Chapter Four: The Role of a Woman of God 

by Patricia Gempel 

Editors’ note: 

This chapter has been condensed for publication on womentoday.international. When the revised version of The Upward Call book is released in mid-2024, readers will be able to enjoy this chapter in its full unabridged original form. 

For years there has been confusion in the minds and hearts of men and women concerning the woman’s role in Christianity. Misapplication of scripture coupled with the secular campaign for female equality has intensified the confusion, leading many women into fear, discontentment, or rebellion. 

We need to know what God wants and doesn’t want from us as women so that confusion can be replaced with a simple love for God (described in I John 5:3 as “obedience to God’s commands”). Matthew 11:28–30 tells us that these commands are not burdens but a flight of freedom for our souls. It is difficult to know, trust and implement God’s word without discussion with others. 

A look at Biblical examples of women helps clarify God’s plan for all women, whether single or married, mothers or great grandmothers. Understanding some basic Christian concepts has also helped me personally to understand the specific direction God has given to me, a woman. 

Let’s review several general principles for all God’s people: obedience to God; making disciples; the equality of believers; submitting to the authority of the leadership; and submitting to the needs of others. As we study together, let us remember that all scripture is inspired by God (2 Peter 1:20) and written for all people. A few verses are challenges to men; others, to women. Our task is to understand and apply the scripture, not stand in judgment of it. 

Challenges for Everyone 

Obedience to God 

An understanding of our relationship to God is fundamental to an understanding of our role as women. Consider these verses:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- which is your spiritual worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will” (Romans 12:1–2). 

Our response to God’s mercy should be a changed life, one that imitates Christ (1 John 2:3-6). Note that the transformation comes because of “renewing your mind.” Our concept of women must never be molded by the pattern of this world. We are to have “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16), his viewpoint of life (2 Corinthians 5:16), his love for others (John 13:34) and his humble submission to God (Matthew 26:39, Philippians 2:5-8). Only then will we be able to discern God’s “good, pleasing and perfect will” for our lives as women. 

Mary, the mother of Jesus, understood obedience to God’s commands. Initially, she was very frightened by the angel Gabriel’s announcement that she, a virgin, would give birth to a son by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:26–38). Her response, however, was “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38). Her obedience enabled her to become the most blessed of all women, the mother of our savior. 

Can you say, “I am the Lord’s servant,” as Mary did? In her song of praise to God (Luke 1:46–55), she rejoiced that God is “mindful of the humble state of his servant” and warned that he scatters “those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.” An unbroken, prideful spirit will keep us from fulfilling our potential as godly women and destroy our contentment with God’s plan for our lives. We must not only recognize God’s authority but joyfully obey him, truly believing that as our Creator, he knows best what will make us happy. 

Making Disciples 

“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I will be with you always to the very end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18–20) 

Here comes a very blunt question. How many people have you taught or tried to teach to follow the Lord in the last couple of years? How many of them have since taught someone else to follow God? Jesus has entrusted the responsibility of making “disciples of all nations” to both men and women. We are ministers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). Unless we share what we know about God, about Christ’s sacrifice for us and the power of His Spirit, some souls will be lost for eternity. 

The gospels record that after Christ was resurrected, he appeared first to a woman, Mary Magdalene, commissioning her to go and report that he had risen (Mark 16:9, 10, John 20:10–18). Scripture abounds with evangelistic women who answered that upward call. One of the most notable was Priscilla, wife of Aquila. She is mentioned with honor four times in the New Testament and twice commended for her fruitful labor in the kingdom of God (Acts 18:26, Romans 16:3). Paul acknowledged the source of Timothy’s faith to be the faith of his mother Eunice which had been inspired by the faith of her mother Lois. (If you are a mother, how involved are you in discipling your children to Christ?)

Things are wasted when they are used for the wrong purpose. We will not be satisfied as women until we are fulfilling our right purpose of seeking and saving the lost. Many of the qualities the Bible holds up as desirable for us as women—cultivating a calm and gentle spirit, practicing hospitality, teaching younger women what is good—are powerful characteristics of an effective soul winner. Let us use our femininity for the way God designed us. We are designed by Him to reach out to a lost and lonely world. 

Equality of Believers 

No one has done more to liberate women than Jesus Christ. In an age when females were ranked equal to slaves, Jesus acknowledged their worth and elevated their status to equality with males before God. The gospels record numerous accounts of Christ interacting with women on the same level as he did with men. He healed women (Luke 8:42–48), shared his faith with them (John 4:4–26), allowed them to travel with his band of disciples (Matthew 27:55) and supported women when other men downgraded them (Luke 7:36–50, Mark 14:3–9). Women were also included in his discipleship groups (Luke 10:39). Most importantly, he promises both men and women that repent and have faith in God and his son, forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit and eternal life in the presence of perfect love, joy and peace if we remain faithful until the end of our life on earth. 

