AUTHORITY AS A STATE OF THE UNION: COVERED AND COMPATIBLE
The normal opposition to women in ministry goes beyond the evidence of women who have served in the Bible. The argument usually revolves around the issue of authority. Often when people are opposed to women in ministry, the real issue is not the Bible, but authority. The argument typically states that women should not be in positions of authority, therefore the higher levels of ministry are off limits to them. The question of authority is valid. It behooves us to ask ourselves what authority is and how is it expressed in a normative way in Scripture. This aspect of authority is confined to the relational qualities we enjoy professionally and recreationally. The real question about authority is, why are men allowed to have it, and women are not.
Clarity can be achieved, especially if we are willing to look at passages of Scripture that relate to marital harmony as expressed by Paul. Some have argued that the term help mate in Genesis 2:18 creates a position of subordination, thus relegating women to a role of inferiority. Proper exegesis helps us to see that a correct understanding of the term elevates women to a role of equality, as the term help mate literally means “a helper suitable for him.” The same term is used of God Himself in Deuteronomy 33:7, as He is identified as a helper: And this he said about Judah: “Hear, O LORD, the cry of Judah; bring him to his people. With his own hands he defends his cause. Oh, be his help against his foes!”
I do not think that there are many expositors of Scripture who will propose that God is inferior to anyone. Others argue for women’s subordination to men on the basis of Genesis 3:16, where Eve is told that she will be ruled by her husband: To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Even though marriage carries with it a measure of submission, the mandate in Genesis 3:16 is not a specific statement as to God’s intention for humanity. It is a simple statement that describes the effects of the fall and the consequences that people are forced to live under in the pervasive state of sin.
In order to properly understand the biblical concept of authority as it presented in Scripture, we need to separate the application of authority in the supernatural realm from the application in the natural realm. There is a distinct difference that surfaces as authority is applied to our personal relationships, places of employment and the way we address the unseen world. The Greek language substantiates these distinctions, as Jesus taught about the principle of authority and it’s imposition on the realm of the unseen. We understand this to relate to the expulsion of demons, with a corollary injunction in the arena of human disease and the manipulation of nature as in the stilling of storms and the multiplication of provision. Jesus authority in this vein is distinctly different than the authority we express in the normal world. I point this out in order to stress that the misunderstanding of authority that has occurred in the church as it relates to women has birthed in this convolution of thought and origination of biblical authority. The more we have applied a natural application to our governmental structure, the less likely we will express Kingdom principles in the church.
