The Godly Virtue of a Mother

This is the dominate view of modern feminism. Under this view both men and women have the right to preach, serve as Deacons, Pastors and Elders in the church. There are no restrictions placed upon the role of women in the church or in society.

This is the dominate view in many modern minds and churches.

Proponents of this view use

Galatians 3:28 KJV 1900

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

as the basis for their view. That verse reads, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

• Complementarianism—This view teaches that men and women are created equal, but different.

The differences between men and women serve to compliment the areas where the other gender is lacking.

Under this view, men and women stand as spiritual equals in Jesus, but the sexes fill different roles within the church.

In my opinion, this is the biblical view. When God created women from Adam’s rib He said this,

Genesis 2:18 KJV 1900

18 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

The phrase “help meet” literally means “one who completes, one who helps, one who compliments.” Thus, while men and women are spiritual equals in the eyes of God, He does expect them to fulfill different roles within the family and within the church.

When God created the female, she was designed to be a completer,

Genesis 2:18–25 KJV 1900

18 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Together with her husband, they became one flesh, or a complete person. Eve was created to furnish that which was lacking in Adam. Adam filled out what was lacking in Eve. Men and women still fill those vital roles to some degree today.

When sin entered the world, the fall of humanity into sin changed the roles of men and women. Not in God’s eyes, but in the eyes of men and women.

Genesis 3:16 KJV 1900

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

After the fall, the women became a competitor. That is, she now has a desire to dominate the man. Of course, the fall did not affect just the female. Men tend to be domineering. They want absolute control over the woman. Neither of those attitudes was in God’s original design for the sexes.

It has been said that

“the woman came from a man’s rib. not from his feet to be walked on, not from his head to be superior, but from the side to be equal, under the arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved.”

I think that is just about right.

In the ancient world women had no rights in society. In most of the world, they were considered to be property. They were expected to be subservient to their husbands. They could be divorced and removed from the home at the slightest whim of their husbands. They were expected to stay in the home, care for the children, and do as they were told by their husbands. It was a hard world for women.

When Christianity arrived, the role of women was elevated even higher. I want to speak this Mother’s Day about the role of Godly women in the church, the home and in society.

Let’s notice some important thoughts that present themselves in these verses.

1 Timothy 2:9–15 KJV 1900

9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; 10 But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. 11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. 15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

Paul begins with dealing with a woman and her appearance.

Appearance: 9a

The word “adorn” gives us the word “cosmetic”.

It has the idea of “putting something in order, or to make ready.”

The thought here is that women are to arrange themselves appropriately.

“Modest apparel” has the idea of “proper clothing”.

Women are called on here to come to church dressed to meet the Lord.

In other words, they were to prepare themselves for worship. They were to remember where they were going, what they were doing and they were to come to church with the right attire and the right attitude.

not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;

Paul’s point here is not that women shouldn’t dress nice, or wear jewelry or makeup.

Women have the need to feel good about their appearance.

That’s fine, and we men appreciate the efforts you make.

He merely wants Christian women to know that they should not wear anything that draws attention to themselves and distracts from the Lord.

The fact is many women adorn themselves like they do so that they can attract attention.

They wear makeup in an effort to appear more attractive.

They wear jewelry to flaunt their wealth.

All Paul is saying is that there is a better way!

Most of the women here understand that this is the house of God and you dress appropriately. I appreciate you wearing dresses to church.

When we gather here, we are gathering to meet with God in worship. That demands that we make an effort to look our best.

What I see in these verses teaches me that proper adornment of the outer man reflects a properly adorned heart.

Your clothing is a reflection of your heart.

What you wear to church or outside the church reveals what you think about church and about the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a house of worship and our outward appearance should reflect a heart that is prepared to worship the Lord.

Remember, In like manner also, send us back to verse 8 where men are to pray everywhere. Women are to represent Christ everywhere.

Next He speaks of:

Attitude: 9b

Women are to adorn themselves with “shamefacedness and sobriety”—

These two words refer to “modesty” and “self-control”.

It is the idea of “modesty and humility” being blended together.

Paul is talking about how a woman is to adorn herself.

Women are to think about how their attire affects others. The godly woman should feel shame and guilt if her attire distracts others from worship, or seeing Jesus Christ in them because their attire sparked a lustful thought in someone else.

The whole point here is that a woman should dress in such a fashion that she does not call attention to herself, or to her body.

That is true both within and without the church.

Notice next the:

Affirmation: 10

Paul relates his reasoning behind these words.

Paul’s Affirmation speaks of Your Testimony

He wants Christian women to know that it is not the outward appearance that matters in the end; it is the good works of godliness.

Instead of being known for your clothes, your hair, or your jewelry, a godly woman should be known by her works.

