying this. There are men who call themselves elders that should not

What “Not Permit To Teach” Means

Anderson George 40:30

be elders, there are men who call themselves preachers that should not be preachers, there are men in pulpits that should be far from a pulpit. You all good with that? Yes, so so so so short answers is no, but again, I'll get into all the intricacies down the road. Good. With that said, from the old testament time up until when Paul was writing, teaching was connected to particular offices and roles. We today have a church culture where any man could teach. That was not Paul's culture. Not because you're male means you're legitimized to preach or teach. That's our culture. So we assume by virtue of being male, you're supposed to. And I take my time here because the men start looking at my funny now. Hold on, hold on. It's just the text. I'll prove it. I'll prove it. In the old testament, the teaching rules were limited to the prophet and the priests. Not everyone was called to be a prophet. There was a whole tribe dedicated to be priests, but out of that tribe, only a family was called to be the high priest and those that attend to the high priest, and those with the teaching offices. Everybody else did something else. There were some Levites whose only job was to open and close the tabernacle. I wish I had a church. That was their only job. Your job. Make sure the tabernacle open for the high priest. Close it down. There were some of them whose job was when remember they were in the wilderness, when we move. Your job is to break it down and to carry it. He was a Levite, but he could not offer a sacrifice. He couldn't teach, he couldn't preach. Not every man taught, and even those who were Levites couldn't all teach. You all good so far? That was the Old Testament. In the New Testament, that didn't change. The offices multiplied, but it was still limited to rules. The teaching rules in the New Testament are that of the apostles, that of the prophets, New Testament prophets, the evangelists, and pastors that teach. Oh, sorry, no, no, no, there's one more class, there's one more class. I always miss out this class. This class was just called the teachers. And it was called the teachers because men were given the gift by the Spirit to teach. Now you're looking at me funny, so let's work on that last part and we work our way up. So Get Romans chapter number twelve. Romans chapter number twelve. Somebody read verse three, four, and five. Romans chapter number twelve, verse three, four, and five.

SPEAKER_09 44:27

For through the grace given to me, I say of every man above you not to think more highly of himself than you ought to think.

SPEAKER_12 44:34

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_09 44:35

But to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted each a measure of faith.

Anderson George 44:42

Keep going.

SPEAKER_09 44:43

For just as we have many members in one body, and all the members, and all the members do not have the same function. So we who are many are one body in Christ, and individual, individually members, one of another.

Anderson George 44:59

Uh-huh. Um, read verse six and seven now. Sorry.

SPEAKER_09 45:04

And since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, now pause.

Anderson George 45:09

So he says we're all members of the same body, but we're also individual members. And then he stops to say, now we have grace that's given to us, but it differs. When he says grace, say he's talking about grace that gave you your special gift that made you you. He's going to say, Whatever your graced gift is, use it 100%. Use it to the measure that you got it. Keep reading, Drew.

SPEAKER_09 45:41

Let each exercise in accordingly.

Anderson George 45:43

Right, that's it. Whatever your grace gift is, exercise it accordingly. He's going to list seven gifts. He's not going to list all, but he's going to list seven. And out of the seven, there's one I wanted to pay attention to because I have a question. Go ahead. Let's pause. So the fact that he lists prophecy, we would agree prophecy is a gift, right? If it's a gift given by God, then it means not everybody has this gift. You all agree? Nice. Keep reading.

SPEAKER_08 46:16

If service and his servant.

