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Far from being a utopian and impractical ideal, Paul's statement that ‘in Christ there is no male and female’ was intended to have an impact on the day-to-day life of the church. We can see evidence of its impact in the practice of the Pauline churches, where women exercised a variety of roles that we would associate with church leadership in the fields of stewardship, prophecy, and the ministry of the word. But the Pauline letters also display a progressive accommodation of the radical ideal to societal norms, culminating in the blanket prohibition of women's leadership in 1 Timothy.

In order to understand Luke’s political vision, we have first to understand the complex political situation in which Acts is written. This becomes clear in the trial of Paul, where Paul stands before a Roman tribunal but addresses a dispute arising within the Jewish community. Despite his protestations of innocence under Roman law, Paul’s response embodies an inclusive political vision that is profoundly subversive of the imperial order.

It is no coincidence that the church in Luke's narrative bore the nickname “The Way.” The Evangelist's “mental map” of the early church's development is more fluid and open than the hierarchical model of later centuries.