Passages like 1
Timothy 2:8-15 cause me to appreciate the importance of expository
preaching through books of the Bible.
This is one of the most controversial
and potentially offensive passages in
the New Testament, one that a pastor would not normally deal with if he were
simply selecting random passages to preach from every week. But preaching through books of the Bible
builds up God’s people by dealing with passages like this in their
context.
In 1
Timothy 2:8-15, Paul instructed Timothy as to what the proper expressions
of Biblical manhood and womanhood are in the corporate life of the church. As I said, this is a controversial and
offensive teaching in our culture. But
as God’s people, we are called to trust
God and submit to the teaching of
Scripture on any subject, no matter how controversial. And this passage is a clear call for Biblical
expressions of manhood and womanhood in the church for the sake of the gospel. While manhood and womanhood find their most
concentrated expression in the physical family, they are also to find
expression in the family of God, the church.
Now remember that the book of 1st
Timothy was written to charge Timothy to confront false teachers and teaching
by allowing the truth of the gospel to shape the life of the church and her
members. That’s why this sermon series
is called, “Molded by the Gospel.” The gospel is supposed to mold us into a “pillar and buttress of the truth” (3:15), in order to uphold and support the truth of the gospel.
And this issue of expressing Biblical manhood and womanhood in the
church is also part of what it means to be shaped, or molded, by the gospel
into a pillar and buttress of the truth. So the question that we want to answer today
is how are God’s people to express Biblical manhood and womanhood in the
church?
[8] I
desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without
anger or quarreling; [9] likewise also that women should adorn themselves
in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair
and gold or pearls or costly attire, [10] but with what is proper for
women who profess godliness—with good works. [11] Let a woman learn
quietly with all submissiveness. [12] I do not permit a woman to teach or
to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. [13] For
Adam was formed first, then Eve; [14] and Adam was not deceived, but the
woman was deceived and became a transgressor. [15] Yet she will be saved
through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with
self-control. (1
Timothy 2:8-15 ESV)
I.
Men Must Take the Lead (2:8)
The first thing to notice about this passage is
that it is not just a passage about women.
It gives instructions on both men and
women in the church. And the word, “THEN,” once again connects this call
upon men and women to the preceding context.
In other words, this is another way that the church is to be a pillar
and buttress of the truth of the gospel against false teaching and for the
salvation of all. Right out of the pen,
we need to see that men being men and
women being women aid the mission of
God and support the truth of the gospel.
Men are called upon here to take the LEAD in
prayer, pursuing holiness, and teaching in the church. This is Paul’s desire “in every place” (8), meaning that men leading in this way is
supposed to be THE NORM in God’s churches.
Men are to be the visible leaders of the church when it assembles.
Men are to lead the charge to pray for all people’s
salvation, and they are not only charged to pray but are also instructed on how to pray also. They are to pray, “lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling.” The lifting up of hands is a common posture
of prayer in the Bible, used much like we use the phrase, “getting on our
knees” today. But Paul doesn’t just tell
them to lift up hands, but to lift up “holy
hands.” So he is addressing more
than just the posture of a man’s hands here; he is also addressing the posture
of a man’s heart. Holy hands represent a holy life. Psalm
24:3-6: [3] Who shall ascend the
hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? [4] He who has
clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and
does not swear deceitfully. [5] He will receive blessing from the LORD and
righteousness from the God of his salvation. [6] Such is the generation of
those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah. See the connection? So men are to lead the way not only in prayer but also in the pursuit of holiness in the church. One practical example of pursuing holiness
given here is avoiding sinful “anger”
and “quarreling.” Now God also calls men to lead the church in
teaching, but that is addressed in the section on women, so we will deal with
it there.
II.
Women Must Wear Godliness (2:9-15)
Paul now moves to the proper expression of
Biblical womanhood in the church. Notice
right away the word, “likewise.” This means that just as Paul’s instruction to
men was what he desired “in every place,”
so this instruction to women is His desire “in
every place.” This is an important
point is because there are many people who come to this passage and conclude
that Paul’s instruction only concerned a given situation at Ephesus at a the
time and that it is no longer applicable today.
