The Role of Women

Today I read 1 Timothy 2 which bounces around a little bit but spends quite a bit of time on the role of women. In several, if not most, societies throughout history, women have been treated like second class citizens. Some could interpret Paul's instructions to Timothy as proof that Paul also felt this way but I don't think that this was the case. I think that similar to the covenants made in the temple, Paul is trying to teach Timothy that women should be obedient to their husbands. Now of course this does not give the husband he right to rule over his wife but rather it should be a partnership with the ultimate decision resting with the husband.

I can't imagine treating my wife like she was inferior to me. She does so much for our family and household. She is a stay at home wife and so she does probably 75% of the chores, she takes care of our daughter at least 90% of the time. How could I not do all that I can to ease her lot in life? She does so much for me and for our daughter she almost never has time just to herself. But that is her personality. She loves to give service and views doing those things as a service to me and our daughter and so she likes to do it. However, despite how much she enjoys it, I still try my best to make sure I help her in anyway that I can.

The one part of this chapter that has always stood out to me and is confirmed by what we learn in the temple is what Paul says about man and woman being deceived in the Garden of Eden. We know from modern revelation that the devil approached both Adam and Eve and tempted them concerning the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We know that Adam was approached first and he shut Satan down hard. He would not even entertain the idea of going against the commandments of God, not for any reason that Satan could offer. So Satan gave up trying to tempt Adam and went another direction. He went and found Eve. When he found her, he told her several truths about the fruit. However, he included one lie, that she would not die if she ate the fruit. Thereby, Eve was deceived but Adam was not. When Adam was told what had happened, he made a conscious choice to partake of the fruit so that he could remain with his wife, Eve and fulfill God's first commandment to him, to multiply and replenish the earth. But he made that choice with full knowledge that he was disobeying God and that he would be punished for it.

I remember the first time I realized that Paul had written this down somewhere I was pretty impressed. The casting out of Adam and Eve is very misunderstood by most Christian religions and the fact that Paul points out that Adam was not deceived by Satan but rather Eve was to me clarifies that their transgression in the Garden of Eden was not sexual in nature. But that is all I wanted to say on the matter about that verse and how I liked it. Some religions have used Paul's words here over the years to treat women poorly as we mentioned above. However, this was not Paul's intention. I am supremely confident that Paul understood that women are to be our partners in this life and to be a helpmeet to their husbands. Perhaps they were putting women in positions of leadership such as trying to make them Bishops. Without the proper context of why Paul is saying the things he is, we really do not know what is going on. But the bottom line for sure is that women are NOT second hand citizens in the church. They perform very necessary functions that only they can do. Our wives are our helpmeets, not our servants and should be treated as our companions. Heavenly Father will most certainly hold us responsible for how we have treated our wives in this life and I plan to be able to hold my head up high and answer that I treated her like the queen she is. I hope you do the same. Until tomorrow.