When one attempts to allow or promote the fulfillment of a God-given office of the church by an individual who does not meet the God-given requirements for the church, the promoter is either deceived or they are a deceiver. To brush aside the delivered expectations of the Holy Spirit on the grounds of first-century shortcomings is to cut short the timeless insight for the church of every century through the Holy Spirit’s expectations delivered as immovable truth (1 Timothy 3:15).
A spirit of division and confusion, which is contrary to the unity and peace of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1-6), becomes more evident when Bible characters are used as a justification to dismiss apostolic commands as cultural biases or expediencies. Advocates for the modern-day installation of women into the office of an apostle, an elder, or a deacon will use Junia (Romans 16:7), the spiritually mature Christian women at Crete (Titus 2:3), and Phoebe (Romans 16:1-2) as examples for a defense of the practice. This mindset does an injustice to the contextual meaning of the word’s apostle, elder, and deacon.
The word "apostle" does not always refer to the office of an apostle. Barnabas was "sent" along with Paul (Acts 14:14), but he did not fulfill the requirements of the office of an apostle over the church, which included being appointed by the Lord himself (John 20:19-21; Acts 1:13, 16-26; 1 Corinthians 12:28; 15:7-9).
The word "elder" does not always refer to the office of an elder. Being "older in age", regardless of one’s sex (Titus 2:1-3), does not dismiss the requirements of the appointed office, which includes being the husband of one wife and a father of faithful children (Titus 1:5-9).
The word "deacon" does not always refer to the office a deacon. A "servant" mentality is a common calling for every Christian (Mark 10:45; Philippians 2:1-4), but this mindset does not equate to fulfilling the appointed office that includes its own criteria of the faith (1 Timothy 3:8-13).
Justifying an unbiblical practice of allowing or promoting an individual to serve in an office over or within the church because the same word used for a church office describes a characteristic of various Christians is not fair to the scriptures, to those Christians, or to those who seek the truth of God. The repetitive use of a word does not create permission to replicate its meaning according to one’s own desire outside of its contextual usage. Several throughout the Bible were "anointed", but there is only one Jesus Christ (Acts 2:34-36). Sadly, not even this fact has prevented some from falling away from the truth of God’s word because of the willingness of others to promote self instead of promoting truth (Matthew 24:23-25).
“37 If anyone considers himself a prophet or spiritual person, he should acknowledge that what I write to you is the Lord’s command. 38 If someone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.” (1 Corinthians 14)
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