The words, “likewise” and “in every place” make clear that this
instruction to men and women in the church applies in all places at all
times.
This passage calls upon women to “adorn themselves” with “respectable” and “proper” apparel (9). Now this is instruction on how women should
dress, but it is not just instruction
on how to dress, because some of the items that Paul tells women to wear are
not clothing items. He tells them to
wear “modesty and self-control,” and “good works.” He calls this apparel “proper for women who profess godliness” (10). So in a nutshell, Paul is telling women to wear godliness.
The heart of being a godly woman has partly to do
with how a woman dresses on the outside, but mostly to do with how a woman dresses on the inside. We see the same description of a woman’s
inner dress in Peter’s epistle. [3:1] Likewise, wives, be subject to
your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won
without a word by the conduct of their wives, [2] when they see your
respectful and pure conduct. [3] Do not let your adorning be external—the
braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you
wear—[4] but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the
imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very
precious. [5] For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn
themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, [6] as Sarah obeyed
Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not
fear anything that is frightening. (1 Peter 3:1-6 ESV)
So part of what it means to express Biblical, godly
womanhood in the church is to dress in a way that shows that your ultimate
focus is not upon your outer beauty. This means not being consumed with hairdo’s,
jewelry, and expensive clothing (9), especially on Sunday. Rather, a godly woman is to focus on wearing “modesty and self-control.” This doesn’t mean that a woman can’t wear
jewelry or dress nice. It simply means
that a godly woman doesn’t dress in a way that makes her the focus of attention. And she also doesn’t dress in a way that
makes here a stumbling block to
others. The more a woman dresses to draw
attention to her outer beauty, whether that’s being flashy or provocative, the
less she gets what it means to be a godly woman.
1
Timothy 2:11-15 address another
item in that all godly women should wear, and that is submission. “Let a woman learn quietly with all
submissiveness. I do not permit a woman
to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet” (11-12). What does this mean? Before I tell you what I think it does mean,
let me first tell you what it doesn’t mean.
First of all, Paul is not commanding women here to
be absolutely silent at all times in the church here. Why do I say that? I say that because in I Corinthians 11:5, Paul gives instruction on how women are to prophesy in the church. In Titus
2:4, Paul instructed older women to “teach”
younger women in the church. And if you
compare 2 Timothy 1:5 with 2 Timothy 3:14-15, you see that Timothy
learned what he did about God and the Bible as a child from his mother and his
grandmother. So this cannot be calling
for absolute silence or be saying that there is no place for women teachers in
the church. Furthermore, this is not
even prohibiting women from ever teaching anything to a man in any
context. Both Aquila and his wife Priscilla took Apollos aside and
taught him “the way of God more
accurately” (Acts 18:26).
So what does this mean? I believe these verses are calling women to
affirm male headship in the church and express submission when the church
gathers. This is instruction given for
when the church gathers corporately. So
when the church publically assembles, women are to affirm male headship in the
church, and the way they are to do so is by not teaching men to men or to
exercising authority over them. Just as
married women are to recognize male headship in the home, all women are to
recognize male headship in the church.
This is part of the proper expression of Biblical womanhood in the
church.
Now at a bear minimum, this means that women are
not permitted by Scripture to pastor or preach in the church. But since this is corporate instruction, I
also take this to mean that women are not to be in a teaching role or an
authoritative role over men in any organized gathering of the church. This would include Sunday school classes and
community groups. Please understand that
this has absolutely nothing to do
with a woman’s competence, intelligence, or spiritual aptitude. It simply means that when the church gathers,
women are to wear submission, affirming male headship in the church. This is God’s good and wise design. We can either be offended by it or by faith
trust it as wisdom. Interestingly
enough, the radical idea in Paul’s day would not have been that women were not
permitted to teach but that women were encouraged to learn at all. So this passage in no way degrades women or
implies inequality.
