Another lesson from our Bible Study series entitled Questions & Answers

1. Old FashionedGender Roles in the NT

2. Question No. 1
Is there any distinction made between the roles
found within the New Testament Church?

3. Ephesians 5:22-25
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to
the Lord. For the husband is head of the
wife, as also Christ is head of the church;
and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore,
just as the church is subject to Christ, so let
the wives be to their own husbands in
everything. Husbands, love your wives, just
as Christ also loved the church and gave
Himself for her.

4. First Timothy 5:1,2
Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him
as a father, younger men as brothers, older
women as mothers, young women as sisters,
with all purity.

5. Titus 2:1-8
Speak the things which are proper for sound
doctrine...that the older men be sober,
reverent, temperate...the older women
likewise, that they be reverent in
behavior...that they admonish the younger
women to love their husbands (and)
children...exhort the young men to be sober-
minded...

6. First Corinthians 12:12,14
For as the body is one and has many
members, but all the members of that one
body, being many, are one body, so also is
Christ...for in fact the body is not one
member but many.
See also the discussion about a hand & eye
arguing in verses 20-21.

7. First Corinthians 12:28-30
God has appointed these in the church: first
apostles, second prophets, third teachers,
after that miracles, then gifts of healings,
help, administrations, varieties of tongues.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all
teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all
have gifts of healings? Do all speak with
tongues? Do all interpret?

8. We All Have a Role
The Church has been and will continue to
be full of people who have a specific role to
play. That role sometimes means they
occupy different tasks from another person
within the church. God has done nothing to
honor one role over another. The roles we all
play individually is what makes the Church
function properly (i.e. our physical bodies).

9. Question No. 2
What is a woman’s Role in the New
Testament Church?

10. First Corinthians 14:33-35
...as in all the churches of the saints. Let your
women keep silent in the churches, for they
are not permitted to speak; but they are to
be submissive, as the law also says. And if
they want to learn something, let them ask
their own husbands at home; for it is
shameful for women to speak in church.

11. First Timothy 2:11-14
Let a woman learn in silence with all
submission. And I do not permit a woman
to teach or to have authority over a man, but
to be in silence. For Adam was formed first,
then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but
the woman being deceived, fell into
transgression.

12. Submission
Please note that submission doesn’t imply a
loss of dignity. Jesus Himself willingly
submitted to the Father when He came to
this world (i.e. Philippians 2:5-11).
Did Jesus give up His role, importance,
divinity, or dignity by becoming a man? In
fact, I’d say He didn’t embrace His role until
He became “under submission.”

13. Authority
Authority resides in man because:
(1) Adam was made first, and
(2) Eve sinned first.
These facts don’t suggest that any woman
is inferior to any man. It merely confirms
that she is to be subordinate to her
spiritual leader (as Jesus was in the garden
of Gethsemane, i.e. Lk 22:42).

14. In New Testament Church
Within the roles allowed for women by the
Scriptures, we have examples of them
serving the early Church as:
(1) Teachers (i.e. Priscilla in Acts 18:26)
(2) Prophets (i.e. Acts 21:9)
(3) Hosts to the Church (i.e. Acts 16)
(4) Servants to Apostles (i.e. Romans 16:1,2)

15. Question No. 3
Why do some Congregations allow women to
Preach and Teach Publicly today?

16. Justification
Jesus never spoke about women’s roles, only
the Apostles. Jesus (in fact) attacked 1st
century chauvinism by addressing the
Samaritan woman at the well (i.e. John 4:27);
by refusing to condemn the adultrous
woman (i.e. John 8:7-12) and gave women
equal rights when the victim of marital
infidelity (i.e. Matthew 19:9; Mark 10:11,12).

17. Justification
Paul’s (and the others Apostles for that
matter) commands can’t be considered to be
on the same level as those of Jesus.
Preacher - “What the Bible does is tell me
about Jesus, and I don’t read Jesus through
Paul. I read Paul through Jesus. And I think
the churches of Christ are getting this, that
we no longer read all of the Bible as equal.”

18. Justification
College that trained her for ministry –
“We do not claim to support or be against
females preaching. We educate our students
to broaden their horizons and develop their
own opinions regarding religion.”

19. An Answer
Jesus is the centerpiece of all Scripture (i.e. 1
Corinthians 2:1-5); but all Scripture (even
that wrote by non-Saviors) is inspired
according to 2 Timothy 3:16. Jesus Himself
said the Holy Spirit would “...guide (the
Apostles) into all truth” in John 14:25. So,
how can the teachings of Jesus be more
important than the teachings of the
Apostles? It can’t and it doesn’t!

20. The Problem
There is a lack of male spiritual leadership
in these congregations!
Women feel the need to lead in areas where
genuine leadership is lacking. They are
longing to fill the roles they aren’t
encouraged or allowed to fill in Scripture
because they’re going unfilled!