The High Calling of Women

by Tom Ascol

In big, bold type the January 20, 1992, TIME magazine cover asked the question: “Why Are Men and Women Different?” In much smaller letters, almost as if apologizing, the thesis of the cover story was suggested: “It isn’t just upbringing. New studies show they are born that way.”

No doubt that bit of information was news to many who had imbibed the feminist doctrine of the previous thirty years. But for anyone familiar with the teachings of the Bible, such discoveries hardly seem newsworthy. God designed men and women to be different and to fulfill different roles in the home and church.

Sadly, the differences between men and women have been used to justify mistreatment of the “fairer sex” throughout history. Even in cultures that are considered advanced and enlightened, women have often experienced severe repression and at times, abuse.

One of the morning prayers recorded in the Talmud to guide Jewish men (obviously) in the start of the day says, “Blessed are you, Lord, our God, ruler of the universe who has not created me a woman.” That blessing stops short of the cavalier attitude reflected in a letter written by a traveling Roman man to his pregnant wife back home in 1 BC. After admonishing her to take care of the child growing within he writes, “If you have the baby before I return, if it is a boy, let it live; if it is a girl, expose it,” referring to the practice of leaving a child in a public place either to be claimed by someone else or to die.

Against these kinds of misogynistic practices Christianity appeared with a completely different ethic regarding the worth and status of women. Many of the original followers of Jesus were women, and women were among those who gathered in prayer as they waited for the Holy Spirit to be given at Pentecost (Acts 1:14). 

The apostle Paul warmly commends specific women (Rom. 16:1–16; Col. 4:15; 2 Tim. 1:5) and describes women in Philippi as co-workers in laboring in the gospel (Phil. 4:3). He also makes an unequivocal statement about the spiritual equality of men and women in the new covenant when he writes, “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” (Gal. 3:28). 

This esteem for the inherent value and dignity of womanhood is the context for the New Testament’s teaching on the different roles assigned to men and women in the church. Failure to recognize this can lead casual Bible readers to misconstrue some of Paul’s instructions to Timothy as being chauvinistic. 

The apostle teaches his young colleague what women must do and must not do in the worship gatherings of the church. “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” (1 Tim. 2:11–12).

Because of the strength of the prohibition in verse 12, many often miss the important admonition found in verse 11. Christian women are to be learners, something that was not generally promoted by the Jews. In the church, women are encouraged to grow in knowledge and understanding. The quiet and submissive attitude that is to characterize their learning is no slight to the personhood of women. Elsewhere Paul encourages all believers to cultivate the former quality (2 Thess. 3:12) as well as commending the latter (2 Cor. 9:13).

Christians are always to display submission to proper authorities (Rom. 13:1; Titus 3:1) including those who serve as elders in the church (Heb. 13:17). As Paul makes plain later in his first letter to Timothy, that office is to be filled only by a “one-woman-man” (3:2). As the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood puts it, though “men and women are equal in the image of God,” they nevertheless “maintain complementary differences in role and function” in the home and in the church.

The restriction that prohibits women from teaching men or exercising authority over men in the church is not a denial of spiritual worth, it is a divinely instituted parameter for ministry. May women teach in the church? Absolutely. In fact, some are instructed to do so. “Older women…are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children” (Titus 2:3–4).

While Paul’s restrictions on women’s roles are out of step with the egalitarian spirit of our age, the foundation of his argument makes it clear that his instruction is not culturally conditioned. “For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor” (1 Tim. 2:13–14).

The order of creation and the order of the fall provide the reason that women are not to exercise authority over men in the church. From the beginning God has intended that men lead in the home and in the church. This is no slight to women. It is God’s wisdom commanding what is best for His people and His world.  

© Tabletalk magazine. 

FROM Tabletalk Magazine

DATE June 1st, 2009

TOPICS Creation, Controversies in the Church, Women in Ministry

Tom Ascol

Dr. Tom Ascol is senior minister of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Fla., and executive director of Founders Ministries. He is editor of Dear Timothy: Letters on Pastoral Ministry.

Resolve to be a Lifelong Learner

Wisdom does not come automatically with age (Job 32:8–9). You’ll find plenty of foolish old fogies out there.

