http://csplalumni.blogspot.com.ng/2015/09/10-reasons-why-women-should-not-pastor.html?m=1
And here for Part 2 - http://csplalumni.blogspot.com.ng/2015/09/10-reasons-why-women-should-not-pastor_58.html?m=1
REASON 5 – IN THE KINGDOM, THERE IS NO REWARD FOR
‘ILLEGAL SERVICE’
“But female pastors/teachers are achieving fantastic results for
the Kingdom of God – souls are being saved, people are being
delivered, people are being blessed, new churches are being
planted, etc. If it is true that God does not want women in such
positions, why is He anointing them and giving them so much
success in ministry?” This is a common question asked by many
believers. In this line of reasoning, ‘The end justifies the means’.
But with God, is this really true?
Let’s start by looking at the wider view, and then we’ll narrow
down to the core issues in view here. God is a benevolent God.
In His unfathomable benevolence, He releases His blessings
upon ALL the works of His creation, both the deserving and the
undeserving. Jesus puts it this way, “He … sends His rain upon
the just and the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45).
The kindness of the Lord in sending rain (blessings) upon the
unjust DOES NOT mean God is happy with the unjust. Nor does
it indicate that judgment is not waiting for the unjust.
"God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every
day." (Psalm 7:11). So, God is angry with sin every day - yet He
sends His blessings on the unjust. The blessing that the unjust
receives from God does not mean judgment is not waiting for
him - unless there is repentance.
Second, there are times that the Lord, in His unfathomable
mercy, still releases His blessings upon us in our disobedience
with the view that the blessings that we receive in His goodness,
will cause us to repent. This is the sense that we get from
Romans 2:4, “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness
and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness
is meant to lead you to repentance?” Apostle Peter also echoes
the same view in 2 Peter 3:9. But unfortunately, man, in our
hard-heartedness, are quick to mis-interpret such blessings for
a sign of approval from God, or a sign that He is not too
bothered with our disobedience. Both views are clearly wrong.
In due course, all disobedience will be duly rewarded – unless
there is repentance. So, in essence, the blessings we receive are
NOT always an indication of God’s approval of our state or
action – it is just in God’s nature to bless.
Now to the narrower consideration of our subject today. As we
continue to work for the Lord as believers, there is a very
important fact that we must always be mindful of: there are
many apparently SUCCESSFUL spiritual projects/results that
God is not quite happy about. Yet, many of us see such
‘successes’, and we applaud them heartily. If we reflect deeply,
that is what we will see in the misfortune of the servants of the
Lord in Matthew 7:21-23. IN HIS NAME, they achieved
SPECTACULAR results! They prophesied. They cast out devils.
They did many WONDERFUL works. Yet, on the Day of
Reckoning, He told them, “‘I never knew you; depart from me,
you workers of lawlessness.”
The reason these servants had the guts to expect a reward from
Jesus was because they GENUINELY thought they were serving
Him faithfully. (Ministers that are using the fake power of the
devil will dare not stand before Jesus on the Last Day and ask
for a reward; they know the source of their evil powers.) But
these ones genuinely expected a reward from Jesus – they had
the evidence of service IN HIS NAME – many wonderful works.
Yet, he dismissed them with ignominy – I NEVER KNEW YOU.
Let’s break that down slightly. God is omniscient, so HE KNOWS
EVERYBODY and EVERYTHING. So, He definitely knew these
servants, at least as the works of His hands. So what did He
mean by ‘I never knew you’? He was using the word KNOW in
the deeper context of the word (like Abraham knew his wife, and
she became pregnant). That is, Jesus was telling the servants,
paraphrased in my own words, “We were not intimate while you
were serving me. You did not truly know, understand and follow
my heart, even though you were serving me fervently. It is not
just about the service, or the results – it is ALL ABOUT
KNOWING MY HEART, UNDERSTANDING IT, AND FOLLOWING
IT. That is the mark of true service to me”.
