A pastor writes in to ask, "Pastor John, would a pastor who uses a biblical commentary written by a woman be placing himself under the biblical instruction of a woman? If so, would this not go against Paul's instruction in 1 Timothy 2.12?" It might be. He may feel it that way, and if he does, he probably is not going to read it, he shouldn't read it.

It doesn't have to be experienced that way, I don't think, and here's my reasoning. The point of Paul in 1 Timothy 2.12 where he says, "I don't permit a woman to teach or have authority over men." That's a key text, 1 Timothy 2.12. "I don't permit her to teach or have authority." Those two things together, I think, constitute the eldership office, teaching and authority.

There should be men elders in the church who are spiritual and humble and kind and loving and Christ-like in their servant heart towards the men and women in the church. I think the point of that text is not to say you can never learn anything from a woman. That's just not true.

It's not true biblically, and it's not true experientially, because the reason for saying that I don't permit a woman to teach or have authority over men here is not because she's incompetent. It's not because she can't have thoughts. In fact, the women in your church and the woman you're married to have many thoughts that you would do well to know and learn from, and so the issue there is not she doesn't have thoughts that you wouldn't benefit from or she can't teach you anything.

The issue is one of how does manhood and womanhood work? What is the dynamic between how men flourish and women flourish as God designed them to flourish when an act of authority is being exerted on a man from a woman? So I distinguish between personal, direct exercises of authority that involve manhood and womanhood because it's personal.

She's right there. She's woman, I'm man, and I'm being directly pressed on by this woman in an authoritative way. Should she be doing that? Should I be experiencing that? And my answer is no. I think that's contrary to the way God made us. So those two words, personal and direct, here would be an example of what I mean.

A drill sergeant that gets in the face and says, "Hut, one, hut, two, keep your mouth shut, private, get your rifle up here, turn around, lock a set," I don't think a woman ought to be doing that to a man because it's direct, it's forceful, it's authoritative, it's compromising something about the way a man and a woman were designed by God to relate.

The opposite would be where she is a city planner, she's sitting in an office at a desk drawing which streets should be one way and which streets should be two way, and thus she's going to control which way men drive all day long. That's a lot of authority, and it's totally impersonal and indirect, and therefore has no dimension of maleness or femaleness about it, and therefore I don't think contradicts anything that Paul is concerned about here.

So I would put a woman writing a book way more in that category of city planner than of a drill sergeant so that the personal directness of it is removed and the man doesn't feel himself and she wouldn't feel herself in any way compromised by his reading that book and learning from that book.

So that's the way I've tried to think it through in society and in the academic efforts and in the church. So that's reading and benefiting from a woman's exegesis in private. Would you have any reservations about quoting from that commentary by a woman in a public sermon? I think that's just an extension of the same principle.

Here's a truth, a woman saw it, she shared it in a book, and I now quote it because I'm not having a direct, authoritative confrontation. She's not looking at me and confronting me and authoritatively directing me as woman. There's this interposition of this phenomenon called book and writing that puts her out of my sight and in a sense takes away the dimension of her female personhood, whereas if she were standing right in front of me and teaching me as my shepherd week in and week out, I couldn't make that separation.

She is woman and I am man and she is becoming to me my shepherd week in and week out, which is why I think the Bible says that women shouldn't be that role in the church. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast. Please email your questions to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

You can find thousands of other free resources from John Piper. I'm your host Tony Ranke. Thanks for listening. 1. John Piper's "The Church in the West" is a book by John Piper. It was published in the United States in 1982. It is a book that was written by John Piper himself.

It is a book that was written by John Piper himself. It was a book that was written by John Piper himself. It is a book that was written by John Piper himself. It is a book that was written by John Piper himself.