She Who is Self-Indulgent is Dead

I'm scheduled to teach the adult Sunday School class next week for my first time at this church. My assigned topic is submissive wives--yes, the elders are sacrificing the new guy! Thankfully, there's not much danger with this topic in this church. I don't expect to be thought a Neanderthal by my class if I simply go over what the Bible clearly teaches.

The natural passages to cover are Ephesians 5 (or its twin in Col 3), Titus 2, and 1 Pet 3. But I'm struck by what I've found in 1 Tim 5. The context is whether a woman who has been widowed is worthy of the church's support, but it also contains an inspired test for all women. Consider the brief passage (vs 5-6),

She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.

Paul calls a women dead in this situation if her life is not characterized by hope in God evidenced by supplications to Him night and day.

Verses 10 and 13 present another dramatic contrast. A worthy woman is one who has brought up children and had a life characterized by selfless good works. An unworthy woman is one who has "learned to be an idler," and instead of service to others her life is characterized by gossip and meddling in the affairs of others.

Now wonder Paul is detested so violently by feminists of all stripes.