As a leader and as a woman, I can relate to those women who want a leadership role in the church. And because of various women that Paul names as being important in the Church, I don’t believe Paul didn’t want women to lead. I do believe he thought there is a time and a place for our leadership. Paul says in (I Corintians 4:6) not to go beyond that which is written. Then, as a woman, where there is a man they should be in authority in the church, and I am under him. He is my head, as Christ is his head. I am to be silent, not to cause controversy, but to submit and do as he wants within the spiritual bounds of what God tells alls of his people. Does that mean I cannot lead. By no means! Paul named several women in the house churches that were instrumental in the leadership of those churches with a man. But only because they understood what authority was. What this means is that there are different ways to lead, not just getting in front of people and saying, "Do this and do that" but also by example.
As far as submission goes, that has to do with little things. Does one church use instruments and another not? Will this keep one out of heaven? My question goes back to, what is the purpose behind such instrumentation? And why if one is in God’s family does one choose to pick a fight about something trivial and peripheral like using a piano or not? Satan doesn’t have to send demons to prevent me from accomplishing my task. I already have made my decision. If I chose to allow things on the periphery to cloud my view of what is truly important, then I forget to submit and to keep peace, to love my brother and sister enough to not war with them. Is using an instrument going to cause me to want to say that if I don’t use it I cannot display God? Do I assume that my instrument is better than the instrument God made in me? I really need to be introspective if I choose to do something that is controversial yet not essential to my salvation, because eventually it will infiltrate my salvation, it will affect my relationships with others and with God. I can say I love you to my brethren, but if I don’t demonstrate respect for them, how is that showing them love? If I say that I am not going to abide with the leadership even if I say I worship with them, how is that keeping divisions out of the church? My rebellion may be cute, may be in style with humans, but if my concentration is on what I want to do rather than obedience to what the authority wants me to do then I am not being respectful nor am I a particularly good example. Jesus pleads for unity. (John 10:16) He even says there’ll only be one fold because only those who listen to his voice and hear him will come to him. In order to hear that one voice I must be unified in him, a member of his body and I cannot be any more or any less important (Rom 12:4,8)
No comments:
Post a Comment