Anderson George 46:19

I like this one and I dislike this one because here's I I always try to be honest as a preacher. There are some persons who are gifted to be hospitable and generous. We're all called to be benevolent one to another, but there are some people who excel in it because that's their gift, they have a heart for it. Right? What Paul is talking about here is not the fact that we're all called to be serving. We are, but there's some persons who have that gift. And if that's your gift, then you serve. I remember telling my church back home: if your gift was just making sure the building is spotless, then you make this building the best spotless you've ever made it before. And God gets glory from that because that's what He gifted you to do. The problem is we've glamorized gifts. So they're all gifts given by me for the benefit of you, and then we start making some gifts seem less important. Right? So that the person who cleans doesn't have as much respect as the person who opens the building, and the person who opens the building doesn't have as much respect as somebody who prays, and the person who prays doesn't have as much respect as the person who sings, and the person who sings doesn't have as much respect as the person who teaches, and the person who teaches doesn't have as much respect as the person who preaches. We have a hierarchy of gifts, right? Where if the persons who we think are less honorable don't exercise a gift, none of us will feel comfortable as good as I preach being inside here. If Grandpa Jones, I think I used him already, if Grandpa Jones just doesn't show up on a Sunday morning and all of us reach here because we don't reach early enough to open, right? We all reach here 9.05, you know, 9 15, half nine, and building is closed, right? We'll just have worship outside. Well, I mean, I know Dennis has keys, you know, and whatnot, but if Grandpa Jones was the only person who had keys and he didn't show up, because sometimes we could take that for granted, that is he's always there, he'll open. Right? But it's it's not because it's seemed to be meaningal or less than some other things, means that it has no honor. It's a gift given by God, all of them, right? Serving is is really a hard one because you have to tell the church we're all called to serve, but some have a gift to do it. All right, keep reading, Drew.

SPEAKER_09 49:23

Or he who teaches and is teaching, or he who exhorts you don't need to go any further.

Anderson George 49:28

I want teaching. So now the third one he lists is he who teaches, and he says this is a gift. Doesn't that mean that not everybody has the gift to teach? Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I know that's right. Have have haven't you met persons who are quite knowledgeable in one subject or the other, but can't help you get that same knowledge? Yeah. I have some teachers in Harding now. I was like, I have no doubt you're qualified, that you're knowledgeable. I just doubt you should be teaching.

SPEAKER_07 50:07

My grandson had a class this year at UCA.

Teaching Roles Gifts And Offices

SPEAKER_07 50:11

And he's already done the one that's been teaching it for however long has been teaching it. It's not him. He he failed, he's not really failed, but he he couldn't understand what this man was trying to teach. And then they he took it over this started this on. And the guy he had, yeah, everybody else. I mean, everybody else is the same class, they're all in there, and they're all getting that one. And that right on three because he was able to give it to them, explained it that you know it wasn't really that they didn't get it, they just didn't get how this guy was.

Anderson George 50:44

Yeah, yeah. Not everyone knows how to teach because teaching is a gift, it's not your right as a man. The question you have to ask is not, should I teach because I'm male, it's can I teach because God gave me that gift? Does that make sense? I don't preach because I'm a male, I do what I do because I believe 125% I'm called and gifted to do what I do. If I didn't believe I was called, gifted, anointed, and appointed, I wasn't going to be in this position. Right? Off that. Let me give you one more really quickly because I wanted to see. Teaching was not distributed simply by gender, it was distributed by gift and class. Make me in 1 Corinthians chapter number 12. 1 Corinthians chapter number 12. And I think I want verse number 27, 28, and 29. 1 Corinthians 12. If my memory does not fail me, it's verse 27, 28, and 29. Anybody who has it could read it.

unknown 51:57

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is the first one.

Anderson George 52:00

Yeah, that's it. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 52:02

In the church, God is appointed first of all, apostles, second prophets, third teachers.

Anderson George 52:09

Oh, you read that so fast, Laura. No, you're good, you're good, you're good. Watch this. Laura just picked up pace when she read verse 28. God has appointed in the church, so now we're talking about roles that he appointed. And he said, first apostles, then prophets. And what's the third one?

unknown 52:28

Teachers.

Anderson George 52:28

Teachers. It's a role, it's an office. Now drop down to verse 29, Laura. What does it say?

SPEAKER_04 52:37

Are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers?

Anderson George 52:41

And stop right there. What's the answer to all those questions?

unknown 52:44

No.

Anderson George 52:45

No, not everyone is called to be an apostle, not everyone is called to be a prophet, not everyone is called to be a teacher, because God did not give or appoint everyone to those rules. So there was a particular category called teachers.

SPEAKER_09 53:05

My Bible has another sound note that says works of power as an explanation of these roles.

Anderson George 53:12

Yeah, yeah, oh, definitely. Works uh of the spirit's power, that's fine. I I have no problem with that. They're all given by God through his spirit, so they're works of power. Right? Let me quickly show you as well. Um, Paul said in Timothy, let's get first Timothy 3, verse 1 and 2. First Timothy 3, 1 and 2. And anyone who has it could read it.

SPEAKER_05 53:42

This is a true saying. If a man desires the office of the bishop, he desires a good work. Bishop must be blameless, doesn't it? Given the hospitality apt to teach.

