Faith

Check out Part 1, in which I discuss why God chose to hold Adam, not Eve, responsible for the sin of mankind, and Part 2, in which I reflect on the command that women not teach or have authority over a man.

Male/female relationships and roles is a topic that is always fraught with questions, emotions, and opinions. No doubt, what I’ve already written in this “Easily Deceived Eve” series has raised questions in your mind. It certainly has in mine.

So today, I’m going to use a question and answer format to address some of the questions I have thought about while writing this series–and to clarify a few things that I thought might have been confusing.

Are you saying that men can’t be deceived?

Nope. Both men and women are capable of being deceived. Women may or may not be more likely to be deceived than men. I Timothy 2:14 suggests but does not outright teach that this is true. Regardless, God has given safeguards to protect women from the consequences of being deceived.

Men can be deceived–and will be held responsible as the heads of their households if they lead their families astray. A woman who is under proper authority, on the other hand, is protected from this judgment.

So basically, we’re just supposed to believe whatever our heads (husbands/fathers) tell us to believe?

I didn’t say that.

You have been given a mind and you have a responsibility to use it. The headship of man is by no means a call to complacency. Women should still search out the Scriptures to see what things are true. On the other hand, we should definitely be careful to consider what our head has to say about an issue.

Does this mean that you’re always going to agree with your head? I definitely don’t agree with my dad about everything. However, I (attempt to) respectfully listen to and consider his positions on points that we disagree about. Sometimes he changes my mind, sometimes I change his mind, sometimes we agree to disagree. But I will NOT teach something that my dad and I disagree about unless my dad is in agreement that I share my point of view in addition to his.

Headship is not about an authoritarian head laying down the law and a complacent body giving in to it. Rather, headship is about a loving head and a submissive body partnering together to discover and do God’s will.

That male headship stuff is all great if you’ve got a godly father or husband who wants to protect you–but what if the man who’s supposed to be your protector isn’t protecting?

It’s very unfortunate when this happens, but I think the first thing to remember is that you won’t ever solve the problem by taking on a role that isn’t your own. If male headship is indeed a protective measure for women (as I have proposed it to be), then our response to “inadequate” headship should be to be even more cautious in teaching or taking authority rather than less.

A sagging, broken down fence between me and a bull is little protection for me. But I don’t solve that problem by getting closer to the bull. Instead, I move farther away and choose to intentionally seek out more protection.

The answer to not having a godly husband or father to guard you is NOT to go gung-ho into teaching and having authority over a man (especially not YOUR man, married women!) Instead, you should encourage your head in his role and seek out additional authorities to put yourself under. You can encourage your head in his role by asking his advice before making decisions and by respectfully submitting to what guidance he gives. You can ask godly older women to counsel and correct you. You can submit teachings or doctrinal questions to your pastors and elders. But the answer to not having a good “head” is certainly not to attempt to get close to the bull since there’s no good fence to stop you.

All this talk about “Easily Deceived Eve” has me kind of down on myself. Is that what you intended?

At the end of C.S. Lewis’s fantasy tale Prince Caspian, Aslan tells the story of the Telmarine people and how they came to Narnia. It is not a pretty tale. Caspian responds that he wishes he “came of a more honourable lineage.” Aslan’s response is thus:

“You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve. And that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.”

As “daughters of Eve”, we are easily deceived (I Tim 2:14). We have all fallen through Adam’s sin (Rom 5:12). Part of sin’s result has been that we desire mastery over man (Gen 3:16)–seeking to overcome the protection of headship. This all is “shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth.”

As “daughters of Eve”, we have been created in the image of God (Gen 1:27). We have been created to have dominion (Gen 1:28). We have been created to fulfill the essential role of helper (Gen 2:18). We have been created to be life-givers (Gen. 3:20). We have been created as the glory of man (I Cor 11:7). This is “honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar.”

Our creation is cause for great honor, our fall a cause for great shame–but, thanks be to God, He does not leave us in our shame, but has sent His Son as the Second Adam to justify and make righteous all who believe on His name (Rom 5:18-19.) This is cause for great rejoicing.

So recognize the honor inherent in our creation, be brought low by the shame inherent in our fall–but most of all, rejoice in the justification you have received in Christ.

Check out Part 1 of “Easily Deceived Eve”, in which I discuss why God chose to hold Adam, not Eve, responsible for the sin of mankind.

Easily Deceived Eve.

What a moniker. What a shameful blow.

Imagine the worst dumb blond joke you can think of–Eve ups the ante.

“So a serpent walks up to Eve and says, ‘Hey, if you eat this fruit, you’ll be wise like God.’ She looks at the serpent, looks at the fruit, and says ‘You’re right! This is good fruit. So she takes a bite.”

I mean, hello!?! Didn’t anybody ever tell you not to listen to just any old snake-fruit salesman?

But Eve falls for it. She’s one gullible gal.

Yet Scripture seems to suggest that not only Eve but all women are prone to Eve’s naivete.

I Timothy 2:14 gives Eve’s “easily deceived” nature as a reason (apart from the created order of male headship) that women should not teach or have authority over men.

The implication is that a woman, being easily deceived, might unknowingly lead into falsehood if men were under her spiritual authority.

I Corinthians 14 affirms that women are not to teach or have authority over men–but takes it one step further by saying that women should keep silent in the churches, not being permitted to speak.