For many aged saints, gray hair and a good head go hand in hand. But for others, far too many others, length of life only entrenches stubbornness, irritability, and careless ways of thinking and living. Life experience may increase inevitably with age, but without some long-term pattern of receptivity and intentionality, multiplied experiences will only create more confusion than clarity.

For Christians in particular, the stakes are even higher for cultivating holy curiosity and the mindset of a lifelong learner. Teaching and learning are at the very heart of our faith. To be a “disciple” means to be a “learner.” Our Master is the consummate teacher, and the central task of his undershepherds in the local church is teaching (Titus 1:9; 1 Timothy 3:2; 5:17; Hebrews 13:7; Matthew 28:20). God designed the church to be a community of lifelong learners under the earthly guidance of leaders who are teachers at heart.

The Christian faith is not a finite course of study for the front-end of adulthood. Our mindset shouldn’t be to first do our learning and then spend the rest of our lives drawing from that original deposit of knowledge. Rather, ongoing health in the Christian life is inextricably linked to ongoing learning.

Learning Till the Day of Christ — And Beyond

Many of us have felt the comfort of Philippians 1:6, that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion . . .” — but the statement doesn’t end there. Yes, we have the great promise of completion, but then follows a sobering disclosure about the timing: “. . . at the day of Christ.” The loop of learning doesn’t close today or tomorrow, but as Jesus tarries, a lifetime lies ahead.

And even in heaven, and then in the new creation, we shouldn’t expect that our learning will be done. In our Beloved, we have a bounty of blessings such that “in the coming ages [God will] show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7). We’re not given it all at once, but forever we have new mercies to discover, fresh revelations to receive, new things to learn about our Lord. We are not just given a promise of increase that is lifelong, but eternal.

And so we are lifelong learners. Two important questions then lie before us: a simple what and a simple how. One, what is the framework for our lifelong learning? Is there a grid or focus or organizing principle as we continue to learn and grow? And two, how might we go about practicing such learning for a lifetime?

Center on the Word

There is indeed something we frontload for the Christian life, and then spend the rest of our days exploring and going deeper in: it is the “word” or “message” about Jesus, God’s incarnate Word. Simply put, the focal point and center of our lifelong learning is the person and work of Christ. All things are in him, through him, and for him (Colossians 1:17).

When we say “learners,” we don’t mean of mere facts, information, and head knowledge. We mean all that and more. We don’t just learn facts, but we learn a Face. We’re not just learners of principles, but of a Person. We are lifelong learners in relationship with Jesus as we hear his voice in his word and have his ear in prayer, and share in community with his body, all through the power of his Spirit.

And one of the chief ways we know his person more is by learning more about his work for us. Not only are we “rooted and grounded” in Christ’s love for us at Calvary, but we press on “to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that [we] may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17–19).

The heart of lifelong learning that is explicitly Christian is not merely digging deeper in the seemingly bottomless store of information there is to learn about the world and humanity and history, but plunging into the infinite flood of Christ’s love, and how it all comes back to this, in its boundless breath and length and height and depth, and seeing everything else in its light. The center of lifelong learning for the Christian is knowing God himself in Christ through the gospel word and the written word of the Scriptures — in the hearing and reading and study and meditation and memorization of the Bible.

Five Principles for Lifelong Learning

The what, then, is “the Word” — incarnate, spoken, and written — at the center, casting its shadow on all other learning. But now, how? The short answer is that the list of particular practices for lifelong learning can be diverse as creativity will allow, and here are five big-picture suggestions to get you going.

1. Diversify Your Sources and Seasons

Learn from personal conversations, read books, take classes, watch educational videos, and (perhaps most underrated) listen to recorded audio. Diversify your sources of teaching.

• Personal conversations with experienced and knowledgeable people are tops on the list, as you can dialogue and ask questions and hear words tailored just for you, as they’re aware of your situation and needs.
• Books have the amazing value of being accessible anytime and anywhere; you can go at your speed, in your time and place, and re-read as needed.
• Classes provide the advantage of learning in context with others, benefiting from their questions, and being forced to focus on the material at some set time for some particular season.
• Educational videos provide the flexibility of watching at a time most convenient to you and benefiting from visuals (diagrams, charts, body language).
• Listening to recordings gives the flexibility for multitasking (learning while driving or exercising or cleaning) and engages the mind in ways different than video instruction by leaning on the imagination to picture the teacher and setting.