Anderson George 53:59

Nice. Everybody see that? He must be apt to teach. Apt is a short version of the word aptitude. He must have the aptitude to teach. But not just that, because you may think that all elders are called to teach. That's not true. And I think you can prove that, of course. I'm glad you asked. 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse number 17. I am sorry for you who are not taking notes because I'm just throwing verses at you and people. 1 Timothy 5, 17.

SPEAKER_07 54:38

I could put all this together.

SPEAKER_10 54:47

Especially those who work hard and preaching can teach.

Anderson George 55:09

We're not going to work on double honor. It's the elders who lead well are worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. What that meant is there were elders who weren't laboring in preaching and teaching. Not every elder is apt to teach, but there were some elders who were also preaching and teaching. And he says, those who do the work of an elder as well as labor in preaching and teaching need double honor because they're doing double work. See how easy that is? Right. So, as much as 1 Simothy 3 2 says they must be apt to teach, not every elder was a teaching elder. I know that's right because you read Ephesians 4 11, and that's why you have he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some, and this is weird if you look at the rest of the verse, pastors and teachers. Right? So, I'm working up the list. We have a class of people who teach called teachers, they were gifted by the spirit to teach. We just saw that elders, bishops, supposed to be apt to teach, and some of them labor in preaching and teaching. Let's just see if we could find a preacher who teaches now. Let's get Titus chapter number three, verse number one. Titus three, verse number one.

SPEAKER_01 56:59

Remind them to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work.

Anderson George 57:05

Okay, I think I need two one. My memory just failed me. What does two one say?

SPEAKER_01 57:09

Two one.

Anderson George 57:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:11

But you are to proclaim things consistent with the sound, with sound teaching.

Anderson George 57:18

That sounds good, but I think I want more than that. That's good. That's that's good. My memory just did a full. I think I need to eat.

SPEAKER_01 57:38

The same way older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanders, not slaves to excessive drinking. They are to teach what is good so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children. To be self-controlled, care workers at home, found in a submission to their husbands, so that God's word will not be slandered. In the same way, encourage the young men to be self-controlled in everything. Make yourself an example of good work with integrity and dignity. In your teaching.

Anderson George 58:19

So it was more straightforward than simply, you know, proclaim sound teaching. Teach sound teaching. It was it was it was more when you teach, prescribe and teach these things. And of course, we know Titus himself is an evangelist, he's a preacher called to create. The same thing is told to Timothy several times in the book of Timothy. Uh, as Paul gives Timothy instructions, he then tells Timothy, I need you, same thing, prescribe and teach these things. Timothy 2, as a minister, which I could find quicker, as a minister, is to prescribe and teach things. So 1 Timothy 4.11. What does it say? As Paul talks to Timothy the evangelist. That's all I want. Prescribe and teach these things, because all of Timothy is instructions from Paul to the young evangelist, and then he ends by saying, Teach these things, right? Prescribe and teach. That's his rule. He's the preaching teacher, right? The pastor is the shepherding teacher, and then you had persons who were just gifted to teach, you're the teaching teacher, and then above them, you had the apostles and the prophets who taught us the doctrine of Christ. Outside of that group, just an innovative type. Outside of that group, no one taught. So, what that meant is there were men who were not apostles, men who were not prophets, men who were not evangelists, men who were not pastors, and men who were not gifted to teach, who sat down in the pew like everybody else. Because it was not the calling or their gifting. You're tracking with that? Teaching was not a birthright of males in Paul's time. Teaching was a gifting and a call of God. With all of that said, with my last two minutes, I think this is going to be longer than I thought. With my last two minutes, when Paul says, I suffer not a woman to teach, the church in Ephesus, who would have heard this, Timothy, who would have heard this, would have understood him saying she can't hold these teaching roles. Because teaching was limited to these roles. There's a difference. And how do you know that? Because he told older women, teach younger women. He said, Aquila and Priscilla pulled Apollos aside and taught him things more perfectly, right? He told Timothy that the things you know now in faith you were taught by your mother Lois and your grandmother Eunice. Right? So there are too many passages in scripture of women teaching. So how do you reconcile women teaching and Paul saying I suffer not a woman to teach? Because the Bible is true. So how could he be saying yes and no at the same time? The suffer not a woman to teach is not that she can't teach in every circumstance, is that she can't hold these offices because these are the offices God gave for teaching in the church. So, simple vision: she's not called to be an apostle, she's not called to be a prophet, she's not called to be a pastor, she's not called to be an evangelist as preacher. That's what he's meant when he said, I suffer her not to teach. Doesn't mean that she can't teach, she can't hold these offices. And I'm specifically saying these offices, because then we start talking nonsense and said a woman can't be in finance ministry or in this ministry, or Paul ain't no nothing but none of that. What Paul said was there are some teaching offices or roles in the church, and by inspiration of God, women are not called to be there. And again, if women you're feeling cross, as I said, over 90% of men are also unqualified from these roles. Not every man