The equality of believers is a scriptural principle from the Old Testament to the New. In Joel 2:29, God states that “even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” In Galatians 3:26–29 we read, “You are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew or Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” 

Having equality before God means men and women are called to serve God as diligently as men. Our femininity gives us a different role than men. The lives of Esther, Sarah, Mary, and Priscilla show us the kind of service we could be rendering in God’s kingdom. We strive for excellence from Acts to until today. Romans 16:1–16 records praise for the accomplishments of women in the early church. 

Can you honestly say that you regard all Christians as equal in God’s kingdom and that you strive to help all people follow Christ’s example? Do you invite men as well as women to church? Do you allow your responsibilities as a wife and mother keep you from sharing your faith? If Paul had listed your name in Romans 16, would he have written that you had “risked your life for him,” been a “great help to many people,” loved others “like a mother” and “worked very hard in the Lord”? 

Submission to Authority 

The world teaches us to be prideful, independent and our own boss. When we become Christians, we must learn humility and submission – both men and women.  The command is very clear in Romans 13:1: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities.” That may seem unfair if you think your supervisor at work or a politician is incompetent. However, Romans 13 continues to explain why we should submit: “.... there is no authority except that which God has established.”  The authorities that exist have been established by God. Romans 13:1–2 reads: “He who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” 

Ruth was a woman who understood authority and received the blessing of submitting to it. She was known as “a woman of noble character” (Ruth 3:11). She showed reverence for God by accepting the authority of her employer Boaz. The book of Ruth records her diligent, wholehearted labor in Boaz’s fields (2:7) as well as her humility, purity and honesty. The beauty of her submissive life won the heart of Boaz and he married her (4:9-11). Ruth, who had arrived in Bethlehem as a destitute widow, ended up with a home, a husband and a baby who became the grandfather of King David. 

Submission to the Needs of Others 

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 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.” 

Philippians 2:3-7 

God has never said it will be easy to give up our rights and put the needs of others ahead of our own, but He commands us to do that because he knows that it is only through self-denial and self-forgetting that we will find self-fulfillment. He created us “to do good works” (Ephesians 2:10), and to function on the fuel of sacrificial love—just as Jesus did. Selfish ambition is on the Galatians Chapter Five list of sins because it destroys love and relationships. 

Tabitha was a disciple who served others like Jesus did. Acts 9:36 records that she “was always doing good and helping the poor.” Phoebe, “a servant of the church in Cenchrea,” was a “great help to many people” (Romans 16:1–2); and Priscilla served so well that “all the churches of the Gentiles” were grateful for her (Romans 16:3). 

In what ways do you “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21)? When both you and your roommate want to take a shower at the same time, who steps into the shower? When you’ve had a long, hard day, do you still reach out to the person sitting next to you on the bus or in the shop? Jesus washed the apostles’ feet when he knew he would go to the cross in hours. He called us to follow his example, saying, “once you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” 

All Christians are commanded to live obedient lives reflecting Christ (1 John 2:3–6). Each of us has been given the responsibility of making disciples (Matthew 28:18–20). All of us are equal before God with the same salvation, and the same responsibility to share with others. 

Yet men and women are obviously different, and the Bible points out that sometimes the male and female have different roles… older and younger women have different roles. As we continue to read God’s word, please pray that we seek God’s will as we examine the scripture together. 

Robert and Patricia Gempel were a husband-and-wife team until 2019 when Rob (Bob) suddenly went to be with God. For almost 50 years they served God as they raised a family (now the Arthurs, Evans, and Armes families, with 3 married children, 9 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren). The Gempels, Arthurs, Evanses, and Armeses have all served God in the full-time ministry. Bob and Pat met in Detroit in college (he was her Physics tutor) and began attending the Church of Christ when they married, in 1971. Their faith in God and His church grew. 

God blessed them to invite Kip and Elena McKean to Boston in 1979. Bob became an elder of the Boston Church of Christ (1981) and Pat a Women’s Ministry leader. By God’s grace the Boston church planted about one hundred congregations around the world during the next ten years.  

In 1991, they were asked to work with the churches worldwide to develop programs to help the needy in their countries through H.O.P.E. worldwide.  They moved to Philadelphia and from there developed programs in 80 nations.  When they retired in 2008, the collective budgets of all these programs had reached $50 million. God’s Spirit worked miracles through volunteers and full-time staff. 

Bob was born in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1942 and Pat was born in Visalia, CA in 1940. Together Bob and Pat had four master’s degrees in Physics, Public Health, Medical Microbiology, and Business. In Boston, Pat worked for an international strategic planning consulting firm and Bob for the Harvard School of Public Health for eight years. Then they owned and managed International Health Services (IHS) for another eight years. For sixteen years they were self-supporting. In 1988 they sold IHS to an international firm and went into the ministry. Pat is happy to share more details if you would like to reach out to her at Pat.Gempel@gmail.com.