UPDATED Today’s AMI Devotional QT, originally posted on January 29, 2019, is provided by Pastor Ryun Chang.
Devotional Thoughts for This Morning
“‘The Bible Approves the Oppression of Women’: Is That Right?”
1 Corinthians 14:34
“The women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.”
Romans 16:1
“I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant [diakonos in Greek from which the English word “deacon/deaconess” is derived] of the church which is at Cenchrea.”
I have a very famous cousin who grew up attending church but has long since left the faith. When asked why, he said it was because of the poor treatment of women he believed Scripture teaches and the church practices. His comment reminded me of a pamphlet I once received from the United Atheists of America, which claimed: “The harm done to women by the Christian religion began with the Bible giving the stamp of God’s approval to the oppression of women. Christian men used the Bible to keep women silent, submissive, and uneducated for centuries.”
No doubt today’s passage—one that instructs women to be silent in the church—would rank high on the cynics’ list of grievances. And admittedly, a few biblical passages can look harsh in a modern world where women can vote (a right granted only about a century ago) and run for political office, even for the presidency.
But before condemning the church as the historic enemy of women, we must recognize a simple fact: in antiquity, women were treated poorly across the board. No man living in that era—whether the equivalent of conservative, liberal, religious, or irreligious—would be considered “pro-women” by today’s standards. Therefore, if we want to judge the early church fairly, we must compare it to the norms of its own time.
When we do that, we find something surprising. Rodney Stark, a sociologist at the University of Washington, writes in The Rise of Christianity (1996)—a book Newsweek called “brilliant”—that the common accusation that the Bible kept women “silent, submissive, and uneducated” is simply false. According to Stark, Christianity “promoted liberty, social relations between the sexes and within the family,” giving women far more status than they enjoyed in Roman society, where they were legally the property of men.
He adds that women benefitted from the church’s sanctification of marriage and its opposition to divorce, since divorced women were often considered “damaged goods,” with some forced into prostitution to survive.
There is also an irony worth noting. Critics often claim that the New Testament borrowed ideas from Mithraism and other ancient mystery religions. Dan Brown, for example, asserts in The Da Vinci Code that Jesus parallels the pre-Christian god Mithras, “the Son of God and the Light of the World.” Yet Brown never mentions that Mithraism was restricted to men only.
By contrast, as Stark notes, most Christians in the Roman Empire were women, and some even served as deaconesses (Rom. 16:1)—a mid-level leadership role unheard of in the mystery religions of the time (Cybele, Isis, Ishtar, etc.). In many of those religions, the primary role of women was temple prostitution.
In The Da Vinci Code, the detective Sophie rejects her grandfather after witnessing him in ritualistic orgies. Langdon then explains that these acts were “not about sex but spirituality,” and that the early church suppressed such rituals because they threatened its power. But if these religions were so spiritually liberating for women, and the church so oppressive, why were women drawn to the church in such overwhelming numbers?
So please consider the historical evidence and do not be misled into thinking that the Bible or the church is inherently anti-women. The truth is that Scripture set in motion the very social forces that eventually elevated and protected women. Was the process slow? Yes. And much of the blame lies with sinful men—some ignorant of Scripture, others willfully disobedient—who treated women poorly. But that failure is not God’s. He gave us His Word and His Spirit to make this world safer for women (“Your kingdom come”). We are the ones who have fallen short.
And for women—beloved image-bearers—Christ died.
Prayer: Father, what a privilege that we are called “God’s fellow workers” (2 Cor. 6:1). Yet we have failed so often to carry out Your will on this earth, including making our world a safer place for women. We men need to repent. Help us change—in our homes, our churches, and our workplaces. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Isaiah 32
Lunch Break Study
1 Cor. 14:34-35 (ESV): “The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. 35 If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.
1 Corinthians 11:5 (NASB): “But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head . . .” (Note that these Corinthian women did this in the church).
Acts 18:24-26 (ESV): “Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. 25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; 26 and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.”
Questions to Consider
1. When 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 11:5 are read side-by-side, what observations can you make?
2. When Acts 18:24-26 and 1 Corinthians 11:5 are read side-by-side, what observations can you make?
3. In light of these two observations, what logical conclusion can you draw?
Notes
1. Evidently, women were not completely silent in the Corinthian church since they prayed and prophesized publicly (1 Cor. 14:29).
2. Whereas Paul tells the Corinthian wives that if they have questions, to “ask their own husbands at home,” Luke reports that Priscilla actually taught a man (not just any man but a biblical scholar). Note that the verb “explain” in Greek is conjugated in the third person plural.
3. It leads me to draw these conclusions: first, when Paul tells the women to be silent in the church, he does not mean a complete silence; second, it may be that Paul is addressing a local situation facing a particular church; third, men can learn the Bible from women—to put it different, women can teach men. The debatable point is whether this is a one-time exception or a prototypical foreshadow of more historical changes to come. More on this tomorrow.
Evening Reflection
Before you turn in, let me share a really unpleasant thought: The devil is a deceiver who “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:4). Meaning what? One of his greatest weapons is “disinformation”—slightly twisting the truth to make it appear still “truthful” yet is a lie “to steal and kill and destroy” (Jn. 10:10a). The enemy did that when, while tempting Jesus, he appeared to quote a Scripture (i.e., Ps. 91:9-12), “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written . . . (Matt. 4:5). He lied; the correct clause is, “If you make the Most High your dwelling” (Ps. 91:9a), not, “If you are the Son of God.” Evidently, the devil tried get Jesus to question His Sonship.
In light of that, what lies of the enemy have you accepted? Have you believed the lies of the enemy regarding the supposed bad treatment of women by the early church? Do you feel you aren’t worth much apart from having a shapely form? Is that why you focus so much on your body? That’s called conditional love and it does not come from God.
Spend a moment to really examine your thoughts and feelings. Believe God’s truth. How about Romans 5:8 that says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”—and be set free from the disinformation of the enemy?