Just as your choice of outward adornments is a reflection of your heart, so are your works.

The implication is that inner beauty is far more important than outward styles and trends.

Peter told his readers that the inner beauty of a changed life will serve as a powerful testimony to the lost who see the works of a godly woman,

1 Peter 3:1–6 KJV 1900

1 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; 2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. 3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; 4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 5 For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: 6 Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.

Peter wants his readers to know that a clean heart will do more to bring a lost spouse to Jesus than any amount of nagging, pleading and fussing will accomplish.

I will leave this part of the message with this thought: inner beauty is what truly matters!

When too much emphasis is placed on the adorning of the outward woman Jesus Christ and His glory are no longer the priority of the heart. When Jesus is enthroned in a heart, He will make His Lordship known by how He fine tunes the outer person.

Your Appearance affects your Attitude and they both affect what you are Affirming.

If these are in there proper place, then Paul looks at your:

Activity: 11-12

To say that these verses are controversial is an understatement.

Some people read them and attempt to get around by saying they do not apply to our modern world.

Actually, nothing has changed!

What God said to Timothy in the First Century still applies today.

So, let’s take a look at what Paul says in these verses.

1 Timothy 2:11 KJV 1900

11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.

He tells us here that women were not to be excluded from the public meetings that featured the Word or God.

In ancient times, women were mostly excluded from public worship. Jewish women rarely went to the synagogues, and pagan women were not usually allowed in the pagan temples.

Most Jewish rabbis refused to teach women. Many said it was like “throwing pearls to swine”. Paul wants women to know that they are to participate in the public services.

However, their participation is to be done in “silence with all subjection”.

This does not mean that they cannot speak at all, it simply means that they are not to take the leadership role in the services, but they are to humbly yield to male leadership in the church.

Certainly women can, and should testify, sing and praise the Lord. Women should have a voice in the business meetings of the church. Paul explains his meaning in the next verse.

1 Timothy 2:12 KJV 1900

12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

This verse forbids women from taking the role of teacher in the congregation. That is, they are not allowed to preach or to hold any position of authority that places them over men.

A lot of women are offended by this restriction. They are upset that that cannot preach or be a Deacon in the local church.

In our day, many churches simply ignore this verse, or try to explain it away, and do as they please. There are many churches around that have women Pastors and Deacons.

I would say that every single one of those churches is in error because they are disregarding a clear word from the Lord.

Besides, how can a woman ever be called “the husband of one wife”? (1 Tim. 3:1, 11)

Some would say, “Well, what about the women in the Bible that are called “prophetess”. There are a few women that were given that name among them are Miriam, Ex. 15:20; Deborah, Jud. 4:4; Huldah, 2 Kings 22:14, Isaiah’s wife, Isa. 8:3, and the seven daughters of Philip, Acts 21:9.

These women, and others, made prophetic utterances, but none of them carried on an extended prophetic or preaching ministry. God does not give this command because women are spiritually inferior to men, because they are not. God gives this prohibition because it is His plan for the godly woman, Ill. 1 Tim. 2:13–15. Whether you like it or not, this is the way God wants His church to function.

Ladies, you should not be bothered by the fact that you are prohibited from holding offices of leadership within the church. When God gave this responsibility to the man, God was placing a heavier weight on his shoulders than He placed on women. Men will have to give an account to for their leadership; you will merely have to give an account for your willingness to submit to their leadership.

This does not mean that women can teach. They must teach for they have insight in the Word of God and they have a perspective about the Word of God that men lack. They can teach other women, they can teach children. They can even teach men one on one, as Priscilla did alongside her husband Aquila, Acts 18:26.

Most importantly, they have a responsibility to teach other women about how to live godly according the God’s Word.

So Paul now reaches the:

Aim: 13-15

1 Timothy 2:13–14 KJV 1900

13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

Nevertheless, She shall be saved through childbearing. Now this is in contrast to another phrase. Look at verse 14, “Adam wasn’t deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression,” parabasis, she stepped over the boundary. She stepped over the line. So she’s in the transgression. Women are in sin. The stigma of the Fall is on woman.

But she shall be saved through childbearing.

Now somebody says, “What kind of salvation is this? You mean you’re saved from sin for having babies?” No, it couldn’t possibly be that.

1 Timothy 2:15 KJV 1900

15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

Well notice it says, “She shall … she shall be saved,” future tense shows that it couldn’t refer to Eve. Some would like to think it refers to Eve and the bearing of her children, but it doesn’t, “She shall be saved.” Furthermore, if they continue in faith means it’s more than one woman. Some think it’s Mary and that the she is the she being Mary was saved by bearing Christ. It’s a nice thought but I can’t imagine anything more obtuse to this passage. How in the world you could ever read that into it, I don’t know. I don’t see Mary and I don’t see the birth of Christ here. She must be the generic sense when compared with the word they.