Also, consider how the sources will change in your various seasons of life. College and seminary are concentrated seasons for classroom instruction, educational dialogue, and extended reading. If you have a long commute, or the kind of manual labor job that permits it, you can take advantage of audio books and courses and lectures and sermons. Evaluate the particulars of your season of life, and choose the media and venues most conducive to your ongoing learning about God, the world, and yourself.

2. Create Space and Redeem Spare Time

If you work a fulltime job and have a young family, it may be difficult to make room for the homework and weekly commitment of attending an evening class or even taking a course online. But what you can do, in this tight season or any other, is create little windows for learning.

It may only be five or ten minutes of reading as you go to bed at night, or a few extra minutes of lingering over the Scriptures in the morning, or listening to a short podcast like Ask Pastor John or Theology Refresh as you brush your teeth, commute, or run errands. Or maybe just set the goal to read an article or two each day online at a substantive site like The Gospel Coalition.

3. Mind Your Mindless Moments

There’s a place for mental rest and recreation, for ballgames and television and pop tunes and motion pictures, but a lifelong learner will want to take care that most of life’s spare moments are not cannibalized by mere mindless entertainment. There is a way to watch (some) sports and television with intentionality for learning. Checking on the news is one. The History Channel or some good documentary are among others.

Lifelong learning, over time, will mean developing the resistance to simply veg out whenever you feel the impulse, and turn some of these moments, if not many, into opportunities to grow instead. It may not feel like much on any given day, but the payoff in the long haul is extraordinary.

4. Adapt to New Media

A large personal library, with tattered and penciled pages, was once the mark of a lifelong learner. Then shelves of books were accompanied by newspaper and magazine clippings, then stacks of 8-track tapes, then stashes of cassettes, then piles of CDs. Today a veritable library can be stored on an e-reader or laptop, and mp3s once hoarded on hard drives are available online through near ubiquitous wifi.

Podcasts have become a favorite channel of the endlessly curious, and tomorrow the technology will be new and even better. Already free video and online education courses are accessible like never before. And there is social media — and what teachers or entertainers or athletes or friends you let fill your feed may say a lot about how eager you are to simply kill a few moments or bring them to life with learning.

5. Embrace the Identity of Learner

Finally, whether it appears among your top five in StrengthFinders or not, declare yourself a “Learner.” Claim it was your sixth strength. Fight against the tide that takes learning to be something quarantined to school days and essential to childhood and adolescence but something beneath adulthood. Resist the urge to squander spare time on mindless entertainment. Embrace your finitude and the glorious infinity of God, and brace yourself to never stop learning, not as a burden, but a great joy. Own the truth that in a sense we creatures never “arrive,” not even in the new creation.

Resolve to be a lifelong learner.

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Related Resources

• Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God (book)
• Right Thinking Is for Deep Feeling (message)
• A Compelling Reason to Train Your Mind (article)

“Ongoing health in the Christian life is inextricably linked to ongoing learning.”Tweet

David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is executive editor at desiringGod.org and an elder at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis. He has edited several books, including Thinking. Loving. Doing., Finish the Mission, and Acting the Miracle, and is co-author of How to Stay Christian in Seminary.

Six Reasons Women Should Study Theology

By Jen Thorn via Christianity.com

When theology is mentioned in a circle of women I have often found the response to be less than enthusiastic.  Mention books on homemaking, marriage or parenting, on the other hand, and everyone seems interested. Why is that? I have heard comments like, “I’m just not smart enough”, “I will leave the study of theology to the men”, or  “I don’t need theology I just need to read my Bible.”          

But the truth is no one is “smart enough” to know God on their own. It is only because God has revealed himself to sinners that we can know him at all. And leaving the study of theology to the men is like saying no to a beautiful dinner prepared by a master chef, only allowing some of the guests to eat.  And reading the Bible is itself a theological effort. There is no reading your Bible without theology. Ultimately it is impossible for any Christian to ignore theology (the study of God) and grow strong in the faith. It’s not that I believe we need fewer books on marriage and homemaking, but that we need more theology in and around everything we do.

Here are 6 reasons women should study theology                                                 

1. To know God

Many women’s ministries and books focus on “practical Christian living” that is too often divorced from doctrine which gives us guidelines and rules rather than a Guide and redemption. We are made and saved to know God. This is the essence of eternal life (John 17:3). We are God’s children, adopted into his royal family. Wouldn't it make sense to get to know our father as best we can? Peter calls us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of God (2 Peter 3:18). Do you want to know God? Then you must be a theologian. This doesn’t mean you have to be measure up to R.C Sproul, but it means you must strive to know your God as best as you can. If you don’t you are robbing yourself of the knowledge of God and more than likely developing bad doctrine along the way?

If you do not listen to theology, that will not mean that you have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ones— bad, muddled, out-of-date ideas. - C. S. Lewis

2. To handle life’s hardships

Practical living flows from our theology, whether we realize it or not. This is especially true in regards to how we handle hard days. How we think about and respond to the way our children argue with each other or disobey us is directly influenced by what we believe about God. How we interact in our marriages, how we handle financial strain, illnesses and tragedies, directly flow from our theology. Is God in this darkness? Does he have a plan? Does he still love me? Is he angry? Is he still in control? What does he want from me in this? This is theology.

3. To give an answer for what we believe

We are told in 1 Peter 3:15 that we need to able to give an account for what we believe. Without theology we cannot answer the big questions about life, death, suffering, and purpose from a Biblical view point. Those are theological questions. Neither can we share the gospel apart from theology. Telling people about Jesus is theological discourse. Consider than you are called to bear witness to a resurrected savior, and made a part of a people who were created to proclaim God’s excellencies.

4. To obey Scripture

We are called to love God will all of our heart, strength and mind. (Jer. 9:23,24; Matt 22:37) In order to love God with your mind you need to know who he is and what he has done. The deeper you study his character the more strongly our love for him will grow. A cold heart usually is the result of a lack of mediation on the things of God.

5. To strengthen worship

How can we praise God when we don’t know much about him? How can we sing of his goodness if we don’t know what it is? In corporate worship or private worship, the better your theology the louder your praise. We are called to worship God in spirit and in truth. This “truth” is found the study his word (Jn. 4:24).

6. To keep us humble

Pride has a way of making us think that we have it all figured out. But the more we study God in all his different facets we begin to see how huge he is and how small we are. How holy he is and how tainted by sin we are; how kind, gentle, and good he is compared to how petty, easily angered, and impatient we are. Theology keeps a woman humble. If not, she’s doing it wrong.

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a study of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. - C.H. Spurgeon

Theology is extremely important and deeply practical. It will determine how you handle the mundane things of life. It will be the driving force behind your worship. And it will increase your thankfulness. Most importantly it will reveal to you the greatness and holiness of the God who made you and takes care of you.

Jen Thorn lives in Illinois where she serves alongside her husband, Joe, at Redeemer Fellowship. She loves studying theology, reading the Puritans, and has a passion for all things chocolate.  Jen has 4 children and blogs at jenthorn.com as well as lovegodgreatly.com. Follow her on Twitter@jenlthorn or on Facebook: Jen Thorn

Buy the Book On Sale...

Right now the Kindle edition of the book is on sale at Westminster Book Store for $1.99!  Click here for the link to the book.  If you don't have a Kindle you can download Kindle for your PC for free right here.

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Book Club

Welcome to the Book Club!  Here you will find information about the book we will be reading.

Housewife Theologian is, as the author Aimee Byrd says in her introduction, "a book for women.  It is for all women who want to be known by God.  Striving to find meaning amidst the mundanity of everyday living, many of us feel swallowed up in mixed messages of purpose and significance, all the while merely wanting to contribute, to connect, to share joy and suffering. 

The word "theologian" may conjure up images of stuffy old professors.  Yet, the word itself means the study of God.  And the knowledge of God is necessary to eternal life.  Our calling as Christians in every area of life is to be theologians.  Think of our all-knowing, all-powerful God.  Can we ever exhaust our learning of him?  What a privilege and an honour to be able to know our God! 

Want to find out a bit more about the book before purchasing?  Curious, but not sure if you want to join the book club?  The full introduction and first chapter can be read here.

You can purchase the book from Amazon, Kindle or paperback format here.  There are also many good reviews to read on that site as well.  

For more information about the author, please visit her website here.

Interested in joining?  Comment below or email me at harseverse@gmail.com