1 Timothy 2:11-15 (2)
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Lets read what have become in our culture one of the 2-3 most controversial passages in the New Testament – which ends with one of the most struggled with verses in the Bible.
We talked about this subject from a different angle in the Colossians series and I preached on Gender Identity as well a few months ago, but since you don’t remember what I preached on last week, safe to say its good that we have come to this
Also, I have 20-25 minutes to preach on this difficult topic, but last year we did a 4 month series on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood where we go much more in depth and I explain why I believe what I believe about all this more in depth, which of course you are FREE to disagree with – everyone has the right to be wrong.
Largely, our series on Wednesday nights through difficult topics, I am primarily just aiming to help us see that the issue is probably more complicated than we may have been told in the past and that we should show a lot of mercy and grace to those who come to different conclusions than us.
This morning, allow me to make 2 wildly controversial statements that I believe to be simple and the clear biblical teaching, and then close with a thesis statement of that particularly difficult closing verse.
Men and Women are Equal but Different
Men and Women are Equal but Different
Here is what is interesting - throughout much of the history of mankind, the first part of that statement would have been objected to by many cultures, still some today – “Well of course they’re different, but they’re not equal.” 15 Minutes ago historically, people started objecting to this statement for the opposite reason, saying “Well of course they’re equal, but they are not different.”
The Bible clearly and emphatically teaches that both are true. Men and Women are Equal, but not the same (and by the way hallelujah for that – men, imagine what the world would be like if was just a bunch of dudes, imagine what your home would be like, imagine what the church would be like – ladies imagine what the world would be like if it was just a bunch of women – I think most of us here can give about 12 seconds of thought to that and say man I sure am glad we are different.
There are tons of places in the scriptures we could go to make clear the equality of men and women, but let’s just go to the beginning.
Genesis 1:26–28 (ESV)
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens ...”
Image of God – not given to any other creature or any other creation, but given equally to man and woman. God created all things, animals, plants, water, stars, planets, and you’ve heard me say before that when he comes to these verses the whole rhythm of the chapter changes, he stops, and he does something new and different. On US, he puts His Image. The image of God is why you can kill and eat a chicken but not a human. If you’re a vegetarian its why you can eat a leaf. The image of God is why I contemplate my existence and my position to the divine and my dog thinks only about food and play. The image of God is why if I had a young child with downs syndrome up here on my right and Secretariat, a horse worth millions on my left, and I said you had to kill one, you wouldn’t think twice. The Image of God is what means we have Human Rights. The Image of God is the grounding for the ethical treatment of humanity. Both men and women are equally the climax of creation.
You see that also worked out here in God’s granting both man and woman Dominion
Given to both - God blessed THEM and said to THEM. . .
Neither man nor woman more important than the other!
Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God.
We see this perhaps chiefly when it comes to our salvation.
for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Now, none of that bothers anyone in 21st century America, but in a shocking turn of events that I can’t wait to see how the history books handle, our culture now is attempting to say that men and women are not different, but the Bible is clear here as well. And it is clear on this also from the very beginning.
DIFFERENT
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
Then God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, he took a rib of Adam’s, and formed Eve out of that rib.
Created Differently - if God wanted to stress their sameness, why not make Eve out of dust also at the same moment, but he doesn’t, he creates her differently and afterward.
FIT FOR HIM - why? Because she was human, but largely fit for him because she is different! Strengths he doesnt have, etc. If she was the same as him, she wouldn’t have been fit for him. That is obvious physically, but its also true…
That Binary is essential to humanity, not just our reproduction but our ontology - DNA level, and one of the very first things that we humans recognize as significant is whether someone is male or female. So much of kids conversations and thoughts center around who is a boy and who is a girl. I could play Guess Who with Coen when he was 2 – little cartoon faces, and he already could recognize which ones were boys and which ones were girls! How?! That’s fascinating. He doesn’t know what 1+1 is, but he could tell which cartoons were male and which were female, even though some of the guys had long hair and some of the girls wore hats. He didn’t need a gender studies degree.
That binary is deep in us, we can’t not see it.
I get that we care deeply about equality, but unfortunately the modern strategy for stressing the equal value of men and women is to minimize their differences.
WHY? We don’t do this with other things. If I wanted to explain to you that 2 players on a football team were both equally valuable to the team – OL and WR, I wouldn’t stress how they’re the same, I’d tell you about the OL’s strengths that the team needs that the WR doesn’t have . . .
Feminism devalues women and women’s roles by saying there should be no distinction. If you have a Bear and a Lion, and the Lion starts saying, hey really we’re no different than bears and you should see us as you see bears, that devalues the Lion! You’re a Lion!
Highest Spiritual Earthly Authority should be Male
Highest Spiritual Earthly Authority should be Male
This was the basic conclusion of our long manhood and womanhood series.
