Women’s Voices in Service to Christ

This episode examines the hotly debated role of women in the church, contrasting extreme egalitarian and patriarchal positions and calling listeners back to Scripture as the final authority for defining roles and responsibilities.

Drawing from Genesis, the Judges, Isaiah, and New Testament passages (1 Tim. 2; Titus 2; Eph. 4), the discussion explains how the Fall affected gender relations, why church leadership offices are biblically qualified for men, and yet how God still equips women with gifts for testimony, evangelism, teaching (especially of other women), discipleship, and service—illustrated by examples like Deborah, Jael, Priscilla, and the women who first witnessed the Resurrection.

The episode urges churches to encourage and steward women’s voices humbly and biblically: neither silencing nor elevating them beyond Scripture’s order, but using their gifts to glorify Christ and edify the body while maintaining godly structure and mutual submission.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Perhaps one of the most contentious matters currently facing Christianity is the issue of what role women’s voices have in serving in the church.

(00:07):
Arguments on this matter may range from extreme egalitarianism,
which argues for no restrictions whatsoever,and even promoting female-centric superiority in the church,
to hard-line patriarchal views,which give women little place but for the raising of children and silent servitude in the home.
While churches must be ever vigilant against feminist and egalitarian efforts to deny Scripture’s well-defined roles for men and women,

(00:33):
they must also guard against adding to God’s word whereby women are not permitted to exercise their God-given gifts in service to Christ.
The balance is found in looking at what Scripture tells us about how God equips women and his purpose for their service.
It is necessary to start with Scripture’s warning of the curse that befell mankind after Adam and Eve’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden.

(00:54):
While Adam willfully sinned against God and brought the stain of sin on all of creation,
Eve sinned due to her falling for the deceit of the serpent.
As a result of their actions, God pronounced curses upon them all.
Due to Adam’s willful rejection of his role as husband,
for listening to Eve instead of protecting her from the serpent,

(01:15):
all of creation would no longer yield its fruit easily.
Hard work and toil would be his future.
But for Eve,not only would childbirth be painful,but God told her,
“Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,but he shall rule over you” (Genesis 3,
verse 16).
Thus,the curse brought women into a position of desiring leadership over the very men whom God had ordained as leader,

(01:42):
provider,and protector.
This struggle for leadership would be definitional as the men of Israel in future generations often abdicated their responsibility to lead and protect the nation at large.
During the time of the Judges,for example,the men were so unwilling to hearken to the voice of the Lord that God sent a prophetess,
Deborah,to shake Barak from his cowardice.

(02:04):
This prophetess showed more wisdom than Barak because she came only to deliver the words of God meant to push him into service,
not to lead the nation herself.
Yet, he refused unless she went with him.
Such was the failure of this man that God cursed his victory in battle by giving the final victory to Jael,
a woman who drove a spike through the head of the king of Canaan (See Judges 4 and 5).

(02:28):
Furthermore,when Israel was in utter rebellion against God,
he sent the prophet Isaiah to warn of his coming,irreversible judgment.
Their open idolatry and wickedness before God ensured the harshest of his judgments,
the point where God said to them,“Woe to the wicked!
It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.

(02:51):
My people—infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them.
O my people,your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths” (Isaiah 3,
11 to 12).
One of the very judgments they faced was God permitting women to rule over the wicked in Israel.
Thus,the curse that came through the fall in the Garden became a tool of judgment against an evil people.

(03:15):
It is with this backdrop in mind that we look at the church age and recognize that God is the same yesterday,
today,and forevermore.
In establishing the church,God makes his temple,not in an edifice in a geographic location,
but in the hearts of believers around the world.
Thus, he orders his church in such a way as to reflect himself to the world at large.

(03:38):
In the operation of his church,the roles he sets forth for his people are a picture of the gospel at work.
When God calls those whom he intends to lead and teach his church,
he determines that role to men who meet certain qualifications (see First Timothy 3,
1 to 7 and Titus 1,5 to 9).
Furthermore,he gives duties to men and women,providing direction and restrictions for them in the church.