The woman was deceived and in the transgression, nevertheless she, broadens to include all women, shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in … so the she sort of melts into the they.

Now what is he saying?

All women are saved through childbearing.

Well in what way? What kind of a general statement is that? What kind of saved do you mean here?

Well not saved from sin, but listen to this. the word saved can mean delivered, or it can mean saved from things other than sin.

What we have to understand here is that all women are delivered. Now listen carefully.

All women are delivered from the stigma of having caused the Fall of the race by childbearing.

In other words, women led in the Fall but by the wonderful grace of God they are released from the stigma of that through childbearing.

What’s the point? Listen carefully. They may have caused the race to fall by stepping out of their God-intended design, but they also are given the priority responsibility of raising a godly seed. You understand that? That’s … that’s the balance.

Not soul salvation, not spiritual birth, but women are delivered from being left in a second-class permanently stigmatized situation for the violation of the garden.

They are delivered from being thought of as permanently weak and deceivable and insubordinate.

Can you imagine what it would be like if men had babies and all women ever contributed to the human race was the Fall.

The balance of it, women led the race into sin, but bless God,

God has given them the privilege of leading the race out of sin to godliness.

You say, “How so?”

Mark it down, because in the raising of a godly seed it is the godliness and the virtue of the mother that has the greatest impact on the young life in the next generation.

Is that not so? Theirs is the challenge to raise a godly seed.

God has designed this to give woman back her dignity.

She is saved from the stigma of the Fall and her path to dignity and usefulness and her great contribution comes in accepting what God said that you will bear children. Motherhood then is woman’s appointed role in general.

Now obviously God doesn’t want all women to be mothers, some of them He doesn’t even want to be married. First Corinthians 7, some have the gift of singleness. Some He allows to be barren for His own purposes.

But as a general rule, just like marriage is generally the grace of life, as Peter calls it, so motherhood is that which reverses the stigma of woman and allows them to provide for society the rearing of a godly seed which in a real sense reverses the curse for which she was so responsible.

The pain of childbearing was the punishment for her sin, but the result of bearing child … bearing the child is the deliverance of the stigma of that sin. Marvelous how God has worked that out.

The pain she goes through reminds her of her sin, the result reminds her of God’s restoring grace and puts her back in the place where she makes a positive contribution to the godliness of the next generation.

She may have caused a generation to plunge into sin, but she can by being a mother who raises godly children bring a generation to God.

What Paul is saying by the Holy Spirit is that a woman must accept her God-given role and that role is not to give outward overt leadership to the church, but to raise a godly seed and that’s why he says she’ll be saved in childbearing,

1 Timothy 2:15 KJV 1900

15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

but only if … look at it … she continues in faith and love and holiness and self-control.

If You are godly,

You can raise that godly seed.

And you know, to me it’s so sad and tragic that women want to whine over an unfulfilled life because they can’t act like men. And they have the unique privilege of raising a godly generation of children who are nursed at their very breast and who bear an intimate relationship with them that no father can know and thus do they restore dignity to that fallenness to which they contributed and thus do they become all that God intended them to be. They are delivered from the results of sin and able to maintain a positive influence in society and in the church by accepting the role as a mother who raises godly children. That’s why it says even when younger widows lose their husbands, verse 14 of 1 Timothy 5, “I will therefore that the younger women marry and bear children and rule the house.” That’s their calling. The highest ideal of Christian womanhood is here, and this is how the church is to work, beloved.

Look, we’re led by men in the worship of the church, they pray, they preach, they teach, they give leadership to the church, but the perfect balance of that is the influence of godly women that raised that godly generation.

And the only way that will happen is if they … and look at it closely in verse 15 … if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self control.

You have to be the kind of woman described in verse 9 and 10, who are not into the clothes and of the outward flaunting of sexuality and desire and wealth, but you are a women whose heart is marked by godly fear and self-control, who is strong in faith, who believe God, strong in love toward God, who are pure and holy and who manifest self-control.

Godly Christian women will raise the next generation.

You want to know why there’s a Women’s Liberation Movement, because there’s a devil who doesn’t want God to get His work done.

Her faith in the Lord, her sincere love for God, her holiness and purity of life, her modest self-control mark her spiritual state as such who will bring forth children who will bless the world. And as she brought forth once a curse, she now brings forth a blessing. That’s your calling.

How is your faith in the Lord?

How is your love for God?

How is you holiness and purity in life?

How is your modest self-control?

If it is what it should be, then you will be bringing forth children who will bless the world.

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