This Sunday I will be preaching from Romans 16. In this chapter, Paul is commending a lady name Phoebe to the church and then proceeds to send greetings to many others. Paul writes that Phoebe is a servant (deaconess) of the church in Cenchreae, which is a small city right next to Corinth. This mention of her brings up an interesting topic and that is the role of women in ministry.
I know this is a very sensitive topic and my aim is to wrestle with the Scriptures relative to this issue. There are those who believe that women should not hold any leadership position in a local church and there are those who believe that women have no restrictions at all relative to leadership in the church. Most people that I have had conversations with in ministry circles fit somewhere between those two views. My goal is to deal honestly with the Scriptures relative to this topic without writing a book.
First of all, I believe the mention of Phoebe by Paul does make this an issue worthy of exploration. It certainly appears that Phoebe is a deaconess of the church in Cenchreae. Some believe Paul is using the word in a general sense (meaning servant), but I find it more probable that he is using the word to refer to an office that she holds. We know that the office of deacon has already been established in the church and Paul would have been well aware of this. He doesn't call her a servant of Christ from Cenchreae, but rather a servant of the church in Cenchreae. If Paul meant servant in the general sense, then why say it the way he did? It would have created confusion to the believers in Rome and Paul would have been well aware of that. Besides, she is likely the one delivering the letter of Romans to the church in Rome. It is a rather significant task to entrust to just anyone. So while it is still possible that Paul means servant in a general sense, it is more likely that he literally means she serves the church in Cenchreae as a deaconess. So the question becomes, does Scripture even allow this? That is what I want to explore next.
Paul has given us insight into two offices that the church has established, and perhaps the most significant passage we have given to us is 1 Timothy 3. The first office is that of an overseer (bishop). The Scriptures use three words interchangeably to describe this office... pastor (shepherd), elder, and bishop (overseer). They all refer to the same office. You see this in a several places in the New Testament like Titus 1:6-7 and 1 Peter 5:1-3. Yet in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 we have qualifications given.
1 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive,5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:1-7 ESV)
The second office that Paul mentions in 1 Timothy 3 is the office of a deacon.
8 Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. 9 They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 10 And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. 11 Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. 12 Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. 13 For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 3:8-13)
A simple reading of the translation would bring you to the conclusion that deacons were to be men. However, I would like to explore the language a bit in this text. The text first starts with the qualifications for an overseer and then switches to deacon using a transitional word translated "likewise", which means "in the same way". As you read through the passage further you see the phrase again in verse 11 when Paul says, "their wives likewise...". Again, there is nothing in the passage that indicates that Paul is not limiting the office of a deacon to men. However, let's take this a step further to explore the word translated as "their wives" in most translations. The Greek word is gynaikas. It can be translated to mean "wives" or "the women", which is why the translators of the NASB worded it as women instead of wives. Does the Apostle Paul mean wives or women? It can be either one. Here are the observations that I have made that makes this issue plausible, if not probable, that the word "women" should be used as opposed to wives.
- The use of the parallel grammar: Paul starts with elders, transitions to deacons, and uses the same transition for "the women". It would seem he is addressing a different set of people. Could he be referring to deaconesses?
- The lack of this "wife" qualifier for the elders: If Paul meant to communicate that the deacons' wives had qualifications to meet, why did he not mention this with the qualifications with the elders. To be fair, it is possible that Paul is meaning that wives of both elders and deacons, but it would seem odd since it is in the middle of the qualifications of the office of a deacon. Immediately following the "women" qualifiers, Paul lays out a qualifier specifically for men. They are to be a one woman man (husband of one wife) and must manage their household well. It would seem to me that Paul includes both men and women in this list of qualifications for the office of deacon.
Why is there no qualifier for the wives of the elders? Again, if Paul is intending the use of women instead of wives, you wouldn't see it under the office of elder. Why is that? We actually have to turn back a few verses into 1 Timothy 2 to get the answer. Paul makes a pretty bold statement for our sensibilities and I would like to unpack it a bit. Here it is...
11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. (1 Timothy 2:11-12)
What is Paul meaning by what he writes here? Does he mean that women should never talk in church? I am quite certain that this is not what Paul is referring to. Paul lays out these two restrictions. Women are to not teach or to exercise authority over a man. Obviously Paul does not mean they shouldn't teach in general because in his letter to Titus states that older women should teach the younger women. This teaching and exercising authority over a man must be seen in connection to the office of an elder, for this is the role of an elder. It is no accident by Paul that a few verses later he goes into the qualifications of an elder. These two restrictions should be understood as Paul restricting a woman from teaching authoritatively over men in a capacity where they are exercising spiritual authority as an overseer (elder). Then Paul gives the reason behind this statement which fits his teaching on male headship. He says,
13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. (1 Timothy 2:13-14)
He grounds his statement on a design argument not a cultural argument. He goes back to creation and even the moment of the fall. However people want to take that, Paul is clearly arguing from a point of design. What Paul is not saying is that women are less than men, but what he is saying is that they have clearly designed roles in the church. There is a huge difference between saying women can't serve in the office of an elder because they are inferior to men, which is simply not the case, than from saying that God designed the man to be the spiritual leader of his home, or in this case, the spiritual overseers of the local church. For example, Jesus is equal to the Father in being, but willingly submits to the authority of His Father because they have different roles. Jesus is not less than the Father, but doesn't seek to overtake the authority of His Father either.
This is why I am a complementarian, meaning that I believe God created men and women equal but with different roles within His good design. So while I believe Scripture allows room for women to be deacons, I also believe the Scriptures are clear that women are not to serve as elders. That being said, I also take the posture of humility and will not bash or demean a woman who may serve as an elder or think differently than me on this issue. I laid out my convictions based on 1 Timothy 2-3, but ultimately she is not accountable to me. People have their own convictions and we all must be faithful to what we believe the text of Scripture to teach. For me, this is what I have concluded.
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