Living Faithfully in the Household of God - Virtuous Women: 1 Timothy 2:9-10

Introduction:

Virtuous Women - Dress, Hair and Adornments:

Developments in our culture have induced fear in those who seek teach or preach on passages that address the nature of women, their role in society, and their dress. For many these are hands off topics and you will get called all sorts of names for teaching something that does not line up with modern views of women.

But, Paul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit thought it important enough to invest time and energy in teaching on women. The amount of that has been written about this topic is significant, not because of a difficulty to understand what Paul says. Instead, because of a desire to conform the Word of God to culture, instead of conforming culture to the Word of God.

But, social changes have come since the advent of the sexual revolution, with its theory of free love and the break down of the Biblical family with the so called emancipation of women. But, “there is nothing new under the sun.”

Our present social climate is not the first of its kind. What we are witnessing is the recycling of what once was. And this is what our enemy does, he destroys God’s good order by attacking God’s foundation for human life, the family. And therefore, what Paul and Timothy wrestled with in the first century is what we wrestle with today, a society without boundaries.

The essence of 1 Timothy 2:9-10, is not the subjugation of women to the ideals of men. This is not the case because of the nature of the Bible itself. The secular society sees the Bible as a book written solely by men, but the Bible gives a different point of view.

Showing us from 2 Timothy 3:16 that “All Scripture is breathed out by God,” along with 1 Timothy 1:1 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.” Showing us that the Bible is a document written by the hand of men, but under the direction or inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Giving us then something that is founded in the character of God.

Therefore, it is not Paul the man writing what he thinks the rules for women in society ought to be, but rather God through Paul providing healthy guidance according to His righteousness.

What do we see in 1 Timothy 2:9-10?

When our perspective right, we can then see what Paul is dealing with. And the first thing that we need to understand is that Paul and Timothy are wrestling with real life situations happening in the church and culture of the first century.

What we know of the culture of the first century is that the Roman empire held what we would consider a very conservative view on the dress and adornment of women and in particular married women.

For instance; Seneca wrote of his mother c. A.D. 41-49. “Unchastity, the greatest evil of our time, has never classed you with the great majority of women. Jewels have not moved you, nor pearls ... you have not been perverted by the imitation of worse kind of women that leads even the virtuous into pitfalls.... You have never blushed for the number of children, as if it mocked your age.... You never tried to conceal your pregnancy as though it was indecent, nor have you crushed the hope of children that were being nurtured in your body. You have never defiled your face with paints and cosmetics. Never have you fancied the kind of dress that exposed no greater nakedness by being removed. Your only ornament, the kind of beauty that time does not tarnish, is the great honour of modesty.”

This is a standard cultural mindset of the first century regarding women and specifically married women. It is with this back drop that Paul seeks to address a rising issue, of what Ancient Historians call the “New Women.”

The New Women:

Paul and Timothy are addressing then is this “New Woman” and the effects which arose in the first century. Those who have thrown off the ways of a virtuous women in favor of indulging the flesh, by ways of extensive make up, expensive and immodest clothes, jewelry to show the level of ones social status and sexual laxity. Seneca notes the great social pressure that these new women exerted on other modest wives” in the first century the destruction that resulted.

What lead to this in the was a change in property laws, which allowed a women to keep her property when she got married. This is was a good thing, because it allowed her to have some independence incase of an abusive husband. Prior to the change, when a women married all she had became the sole property of the husband leaving her destitute if he abused her or died. But the new law allowed women to keep possession of their property. But as with good changes, Satan came in and twisted them, leading many women to walk in sinful ways.

Definition of the New Women: “The ‘new’ wife or widow in the late Roman Republic and early Empire was the one whose social life was reported to have been pursued at the expense of family responsibilities that included the complex running of households.” (Bruce W. Winter.)

What Paul does is provide a contrast between how the Christian women ought to live compared to the “new Women” of the first century. In fact the Bible provides a few women as highlights who appear to have successfully come out of the life of the “new women” and integrated into Christianity.

Acts 9:36 “Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity.”

Acts 16:14 “One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.”

The result of False Teachers:

But the false teachers who had creeped into the church at Ephesus added fuel to the fire of the New Women movement. Who from their perceived freedom from the patriarchy through off all things previously seen as virtuous in the Christian community.

They now adorning themselves with immodesty, excessive jewelry, and expensive clothes. Something in the first century that only sexually deviant women did, but this is what happens when we allow desires to drive the car. The laws of the Roman Empire only allowed for women who where adulterers and prostitutes to dress this way.

For all the flaws of the Roman Empire, dress codes played an important moral role within society. Married women dressed in a manner that was respectable, unless they desired to cheat on their husbands.

The Biblical Reasoning for Dress codes:

Although that is the reasoning the Romans had for the dress codes, Paul’s reasoning goes much deeper. Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:9-10 “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, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.” Therefore, Paul grounds his reasoning for women being conscious of their dress because they profess reverence for God. Therefore, the good works expressed by a virtuous women is modesty and self-control.

This moves us out of the realm of gender issues, and into the realm of what God expect of women. According to Paul, God expects women especially those who are married, to be modest and self-controlled. Which means to present yourselves with the highest Christian virtue so that the world is not in doubt to where your values and allegiance lay.

Bruce notes that at the time of Paul writing 1 Timothy 2:9-10, “apparel characterized by gold and pearls and extravagant clothing signalled to others a sexually lax lifestyle.” Therefore, Paul directly connects how you dress and adorn yourself as a display of your virtue, whether Christian or worldly.

1 Peter 3:3–4 ESV

Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 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.

A Role Model for Society - Marriage Virtuous Women:

This is not a message telling women what to wear, rather it is a message calling you to evaluate how you present yourself to the world. The focus of Paul’s message in vv.9-10 are to the married women of the church. The word that Paul uses for “women” in v.9 has the clear meaning from the context of vv.8-15 to be married women. As, marriage is seen in the description of Adam and Eve, and that married women are the ones in God’s created order who get pregnant and have children.

Therefore, the Christian married virtuous women, is to be a role model for society, founded upon God’s desires for humanity. Just as Paul calls the men of the church or the husbands of the church to pray without anger or quarreling as a means of being a model for proper behavior to the young unmarried men. So married women are to conduct themselves in all aspects of their lives in a manner that is respectable and becoming of one who professes a love and reverence for God.

Titus 2:3–5 ESV

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

The married women are half of the building block of God’s society, the family. If you chose to follow the feminist of the world who call you to fall in line with the sexual revolution, you will be forsaking your calling to establish a health society. If you desire to change the world, women, conduct yourselves in a manner that is in line with Christian virtue, adorn yourselves with modesty and self-control teaching your daughters and young women to do the same.

For in so doing, you will ensure that another generation will flourish because of your good works. For God has not called you to look like the world, but rather to be conformed to His desire for you. He has given you the role of taking what on its own is inert, man, and causing it to flourish, fulfilling God’s original command to be fruitful and multiply.

Such a women who makes the fear of the Lord her compass is far more precious than jewels. For the heart of her husband will trust in her, and he will have no lack of gain. Strength and dignity will cloth you, and wisdom will be in your mouth as you look after the affairs of your own house and train your children in the path they should walk. Thus is the virtuous women, aim to be such a women and our society will be transformed!

Proverbs 31:30-31 “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.”

Next week we will set the path for developing such virtue.

Prayer:

Song:

Benediction: