Who and What are Women to Teach
What and who exactly are women to teach according to the Word? There are women teaching other women the Word but failing to teach what God has instructed them to teach. Many women didn’t like yesterday’s post about being silent in the Church. This is offensive to them and they tried to convince me by using Hebrew and Greek that I am wrong, as if the translators of the KJV Bible made mistakes and they know better than these men of old.
In further researching what women being “silent” in the church meant, I found some very interesting things in the commentaries of old about this topic. One thing I did not find is that woman are allowed to speak in the church. It seems to me that silence means silence. (This doesn’t mean they can’t sing. They are not to do anything that is teaching men or being in authority over them when they sing. The Apostle Paul is clear about this.)
Elliot’s Commentary: But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.—The whole purpose of these weighty admonitions of the great founder of the Gentile Churches relegates Christian women to their own legitimate sphere of action and influence—the quiet of their own homes.
Wow! Most Christian women wouldn’t like what Elliot had to say about a woman’s sphere – “the quiet of their own homes.” This is what feminism has rebelled against and unfortunately, many Christian women fell in lock step with them. Do you, women, not understand the importance of your home? Don’t ever let anyone try to convince you that it is not. We have the privilege of bearing and raising an army for the LORD in our homes. We are our husband’s help meet and have the privilege of making our homes a peaceful and beautiful place for our family in the midst of a loud and ugly world.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary: According to St. Paul, women are not allowed to be public teachers in the church; for teaching is an office of authority. But good women may and ought to teach their children at home the principles of true religion…St. Paul shows what is the only proper sphere in which woman should work, and in which she should exercise her influence and power; while man’s work and duties lay in the busy world without, woman’s work was exclusively confined to the quiet stillness of home.
Matthew Henry again reiterates “the quiet stillness of home” as the place where women work. Is your home peaceful? You, as the woman of the home, have a big responsibility of whether or not your home is peaceful by your attitude and behavior. Are you gentle and kind with your husband and children? Do you control your emotions and feelings so you are led by Truth and the Spirit instead? Do you find that the JOY of the LORD is your strength? In order to have a peaceful home, you must hide God’s Word deeply in your heart so that you won’t sin against Him. As you are doing this, make sure you are teaching your children godliness as well.
Matthew Poole’s Commentary: Nevertheless women may, and it is their duty to instruct their children and families at home, especially in the absence of their husbands.
It is fathers who are given the command to raise their children in the nurture and the admonition of the LORD in Ephesians 6:4 but as the husband is head over the wife and the wife is home full time, she will be the one who is teaching them the ways of the LORD throughout the day. Make sure you are reading them the Bible, even more so than Bible story books, since it is His Word that is living and active and sharper than a two edged sword. Use every opportunity to teach your children truth.
We are blessed with five grandchildren. One of my sons and his wife told me that every night when they put their nine month old baby to bed they sing a hymn and pray over her. The other day, I watched my one and a half year old granddaughter and as we put her to bed, we sang and prayed over her. It was such a sweet time! Find any way you can to speak and teach truth to your children just as Timothy’s mother and grandmother shared their faith with him (2 Timothy 1:5).
Gill’s Exposition: But I suffer not a woman to teach, They may teach in private, in their own houses and families; they are to be teachers of good things, Titus 2:3. They are to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; nor is the law or doctrine of a mother to be forsaken, any more than the instruction of a father;…(but in church) but to be in silence; to sit and hear quietly and silently, and learn, and not teach.
Women are to teach the Word to their children and Titus 2:4, 5 to women. Even the Proverbs 31 wasn’t running around to different Women’s Bible Studies, teaching women the Bible, or attending conferences. She worked hard in and around her home. She was full of good works and deeds. What does it say about her words and what she teaches? “She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness” (Proverbs 31:26). In order to have wisdom, she had to know the Word of God for all wisdom comes from Him. When she spoke, she spoke words of wisdom and taught her children wisdom. Her words were also those of kindness. I am sure all that are around a woman like this clearly knows that she has been with the LORD.
“Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised” (Proverbs 31:30). She fears the LORD. If you fear the LORD, you don’t fear man and this is why she can “rejoice in the time to come.” She doesn’t fear the future because her trust is in the LORD. She respects and honors her husband as head over her and has no desire to teach men or speak in church. She knows her place is in the home and she finds her joy there.
Expositor’s Greek Testament: 1 Timothy 2:12. This refers of course only to public teaching, or to a wife’s teaching her husband. In Titus 2:3 St. Paul indicates the natural sphere for woman’s teaching.
In this commentary, we are told what women are to teach women, namely to love and obey their husbands, to love their children, to be sober, good, discreet, chaste, and keepers at home, namely godly womanhood. Few women want to teach this today. They would rather teach through books of the Bible or Old Testament figures or the end times, anything but Titus 2:4, 5. The thing is that woman are more easily deceived, therefore, it is best to stick to what the LORD has commanded for us to teach and let men preachers and teachers teach the whole of God’s amazing Word.