Artemis Ephesus And Next Steps

Anderson George 1:03:05

is called to be an apostle, not every man is called to be a prophet, not every man is called to be an evangelist, not every man is called to teach. Alright, so don't hear, please, please hear my heart. I'm not saying that God is limiting you alone. It just so happens he's talking about women in this context, and the reason why, in 15 seconds, is because in Ephesus the woman did all the teaching. There were temples. The most famous one is to uh a goddess known as Diana. We know her as Diana. I hate saying Diana because Diana is her English name, she had a Greek name, it was Artemis, right? If you ever see a Greek image of Artemis, she was known to be a goddess of fertility, she has plenty boobies, right? I was gonna say more, I'm not gonna say more. She, if you ever Google her, she has a myriad number of boobies and they look weird, right? But she was the most popular goddess in Ephesus, and her priests, her pastors were all females, right? And they led Ephesus astray. So, one of the reasons why Paul specifically mentions this is because he's talking to Timothy in Ephesus, where women are the default teachers, and he tells them that's not God's hierarchy. The teaching roles in the General Assembly belong to those who have been gifted and appointed. Y'all good? That was just part one. We haven't talked about your sleep authority yet. Right? But my time is done. Y'all have any questions? I want to let you go, but I want to make sure we're good to leave. Any questions, any comments before I throw you out? Okay. It was clear, clear enough that you can at least go and revisit your notes just in case. It's also on video. Nice. Um, yeah, I'm going to deal with Usip Authority. Uh, the next time we meet, that won't be next week. Um, we'll talk about UC Authority. After UC Authority, um, we're going to tackle First Corinthians 14, where he says, Let your woman be silent in the churches. Um, I'm going, yeah, I'm going to tackle um after that. So the next one is Usip Authority. After that is 1 Corinthians 14, 34. Let your woman be silent in the church. Then I have a category that's just titled right now on my PowerPoint, What About. Because what happened, as I said, is we've been restricted. So a woman can't do anything in the church except clean the building, make, put together the crackers and the wine juice on Sunday morning. Right? And teach children. That's what we've limited our women to, right? So I have a category of what about, right? And I'm going to challenge you. Let me give you one now. I know, I know, I know my time is gone. Um, let me challenge you now. Because we've made things so restrictive for women, what we've done is we've we've made everything about leading. One of those things that we did that we made about leading, let me take something simple, passing the trace. We've made that a position of leadership. So we say that a woman can do it because then she would be leading around the Lord's table. If she passed the tree, I didn't say she prayed, I didn't say she said say anything from the pulpit. All she's doing is passing the tree. Here's the problem with that. Y'all ever went to those bigger churches where, you know, Logan and those guys couldn't just stand up and hand it one, one, one. And so they had to pass the tree. Y'all ever had to receive a trade from another lady while she was seated? What's the difference between her passing it seated and her passing it standing? And if you tell me that when she's standing, she's leading, then you have to show me why standing is the position of leadership. Because now you're making a doctrine of being seated or standing, and that's why I love exegesis. Because there's no doctrine. So we've preclude women from particular areas where they could necessarily serve. Now I'm not saying make women pass trays. Back home, after we studied this, we decided not to allow women to pass a tray. They did many more things. My woman led um finance, I had a woman leading children's ministry. Um, I had a woman working with me, creating the education curriculum, right? She would create the education curriculum. I signed off. I had women doing all sorts of stuff, right? Um uh, but we didn't pass trays because that would be too controversial for everybody else. You need to know how to have your liberty, but not use it to cause offense. So don't hear me and say we're just going to run wild and do no, no, no, no, no. Right? Whatever we are comfortable with after properly studying scripture is what we'll do.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:17

Right? Good.