John 4:39: Female Evangelism

John 4:39.. "Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me all that I ever did.'"

A few days ago when I was doing some schoolwork, I happened to cross upon the above verse. Immediately, it hit me. I read it and was overwhelmed with joy. Don't you love that--when the Holy Spirit illuminate a word of scripture to you, and it overwhelmes you with truth? Anyway, I wrote it down, and didn't get a chance to look at it again until this morning. I take great delight in sharing with you what the Lord taught to me this morning.

For sake of context, I'd like to mention that this verse occurs towards the end of the "Woman at the Well" story. Jesus has just crossed cultural and social barriers to evangelize to a woman who was deep in sin. The woman believes, and testitfies that Jesus is the Christ (John 4:29). After a paragraph speaking of the disciples, we find the above verse.

What stood out to me in this verse is that evangelism is done by a woman. After Jesus witnessed to the Samaritan woman, she believed, and testified about Chirst to those around her, and in response to this many believed (John 4:39). The pattern set is clear: those who are changed by Christ testify about Christ, whether male or female. This is not anti-complimentarianism or egalitarianism, this is the Gospel. All of those who are saved, no matter what gender, background, or nationality (note not only the Samaritan's woman's gender but also her background and nationality), testify about God. Though I certainly believe that God, in his own purpose, has reserved certain positions in the church for men and men alone (2 Timothy 2:12), evangelism (in this sense) is not one of them, and let us be convicted if we say so. The Gospel is to be heard, and how will it be heard if all people do not proclaim it (Romans 10:14)? Anyone, no matter what gender, background, or race ought to proclaim the Gospel to those around them.

Once again, don't get me wrong. I am hard-core complimentarian. I believe that there are reserved roles in the church for men and men alone, namely those that have an aspect of teaching or holding authority above a man in the formal church gathering (1 Timothy 2:8-15) This includes eldership (1 Timothy 3:2) and any pastor role that includes an aspect of (once again) teaching or holding authority above a man (1 Timothy 2:12). However, those are two quallificiations that in all reality touch a very, very small part of the church body in a whole. We need women to evangelize, counsel, teach woman and children, witness, tesify, do missions work, and a myriad of other things. What I am trying to get at is this: oftentimes it is easy to take complimentarianism too far. Many say that complimentarianism is patriarchal, and though many, many people will think that no matter what we do, it is our job to not make complimentarianism partriachal, because that is a horrendous sin that disregard's God's created order of both men and women. Women ought to evangelize. Women ought to counsel. Women ought to teach (in the correct setting). And if any of you have a problem with that, I encourage you to read the verse above.

So, the takeaway is this: are you testifying about Christ? Whether male, female, Jew, Samaritain, lower class, upper class, black, white....are you proclaiming the truth that God has set you free to those around you? This banks off of how we looked at the Great Commission yesterday. Are you going and making disciples, as the woman at the well did?