Should Churches Ordain Women?
Answer: Absolukely.
Luke's gospel records that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women were the first to go out with the news that Christ had risen from the dead. The apostles, on the other hand, considered their words to be nothing but idle tales.1 Men are not superior to women in spiritual understanding or commitment to reach the world with the gospel of Christ. The idea that God made women spiritually subservient to men is found in the Law of Moses. Paul instructed the Corinthians: Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also says the law.2
The fact that Paul applied the law to the church at Corinth reflected his own personal battle between his old religious nature as a Pharisee and his new nature in Christ: For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do… I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me... O wretched man that I am!3 This struggle appears to surface from time to time in his letters, for example, when he first told the Corinthians to cast out a man accused of fornication. In a second letter, he reversed himself, saying: But if any man has caused grief, he has not grieved me... Wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him…Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.4 The fact that churches today still enforce restrictions on women that sprung from Moses' commandments illustrates that they too struggle to let old things pass away and all things become new.5
As with other parts of the law that reflected the cultural traditions of the day, Moses intended that compassion replace discrimination based on gender. To see how far most civilized societies have come since the days of Moses, one need only look to areas of the world where parts of the Law of Moses are still enforced by law and women are oppressed because of their gender. God is no respecter of persons; and, even Paul said that when we are in Christ we are no longer under the law; neither is there male or female for we are all one in Christ.6
What both men and women should be careful not to do, however, is follow the example of the Pharisees, which used religious authority to exalt themselves above common people while extracting wealth from them in the name of God.7 The Lord did not lay it upon the sheep to take care of the shepherds, but shepherds the sheep.8
References
1 Lk 24:10-11
2 1Cor 14:34
3 1Rom 7:14-25
4 1Corinthians, Chapter 5; 2Cor 2:5-11
5 2Cor 5:17
6 Deut 10:17; Acts 10:34; Gal 3:24-28
7 Matthew, Chapter 23
8 Jn 22:15-17
a Children receive their "sin nature" (1Cor 15:22; Rom 7:18) from spiritual fathers, not necessarily from their natural fathers. |
