1 Timothy 2:9-3:16
Notes
Transcript
1 Timothy 2:9-3:16
1 Timothy 2:9-3:16
Good morning church! Growth groups are beginning again very soon and will run from the first week in May through the last week in June. We will be taking a break then for the summer and resuming our midweek bible study here at the church on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm. So we have one more Bible study this Wednesday in Isaiah here at the church, then we are back in Growth Groups. There are sign up sheets on the back table for a couple of groups that have some openings and then there is a third sheet/ an interest sheet with a bunch of question marks at the top.
Let me tell you why there is only a couple sign up sheets, well two reasons. The first is that these groups have been so successful at creating community, the people have come, they love their groups, and they keep coming back, so they are full. The second reason why there are only a couple of sheets is that life is busy, and some of our group leaders need to cycle in and out due to the other demands in their lives and we understand that.
I love what these groups have added to our church and I wish every single person that comes on Sunday mornings could find a group to fit into because it give you an opportunity to be poured into by others and it gives you a place to serve and contribute.
The sheet with the question marks is just a sign up sheet to let us know that you are interested in joining a group if we were able to add a few more that works with your schedule. If you are new here and don’t know a lot of people yet, a great thing to do is to join a group with other new people that are looking to make connections. Last thing, if you are interested in co-leading one of those extra groups with me here at the church or in your home, let me know. I fI do it, I think it would have to be a Tuesday evening.
Or, maybe you’ve been in a group for a few sessions now and you feel like it is time for you to set up and co-lead a group with another couple, we can talk about that. You don’t have to be an elder in the church to lead a Growth Group. You have to have been in a full session before, you have to be Spiritually warm and have Biblical hospitality, and have the approval of one of the pastors here. Myself or Pastor Jim.
Open your Bibles with me to 1 Timothy 2 and we will start with verse 9, yes ladies we saved it for you. The men got hit pretty hard last week with verse 8 and all the application and responsibility of that, so lets tackle the rest of this. I’ll read through the rest of the chapter and then we will break it down a bit.
9 in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing,
10 but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.
11 Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.
12 And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.
13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
15 Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
Let’s pray...
Our section began here last week with some instructions for the men in every church, with Paul saying the church belongs to the Lord and this is what it should look like, and he continues here in verse 9 with 1 Tim 2:9
9 in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing,
Just like there are instructions for the men in a congregational setting in a like manner there also is for the women. He begins by talking about their adornment. Actually, when we break this down a bit, both the word adorn here and the word that is translated modest come from the root word cosmos, like world, but is it also a word that can refer to order.
We spent quite a bit of time last week talking about God’s order in the world, the predictability of seasons, and ocean tides. If plants and trees didn’t consume carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, we would all quickly die.
So the sense of this is ladies, when you gather in a congregational setting order yourselves in an orderly fashion. AND, do it with propriety, that speaks of respect.
1st Respect to God
2nd Respect to yourself.
much of the attire women wear today in certain settings shows no reverence for the Lord, and sadly sometimes reveals a lack of value for themselves. Now if we look at the rest of the verse.
Dress with moderation, or modestly not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly clothing. Now, I haven’t looked around this morning to see if everyone is in full compliance with this. Nicole wasn’t so I made her stay home…not true.
What is interesting about this is if we examine what the rest of the Scriptures say about these things. In Proverbs 31, a passage that you ladies recently studied in women’s ministry we read about this incredible woman, and the bible gives us this description...”All of her household is clothed in scarlet, she makes tapestry for herself, her clothing is fine linen and purple (expensive). Strength and honor are her clothing. There’s no condemnation there.
10 Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, Your neck with chains of gold.
11 We will make you ornaments of gold With studs of silver.
What’s up with that?
So we have to ask, is Paul legalistically saying braids are bad, curls, curls are good. Hair irons and chemical straighteners are acceptable. Pig tails yes, dreds....lets see dreds will work as long as you leave them loose, if you bundle them together, that’s dancing right on the edge of a braid, so no on the bundled dredlocks.
No Gold, platinum can cost more, but we will allow platinum, rose gold - evening services only. Pearls are definitely out, both salt water and fresh… rubies are fine, emeralds. You can do pearls if you bring in a certificate that they are fake from the home shopping network.
Concerning costly clothing…name brand is ok if it was purchased at Renys or Mardens, T.J. Maxx if it was on sale.
No, none of that. Ladies when you come to worship the Lord, in His house, come in a way that doesn’t distract from Him… Last week we talked about men praying with arms held high. If a man stands up during the service here while I’m teaching and raises his arms up to the sky and starts praying, would that be a distraction to any of you? For about 12 seconds it would, until he was dragged out of here right?
Dress in a way that you can worship God and not be distracted by your self worrying about how you look, or distracting others. Let’s move on, verse 11
11 Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.
12 And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.
Ok, verse 13…no, let’s look at it. A couple of things we have to understand. If we are taking a true examination of the Scriptures, then we want to know what does is say, what does is mean, does the culture it was written in effect our understanding today, and then how does it apply to us. So the first one, in order to understand what it is saying there is some relevancy to the culture.
In both the Greek and the Hebrew culture, women were treated as 2nd class citizens. They didn’t get that from God, it wasn’t from following the scriptures, it was a part of their culture. Even the Rabbi’s, the religious teachers of the day. It is said that one of their common prayers was to say, thank you Lord, that I was not born a thief, a gentile (one of most of us, non-Jews), or a woman. It was considered folly to teach a woman.
You know the expression in the New Testament to not cast your pearls before swine. You share you faith with someone and they reject it and reject you, don’t keep going and arguing, wipe the dirt from your feet and move one, it is folly to continue to engage, that was the mentality about teaching women.
