When going to fight against your enemy, is it better to fight on your own, or is it better to have one person who fights alongside you against your mutual enemy? Obviously, there is strength in numbers!
When it comes to fighting against Satan, Christians have gone into battle with a self-imposed handicap – women are being told that the Bible says that women are not allowed to teach the Gospel. Armed with the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit and the breastplate of righteousness, godly women are told to stay silent when it comes to the realm of teaching or preaching the gospel.
Like Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” Christians are needlessly going into spiritual battle at a disadvantage due to their own lack of knowledge. . Unfortunately, due to a lack of historical knowledge, Christians are wasting precious time trying to follow rules that either never existed or are misapplied to their lives.
Satan, the author of confusion, has people within the church arguing about whether a woman should be allowed to teach even Sunday School, as that would be akin to “having authority over a man.” Many ungodly men are eager to shut down godly women who are on fire for Christ by misquoting 1 Timothy 2:11-15, and 1 Corinthians 14:34–35.
What did the Apostle Paul mean in his letters to both the Church at Corinth and the Church at Ephesus? Is there any way to figure out what Paul truly meant? There is!
Paul didn’t exist in a vacuum; both he and the people that made up both churches lived amongst Greek and Roman pagans, who had their own cultural and religious practices. To understand Paul’s letters, we cannot overlook the historical and cultural context of both the cities of Corinth and Ephesus.
In this three part series, Crack Your Bible is tackling the question, “Can Women Teach (or must they stay silent?)”
Part 1 is an overview of Paul’s teachings and the many women who taught with Paul to spread the gospel all over the Roman Empire.
Part 2 is an in-depth look at the Church at Corinth.
Due to the fact that men and women of all social standings were freely associating, Paul gave special instructions on covering their heads. While men today have zero qualms about wearing hats, Christian women are beginning to wonder if they’ve missed the mark by not covering their heads. Not only that, but unbelievers and new believers were fighting to have the floor when it came to these newly formed church meetings – and Paul had to restore order out of the chaos
Part 3 is an in-depth look at the Church at Ephesus.
Due to the fact that Gnostic and pagan practices from the cult of Artemis were familiar to the new members of the Church at Ephesus, many false doctrines were being preached as if they were the gospel of Jesus Christ. Groups of women were afraid that they were risking their salvation by getting married and having children, while other false teachers were sure of speech, but completely wrong in their doctrine. Paul had to restore order and stop the promotion of doctrines of demons coming out of the Church at Ephesus.
It’s not good for man to be alone! Don’t handicap yourself in this spiritual battle. Armed with this knowledge, Christians can strengthen their witness, stop wasting time and they can become successful against the schemes of the devil.
Photo by Cristian Newman on Unsplash
