How should we act when we get together for worship?
These are the practical questions that Paul addresses in 1st Timothy.
Today we focus on the conduct of Pastors on how to pray
And the 2nd half of the chapter focuses on the behavior of men and women in the congregation.
This chapter is guaranteed to get any Bible teacher in trouble as it takes on some of the most controversial verses in the Bible.
With that surprisingly brief intro, I’m going to jump right into Verse 1, mainly because I have a lot of ground to cover today.
We left off with Paul talking to Timothy about how pastors are to conduct themselves.
Verse 1: (Paul speaking) I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—
"Let’s start with the word "then" in Verse 1. In the English language, if there is a "then", then there should be an "if" in the previous thought.
Some translations start with the word "Therefore". The principal is the same.
If there is a "therefore", you should go back a few verses for the "wherefore"!
Remember that when Paul wrote this letter, there were no chapter breaks.
In Chapter 1, you can’t find an "if", so one looks for a related concept.
What we have in Chapter 1 was Paul urging his young protégée Timothy to stay in Ephesus and pastor over that church.
The key to understanding the "then" of Verse 1 is Verse 18 of Chapter 1:
"Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience.
Now reread verse one and notice what comes after the word "then".
Paul says in order to "fight the good fight" then one begins with prayer.
Before I discuss the prayer aspects of Verse 1, what does Paul mean by "fight the good fight"?
A clue comes from the last few verses of Chapter 1. After Paul urges Timothy to fight the good fight, Paul talks about two men named Hymenaeus and Alexander who have turned away from God.
Remember that part of being a pastor is not only to protect those under you but to also keep away those who could do harm. This is part of the call of all pastors to "shepherd the flock".
Remember what Jesus said to Peter after the resurrection:
Jesus asked Peter 3 times "do you love me"
But when Peter said he loved Jesus, (although he used lighter words than Jesus for "love") Jesus responded with:
"Feed my lambs." (John 21:15)
"Take care of my sheep." (John 21:16)
"Feed my sheep." (John 21:17)
The point I am getting at is that God calls pastors to watch over, protect and help grow those that they are called to "shepherd".
The same goes for us. It may be your family. It may be the students of a class you lead. It may be people God calls you be a witness to them. Pray and fill in your own examples.
Which leads us back to verse 1 of this chapter. God calls Timothy to "fight the good fight" of watching, tending and looking out for the believers in Ephesus.
Where does one start? What is the first step in this process?
Again, let’s re-read Verse 1: "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—
When Paul says, "fight the good fight", he is primarily referring to battling satanic forces who are preventing the growth of the church.
Therefore, the battle is not so much against non-believers as much as the forces behind non-believers.
The #1 weapon in that fight is prayer. It is our primary weapon.
"For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies—the evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world; and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world." (Ephesians 6:12, The Living Bible)
In Verse 1, Paul does not just say to "pray", but he says "(1) requests, (2) prayers,
(3) intercession and (4) thanksgiving be made for everyone—
In the original Greek language there are multiple words that are often translated to the word "prayer". Three of these other terms are listed above and translated here: requests, intercession and thanksgiving.
If Paul just wanted us to pray, he would have "just" used the second word. There is a purpose Paul uses all four words in this verse.
The first term is "requests". Other translations say "supplications".
The idea is to tell God our "laundry list".
Here is what is on our mind.
Here are the people that are currently on my heart.
Here are the people I want to see saved.
Here are the people I see going down the wrong path.
It is a request for God to do something. Remember that the goal of prayer is for God’s will to be done, not mine.
I sort-of told God a long time ago to ignore any prayer requests I make a long time ago that are not his will. He does this anyway. God answers all of our prayers. The only problem is that sometimes the answer is "no" or "not yet".
Because "not yet" is always a possibility, and I don’t know the future, I continue to pray for my requests. I do believe that is what God calls us to do anyway.
For further study of consistent prayer, see Jesus parable of the man borrowing bread in the middle of the night in Luke, Chapter 11, Verse 5-13.
The second term is "prayers".
