Female Pastors?

"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."

These two verses are among the more controversial verses in Scripture. I’ll try to explain what Paul is saying in these verses but let me begin by making clear what he is not saying.

Paul is not saying that women are in any way inferior to men. He makes this clear in his letter to the Galatians when he says “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” To be clear there is still a distinction between male and female as far as the roles God has assigned to them but they are in every way of equal value in God’s eyes. Paul is not saying that women are prohibited from speaking in church. Paul assumes that women will prophesy in Corinth (1 Cor. 11:4-5) and throughout Scripture women take part in speaking in church services (Ex 15:20; Col 3:16). Paul is not even prohibiting women from teaching in appropriate conditions and circumstances. Priscilla and Aquila both taught Apollos (Acts18:26), but only after they took him aside and were away from the worship setting. Women are also commanded to teach each other (Titus 2:3-4). As John MacArthur says “Nor does it mean women cannot pray, merely that they are not to lead the prayers during the public worship of the church. It does not mean that women do not have spiritual gifts in the area of public speaking and leadership. The issue is where they exercise those gifts.”

What Paul is saying in today’s verses is that women are prohibited from preaching and teaching in church. In verse 12 Paul explains what he means in verse 11. Paul is saying that women are to remain quiet in the sense of preaching and teaching and should remain subject by not trying to undermine the authority of the elders by taking their role. Paul is merely prohibiting what God had already said would happen. In the garden of Eden God told Eve “Your desire shall be for your husband”, literally that she would desire her husband’s position of authority. Paul’s prohibition of women leadership in the church is part of his apostolic duty to remain true to God’s commands. In these verses Paul explicitly and clearly forbids women from having any kind of authority over men in the church. I agree with R.C. Sproul when he says: "All of us have been blessed by mothers, women missionaries and Sunday school teachers, and other females who have taught us the Word without being elders. Let us thank God for the many Godly women in our lives."

This will be controversial but let me be clear: The office of elder/pastor is for men only. If a woman calls herself a pastor she is going against the words of the apostle Paul and thus against the word of God. For any women who call themselves pastor I would encourage you to read and re-read these verses with an open heart and mind and let the Holy Spirit lead you to the truth.

For further study on male and female roles I would recommend "Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism", edited by Wayne Grudem and John Piper.