Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Timothy 2:12 and Eldership

We have come to the time of year where you are putting forth Elder and Deacon nominations.

This tied in well to our series, because the Scripture we are covering addresses Eldership in the church.

The passage we are going to be exegeting today is 1 Timothy 2:8-14 but to read it in its context we need to read through chapter 2. So before we read it, why is this verse so controversial?

Why will this verse rub some of us the wrong way?

In one word, feminism, more accurately, third-wave feminism.

This is the feminism my generation grew up with and we are seeing the fruits of that now in our society.

That men and women are no different.

That anything a man can do a woman can do.

Now we might hear that and think, yea sure.

But it is simply not true going both directions.

A man cannot be pregnant.

A woman cannot give a “Y” chromosome.

Genetically men and women are drastically different.

Men have this thing called testosterone.

To put it in context, a woman would have to be doped up out of her mind on steroids, she would have to quadruple her natural testosterone levels to be at the very bottom level of a man’s natural testosterone level.

Quadruple to be on the low end.

This is significant, testosterone helps burn fat while increasing muscle.

Testosterone increases bone density.

Our culture has tried to blur the lines between men and women.

That a man and a woman are interchangeable.

Can we just drop the facade, men and women are different.

That’s why there is the NBA and WNBA.

That is why there is a PGA Tour and and LPGA tour.

But that is not my biggest problem, theologically, when we blur these lines we not only accept a heresy that God made a mistake making you a man or a woman, but we remove what makes us unique altogether.

Instead of addressing what makes us unique as men and women our culture would rather do without it, and do you know who gets hurt by this?

Ironically, women.

This is the kind of baggage we bring to the table and when we read 1 Timothy 2 we get offended.

But, instead of exegeting the text, speakers have twisted it and rejected it all together.

So enough of the anticipation lets read it, 1 Timothy 2

1 Timothy 2 (ESV)

1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

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.

Before we get into this text as a whole let’s address some verses which may have jumped out.

Verses 9-10 and verse 15.

We need to clear this debris so we can get to the text at hand.

Verses 9-10, First, what is Paul NOT saying?

Paul is not rejecting women’s fashion and saying be bland and hideous.

To go out of your way to look glib.

This would not be consistent with Scripture as a whole.

The Proverbs 31 woman dresses her and her family in fine purple linen, and the church is revelation is described as a bride awaiting her groom.

What bride slums it?

James Hurley hits the nail on the head, ‘[Paul] refers … to the elaborate hair-styles which were then fashionable among the wealthy, and also to the styles worn by courtesans.

The sculpture and literature of the period make it clear that women often wore their hair in enormously elaborate arrangements with braids and curls interwoven, or piled high like towers and decorated with gems and/or gold and/or pearls.

The courtesans wore their hair in numerous small pendant braids with gold droplets or pearls or gems every inch or so, making a shimmering screen of their locks.”

We know that by the culture, specifically Ephesus, which is where Timothy is an Elder, women wanted to flaunt their wealth and social status.

Not only that the temple for the goddess Diana had temple prostitutes who would dress a particular way.

Simply put, whether regarding your social standing or your beauty, women are not to come to church to flaunt either.

We can agree with that.

We are here to worship the LORD, we do not want to draw any attention away from Him, amen?

The next verse is verse 15, “15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.”

We do not have the time to get into some of the interpretations of this verse.

Ill just give you the answer.

Paul uses the singular form, woman in the verses prior to 15 and here is uses the plural form, women.

Before he was speaking of Eve, singular, but now he is speaking to all women.

Why? Verse 15 points back to Genesis 3 and God’s curse upon the serpent, Genesis 3:15 “15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

This curse is prophesying when Christ would be born of a woman and Paul is speaking of this again.

Of course we know that none of us are saved by the birth of Jesus, we are saved by the Death of Jesus.

But we cannot overlook that the death would not be possible without the birth and birth not possible with a woman and now all women have the opportunity to be saved as well as all mankind.

Paul makes the same point.

Now the verses we need to really get into are verse 11-14 because this pertains to Christian leadership. 1 Timothy 2:11-14

What happens with this verse?

Teachers will not perform the 3 rules of Biblical Interpretation, which are? Instead this text is ripped out of its context and held up over the lens of culture.

That seems smart right?

Take the Bible and read it through the lens of a culture who has no clue what a man and a woman is anymore.

That will end well.

So they will read this text and proclaim Paul a sexist and reject what Paul says.

Here in lies the problem, Paul is an Apostle, and speaks the oracles of God, and Paul’s specific calling was to establish churches and their leadership.

Which means Paul established churches and taught them how they were to conduct themselves according to God’s revelation.

Paul is not some sexist who hated women.

If we have even a hint of that here, then we are hearing what Paul is not saying.

First, Paul is not saying that women have no place in the ministries of the church.

Second Paul is not saying that women are not equipped with strong leadership gifting’s.

Third, Paul is not saying that Men are superior to women.

That is off the table, Paul is not saying that.

So what is Paul saying?

Paul is establishing the role of men, the call of men by God.

There are only two places where God has commanded men to lead and that is the home and the church.

God makes no such command that are men to lead everything, why?

Because God has gifted some women with the ability to lead and lead well.

But in our culture this bumps up against Scripture, which is why this passage is pulled from is context and discarded.

Instead, we would rather hear what Paul did not say, rather than what God inspired Paul to say.

Why?

Because God will not bend His knee to our culture, it is our culture that is to bend the knee to Him.

So we ask again, what is Paul saying?

I made the statement that God has called men to lead in the home and the church.

How do we land there?

First we see that Paul defends verses 11-12 with verse 13.

Here is what makes verse 13 so interesting to me, Paul makes the clear statement that God created Adam first.

Fair enough, but it is the second statement that I find to interesting and I believe makes the point.

Paul says it was Eve who was deceived.

Here is why I find it interesting, Romans 5:12-13

Who does Paul attribute the fall of mankind?