This word is only used in 1st and 2nd Timothy. It is a general word for prayer that simply refers to being in direct communication with God.
The third term is "intercession".
The word implies us asking/begging/pleading with God to intervene on behalf of the prayers.
The last term is "thanksgiving".
This is being "grateful" to God for responding to prayer.
Here is an example: "Father, I thank you in advance for answering these prayers I have laid before you. Be specific in your gratitude.
Now let’s put them all together:
(1) requests, (2) prayers, (3) intercession and (4) thanksgiving
Notice the progression in these 4 concepts.
First we bring our requests to God.
Then we pray, i.e., talk to God about our requests.
Then we ask God to intercede on our requests.
Finally we give thanks to God for what he is going to do.
Before I move on, there is far more to "prayer" than these four concepts.
Remember the purpose of this verse is to teach Timothy, and us how to "fight the good fight" in spiritual warfare. This style of prayer is useful for that purpose.
I have learned in my prayer life to be as specific as possible. The more specific I can be, the more God is glorified. It is one thing to say, "pray for Joe". It is another to say "Pray for Joe to be healed of his disease", or "pray for Joe that his heart may be open to the Gospel message". The more specific the prayer, the more God has an opportunity to be glorified by that prayer and the more we can recognize that God did answer that prayer.
Last thing, and then I promise we’ll go to Verse 2. J Notice how Verse 1 ends:
It ends with praying for everyone.
This leads back to the lack-of-exclusitivity of Christianity.
God just doesn’t want us to pray for our loved ones who have needs, but to pray for all people. This includes the ones we can’t stand and the ones we barely know.
Remember we don’t know who is going to be saved.
Verse 2: (pray) for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
Verse 2 finishes the thought of Verse 1:
Verse 1 ends with the concept of praying for everyone.
Paul is adding another clause to that sentence. The verse can also be paraphrased to say "and also pray for kings and those in authority."
So why pray for those in authority?
To make us more prosperous? To see our political party win all the offices?
To get our political agenda accomplished?
The answer is no to all of these questions!
The rest of the sentence gives the answer: "(so that) that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
That is why we pray for the leaders, the good ones as well as the bad ones.
So that we can live the Christian life.
So that we can have the freedom to accomplish what God wills for us.
Paul wrote this during a time of persecution. During this time period, Emperor Nero was putting Christians to death for their belief.
Paul didn’t call for prayer for the death of Nero, despite the persecution. Paul called for prayer to change the heart of Nero, so Christians could pursue a Godly life without persecution.
Which of course, leads us back to us. Praise God for the United States. This country is unique among the nations of the history of the world. We allow freedom of religion, (not freedom from religion!). We allow freedom of people to assemble to worship God freely and without persecution. (There are some exceptions, and those require prayer.)
Anyone who knows world history or has traveled to foreign countries should be aware how unique this is.
It also calls us to pray for leaders of other countries that don’t allow the idea of freedom of worship.
This verse also has another implication. Let’s read Verse 2 again: "for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness".
The implication is that our peace is not up to those in authority, it is up to us.
Stop and consider the idea that it is the lack of prayer that causes bad leaders to rise to power. It is the lack of prayer on Christian’s part that persecution of believers exist.
Let me stop and say this is not a hard-fast rule. God allows some persecution to exist for His glory. The history of the church has shown that some of its greatest growth has been during times of harsh persecution.
That is not an excuse for us. This verse is Paul urging Timothy to pray for leaders so that we can live the Christian life. That should be a marching order for us as well.
Verse 3: This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Verse 3 says "this" is good. "What" is good? That we pray to God for people, for nations, for our leaders so that we can live a godly life and lead others into salvation.
That leads to Verse 4: God wants "all" men to be saved.
Not just our friends and family and neighbors.
This includes the ones we find disgusting and despicable.
This includes the ones we want to throw in jail and throw away the key.
That does not mean I’m in favor of eliminating jail or forgiving their crimes. Don’t mix up the human perspective from the eternal perspective. Crimes against humanity must be paid. Crimes against God can be forgiven. God wants no one to be in eternity forever.
On a related issue, I don’t have a problem with the death penalty.
