Women in the Church (Phil. 3:2-3)

I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.
(Philippians 3:2-3, NKJV)

We sometimes forget how women were involved in the start of the early church. Yes, in verse 2, Paul is encouraging unity between two women, but it's clear he saw the importance of women in the early church.

In Luke’s account of the early church, he wrote specifically that women were praying alongside the men (Acts 1:14) and believing women “were added to their number” (5:14). Later in his book, Luke wrote of a time when spoke to a “place of prayer” and spoke to the “women assemble there” (16:13). And there were women of prominence involved in the early church (17:4, 12).

There’s a wonderful story of a godly couple who intervened when Apollos was preaching a partial gospel: “Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26).

And I love Paul’s introduction in his second letter to Timothy. He wrote in glowing terms of his protégé’s faith, one that the younger man witnessed in his grandmother, Lois, and mother, Eunice (1:5).

Women were and are crucial to the faith. We too must “labor in the gospel” and be “fellow workers” in support of the body of Christ.

For we too have our “names in the Book of Life.”