To buttress this grave point, we only need to read the story of
the Ephesian church in Revelation 2:1-7. They had all the
evidence and testimony of a great church. Jesus even
acknowledged the evident result of their piety in verses 2-3, “I
know your works, your toil and your patient endurance … and
bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown
weary.” (Pls notice the phrase ‘FOR MY NAME’S SAKE’ - like the
servants in Matthew 7:21-23). Yet, in spite of all the ‘greatness’
of the Ephesian Church, Jesus threatened to punish them very
severely unless they repented. Their sin? They had lost their
INTIMACY with Jesus (verse 4). His heart was no longer
paramount in their midst, yet they were still producing fantastic
and commendable results! What awaited them, unless they
repented? The severe punishment of removing their lamps! That
is how serious their error was.
So how can we know those who are truly serving God
acceptably, and who will get their full reward in heaven? Jesus
Himself supplied the answer in the passage we considered
earlier in Matthew 7. It is in verse 21, "... the one who does the
will of my Father who is in heaven." This is the answer that
guarantees that we will not run in vain, and lose our rewards.
This is the yardstick for every genuine spiritual work – DOING
THE WILL OF GOD. Is it the will of God for women to lead and/or
teach a church?
The Bible also makes it very clear that not all Christian
endeavours will be rewarded on the Last Day. Listen to Apostle
Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:24, “Do you not know that in a race all
the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you
may obtain it.” There is a way that a believer may RUN, and yet
NOT obtain the prize! Paul gave another perspective in 2
Timothy 2:5, “An athlete is not crowned unless he competes
according to the rules.” Relating to gender roles, the rule that
God has laid down in His sphere of dominion is that men should
be the leaders in the church. So, where does this rule leave
women that are LEADING God’s people today?
“According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master
builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it.
Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay
a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver,
precious stones, wood, hay, straw - each one's work will
become manifest, for THE DAY WILL DISCLOSE IT, because it
will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work
each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the
foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work
is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved,
but only as through fire.” (1 Corinthians 3:10-15)
THE DAY will disclose our work. Our work will be tried. The
results we ‘achieve’ for God does NOT guarantee a reward! Our
work will be tried. Some people will be rewarded. Some will
suffer loss of reward. THE DAY will be a serious day! Instead of
receiving, ‘Well done, thou good and FAITHFUL
servant” (Matthew 25:21), some of our ‘highly successful
ministers’ may be barely saved – through fire, and with nothing
to show for their service.
Please permit me to say this again, SPIRITUAL WORK IS VERY
DELICATE. We do not work for God on the basis of expediency,
or according to our understanding. We MUST carefully listen to
His heart (intimacy), and then do His will according to what is
revealed in His infallible Word – THE BIBLE. That is the safest
path to serving God acceptably. ONLY God knows those who
will be rewarded for the service they have rendered, and those
that will not. It is not our place to speculate or pre-judge
anybody. And we must NEVER make ANY man/woman our
standard, or use their example to run our race.
REASON 6 – GOD USES WOMEN IN HUNDREDS OF ROLES, IN
AND OUT OF THE CHURCH
There are times that simple issues are made unnecessarily
complicated. There is nowhere it is written in the Bible that
women cannot serve God. The ONLY two areas that there is a
clear restriction are in (1) LEADING A CHURCH and (2)
TEACHING A CHURCH. Very, very simple to understand.
But at times, to confuse the issue and complicate the simplicity
of this godly commandment, some people will rise up in arms
saying things like this: “If God wants women to be useless, why
did He anoint them?” “So women must not be involved in The
Great Commission of reaching the lost?” “If God can use a
donkey, why can He not use a woman?” “What about Joel 2:28,
are women exempted from the outpouring of God’s spirit?”
Whereas some ask these questions in a genuine desire to
understand the issue, a lot of times, it is just a ‘defence
mechanism’ to whip up emotions, confuse the issue, and bat
away the clear imperatives of 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and 1
Corinthians 14:34-38. There are a million and one things that
women can achieve for God without necessarily LEADING a
church or teaching a mixed congregation!
Apart from the two areas mentioned earlier, the Bible
documents uncountable examples of how godly women served
God acceptably. There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in the Bible
that gives the impression that women’s service is inferior or
second-rate. In the well-known greeting that Apostle Paul sent to
the Church in Rome (Romans 16), the very FIRST name on that
list of commendation is A WOMAN, Phoebe! This is against the
backdrop that Rome was a male-dominated society, yet it was a
woman that topped the list of commendation. Apart from
anything else, this shows that if we stay within ANY sphere that
God places us, His honour can still locate us and stand us out –
even in the place of submission! More than one-third of the
people on Paul’s list were WOMEN that “worked hard in the
Lord” (verse 12) with initiative, competence, and sincerity. It is
all about FAITHFULNESS in service.