In verses 13-15, Paul gives his reasoning behind calling women affirming male headship in the
church. Two reasons are given. The first reason is that Adam was formed
first (13). This is another major
indicator that this teaching applies to all churches at all times. Male headship is not something that is rooted
in a certain culture or even the fall. Male headship is rooted in creation. God could have created man and woman together
at the same time, but He did not. And
Paul takes that to mean that God’s doing it that way was on purpose, in order
to establish male headship. So these
roles are not consequences of sin, they are part of who we are. The gospel, then, actually shapes us into who
we were meant to be!
The second reason Paul gives here is that Adam was
not deceived, but Eve was (14). Think
about what happened in Genesis 3:1-6. There was a complete role reversal in God’s created order. In God’s creative order, this couple was to live under the rule of God as His representative rulers and stewards of
the earth. The husband was to be the head of this partnership, lovingly leading,
protecting, cherishing, nurturing, and providing for his wife as they exercised
dominion over God’s creation. What we
see in Genesis 3:1-6, is a creature
seducing the woman to lead her husband to rebel against the rule of God. Douglas Moo says that this statement “is intended to remind the women at Ephesus
that Eve was deceived by the serpent in the Garden precisely in taking the
initiative over the man whom God had given to be with her and to care for her.”[1] Paul’s reasoning is that when God’s divine
order is ignored, there will be devastating consequences. One thing we do know from the Pastoral
Epistles is that the false teachers that Paul was so concerned about were
leading some women astray with their teaching (5:15, 2 Tim. 3:6-7). Paul is seeking to protect women in the church from being deceived.
And now we come to verse 15! Paul says that even though woman was deceived and became a
transgressor, they “will be saved through
childbearing” IF they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with
self-control. What does this mean? The Greek word for “saved” here is the word used for salvation in the New
Testament.
The first thing that we need to understand it that
when the New Testament describes our salvation, it has a larger concept of
salvation than most of us are used to thinking about. Salvation is not just described a one-time
event in the life of a believer. That is
normally the only sense in which we think about salvation, that we have been “saved.”
But the New Testament also says that though we have been saved, we are
also in the process of being saved and will ultimately be saved in the end. We normally call these three different senses
justification, sanctification, and glorification. This is why you read passages like Philippians 2:12-13, which tells
believers who have been saved to “work
out their salvation,” and Hebrews
12:14, which tells believers to strive for the “holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”
Obviously, a woman being “saved through childbearing” cannot mean that a woman is justified
by having children. That would
contradict the entire teaching of the New Testament on justification by grace
alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
What this means then is that Paul is speaking of salvation in the sense
of our sanctification, or our being
in the process of being saved. This is
confirmed by the fact that he goes on to say that a woman is saved “if they continue in faith and love and
holiness, with self-control.” Again, we normally don’t think about our
salvation in this way. We normally don’t
give our testimony and say, “I’m a Christian, if I continue in faith, love,
holiness, and self-control.” But that is
one way the New Testament speaks of our salvation. It doesn’t contradict salvation by grace
alone through faith alone, because we are sanctified by grace through faith as
well and God has promised to sanctify and glorify all those whom He has
justified (Romans 8:30).
“Childbearing,” then, is part of how a woman “works out her salvation” (Philippians
2:12-13). This doesn’t mean that all
women have to have children. The word
for “childbearing” means both
childbearing and child rearing. It is
speaking of motherhood. And the reason
Paul mentions it is because motherhood is normally, but not always, a big part
of womanhood. So in a nutshell, part of the way a Christian woman works out
her salvation is by embracing Biblical womanhood. A woman who is truly a Christian will embrace
this description of womanhood as good wisdom from God and reject a liberal,
feminist distortion of what womanhood is.
In my experience, I have seen this to be true. Most godly women welcome Biblical instruction
on womanhood and are not offended by it.
And I have never seen a godly woman offended by humble, sacrificial,
loving, Christ-like, servant leadership from men.
Please heed the warning that is implied in this
passage as well. Men who refuse to be
men (who refuse to lead in prayer, teaching, and the pursuit of holiness) and
women who refuse to be women (who refuse to wear godliness and embrace the
Bible’s description of womanhood) give evidence that they are not being saved,
which means they are also giving evidence that they have not been saved. Embracing Biblical manhood and womanhood are
not minor issues. They are part of how
God desires the gospel to shape the life of the church.
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