(04:04):
In doing so,he makes it clear that women,while having roles and value in the church,

are not to lead or have authority over men (04:09):
“I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man;
rather, she is to remain quiet” (First Timothy 2, verse 12).
Women are called to profess godliness through their modesty, self-control, and good works.
They are to sit under the authority of those whom God called to be his undershepherds,

(04:32):
learning quietly and not seeking to usurp the authority of the church.
In establishing these roles,God protects his church against the effects of the curse by calling and placing qualified men who will lead in humility and by guarding women against the desire to wrest control of the institution for themselves.
What Christians should take care in this matter to understand is that,

(04:53):
while God does not permit women to have authority over his church,
he does not silence them from having any kind of voice inside the church.
God equips all of his people with gifts for the edification of the body (Ephesians 4,
verses 11 to 14).
Furthermore,he instructs his people in the use of those gifts,

(05:14):
including women who are given the privilege of teaching younger women inside the church itself (see Titus 2,
verses 3 to 8).
However, they are not simply restricted to speaking with only other women.
Evangelism is a command to all believers (see Matthew 28, verses 18 to 20).
Therefore,women can give testimony to others of what God has done in their lives,

(05:39):
just as the woman at the well told an entire town of both men and women,
“Come,see a man who told me all that I ever did.
Can this be the Christ?
” (John 4, verse 29).
This is further demonstrated when all four gospel accounts reveal that the first witnesses to the resurrected Christ were women,

(05:59):
and they were even given angelic instructions to tell the male disciples what they had seen,
“Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead,
and behold,he is going before you to Galilee;
there you will see him.
See, I have told you” (Matthew 28, verse 7).
Women can also speak about the things of God to both men and women in various other environments.

(06:24):
In giving his disciples instruction on the matter of church discipline,
Jesus tells the disciples,“If your brother sins against you,
go and tell him his fault,between you and him alone.
If he listens to you, you have gained your brother” (Matthew 18, verse 15).
Women can speak openly to their brothers and sisters when they have been sinned against,

(06:46):
seeking repentance and reconciliation.
Furthermore,women can be witnesses in matters of church discipline because there is no restriction on what gender a witness must be.
Women also have the wonderful privilege of being involved in the discipleship of immature believers in the faith.
We see this demonstrated plainly in Scripture when Priscilla and Aquila take Apollos aside and “explained to him the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18,

(07:12):
verse 26).
While Priscilla was working with and under the authority of her husband,
and not leading this instruction alone,she was clearly a student of Scripture to be able to assist in this matter.
This particular example is also instructive in that there are some who seek to use Titus 2,
verses 3 to 8 to limit what women can speak on theologically.

(07:35):
Priscilla stands as a stark example that God desires women to know and speak with sound theology on many issues within the church.
In fact,Paul would later commend Priscilla and Aquila and “the church in their house” in his letter to the Corinthians (First Corinthians 16,
verse 19).
God has given women voices,and he desires that they be used in a manner that glorifies his name and edifies the saints.

(08:00):
Nothing stated above should ever be construed as a means by which women should seek to skirt God’s clear commands about the order and structure of the church or their marital homes.
Wives are still called to submit to husbands as unto the Lord,
and they are called respectful,gentle,and imperishable beauty as they work to serve Christ (see Ephesians 5,

(08:21):
verses 22 to 24 and First Peter 3,verses 1 to 6).
As they engage fellow believers,both men and women,
teach younger women,engage in evangelism and discipleship,
it should always be with the heart motivation to submit to Christ,
glorify his name,and to edify the saints.

(08:42):
Never should it be a heart that desires and demands the spotlight to speak and teach specifically for their own self-gratification and glorification.
The church should encourage women to exercise their voices in a humble and godly manner,
not stifling the gifts of God,yet graciously seek to constrain,
as with all believers,the exercise of those gifts so they may not be abused and bring a reproach on the name of Christ.

(09:07):
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