This addresses gender restrictions as seen in the Bible! Let's not get distracted by our own desires. We are learning to follow the Lord, and as His servants, let us explore what is His will. It's there, in the Bible.
Here is one character who will help us in our search. Imagine a young, fiercely intense Christian woman. Her passionate intelligence is consumed by devotion to Jesus Christ, the bright shining Light who called her from out of the darkness, as a child. This young woman is the very same one who will go on to experience horrific physical, emotional, and sexual abuse from her avowed "Christian" husband. She may feel alone, but she is by no means the only one, for abuse is just a prevalent in christian families as it is in secular ones, but less spoken of. Could you possibly grasp or comprehend the depths of confusion and disillusionment that she will experience? Are you able to understand this saint's resistance to any authoritarian which seeks to subjugate her to their own interpretation of her Lord's commands? There is no more of innocence left in her to squander on their pretentions, only her dawning realization of the truth, naked and exposed, in all it's ugliness. It is the very manifestation of satan which confronts her, and stoops to using scripture to accuse and condemn her. How can someone who claims to be a Christian be her worst enemy? The very audacity of her faith dares to ask the question why! (And the "secular" answer is, quite simply, "because he can"). Knowing eyes will not permit self serving substitutes replacing God's own truth!
The Bible is abundantly clear that women have a high standing with God. He used one, without the aid of a man, to come into the world. The pair of coregents called "Adam" were originally one being. Women are equal heirs of God's promises. (1 Peter 3) Remember that only CHRIST saves, no matter your gender. (Gal 3) These things are obvious to those who read the whole of the Bible.
How does this work in the here and now, Biblically speaking? Paul compares marriage to the relationship of Christ and the Church. How does Christ speak to and treat His bride? To this body (of believers) He says, " To him who overcomes (stick with me or SUBMIT) I will grant to sit with me on my throne." ( Rev 3) Believers are coheirs with Christ, of the Father. (Roms 8) Says the elders, "He has made us to be priests and kings to our God, and we shall reign with Him on the earth" (Rev 4,5) Jesus said, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." (Matt 16) Paul says, "We are seated with Christ in heavenly places." (Eph 2) Does it SOUND as if the church is kept silent under compulsion and law? No, she is the woman freed from the law "to bear fruit to God." (Roms 7) She speaks with Christ's authority, because she loves and obeys HIM. As Jesus said, "If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed." And how can she be free, unless she freely chooses to submit to that freedom?
Why, then, are there verses in two of Paul's letters which tell women to "keep silent", in direct contradiction to the rest of his teachings? The place where he says, "Your women are to keep silent in the churches" (1 Cor 14) he lets us know an oral law is being quoted. Two verses later is a rebuke of the whole approach and attitude of any which would use this law to silence women! The other verse where he is known to say something similar, is the letter to Timothy at Ephesus. False teachers were mixing the cult of Gnosticism with the gospel, and turning Eve into a part of the godhead. In 1 Tim 2:12, he is "not allowing a woman to teach error in order to dominate a man." In the Greek, this instruction is clearly meant for a specific (one time) situation.
http://newlife.id.au/equality-and-gender-issues/1-timothy-212-in-context-4/
Let's be realists here, though. Men and women are clearly not the same! They are not "equal" physically, and may indeed have different aggregate mental tendencies and talents as well. Unfortunately, in a perverse world, which does not follow the gentleness of our God, these same blessed traits women bear, may be construed as weakness to be taken advantage of by force. Only in a sinful world would one person dominate another so as to bind them to the same evil as themselves (when she is bound by "the law" of her husband). That is not what the Lord would have for His people. The Lord Jesus told us the church is not to "lord it over one another", but to "love each other as I have loved you." How did He love us? By serving us (washing of the feet, as an example of servitude) and self sacrifice.
We can only ever treat others in accordance to how we feel about ourselves. Whatever we seek to deny about ourselves, as weak or ugly, we will despise in another human being. A woman can be considered a reflection of her spouse, of who the man thinks he is. What he thinks about himself is reflected in the way he treats HER. (Eph 5:29)
Only since the time of Christ has the status of women been raised, from property and invisible slave, to a human being of equal importance to a man. Paul did not preach a change of culture. He did not say, in his letters, for any believer to change others. Humility was the order of the day, instead of subjugation and degradation of others. Men were invited to use affirmative action for the purpose of lifting others (women too) up to Christ's level of joy. Men now had the "authority" to enable and support others to reach the godly calling of freedom in Christ. Change in culture DID happen (for women and slaves) because of the changes wrought in individual hearts, empowered by the love of Christ. And how can a wife be free, even now, unless she freely chooses to submit to the freedom her husband equally freely gives her? This is truly her inheritance! To freely give from love!
Only obedience to the good news of the gospel, and the Mediator, brings freedom for all who believe. So as Paul discussed the wearing of a veil versus the cutting of hair when a woman prays, what he is indicating, is that what is a sign of her social status will soon be irrelevant, and what he is advocating for is her freedom to pray at the very alter of God. He was telling men to protect that freedom for her. "A woman should have a sign of authority on her head." (1Cor 11) When he instructed men to love their wives as Christ loved the church, what he was advocating was that the man need be willing to sacrifice his life for HER freedom (In Christ, of course) and that the woman must be fully cooperative in this process. Faith and hope in Christ alone, is what assures of unity, peace, and love, not the exercise of law derived of the will of man. What is faith but the confidence to exercise the authority of the love of Christ? Put it into action!