I believe it is "biblical". Convicted felons should be given every opportunity to repent and ask God’s forgiveness prior to the actual death sentence. We should pray for them prior to their death.
Some crimes against humanity (murder, etc.) should not be forgiven and God calls for capitol punishment.
No
crime is unforgivable from the eternal perspective except to continually reject the free gift of salvation through Jesus.
Jesus said, "all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin."
(Mark 3:28b-29, NIV)
There is a false-doctrine that makes the rounds called "limited atonement".
It is the idea that Jesus only died for those who choose to accept him.
The idea is that because people don’t choose to accept Jesus, that Jesus didn’t die for them. My response? Nonsense, read this verse!
This verse says God "wants all men to be saved. "All" means all!
Remember John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son." He didn’t just love those who accept Jesus. He loved all.
This ties back to the concept of praying for all men.
Verse 5: For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
Well, here is one of those "exclusive" verses.
This verse is one of the verses that says quite bluntly, there is only one way to salvation, and that is through Jesus. I don’t see any exemption clauses in this verse. J
People always want to stop you here and ask about the natives in Africa who have never heard of Jesus. Sometimes I want to respond, "if you care that much about them, why don’t you go there as a missionary!" The correct response, as taught in Romans 1, is that God judges people fairly based on what they do know.
This verse has two key people: 1) one God and (2) one mediator between God and men, which is Jesus.
When it says "one God", it is referring to the God of the Bible. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The following are excluded: Buddha, Confucius, Allah and all cult leaders who have ever existed.
By the way, "Allah" is not the same god as the God of the Bible. Ask any devout Muslim if they believe that Allah is the same as the Hebrew God. (If they believe they are the same, why are they so hell-bent on killing all Jews in Israel?)
It is one thing for people to deny the Bible is the word of God. In a way, although I disagree vehemently, I can understand how they have been blinded by the world. It is another for them to say, "there are lots of roads to God" or "any religion will do". These are satanic lies, pure and simple.
The greatest distinguishing factor of Christianity versus all other religions is not our exclusiveness. Most religions claim they are the only way.
It is the fact that you can’t approach God on being a good person. Judaism, Muslims, Hindus, or you-name-it all teach on working your way to becoming a better person. It starts with us.
Christianity teaches that God is perfect. Since we can’t be perfect, there is no way it can start with us. That is what the history of the Old Testament teaches us. The failure of men to reach God based on their own efforts. Satan’s greatest lie is that we can be good enough for God. Ask most people if they think they’re going to heaven and they’ll say, "Sure, I’m a pretty good person and my good deeds out weigh my bad deeds".
Again, its Satan’s greatest lie.
Which leads us to the second point of this verse: There is only one mediator between God and man, and that is Christ Jesus.
Ok, what does that mean?
When you think of mediator, think of being on trial for a crime and the attorney arguing in your defense is your attorney. Your mediator is the one pleading your case before God.
The reason we use the term "mediator" is that God cannot forgive us of our sins. God’s standard is perfection and we are not perfect. The "mediator" is the bridge through which we can approach God in the first place.
Back to the court example, our defense attorney is saying "Yeah, this guy is guilty is charged. In fact, he’s much worse than what he claims to be. But dad J, he’s one of mine. Let him go free and I’ll pay his penalty.
Verse 6: who gave himself as a ransom for all men--the testimony given in its proper time.
The part about "ransom" I’ve already discussed in the last few paragraphs so I’ll move on.
Notice the next phrase of this sentence: "the testimony given in its proper time".
What does Paul mean by that?
Think of it this way: Why didn’t Jesus die on cross right after Adam and Eve ate the fruit? Why have this huge time gap between the beginning of sin and the end of sin on the cross? Further, why didn’t God wait longer? Why didn’t God wait until the era of Satellite televisions to put Jesus on the cross when the whole world could see it simultaneously?
The answer leads back to Paul’s phrase "the testimony given in its proper time."
The "proper time" is the exact time that Jesus came.
