I have very little patience for those that don't encourage women to be leaders in the church. There are certainly passages in Scripture that can lead one to conclude that way, but when I think of the entire witness of Scripture, it seems to elevate the position of women and their witness throughout the life of the church.
Here, Paul is affirming the women who worked side by side with him in proclaiming the Gospel. If Paul was working side by side with women proclaiming the Gospel, then shouldn't we be willing to work side by side with women proclaiming the Gospel?
Paul then goes on to tell us not to be anxious about anything. Easy for Paul to say, right? He didn't live in the midst of a pandemic, worrying if someone near him might cough up a load of coronavirus! Paul just had people actively trying to kill him through stoning. To be anxious for nothing requires massive amounts of trust in God, and the ability to look beyond this life and into the eternal life that God has in store for us. In doing so, through consistent prayer, we discover the peace of God, a peace that transcends all the reasons for anxiety and reminds us that we are held safely in the hand of God for all of time. These concepts are all linked and interdependent -- we so often want to race to the peace without committing to prayer or practicing trust!
God is good, and God cares for you -- commit yourself to God anew, and through a lifetime of faithfulness, we will discover God's care for us, and in so doing, the peace of God will wash us clean and claim us, little by little, into the realm of eternity.
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