March 2025 (Godly Women)

FBC Gallatin,

Our 1^st Timothy series has been so enlightening and encouraging for me to study and preach with a lot of discovery especially regarding Christian character and what leaders and mentors are to be for others in the church body. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about what the overseers or leaders or elder/pastors of the church are to look like in terms of their character, and also about what godly Christian servant leaders are to look like in the deacons, but we have also seen more than I had previously anticipated about what godly women leaders are to look like in terms of their character as well!

            Starting with seeing what women should and should not be like in 1 Timothy 2:8-15 in a sermon titled “Men & Women at Church” that helped us see the importance of godly women learning God’s Word in the church, but that they should not seek to take over the leadership of the church as pastor/elders because that was limited to some qualified men to lead and teach the whole church body based on God’s design. And just like God created order and design in the husband and wife relationship that we see in Ephesians 5, with husbands leading and sacrificing, and wives submitting to their husbands leadership with support, the church also has a vision of some godly God called and congregation affirmed qualified men leading and teaching and preaching, and the church body following.

Furthermore, in the midst of all the instructions about elders and deacons, Paul inserts a very important sentence about godly women who would support the ministry of the church as serving almost like assistance to the deacons and elders seen in 1 Timothy 3:11 in a sermon titled: “Healthy Godly Women.” These godly women had character attributes of maturity of their own as seen in Paul’s instruction: “1 Timothy 3:¹¹ Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.” And praise God for these mature godly women who were mentors and examples to other ladies as outlined in Titus 2:3-5 “³ Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, ⁴ and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, ⁵ to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”

These attributes and characteristics put together form the basis of godly biblical womanhood and as we recently saw in our Healthy Church 1^st Timothy series, older women who were widows and had lived their whole lives according to godly Christian womanhood could later become the chief lady servants and leaders of the church devoting their entire lives to the work of the ministry. 1^st Timothy 5:9-10 lays out the qualifications for these godly women: “⁹ Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, ¹⁰ and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.”

I am thankful that God has provided a biblical vision of church leadership and godliness not just for men who lead the overall church body, but also for women who take up the desperately needed calling of gospel centered women’s discipleship and godly women’s ministry not only to other women; but also in support of the whole church as these godly ladies serve and support the ministry of the church and follow the leadership of the elders and serve and support both deacons and elders in gender appropriate ways all to glorify God and strengthen the church!

May we all (both men and women) catch a vision of godliness and character and service of the church in the ways God has designed and planned for all of our flourishing and good! I am praying for the men and women in our church that we would all be growing in the Christian life so we can be mentors and examples to others younger in the faith for their upbuilding the growth of the whole church body.

Sincerely,

Pastor Daniel Pelichowski