1Timothy 2:12
12 I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly.
Hi everyone, why can't women teach men if let's say they were smarter than some men or if the man was wrong? Is it out of respect and since the Bible says that Adam was created first and he also has an extra rib so men are supposed to lead the women.
Paul taught essential Christian doctrine, having to do with the substitutionary death of Christ for us and he also taught customs, to present a viable witness in the world. A Jewish custom was apparently to separate women, who were often mothers of large families, from the formal proceedings at church gatherings.
For women to insert themselves into the formal order they would have to unseat a man, which is like a substitute teacher coming in and forcibly taking over a teacher's role in a classroom. There is no question that the substitute teacher may do as well as any regular teacher. The point is to maintain order, rather than have a competition between genders. The role women played was based on the family needs, not on capability.
Today, women are often unmarried, divorced, or have only had one or two children. They need to do more than just sit at home or be quiet in the church. I believe there were two unmarried daughters in a church Paul was at who prophesied. That is hardly being quiet!
Acts 2.18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
Acts 21.9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
I think Paul's main concern was to discourage competition between the genders, to establish roles that in his time fit both the custom and the need. Obviously, with different conditions, such as a lack of men, the women were perfectly capable of filling in, just as Deborah did, when Barak did not show enough capacity on his own.
Judges 4.9 “Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh."
If you wish to avoid having a family and children, you should pursue service in the church if you can. Nobody can say you are unqualified. Nobody should say you have to get married at all.
The only thing is Paul required women to show respect for what God has called men to do. It is not about competition with men, but about what God wants. God's original desire for women was that they get married and have children and raise families. But due to the fallen nature of this world, it is not always possible for a woman to do this, nor is it even always desirable.
I must also say that Paul saw not just different gifts between men and women, but also different curses on them for the original sins of Adam and Eve. Men were created first, and they were to take the lead in the family in order to do the provisional work for the family.
But men were, after the fall, to be more discerning about deception. Their leadership role became more dominating so as to safeguard women from future deception, after Eve's weakness, which I believe has become a spiritual inheritance for all women. Women should always try to work in tandem with responsible Christian male leaders. That way they can be effective and not suffer any setbacks.
The weakness of women regarding deception seems apparent, at times, when women fall for conniving pretenders, although men can also be deceived. The weakness of men, on the other hand, is with being weak towards women. They tend to give up their authority so as to not lose the women their eyes favor, such as Sampson did with Delilah. Both men and women in a marriage can help one another avoid their particular pitfalls by being understanding and aggressive in protecting one another from temptation.
However, in our humanistic world we would find such notions as gender differences chauvinistic. But we should take care not to indulge our rebellious nature, and let God decide what is and what should be? The idea is to serve God and not ourselves alone. That is what originally got Adam and Eve in trouble, and what now afflicts the human race--the desire to have one's own way.
