Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
You said:

First it is interesting that Mabel things distinction of roles does not equal spiritual equality, but only distinction of gender roles equals spiritual hierarchy. What sort of reasoning is this? Smells alot like society talking.

I don’t think you “got” what Mabel was saying. Perhaps you should be asking more questions to understand what she means. At one point she is talking about worldly society. And yes, the world’s way does “smell” because it is not the sweet fragrance of God’s way.

You also said:

Lin says that comps have a talmud? If this is the case why are there so many varying egal interpretations of passages. I am yet to see a consistent interpretation.

That is because egalitarians don’t have a Talmud. They just know that the comp argument isn’t right and they are trying to understand the hard passages of Paul in the best way that they can without contradiction in the clear passages of Paul.

Cheryl always strays from the physical distinctions to the spiritual. No surprise really because she cant deny physical differences.

Why should I deny physical differences? But this blog is not about physical differences but about our spiritual equality in ministry. Does physical differences deny spiritual equality? If it does, then ethic origins would also deny spiritual equality and also our social status (rich or poor) would deny our spiritual equality. But “in Christ” there are no inequalities that would determine restrictions on one gender, or a race of people or our social standing, in the use of our gifts. All are equal in Christ and learning how not to be prejudice against our brothers and sisters in Christ should be an ongoing work of grace in our lives.

Problem is, spiritually everyone is different. Now i don’t mean there is a hierarchy, simply that spiritually we are all gifted differently. Some are have a greater understanding of scripture than others.

Different levels of spiritual growth is not being unequal spiritually because we all have the opportunity to grow spiritually and our worth in Christ is equal. The differences that comps determine is that one gender is either not allowed to be gifted with particular gifts or having been gifted, one gender is not allowed to use some of those gifts for the common good. That is the issue of spiritual inequality. One cannot “grow” more spiritual in order to use their gifts in the body of Christ if one is female, as far as the comp teaching goes. There is a barrier regarding spirituality in the camp of the comp. The barrier says that no matter how you grow or how you want to serve the Lord, or how godly you are, certain areas are out of bounds for certain people. These are areas of gifting and/or responsibility.

Some are more mature christians while some are more immature. But does any of this= spiritual inequality. Of course it doesn’t. It just means that some are given roles that others aren’t.

Like I said the spiritual inequality comes when one cannot attain a level of spirituality because of their gender. There are no “roles” in the body of Christ, but there is “work” that can be done and one can desire to be competent to protect the flock, for example. This is a good work and one that all may desire to attain. If all of us attained this level of responsibility and maturity, the church would be strong and march forward into battle as the church should. For all to be mature is our goal and we use our gifts to bring others up to a strong level of maturity. We do no hold others back because our “role” might be challenged by those who we don’t think deserve to have a “role” like us. Whether others do hold Christians back or not will be shown in their fruit. We need to all submit to the test. Are we working to create a maturity in all? Or are we protecting a “role” to keep back certain mature Christians from fulfilling a work in the body?

Answering more of the challenges in my next comment.