Maybe Two Word Studies

“Depending on the issue and the text, liberals are sometimes more to be trusted with the message of the text than conservatives are. This is because liberals are not stuck with the results of their exegesis the way conservatives are. Because conservatives confess that the teaching of the text is normative, the conservative has to make a show of actually doing whatever he comes up with. The liberal can say that the apostle Paul prohibited women teaching in the church — ho, ho, ho — but there it is. At least we get an accurate summary of what Paul’s position was. The conservative cannot afford to say that Paul was wrong, and — because whether or not they admit it, conservative churches are pressured by the zeitgeist too — he cannot afford to act as though Paul was simply straight-up right. What to do? What to do? Time for a Greek word study!” (Why Ministers Must be Men, pp. 41-42).