Let the women learn...
~1 Timothy 2:11(NKJV)
I'll be conducting a devotional series on the rest of this passage at some point in the near future. For today, I just wanted to focus on the beautiful words that begin this verse in 1 Timothy.
"Let the women learn." This sentence may not seem so amazing to you, but these 4 little words contain such a treasure! Feminists and feminism-minded women try to tell us that God pushed women down and belittled them when He commanded them to be homemakers, to submit to their husbands, to abstain from being pastors or elders, etc. Nothing at all could be further from the truth! At the time in which this passage of Scripture was written, Jewish society was a horrible place for a woman to live. The Jewish men used to recite a prayer every morning that went like this: "Thank you, God, that I'm not a slave, a pig, or a woman." Women were viewed(as they still are in Muslim society) as things, as second class citizens, etc. Now when Jesus came on the scene, He was viewed as a liberal(today, of course, He's often viewed as too conservative-go figure! :))! He spoke to women, ministered to them, blessed them, began friendships with them, healed them, liften them up, and respected them. The Jews of His day thought He was crazy! Here was the Messiah elevating women(yes, I understand that many Jews did not view Him as the Messiah)! He treated women as exactly what they were: special people, that were equal with men, yet had different roles than men.
In Jewish society at the time when 1 Timothy 2:11 was first penned, women were oftentimes not allowed to learn much of anything. Other Jews allowed women to learn, but didn't see a woman's education as very important, so they certainly didn't encourage it. And then comes a command from our Lord: "Let the women learn!" It was important to our Lord that women learn, that they be fully and highly educated. The Lord saw this as a very important thing, and viewed learning as a woman's responsibility! He believed that women need to be educated, and so He left us with this command: let the women learn!
So, the next time you come across someone who tries to lead you astray by telling you that Jesus hated and belittled women, you point them to this verse and reveal to them that that simply is not the case!
Oh Rebekah, that's so true that Jesus elevated women! I think that a lot of pagan cultures and general pagan thought viewed women as lesser because they are so often physically weaker, which is a very naturalistic way of looking at things. Christianity has been so, so different on the issue of women!
ReplyDeleteMonika
You're so right, Monika! Only Christianity has uplifted and revered women. That's something that our society has forgotten.
ReplyDeleteJennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald made a wonderful discovery in their book, "Passionate Housewives Desperate for God": Feminists seem to think that they are crying out for the un-enslavement of women, when in reality, they're begging for their own slavery!
It is important though that the women learn from their own husbands/fathers. This also includes people their husband/father approves of them learning from such as their pastor, certain authors etc. If a woman knows her husband/father doesn't like a particular author, she ought not to read his works or learn of him.
ReplyDelete"Feminists and feminism-minded women try to tell us that God pushed women down and belittled them when He commanded them to be homemakers, to submit to their husbands, to abstain from being pastors or elders"
ReplyDeleteGod doesn't command women not to be pastors or elders, and church was never meant to have hierarchal authority anyway, so that's a moot point.
"If a woman knows her husband/father doesn't like a particular author, she ought not to read his works or learn of him."
Thank God my father/husband believe I have a mind of my own.