To give just a few practical examples (by no means exhaustive),
women that have the anointing to teach are encouraged, in Titus
2:3-5, to teach young women. There is even a list of eight areas
that are important to teach. In 2 Timothy 1:5, Paul commended
Timothy’s faith – evidently passed on to him by his mother,
Eunice; as well as his grandmother, Lois. In the same way, the
elect lady in 2 John was deeply appreciated for bringing up her
children to walk in the true way of the Lord (verse 4). Acts 21:9
tells us that the four daughters of Philip the evangelist did
prophesy. Philippians 4:3 and Romans 16:2 highlight the
extremely important support roles played in the church by some
women. Luke 8:3 tells us about the women that supported the
ministry of Jesus with their substance. And we have countless
instances of the charity and hospitability of godly women
adorning the pages of both the Old and the New Testaments.
In conclusion, the issue involved is NOT about women serving
the Lord to the best of their abilities/gifting, it is about THE
SPHERE OF SERVICE. In whichever sphere the Lord APPROVES
and APPOINTS a woman to serve, let her be sure that she is
serving, faithfully adorned with the ornament of a ‘MEEK and
QUIET spirit’. These are the attributes that the Lord values the
most in the life/service of a woman (1 Peter 3:4).
REASON 7 – IT IS A CARNAL PERCEPTION TO EQUATE
SUBMISSION WITH INFERIORITY
Christianity is a way of life that contrasts very, very sharply with
the general world view and perception. God has already made it
clear that His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9). And
for this reason, He told us in Romans 12:1-2, that we must
renew our minds from the ways of the world, and BE
TRANSFORMED into thinking in His own PECULIAR way. That’s
the ONLY way, according to that passage, that we can truly
understand the WILL OF GOD, and hence, fulfil it.
In worldly terms, the concept of submission connotes a level of
inferiority, just as serving connotes a tinge of inferiority. In
God’s view, it is not so. From God’s perspective, the submission
He prescribes is simply A PATHWAY TO GREATNESS. Jesus
exemplified this most clearly in Philippians 2:5-11. His ‘descent’
into the position of submission earned Him a name that is above
every other name, both in this world and in the world to come.
So, submission was His pathway to this particular greatness.
Please take a special note that this passage starts with these
words: “Have this mind among yourselves….” This means it is a
prescribed MINDSET for followers of Christ. We must learn to
think in this way.
Jesus further underscored this divine principle with His teaching
that SERVING is the surest path to greatness. “And he sat down
and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be
first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35). So,
the divine viewpoint is that SUBMISSION and SERVICE,
particularly when these are voluntary, will DEFINITELY lead to
greatness. Therefore, we are not to resent these concepts, but
to JOYFULLY and EAGERLY embrace them.
But this is not the viewpoint of the world. The world looks down,
generally speaking, on those that serve. (Think of how we deal
with our house-helps, drivers, gatemen, and those that SERVE us
in other domestic and similar capacities.) It is with this same
foolishness in reasoning that the world equates the godly
imperative of women’s submission with a mark of inferiority.
And so, they are always up in arms against the concept of this
submission, and anything it entails. The word ‘submission’
triggers a red flag in their minds, and whenever ‘feminists’ hear
the word, they come charging out like bulls that see red colour.
Christians have the unique option of CHOOSING to view life as
God sees it, or to see it as the world defines it. It is entirely a
matter of CHOICE. But in choosing, we ought to remember that
satan is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4 ). And he is the
mind behind the world viewpoint. When Christians ignorantly
follow the world viewpoint, they are actually following satan!
This is why the Bible is very vehement in warning us that
embracing the world viewpoint is a mark of ENMITY against God
(James 4:4, 1 John 2:15-17).
In the Church, when God told women to be in submission/
subjection, and follow the lead of men, all He is doing is to
define the PATHWAY TO GREATNESS for all human beings that
He created in the female sex. That’s all. Any woman that resists
or abandons this path by following the world viewpoint, does
herself a great spiritual damage – both in this life, and in the
world to come.
Thanks for reading, God bless.
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