1 Timothy 2:9-15  I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

In the context of Ephesus, the problem Paul highlights was not male chauvinism (a convinced belief of the right to be superior over women), but rather that some women have been trying to take over the leadership of the church. This issue probably arose due to the cult of Diana in Ephesus which held a female only priesthood. Paul is strong in his language against this practice. He makes it clear that women are not to have a position of authority over men in the church, just as within marriage. It is important to recognize here that Paul’s justification for this position is not a cultural one, but rather an argument from creation and the fall. He gives two reasons:  that Adam was formed first and that Eve sinned first (He doesn’t speak about whose sin was worse, just whose was first). In Paul’s view the order of creation (before sin entered the world), and the sin of Eve, established God’s intention of male headship and the need for female submission.

Submission is not a bad thing, in fact it’s an essential thing for relationships if they are to function properly. It’s not about the superiority or greater value of one person over another, but rather a recognition of God’s will for how we are to live in relationships. The greatest reason for an attitude of submission is that submission is a Christ-like attitude to have. We know this to be true because the Son of God is perfectly happy to submit to the Father – it doesn’t mean he is not equal to Him. Philippians 2:1-8 urges us to have the same attitude he did in this area:

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;  rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!”

God has designed marriages to function with this pattern of male headship and female submission in order to glorify himself, and for the good of us as human beings. He also maintains this principle for leadership in the church, which is what we see in 1 Timothy. It is true that some men are convinced that they are superior to women, but that is sinful and has no biblical warrant at all (including from here in 1 Timothy), as God created men and women of equal value. That equality is not undermined by having differences in role, just as the relationship between the members of the Trinity displays.