Why I'm not offended I can't be a Pastor

My natural instinct is to take things personally. I’m stubborn and strong-willed. I don’t like being told that I can’t do something, and I take these comments as attacks on my abilities. 

So when I study biblical gender roles, one might assume that I take offense of Paul’s command in 1 Timothy 2:11-12 where he writes, “Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather she is to remain quiet.” This is one passage of many that describes God’s design for the roles of men and women in the family and in the church. I’ve studied, read, and devoted a lot of time to studying these texts. But I’m not offended by being told I can’t preach. I don’t feel insulted when I’m told to submit. The key to my feelings about the command is found in Paul’s reasoning for his command. 

Consider Paul’s reason behind his prohibition against women exercising authority over men in the church in the following verse. Paul doesn’t say that the reason that women shouldn’t teach is because they’d be bad at it. But I’ll admit that there was a time when I believed this, that women were kept from being pastors because men were simply better at being pastors. Could it be that the only reason I thought this was because culture told me to be offended by such restrictions? Society told me to be insulted that I couldn’t be a pastor, that I couldn’t hold any position a man could. My reaction to this cultural pressure wasn’t to align my beliefs with society’s to expand my opportunities. Rather than being offended by these “limitations,” I was encouraged to flesh out what I believed about my role as a woman by being a better student of the Word. 

Through this study, I found that Paul doesn’t base his prohibition on the abilities and skills of women at all. Paul’s reason was actually contrary to what I had believed. In verse 13, Paul says that his reason for not allowing women to exercise authority over men in the church was because, “Adam was formed first, then Eve.” Paul points outside of the immediate church context in Ephesus and he points outside of his own cultural context. This means that I can’t just write off this command as something that doesn’t apply to me. Paul could have talked about the false teaching occurring at the time, but he doesn’t. Paul could have brought up the demographic of the women at the time, but he doesn’t. Paul defers to the creative hand of God for his argument. His reason is not what he sees that particular church needs because of temporal circumstances, but what God did at the beginning of the humanity, before sin entered the world. 

I’m not offended by Paul’s command because he doesn’t accuse women of doing a bad job at studying theology. He doesn’t say that the men were more spiritually mature. He doesn’t say that women were not “capable” of knowing the Word of God rightly and teaching it well. I’m not insulted, and I don’t take this command as an attack against my abilities, because Paul never meant for that to be the case. 

Not only does this mean that my role as a woman is not contingent on my success or abilities, but I am also comforted by Paul’s command. What a comfort to know that my role is based on God’s design, not my abilities. This understanding frees me to embrace my role in my marriage and in the church without making my abilities the focus. Paul’s focus is on the God’s design, not the skills and abilities of women. So I need to have the same focus as Paul and find comfort and security in the role that God has designed me for, as I’m free to fulfill that role to the best of my ability. 

//Alyson Jennie