Now, let me make sure everyone in the room leaves a little unhappy with me. It is not I do not permit a woman to have ANY authority . . ., it seems to be a particular authority that Paul has in mind – that which is the highest spiritual authority on earth. Here is what I mean
In the Old Testament, women hold all sorts of authority with God’s approval and by His design
Prophets – Miriam, Huldah, Isaiah’s Wife
Judge (more leadership than modern Judge, but people were going to her to hear cases) – Deborah
Political Leader – “Wise Woman” 2 Sam 20 – represents the city and makes a deal for her people with Joab
AND ITS IMPORTANT that it wasn’t because there weren’t qualified men to lead, there were (Jeremiah Huldah)
But the one thing that women were never and were not allowed to be in the OT was – Priest – which was the highest spiritual earthly authority
Women also were very active in the New Testament in prominent leader ways
Prayed and Prophesied Publicly – Lk 2, Ac 21:8-9, 1 Cor 11:5 (in mixed company by the way – just like OT prophets and judge)
Taught Theology – Ac 18:26 (to men)
Ministry Involvement – Junia (Rom 16 probably a missionary), Euodia and Synteche side by side ministered with Paul
Deaconess? – Phoebe – Rom 16 (early church definitely did, churches of christ began did too – likely wife of deacons)
But the one thing that women never did and are not allowed to be in the NT is Elders (includes primary teacher-preachers imo)
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
2 qualities given here specifically that Paul mentions – Teach or Exercise Authority. Now we know that that should not be taken exhaustively, we see Women doing both of those things in some extent clearly in scripture. BUT, you know there were no verses or chapter divisions when Paul wrote his letter, and look at what topic comes directly next in your Bibles after these verses.
There are two things in our next section that make an elder different than a deacon, two things said of an elder that are unique, that aren’t also said of all other Christians, - able to teach, govern well
Paul’s point here is not that women are to have no voice in the church, to be always literally quiet, he would be directly contradicting Himself in 1 Cor, not to mention the rest of the Bible, but Paul is saying that women are not to fill the primary teaching and governing role of the elder.
And you can’t get around this by saying it was just cultural, because Paul ties this injunction directly to Creation itself, that creation order and narrative that we talked about a moment ago that illustrates man and woman’s difference.
For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
Women will be Saved by Christ and Faithful Living
Women will be Saved by Christ and Faithful Living
1 Timothy 2:15
Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.
Weird - Various options offered over the last 2,000 years – none of which are that a woman is literally saved by bearing children
What I’ve tried to do with this statement
Women will be Saved by Christ and Faithful Living
Women will be Saved by Christ and Faithful Living
is to sum up what I consider not just the best two options but I think both of them have truth in them.
Paul has just referenced Adam and Eve, the creation and the deception – if you remember, part of the woman’s punishment for sin is that she will have pain in childbearing – what we have here largely is yet another aspect of REDEMPTION, something bad being Redeemed.
Genesis 3:15–16 (ESV)
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing...”
This is the first promise about Jesus in the Bible – as soon as Adam and Eve sinned, God promised a way out of sin that would come through this offspring.
So in 1 Timothy, Paul takes a curse, pain in childbearing, and turns it on its head, saying
Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.
saved through childbearing, meaning that though woman was deceived and punished with childbearing pain, woman is the one that would bring THE child into the world that would offer salvation to all men and women.
This idea is strengthened by the fact that there is a definite article here- isnt just through childbearing, it is through THE childbearing
The woman, though deceived, is the faithful one that brings the One into the world that would reverse that deception.
Lastly, what is also I think in view here, is the glory of the task that only women are capable of doing and that women are particularly gifted to carry out – childbearing – and that this task is sort of the prototype of the peaceful and quiet life that Paul is encouraging.
It seems likely by contextual clues that there were women who were being influenced by false teachers and were teaching these falsehoods – falsehoods like asceticism which taught that sex even inside of marriage was bad, and thus procreation impossible – and falsehoods like telling women that the only way to live the most glorious life is to leave that mothering stuff behind and be involved in the public ministries of teaching. . .
Paul is probably combatting both of those here, saying childbearing is good and right, and that what he calls “the quiet life” is Good and Holy
for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,
Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
Quiet, out of the limelight, faithfulness is something worthy of great honor.
He says later in 1 Timothy specifically to young women
So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.
The particular abilities and giftedness that God has given the woman, like childbearing, are no less glorious and significant than teaching or authority, in fact they are in many ways much more glorious and important.
Theres been no more obvious moment of female VALUE AND gender differences, and the goodness and beauty of God’s design, then in the room when my children were born
1. God’s design – woah, insane
2. Differences . . . . I cant do that
Men and Women are Equally Valuable, and Beautifully Different
Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.
The passage closes with the reminder that though salvation is universal, it has its conditions. It is extended to those who continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety. Salvation rests with those who bear the marks of genuine Christianity…