Spiritual Authority also for Women 1

God called Abram to leave his country and go to the promised land. He would be the father of many nations.
Abram believed God and he became the father or pioneer of our faith. When he obeyed God and left his country, his wife went with him.

Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord. You have become her daughters as long as you do what is good and never let fears alarm you. 1 Peter 3:6 (NRSV) 

Many people read Bible texts like these and assume that God ordained from the beginning that men should rule over women. They go even further and teach that no woman may lead a church or ministry and that spiritual authority is by its very nature something that always belongs to men and not women.

But in the beginning it was not so.

To see the original principle in the mind of God, we need to go back to God’s creation before the fall of Adam and Eve. 

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

• God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." Genesis 1:27-28 (NRSV) 

The only dominion or authority indicated by God is to rule over the earth, not for one to rule over the other.

When did the rule of man over woman originate?

To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." Genesis 3:16 (NRSV) 

Does this mean God ordained that man should rule over his wife? 

Some think so but others see this as a sad prediction by God of the way sinful human nature would operate.

When Jesus died on the cross, he paid the penalty and the price of sin, so that God could begin a great work of restoration, to restore human beings and all creation to conform with God’s original purpose.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray:

Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10 (NRSV) 

How does see men and women from a heavenly perspective?

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28 (NRSV) 

This expresses God’s eternal perspective but in the New Testament there are still concessions to a fallen world.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ ....Ephesians 6:5 (NRSV) 

Texts like these were used for centuries by Christians to justify slavery but it was Christians in the 19th Century who led the fight to abolish slavery.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, many Christians also supported the political campaign to recognise women’s rights, to own property, to have custody of children, to vote in elections and be a party to business contracts.

The question is then, should we recognise spiritual authority as belonging to women as well as men? 

We have to ask the question: What is spiritual authority?

Firstly, all authority belongs to God and comes from God. 

He created man and woman in his own image, to be like himself. Male and female humans both reflect the nature of God in different ways but one is not more like God than the other.

The first aspect of spiritual authority is to create life. 

God created plants, animals and then humans and He authorised man and woman to be fruitful and multiply. This is only possible through intimate partnership between man and woman.

This suggests that the essence of spiritual authority is in partnership and agreement rather than chain of command.

Jesus said to his disciples:

I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. John 15:15 (NRSV) 

In Genesis 1, God created man and woman to rule together, partners in government of the planet. God has not changed his mind.