The NXR Podcast - June 03, 2022


QUESTIONS - Can Women Ask Pastors Questions, Or Only Their Husbands？


Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

185.4542

Word count

1,932

Sentence count

97


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Hey guys, real quick before we get started, I have a small request.
00:00:03.440 If you've been blessed by our content and you like this show,
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00:00:17.540 Thanks.
00:00:21.840 This is from With Love Jillian.
00:00:24.520 How far should we apply Paul's instructions that women should ask their husbands at home
00:00:29.540 any theological questions they have
00:00:32.520 and not be outspoken in the church.
00:00:34.680 Great question.
00:00:35.380 Let's read it one more time.
00:00:36.880 This is from With Love Jillian.
00:00:39.220 How far should we apply Paul's instructions
00:00:41.580 that women should ask their husbands at home
00:00:44.180 any theological questions they have
00:00:46.940 and not be outspoken in the church?
00:00:49.240 All right, great question.
00:00:50.200 So this comes from 1 Corinthians 14,
00:00:52.380 comes from a lot of passages.
00:00:54.240 We see the principle at play.
00:00:55.740 So 1 Timothy 2, verses 9 through 15,
00:00:59.540 right um i do not um permit a woman to have any authority to teach or exercise any authority over
00:01:05.900 a man she must be silent um you know and so paul goes into that she needs to be in submission
00:01:12.120 and then he makes a he pulls on the created order to uh to bind his argument so it's not cultural
00:01:17.600 he doesn't say because you know in our particular culture you know we want to be winsome and and
00:01:23.080 people want to they'd see this as as radically feminist and now that's but paul doesn't argue
00:01:27.980 like Tim Keller. So he argues biblically. And so he roots it not in some winsome cultural argument
00:01:33.920 that would come and go and be subject to change, but he roots it in a timeless, unchanging principle
00:01:39.420 before sin ever even entered the world, namely the created order, right? Adam was formed first,
00:01:44.240 then Eve. Adam was made from the dust of the ground, but Eve was made from Adam and for Adam
00:01:50.240 as his helpmate. So he uses that argumentation to talk about why men should lead, they should have
00:01:56.520 authority and men should teach and a woman should not, right? And he's making that argument with the
00:02:02.080 church, but I do think that there's a broader principle in society, even outside of the home
00:02:06.260 and the church, right? I'm not merely complementarian. I am patriarchal. I think
00:02:10.260 that that's right. I think that that's biblical. I think it makes no sense to say men should be the
00:02:14.500 head of their households and wives should submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ
00:02:18.500 and men should lead the church as elders. And I would argue also for a male diaconate
00:02:23.600 and women should not function as elders
00:02:25.740 and they should not be preaching on the Lord's day.
00:02:28.720 And so in the church and the home,
00:02:30.360 it is led by biblically qualified men.
00:02:33.480 Women are not leading.
00:02:34.580 They're not in positions of authority over men.
00:02:36.540 But then when we come into society,
00:02:39.300 whether it be the political realm or the cultural realm
00:02:41.740 or whatever, any other institution, academia,
00:02:45.220 something outside of the home of the church,
00:02:46.680 all of a sudden we flip that order on its head.
00:02:49.560 That just, that makes no sense.
00:02:51.300 If men are leading households,
00:02:53.120 if households, right?
00:02:54.360 Because what is a society?
00:02:55.460 Think about that.
00:02:56.140 What is a society but a gathering of households?
00:03:00.180 Societies are made up by households.
00:03:02.860 And you might say, well, not everybody's a part of a household.
00:03:04.760 Not everybody's married.
00:03:05.820 They're single women.
00:03:06.740 Great.
00:03:07.060 They're under their father then.
00:03:08.420 There's no woman who is not underneath the headship of a man, whether it be her father
00:03:13.740 or whether it be her husband, if she's a Christian woman, whether it be her male elders in the
00:03:18.420 church.
00:03:18.680 So, so women, God has set up his created order in such a way that men lead, men lead.
00:03:26.220 And so to, to advocate that men should lead in the church and they should lead in the
00:03:29.340 home, but, but then when we get away from the church in the home, then we can flip God's
00:03:33.260 created order on its head is inconsistent.
00:03:36.120 And I believe hypocritical.
00:03:38.240 All right.
00:03:38.520 So women asking questions of their husbands at home, first Timothy chapter two, verse
00:03:43.660 nine through 15 talks about men are the ones who are teaching the church.
00:03:47.600 but 1 Corinthians chapter 14 explicitly says
00:03:50.880 that in church, women should be silent.
00:03:53.780 In fact, the apostle Paul says,
00:03:55.500 it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
00:03:59.440 Shameful for a woman to speak in church.
00:04:01.560 And he specifically says, if a woman has questions,
00:04:03.820 she should ask her husband at home.
00:04:06.160 Now, the first thing that I think Paul's addressing is this.
00:04:09.700 He is addressing outbursts
00:04:12.280 in the Lord's day gathering of the saints.
00:04:15.320 Women should not be objecting or interrupting, and no one for that matter, but especially
00:04:22.640 women should not be objecting or interrupting as a pastor is teaching, as the saints are
00:04:28.180 gathered on the Lord's day for the administering of the ordinary means of grace, publicly preaching
00:04:33.360 the word, publicly praying the word, publicly singing the word with psalms, hymns, and
00:04:37.800 spiritual songs, and publicly seeing the word, S-E-E-I-N-G, in the only two images that
00:04:43.600 the Lord has instituted, namely baptism and the Lord's Supper. These are the ordinary means of
00:04:49.120 grace. The church is committed, the gathered saints, they're committed to gather together,
00:04:53.660 to ecclesia, to assemble together on the Lord's day, the Christian Sabbath, the first day of the
