Are women equal in the Gift Community?
On the heels of my previous post about the means of the gospel being the “Gift Community,” some might ask, “If the application of the gospel is gift-based, does that mean all are equal participants (since everyone has gifts)…including women?”
The answer is “yes,” especially since creating equality is a major goal of the gospel itself and any well-intentioned gift economy (for an understanding of gifts and biblical equality see Ex 16; Luke 3; Acts 2, Rom 12, 1 Cor 12, and 2 Cor 8).
This is only at issue because of the way we have historically read the Apostle Paul. Here’s what New Testament scholar NT Wright has to say about it (HT: Bill Kinnon & Jonathan Brink):