That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
Titus 2:4, 5
11 thoughts on “Who and What are Women to Teach”
How timely. My wife and I were just talking about this just last night. She had gone to lunch with a friend and this subject came up. Both women agreed that the Bible is very clear no matter how people try to slice and dice it – women are not to teach men.
This is a subject that both my wife and I had discussed in college together and with friends and have been consistent on for over 30 years. Even with female friends who feel they had been called to the ministry. The Bible is very clear and no matter how many different translations you get, KJV, NKJV, ESV, etc. you will always come to the same conclusion – woman are not to teach men, women are to be silent in church, ask their husbands (the other elders or father if not married or widowed) in private about theological issues. The original words have not changed, the original concept has not changed. There is a order to God’s law and plans. He spelled it out in nature and has had the authors of the Bible spell it out in words we humans can understand. Men are to submit to God, men are to be the leaders of the home and community, women are to be the helpmates, women are to submit themselves to their husbands, and together the father and mother are to raise children to be servents of the Lord in much the same way as they are servents of the Lord. We all have many chores to do and we have been called to different missions, yet through it all each sex, male or female, have specific roles and functions in the family, clan, tribe, and nation.
There has been the discussion about us living in a different time where women are in the work force more and women have more education, and on and on. Well some of that is true but that does not make that right under God’s law. Just because society around us wants to violate God’s law does not mean we in the Church have to change our message to be attractive to the society around us. The message, the gospel, God’s law is going to be offensive to some. Some people just simply reject God. We should not sweat that. We are to keep ourselves pure and holy. We are only responsible for our actions. This is why I have a hard time with those who are so vocal against the simple teaching you present here for other women. They want to sin and to reduce the guilt of their sin they want us all to sin likewise.
Thank you, Tiny Tim. Great comment!
Are women allowed to teach other children, say in a Sunday school class? Or should only men be teaching children in Sunday school classes?
It’s up to the elders of the church and the fathers of the children how they deal with this, Steffani. God commands parents to be the ones to pass on their faith to their children so this is what parents need to focus upon.
A sweet older woman in our church began to tell me that she approached one of the mothers in our congregation (who happens to be the children’s Sunday School director) to organize and lead the women’s retreat this year at our church. She explained that she as an older woman is supposed to be teaching the younger women to do these things and that she personally thinks it is time for the younger women to start taking over these “jobs” that currently mainly the older women do. She also suggested she might be trying to recruit me as well.
A red flag went off since I know from Scriptures that the older women are to be teaching the younger women to love their husbands and children, discreet, good, obedient to their own husbands, keepers at Home, etc.
To me that is in conflict with being active in the church. I have been asked before to do other things like helping out with youth group, and vbs, and I have helped many times in the past. There is always this pull to help from the older women and I feel guilty at times and it bothers me throughout my days because I wrestle with it.
I love being a keeper at home, teaching my children, taking care of my husband, and growing in Christ. Whenever I have ever helped in the past I inevitably had to neglect these things to some degree and I really don’t want to do that anymore.
I would love to know your thoughts on this.
You are doing exactly what the LORD has called you to do, Gabrielle! Marry, bear children and guide the home – the wonderful job the LORD has given to us.
There is such freedom in knowing I am doing what the Lord has called me to do.
I think it is so interesting that Paul addressed this issue. It makes me think that things weren’t so different back then, that perhaps there were women who wanted to take this position or at least it was a potential situation. I have no problem with seeing my husband as my leader, not that I am as supportive as I want to be at times. I see leadership as a serving position, too. He sacrifices so much for us in this role. I think anyone who has had to lead anything knows that to do it well means you are working for he best of those under you, not for yourself.
Why did Jesus include women and speak to women intellectually in public? Why did Jesus speak and accept women after they approached him and public? The first person to preach that Jesus had risen was a woman to men. Again, at a time when women were second class citizens and to be at home. To approach men and to talk to them was socially unacceptable. Personally, I will go with what Jesus said and did. If Mary Magdeline had stuck with social mores (even after Jesus approached her in the graveyard) nobody might not have known about it.
Jesus loved women. He died for them and He is the One who created them. Women at home are not second class citizens. They are living in obedience to the LORD’s perfect will for them. The women who went and told the disciples that Jesus had risen were not preaching in a church nor were they in authority over men. The Apostle Paul wrote down everything the LORD Jesus told him to write. It’s all from the LORD and is all biblical.
According to Genesis, women have always liked to take control and it began with Eve, Tamra. We aren’t any different than her. Yes, some leaders are servants and some are not but wives are still instructed to follow their husbands where they lead in obedience to the LORD.