1 Timothy 2:12: Common Ways Women Usurp Over Men at Church

It is right to rebuke women having official positions in church which involve authority over men. Yet a woman can also exercise spiritual authority over men without such a position. Whether a female is called pastor or not, by teaching the congregation and/or telling it what to do in any way she is opposing God’s appointed order and usurping authority.

1 Timothy 2:11-14 says: “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve.And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”

How can anyone really believe in the Bible’s counsel at all if they do not receive this? They cannot. A faithful church doesn’t enable women to instruct men or boss them around at all. The men who allow this are no less at fault than the women who do it. Men are ultimately the ones who are enabling this disorderly, feminist behavior. When such behavior is being enabled, and those who are enabling it won’t receive correction and repent, then others have an obligation to leave the church so they are not partakers of the church’s wickedness. No one should put up with a church where women boss men around at all. This in itself is righteous ground for leaving.

There are many, many ways in which a woman can teach men or otherwise exercise authority over them in relation to church somehow though she is not called pastor and is not the one designated to give the sermon at the meeting. It is obvious that women are usurping authority in churches where women are openly called pastors. It is less obvious when women rule over men without this being admitted. Though this unrighteous rule can be even more subtle yet, it definitely happens when women are teaching the congregation and/or leading the church in prayer. Moreover, it also happens when they are giving directions in other ways. Making announcements, telling the congregation to sit down, to stand up, by giving instructions to open the meeting, and by dismissing the congregation at the end. It also happens when women lead the singing- especially if they are giving mini-messages between the songs (which is very, very common).

How can a woman say before a church “Thus saith the Lord” when the Lord’s Word rebukes her for even saying “Thus saith the Lord” before the congregation? She can’t do so without hypocrisy. She is a walking violation of the Lord’s appointed order for men and women by her exercise of spiritual authority over men. She can’t go to the precedents set by God in the Bible without condemning herself. How can a church echo Biblical values and a Biblical worldview without hypocrisy when it has women telling men what to do? It cannot. The church’s male leaders might say that a woman shouldn’t be President over a nation. Good. Yet in the church’s very midst, in something even more important and something which outsiders don’t need to decide, they allow women to rule over men in practicality. This is ridiculous and hypocritical.

Some might say “The Bible’s forbidding of women being pastors was just a matter of culture.” Not true. We saw in 1 Timothy chapter 2 that the Apostle Paul appealed to principles of creation which were operating from the very beginning to demonstrate why he would not suffer a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man. Besides that, it is common knowledge that the Paganism which prevailed in the Roman world was often very friendly towards female religious authority in Pagan Temples. The Apostle’s instruction in this matter, as well as in several other matters, actually went against the norm of the culture at that time. The Bible shouldn’t be interpreted through the lens of modern culture. Many cultures now are highly corrupted by the wicked ideology of Feminism.

Usurping women and enabling men often respond to fitting rebukes of their wicked behavior with accusations towards their rebukers of insecurity and/or accusations of being sinfully controlling and/or accusations of being overly critical. This makes perfect sense due to how the guilty often project their own wickedness onto others- especially those which accurately point out their wickedness. The usurping women are insecure as they oppose the Lord’s appointed order while the enabling men are insecure as they back down from God-given duty. The usurping women love the sinful control they exercise while the enabling men criticize men which assert the control that they ought to assert themselves. Both the usurpers and enablers are sinfully critical of the order for mankind which the true God has appointed. They can continue to criticize Him as they burn in hell.