Of course, one must realize that the “church service” in Corinth looked quite different from ours today–the order of service in which “each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation” would make it very difficult for a woman to speak in church without teaching or having authority over a man.

Regardless, women are encouraged to learn in silence with submission, asking questions of their husbands at home rather than disrupting the service for their questions–or worse yet, than interrupting the service for a misguided teaching.

At various times, I’ve chafed at this command.

In my remarkable humility (Hah!), I recognize that I have a high IQ, a great deal of education, and a natural aptitude for teaching. Why should I not use the gifts God has given me?

My pride (while inexcusable) is not without cause. Many within the church and without have confirmed that I am intelligent, well-read, and highly educated. They agree that I teach with passion and ease. When I teach, people learn. When I explain, they understand.

But God would protect me from what I, in my pride, consider beneath me.

I think I’m too smart to fall for deception. I think that somehow I can escape Eve’s vulnerability. But I cannot.

If Eve, with a mind uncorrupted by sin, as a woman who had experienced unbroken fellowship with God, could be deceived–how much more can I, with my sin-twisted and sleep-deprived mind and my through-a-glass-dimly view of God?

I am Eve, easily deceived.

God knows it–which is why He has placed this protection over me. James 3:1 says that teachers receive a stricter judgment. God would keep me from this stricter judgment by not having me teach or have authority over a man.

God would protect me by placing me under the headship of man (today, as a single woman, under Christ and my father; someday, Lord willing, under Christ and my husband.)

When I do teach–and I do, using my giftings to teach women and youth spiritually and people of all stripes in my secular area of expertise–I teach under the authority of my father, who offers me good counsel and brings correction when I am in error.

As I teach under the authority of my father, I am protected. My father, to whose authority I submit, is held responsible for error that he sees but fails to correct. This guards me against teaching out of deception.

At the same time, since I am teaching those who are also under authority (women and youth), I have an additional protection. These who hear my teaching are under the authority of husbands and fathers who can correct deceptions that I have unknowingly passed along.

God, recognizing in me Eve’s weakness, chose to protect me from myself by restricting my ability to self-destruct. To rebel against His protective structure is not wisdom but madness.

If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, take a look at my thoughts on why God chose to hold Adam, not Eve, responsible for the sin of mankind. And stay tuned for part 3, which should be posted on Friday.

When I was a teen in youth group, my youth pastor enjoyed getting a rise out of me by asserting that the fall of mankind was Eve’s fault. After all, Eve ate the forbidden fruit first.

A bit of a feminist in my earlier days(!), I could be counted upon to take umbrage at the remark, arguing that man and woman bore equal guilt.

Today, that youth pastor is the lead pastor of my church and one of my peers from youth group has succeeded him as youth pastor. To this day, either of them can count on me to raise my eyebrows, roll my eyes, or issue a little snort when they make such an assertion. (Please recognize that they make these remarks as a jest, so my “humph” response is not a sign of disrespect. They would be the first to tell you so.)

What Jason and Jeremy may not realize is that my reasons for disagreeing with that statement have changed over the years.

It started as a feminist response–“Hey, don’t try to pin the sin of mankind on us. Men and women alike are equal opportunity sinners.” But as I’ve studied the Word, specifically what Scripture has to say about women, I’ve revised my position.

While men and women may be equal opportunity sinners today (having all been born with a sin nature), God holds man (Adam) responsible for the first sin. Romans 5:12 states that “through one man sin entered the world”, and verse 14 clarifies that this was “the transgression of Adam.”

This might sound like I’m becoming even more rabid in my early tendencies towards feminism. Now I’m not only claiming that Adam shared equal fault with Eve–but that Adam was fully responsible for the first sin. Vilifying man, justifying woman. That’s what it might sound like if I leave the argument there.

But I won’t. The reality is that Eve deserves neither the praise that the aforementioned view would afford her, or the censure that my pastors would jestingly give her. Eve disobeyed God’s command. She ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil–which God had forbidden her and Adam from eating. She sinned and gave the fruit to Adam so that he also sinned.

God chose to hold Adam responsible for the sin of mankind. Why?

This is the tricky part. Adam was held responsible because God, even prior to the fall, ordained the headship of man. I Corinthians 11:3 states that the head of every man is Christ and the head of woman is man. Paul goes on to state that this is inherent in creation: “…but woman is the glory of man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head.”

The headship of man makes him responsible not only for his own sin, but also for the sin of his wife.

This concept, inherent in creation, is codified in Numbers 30, where God sets out laws for women who make vows. According to the law, if a woman makes a vow, her husband, upon hearing it, can declare that vow void. Neither he nor his wife will be held responsible for the vow she made. On the other hand, if her husband does not nullify the vow on the day that he hears it, he is now responsible to God for the fulfillment of that vow.

I Timothy 2:14 states that “the woman, being deceived, fell into transgression.” On the other hand, “Adam was not deceived.” Instead, he stood by as his wife was deceived; and then, not being deceived himself, he willfully took and consumed the fruit in opposition to God’s plan.

Eve was deceived and fell into transgression. Adam willfully chose to disobey the command of God, knowing full well what he was doing.

And God chose to hold Adam responsible not only for his own sin but for the sin of his wife. Thus, “through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin” (Romans 5:12)

Check back over the next week for Parts 2 and 3, discussing the implications of Eve’s susceptibility to deception and the headship of man.