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This high value on equality means that the Christian church is at a difficult place in its history in the issue of men and women in the church.  While many denominations have been practicing the ordination of women and dropping gender as a barrier to opportunities in the church, there are others who believe that the Bible teaches that while men and women are equal in the sight of God, they are meant to play different roles in the church.  The first one that comes to many minds is of course the Catholic Church, who only allows men to be priests.  And there are many evangelical and fundamentalist churches who believe that the clear teaching of the Bible is that there are God-given limits on roles a woman is allowed to fill in the church.  Historically, our church has taught that only women can be pastors and elders.  The time has come to ask why this is the case.  Is that really what the Bible teaches?  If it is, then regardless of what the culture around us says, we must follow God’s will.  But if the Bible does not teach that, then to prevent women from exercising gifts of leadership and teaching in the church is not only to offend our culture, but to disobey God Himself.

Over the past three weeks we’ve established that men and women were created equal by God, but that because of the fall, disharmony and male domination became the patterns in the world.  However, when Jesus came on the scene he again treated men and women as equals, both worthy of learning from him and witnessing about him.  And last week we looked at Paul’s writings to the church in Galatia, where he told them that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but all are one in Christ Jesus, that the traditional divisions of race, class, and gender are abolished in the new community of God.  In society they will still be Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, men and women, but in the church they are called to operate as one body, dividing roles by their spiritual gifts.  I argued last week that if you had said to Paul that before God, Jews and Greeks were equal, but in the church there are roles that are only open to Jews, he would have accused you of promoting a false gospel.  If you had told him that before God, slaves and freemen were equal, but in the church there are roles that are only open to freemen, he would have told you that you did not understand the gospel.  So why do so many churches still teach that although men and women are equal before God, in the church there are roles that are only open to men?

Well, the truth is that if there are other passages in the Bible that clearly limit the role of women in the church, then any Bible-believing church should submit to that.  However, if there aren’t any passages that limit the role of women, then we need to live out the gospel as Paul has taught it in Galatians, that the old divisions of race, class, and gender no longer apply in the people of God, but that those who have been gifted as teachers should teach, whether or not they are Mexican or American, rich or poor, man or woman, and that those who are gifted as leaders should lead, whether they are Russian or English, white-collar or blue-collar, man or woman.