Paul's limits

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Today's reading is one I sometimes wish wasn't in scripture. Passages like this one have soured a lot of Christians on Paul because of his limited thinking about women and their role in the church. We believe that God speaks to us through scripture by the power of the Holy Spirit; we also believe that people, with all their flaws and limits wrote the Bible. Paul was a man of his time who inherited a hierarchical way of thinking about relationships between men and women and among other groups.

Some scholars believe that Paul was careful to support these then traditional beliefs about women because women in the church were given greater leadership roles in the church than in society at large, and he wanted to make sure the church wasn't seen as too radical when it came to social relations. We know that Paul wrote to women as leaders in the church. It's even thought that a woman was the initial public reader of the Letter to the Romans, maybe Paul's most important letters. So certainly he is not consistent about "not allowing a woman to teach." Ministry always happens in a real time and place with people who are not perfect. We bring our biases and mistakes into our ministry. Fortunately, God still works through us to minister to the world. Paul's writing and the churches history on gender relations is a mixed record. From Paul's pen we also get perhaps the best statement on equality anywhere: "There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, but all are one in Christ Jesus." We long for the day God's kingdom will erase all divisions between people, saying, "Come, Lord Jesus."

Blessings,
Sam

1 Timothy 2:8-15
8I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument; 9also that the women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing, not with their hair braided, or with gold, pearls, or expensive clothes, 10but with good works, as is proper for women who profess reverence for God. 11Let a woman learn in silence with full submission.

12I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. 13For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.