Leadership Qualities
When appointing women to leadership positions
in the church, we should take seriously the
maturity profile outlined specifically for them.
Here's Gene:
Now if you go to Judges chapter 4,
you have an interesting situation.
The Israelites again did what was evil
in the sight of the LORD. ...
Very familiar repetitive phrase.
This was after Ehud, that was another judge
that had come along.
We're not going to look at all the judges as
we go through here.
...but after Ehud had died. ...
They did evil in the sight of the Lord.
...So the LORD sold them into the hand of
Jabin king of Canaan, [a pagan king obviously,]
who reigned in Hazor. ...
Hazor is actually in the northern part of Israel.
...[And] the commander of his forces was Sisera
who lived in Herosheth of the Nations.
And then the Israelites...
In the midst of all of
this pain and sorrow and oppression.
...the Israelites cried out to the LORD,
because Jabin had 900 iron chariots,
[and] he harshly oppressed them for 20 years. ...
But notice, we meet a woman by the name of Deborah.
...Deborah, a woman who was a prophet,
and the wife of Lappidoth,
was judging Israel at that time. ...
And it explains what she did.
...It was her custom to sit under the palm tree
of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in
the hill country of Ephraim,
and the Israelites went up to her for judgment.
She would give them wisdom in terms of
how to live together, how to solve problems, etc.
Now here's a very important observation.
No, there's no evidence that Deborah
was more mature than her predecessors or
her successors. And she was a prophet.
And some people might say: Well she was a prophet,
she had to be a spiritual woman.
Not necessarily.
The Spirit of the Lord came on Sampson.
Even when he was engaging in immorality,
the Spirit of Lord came on Sampson.
See, there's no correlation between, necessarily,
being a prophet and a godly woman.
Because the Spirit of Lord came on her
and she was able to give wisdom.
Now I don't know everything there is to
know about Deborah.
But I know what we have in the book of Judges.
And just because you have a woman judge
amidst all these men judges.
And the majority of these men judges were
very sinful men in many respects.
Why would a woman be more spiritual than the men?
Doesn't make sense.
In other words, I can't judge her except to say that
just because she was a prophet,
doesn't mean that she was spiritual.
The interesting thing is, you have
illustrations of that in the New Testament.
And here's where some people make a
serious error in judgment, I think,
in interpreting the Scriptures.
For example, let me take you to the city of Corinth--
the Corinthian church.
The Corinthian church was the
most immature, carnal, sinful group of people
among all the churches.
In fact, Paul wrote to them and said:
If I didn't--if it weren't for the gifts of the
Spirit that you have,
I wouldn't even know you're believers.
Now did you get that?
If it weren't for the gifts of the Spirit,
I wouldn't even know that you're believers.
What was one of the gifts of the Spirit
that they had in Corinth?
The women and the men--they were prophets.
They could prophesy.
Because they could prophesy
didn't mean that they were godly.
See, that was a sovereign act of God's grace.
Even in the New Testament
in this very carnal, wicked city of Corinth.
And you see almost a repeat of what
God did in some respects with the judges--
when he launched the church in these pagan cities.
And once they became believers,
he gifted them in spite of the fact that
they were still carnal and sinful.
And there's a very important concept there in principle.
And that is that there's no correlation
necessarily between the gifts of the Holy Spirit
in the New Testament and spirituality.
And the reason that's an important observation
is that there are a lot of churches that say:
Gifts of the Spirit are a sign of spirituality.
Not so in the New Testament.
Now it may be, but not necessarily so.
You see the correlation.
You see the continuity between what we see
in the book of Judges with Deborah.
What we see in the Corinthian church
with these women who were prophets.
And men who were prophets.
Because if you read through the book of Corinthians,
you'll see that these women would prophesy.
And yet they were prophesying in their carnality.
Speaking by the Spirit of God and yet being carnal.
That's just God's grace. God's revelation. God's truth.
That doesn't excuse their carnality.
But we're saying is that God would
break through to people.
And if God didn't break through with
His mercy and grace, we would never have any
spirituality in our churches.
And so through God's work in our hearts.
Through the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Through understanding the New Testament.
The New Covenant.
What God does in our hearts and our lives
to reform us, to change us, renew our minds.
We should become spiritual in God's sight.
So what we have here is a very interesting illustration.
And in the New Testament, perspective is simply:
When the biblical story transitions
from the Old Testament to the New Testament,
we see women elevated to very significant roles
in terms of leadership in the church.
And we might add, in terms of their
requirements for spiritual leadership.
We don't see a spiritual requirement for Deborah,
for example. But we certainly see spiritual requirements
for women who are serving in the church--
just as with men.
An illustration of that would be from the
question that I want to ask.
The Reflection and Response question:
How does Paul's instructions to Titus
regarding older women teaching younger women
relate to this principle?
That is this principle of being mature.
Well look at Titus chapter 2 where Paul is writing:
In the same way, older women
are to be reverent in behavior...
That's the same as having a good reputation.
...not slanderers, not addicted to much wine.
[And then they are] to teach what is good...
And this has to do with character.
And see they're manifesting character,
so they can teach the younger woman--
younger women in the church--godly character.
And we read about that as you read on:
...so that they may encourage the young women
to love their husbands [and their] children,
to be sensible, pure, good homemakers,
[and] submissive to their husbands,
so that God's message will not be slandered.
So you see the correlation between men in leadership,
and women in leadership, and the church.
God takes this to a whole new level in terms of
what he requires us to be as spiritual leaders.
And by the way, we also see the correlation
with the family.
Because the family was the church in miniature.
So that you see fathers and mothers,
husbands and wives, modeling Christ-like character
in their relationships with their children
in order that they can become good leaders
in the church.
And that's why Paul said:
An elder should be able to manage
his own household well.
So that he will also be able to be a
good leader in the church.
So here we have a significant emphasis on character.
And it's important that we interpret a
woman like Deborah, as well as all the other judges,
in the light of the whole biblical story.
And what God expects an individual to be.
Now it may be that Deborah was
more godly than Ehud.
More godly than Samson.
More godly than some of the other judges.
There's no evidence that she was.
She was a prophet. But remember all the other judges--
the Spirit of God came on them regardless
of who they were and their status spiritually.
God just sovereignly had mercy in leading
the children of Israel during a period of time
when everybody was doing that which was
right in their own eyes.
It was chaos in Israel. And evil.
Until God would deliver them.
And then they'd go through that cycle once again.