00:04:59.400 week, the day that Christ rose from the dead for the administering of the ordinary means of grace.
00:05:04.640 And this is a time of order. And this is what Paul's talking about in 1 Corinthians 14, not just
00:05:09.740 in regards to women, but in regards to the gifts of the sign gifts, which I believe has ceased,
00:05:14.800 but in his day, in the church at Corinth, the sign gifts of prophecy and tongues. Paul's whole
00:05:20.000 argument, saying that prophecy is superior to tongues, is because Paul wants order, and he
00:05:26.540 wants clarity. He wants order and clarity. He wants whoever is speaking to do so intelligibly.
00:05:32.660 And he talks about, even with prophecy, he says, at most, two or three should prophesy. And he's
00:05:37.220 not saying two or three prophesy at the same time that is an idiotic reading of the text he does not
00:05:43.560 say that because he specifically says if to one is given a revelation the one who is currently
00:05:48.260 speaking should should stop speaking so the one who's just received a revelation from the lord
00:05:53.880 a prophetic word can begin speaking meaning what that the two should not speak simultaneously
00:05:58.740 one is speaking they stop so that the other can speak so that only one person speaks at a time
00:06:04.220 Why? So that it is intelligible, so that it is clear, so that it is done in order. And then he
00:06:10.960 says two or three should prophesy. And we know he's not talking about simultaneously because
00:06:15.560 he's already addressed that. So what he's talking about by way of implication is that two or three
00:06:20.860 should prophesy at most throughout an entire gathering, throughout a service where the church
00:06:26.800 is gathered together. Two or three men, because he later talks about women, how it's shameful for a
00:06:33.180 woman to speak in church. So what we can assume is this, biblically qualified men should speak in
00:06:38.360 church one at a time and only two or three at most so that everything can be done with clarity
00:06:44.060 and order. God is a God of order. So the first thing that Paul's saying when he says it's shameful
00:06:50.780 for a woman to speak at church and he encourages and commands women to ask their husbands if they
00:06:57.260 have any questions at home, is he is setting up barriers against interruptions in the Lord's Day
00:07:03.860 gathering. Do not object and do not interrupt. And no one should be doing that because of what
00:07:09.020 Paul says earlier about how one should speak at a time. No one objects, no one interrupts,
00:07:13.720 but especially women. It is especially shameful for a woman who has not been given the assignment
00:07:20.500 and the ministry by God to lead or to exercise authority over men or to teach men. Again,
00:07:26.340 and that's cross-referencing back
00:07:27.540 to 1 Timothy chapter two,
00:07:29.160 it is especially shameful, therefore,
00:07:30.860 for a woman to interrupt and to speak in church.
00:07:35.340 All right, now, asking their husbands at home,
00:07:37.900 the way that I'm answering the question is this.
00:07:39.480 I think that it's appropriate for a woman
00:07:41.680 to ask a question of her pastor,
00:07:44.620 to ask a question of her male pastor,
00:07:46.780 who is not her husband,
00:07:49.060 outside of the Lord's Day gathering.
00:07:51.420 Not interrupting, not objecting,
00:07:53.620 not in the middle of a service,
00:07:55.280 not causing a scene, not an outburst, but to reach out with her husband's permission,
00:08:01.920 not against her husband, not being divisive, not undercutting his authority, but for her to
00:08:06.920 reach out with her husband to their pastor and to ask him a question. Now, here's the deal though.
00:08:12.920 This should never be used to turn against her husband. So the only reason that a woman should
00:08:17.100 really be doing this is when she has already asked her husband and he doesn't know the answer.
00:08:22.360 And here's the beauty.
00:08:23.800 At that point, it becomes his question.
00:08:26.780 It's not exclusively her question anymore.
00:08:29.500 It's now his question.
00:08:31.080 And if the man is a godly husband,
00:08:33.300 Doug Wilson says it like this.
00:08:34.540 He says, not every man will be a professional theologian,
00:08:37.560 but every man has the obligation
00:08:39.660 of being a residential theologian, a resident theologian.
00:08:44.440 Not a professional, not all men
00:08:46.380 will be professional theologians,
00:08:48.200 meaning some men will be more theologically inclined
00:08:50.660 than others.
00:08:51.120 not all men will be professional theologians, but every man should be a resident theologian,
00:08:56.420 meaning he is the pastor of his home. He is the theologian of his family, which means his wife
00:09:04.120 and his children, when they have theological questions, they should go to him and they should
00:09:07.640 know this. My husband, my dad, he will either have the answer or he will be committed diligently
00:09:16.280 to finding the answer.
00:09:18.600 He'll either have the answer
00:09:20.000 or he'll find the answer.
00:09:22.320 So I think that women should certainly not
00:09:25.100 have an outburst and interrupt
00:09:27.080 in the Lord's Day gathering.
00:09:28.600 But even beyond that,
00:09:30.040 I think that women should ask their husbands at home
00:09:33.180 before emailing their pastors.
00:09:35.580 And their husband will either be able
00:09:37.960 to answer the question
00:09:39.200 or if he can't,
00:09:41.060 it now becomes his question.
00:09:42.900 It's not just her question anymore.
00:09:44.860 It is now also his question, and he can lead the way in approaching one of the pastors
00:09:51.180 in getting the answer to this question, or he can do some research at home.
00:09:55.600 He may not even need to approach the pastors.
00:09:57.760 He may be able just to, through personal study, find the answer to this question to be able
00:10:03.200 to answer it for his wife.
00:10:05.160 That's how I would answer your question.
00:10:06.840 Jillian, thanks for writing in.
00:10:08.560 Thanks so much for listening.
00:10:09.520 But real quick, before you go, do us a small favor, take a moment, and leave us a five
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