SO, it is important for us first to see that the imperative in this sentence, the action verb, or here the command is Let them learn. Don’t separate the ladies, don’t withhold teaching considering it folly, the command is to let them learn…In Galatians Paul writes Gal 3:28
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
So one is not better than the other in the eyes of God, so let them learn…now the in silence with all submission part. I like the NKJV, I teach from it, it is still my preferred version, but I think here this is a really unfortunate translation. I hope to show you what I mean here. The word that is translated silence here is not a good translation. So if you look away from verse 11 for a second and look at 1 Timothy 2:2
2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.
The same word that is translated in verse 11 as silence is translated in this verse as peaceable. So if it were rendered the same way in verse 11, 1 Tim 2:11
11 Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.
We would get something like Let a woman learn! And, let here learn peaceably or without contention. When we read it as silence it makes it sound as harsh as shut up in the church, do it voluntarily so we don’t have to bring out the duct tape. Most of you guys have heard that in many ancient cultures, particularly the Hebrew cultures, when men and women gathered together they would be separated?
I was in a setting the other day where there was someone giving instruction and then three other people gave instruction....What do you think the result was clarity or confusion? Learn peaceably without contention. Ask you husband at home....Maybe.
The other issue here, again is the rest of the bible. There are several examples in the bible of women serving in the church, there are women that were prophetesses. Paul even talks about the women praying and prophesying in the church, clearly speaking in the church, 1 Cor 11 verse 5 is one of those places, but it is under certain circumstances, in the Corinthian church it was if she was wearing a head covering.
I really don’t want to go off on a long rabbit trail on head coverings. But in the ancient Corinthian culture, temple prostitutes, and also single women did not wear a head covering. So when a women did wear a head covering, in that culture she was basically making the statement that I am under authority. That was the principle of it. The expression of that principle in the Corinthian culture was wearing a head covering.
If a woman wears a head covering in our culture today, it does not have the same expression. Right? We don’t see a woman wearing a hat today and think, now there’s a woman under authority. If it’s a mossy oak hat, we might wonder if she got her deer yet, if it’s a Glock hat we might think, well her Daddy raised her right!
The principle was being under authority, again in the context of congregational gatherings, church. AND that principle applies throughout all generations and locations of God’s church, the expression of that principle may differ in various cultures, in different locations and in different seasons, or in different times., yet the principle established by God remains.
Let a woman learn is the imperative, peaceably with all submission, the principle in this is submission. I know some of you struggle with that word. If you’ve been with us for awhile, you know in the Greek language the word was used as a military term of rank. It does not in any way mean lesser, just under rank for the purpose of order.
Let me ask you this. Any of you that have ever served in the military or in law enforcement, ever think you were maybe just a little bit smarter than someone with a higher rank? Most of you probably thought you were a lot smarter, no lesser in status or value. Do you think that we might currently have any military commanders that might think that they are of higher character, or more intelligence or mental ability than does their commander in chief? Maybe a couple.
So understand this is all about God’s order of authority, it doesn’t mean that a man, or even your pastor is the smartest, the best one to make a decision, or even the most spiritual, has the greatest value, none of that, it is simply order, and it is God’s house.
Let me give you an example. God’s chosen people in the Old Testament, the Jews. They were divided up into twelve tribes when they came into the promised land. The land was dispersed, but not to one of the tribes. The Tribe of Levi didn’t get any land, they got God. The priesthood came from the tribe of Levi. But listen, not just any guy in the tribe of Levi could be a priest.
The priest were only the sons of Aaron. If you didn’t come from the line of Aaron, you could be a priest. If you were a Levite not from the tribe of Aaron, like a "57 And these are those who were numbered of the Levites according to their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites; of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites; of Merari, the family of the Merarites." - Numbers 26:57 NKJV
You couldn’t serve in the role of a priest and do the sacrifices, but you carried the stuff from one place to another, valuable service, but you couldn’t do the priestly stuff like sacrifices. Any one know why? Not chosen, God decided. Simply a matter of order.
verse 12 1 Tim 2:12
12 And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.
Now some bible commentators disagree with me on this but I don’t think Paul is saying two different things here. A woman is not to be the teaching authority in the church.
There is no general submission of women to men. In other words, all women to all men in the church. Don’t tell my wife what to do, you don’t have that authority.
Now does just being a man qualify you? No, we will get into that in the next chapter. I will say that the greatest danger to disrupting God’s plan for order in the church is not the women revolting and refusing to submit to that authority. Most of use don’t mind following a strong leader, but we don’t do will with dictators or bullies.
The greatest danger to disrupting God’s order in the church is poor leadership by men. Abuse. A refusal to lead in the way that Jesus would lead as a servant that has your best interest at heart.
Verse 13 1 Tim 2:13-14
13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
It is almost as if Paul anticipated some of the cultural arguments against this teaching, I keep saying Paul, but remember he wrote this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But notice his argument here. It’s two fold, pre fall and post. God’s first command to mankind was Gen 2:16-17
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Given before Eve was created. So then God makes Eve out of the rib of man and she receives God’s instructions, not from God, but from Adam.
The second explanation is that Adam was not deceived but Eve was. It is interesting Eve did sin first, but God never blames Eve for the fall of mankind, Adam is blamed and head responsible for that Romans 5:12
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
Now verse 15 is a difficult verse, 1 Tim 2:15
15 Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
The childbirth.
1 This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work.
2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach;
3 not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;
4 one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence
5 (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?);
6 not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.
7 Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
8 Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money,
9 holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.
10 But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless.
11 Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.
12 Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.
13 For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
14 These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly;
15 but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.
Summary of the Christian faith and truth.
Grace and Peace!