The creator of something is the one who gets to decide the role or function of the creation. Charles Strite created the electric, easy-to-use toaster in 1919. This toaster was much like ours today: bread would go into a slot, a lever would be pressed down, and electric coils would heat up, toasting the bread. As the inventor of this device, Strite is the one who got to decide where to place each coil and where the electromagnets would go to hold the lever down and pop it up according to the timer. He got to decide the role each piece would play so the toaster could function. As the Creator of all things, God is the one who gets to decide what roles we play in order for His Church to function. For the last 60+ years, our culture has tried to run with the idea that there isn’t a God or that at least it’s not a fact but rather a matter of opinion or feeling. The idea of Creationism isn’t taught in school but rather the theory of evolution. What naturally follows when you remove the idea of a creator is that there is no purpose to anything and no order or point or assigned roles. If there is no God, then anyone can be anything—and that’s what we are living through today. The godless culture tries to change roles but that seems to be seeping into our churches. We have tried to change the roles God set for the people making up His Church, which could be a cause of some of the dysfunction we see in the Church today.

“I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly.” (1 Timothy 2:12)

Women are not to have Spiritual authority over men. God established the roles for people in the church and it is not up to us to overthrow it. We live in a time of extremes, where one thing “triggers” one person and we lash out emotionally instead of appealing to calm, rational, logical analysis. We want to input our ideas of equality in God’s hierarchal system and it doesn’t work. Just because women are instructed to not have spiritual authority over men in the church does not mean that God did not create roles for women in the church.

“These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God.” (Titus 2:4-5)

There is no one better to teach and train up younger women than older women. Women are to be an example for the younger women; they bear a huge responsibility in this way. Men can’t be the only ones teaching and training because it shouldn’t be men training up young women. God is the one who created us and thus He is the one who gets to assign the roles.

“For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.” (Ephesians 5:22-23)

In our worldly, backwards culture, the culture that moves further and further away from God, the roles God has established have become inverted: men become more passive and submissive and women have become leaders in the absence of strong men. If Satan can get the man, he can get the woman and the entire family. According to WACCM (Washington Area Coalition of Men’s Ministries), when a mother comes to Christ her family will join her at church 17% of the time. When a father comes to Christ his family joins 93% of the time. Just as with any created thing, if the parts within it do not work together in the way established by the Creator, that created thing will not function properly. Some of the dysfunction we see in the church today may very well be due to our arrogance in thinking we can change the roles God set for His Church. (Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church—unselfishly, to the point of giving His life up for her. Far too often this verse gets abused by men who want to use it for selfish or controlling purposes. There is no room for selfish love in God’s design.)

“The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?’

“‘Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ‘the woman replied. ‘It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, “You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.”’

‘You won’t die!’ the serpent replied to the woman. ‘God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.’ The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.” (Genesis 3:1-6)

Just as Satan asked Eve, “Did God really say you couldn’t eat from any tree in the garden?” this same question seems to lean to the absurdly hyperbolic: The question seems to be, “Did God really say you can’t serve in the church or serve in a ministry?” Of course God didn’t! We already looked at Titus 2 where women are instructed to teach younger women. 1 Corinthians 12 teaches that each person has been given Spiritual gifts—not just men—and these gifts are as important as the various parts of the human body are to functioning properly. 1 Peter 4:10 says we should use these spiritual gifts to serve—this is for all people, not just men. God set the roles that His creation should fill and we do not have the authority to overthrow those roles just because we don’t like them or because the culture says it’s wrong.

“For God made Adam first, and afterward he made Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived, and sin was the result.” (1 Timothy 2:13-14)

It was the woman who was deceived by Satan’s lies while the man stood by silently. This may very well be happening in our churches today as women seek to take roles God did not set for them while men sit by silently. Husbands, don’t let your wives be deceived by the lies of this world. Stand up for your wife and protect her, love her like Christ loves the church. Women, stand strong like those women you admire in the Scriptures, who didn’t put their wants and desires over what God wanted for them, but obeyed God boldly. We do not have the time to cover all of the objections to the idea that women should guide and teach men spiritually, so we have provided a link which addresses most of those arguments.

Are you pursuing a role God didn’t create for you and, in so doing, are you pursuing what you want over what God wants? We must put our own preferences aside when following Jesus and just listen to what He has to say. Remember, Jesus said we can’t be His disciple if we don’t hate our own lives, if we don’t deny ourselves. Our wants and desires are not greater than God’s. Be bold enough to be obedient to Him.

“Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.” (Galatians 1:10)

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.