God wanted to make it as bluntly obvious as possible that Jesus is the only way to salvation. Practically the only thing God didn’t do was put giant billboards in the sky pointing the way to Jesus. J
First God needed time to show that mankind can’t do it on their own.
First we had centuries without the law (10 commandments etc.) where man tried to show how good they were without much guidance: Didn’t work.
Next we had centuries with the law to show that even with Gods rules firmly in place, we still couldn’t match up.
Next, God wanted time and a people to give the world evidence via predictions (i.e., prophecy) of the coming of Jesus.
Most of the predictive aspects of the Old Testament are about
the 1st and 2nd comings of Jesus.
Finally, Jesus came during the time when much of the world was under one Empire, making travel and spreading of the Gospel easier.
Next, the nation of Israel no longer existed from 70AD until 1948 so that we could not look for a different decedent of David to be the Messiah.
I believe Israel being a nation again now is in preparation for
Jesus’ 2nd coming, but that’s another topic.
The point of all of this exercise is to show that God did send Jesus at the proper time.
Verse 7: And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle--I am telling the truth, I am not lying--and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.
What purpose? To preach the Gospel.
What’s a herald? Think of the medieval times and the guy who always yelled "Here ye, here ye". It’s the man with a loud voice making a proclamation of the king.
God called Paul to loudly proclaim the Gospel message. The word "apostle" simply means "sent one". God called him for thus purpose.
The whole phrase about "I am telling the truth/not lying" may be that some were accusing Paul of not being an Apostle, based on the idea that he was not around during the time of the actual resurrection.
"I (Paul) do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. For some say, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing." Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present." (2nd Corinthians 10:9-11, NIV)
From Verse 8 to the rest of the chapter, this letter changes topics. We are now on the topic of how to worship God and how Christian men and women should behave. That will be obvious as we read Verse 8. The topic of Verse 8 is different from the previous verse.
Verse 8: I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.
Until now, Paul was telling Timothy about false teachers, the importance of prayer, the exclusitivity of the gospel and how Paul was called to be an apostle.
Given all that, this leads to how Paul wants men to pray.
Until Verse 8, the word for "men" meant mankind.
In Verse 8, the word means "men" as in the male species.
Further, Paul is talking about believing males.
Paul wants men to pray by 1) lifting up "holy hands" and 2) without anger or disputing.
First lets talk about "holy hands".
The literal-interpretation is the position of the body as one prays.
Praying with the hands up in the air is a biblical position, as stated here.
So is lying flat on your face (example: 2nd Samuel 12:15).
So is praying on your knees (example: Daniel 6:10)
So is lying in bed (example: 2nd Kings, 20 1-3, [implied]).
So is sitting down (example 2nd Samuel 7:18).
I’m a believer that whenever the Bible text can be taken literally, that should be the first interpretation. If the literal text can be contradictory to the rest of the text, or to other principals of the Bible, then read the text in context.
With that said, I do believe the key aspect is our attitude of prayer as opposed to our physical position.
If one desires to pray with hands lifted in the air that is fine. So are other positions.
I believe "lifting of holy hands" is an Old Testament idiom.
"May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. (Psalm 141:2 NIV)
"Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
Or who may stand in His holy place? (A reference to prayer!)
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully.
(Psalm 24:1, NIV)
The 2nd part of this phrase is "without anger or disputing".
Remember the topic of this sentence is "prayer".
If we are angry at others, it gets our focus off of God and on that anger.
This verse is not against the emotion of anger. Paul said to "be angry and do not sin." (Ephesians 4:26) It is against being angry while praying. The focus is our relationship with God.
Cross-referencing this verse in 1st Timothy with the Psalm references shown above it is apparent (at least to me) that Paul is talking about attitude in prayer.
This means that one approaches God by having a clean conscious, confessing one’s sins, as we have discussed earlier in this lesson.
If you remember last week’s lesson, Verse 5 of Chapter 1 says, "the goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith".
The "goal" of asking men to pray this way is to get their conscious cleared of internal struggles ("clean heart") and external struggles (no anger or disputes) and focus on their relationship with God.
The remainder of this study focuses on Paul’s desire of how women are to behave as Christians.
Paul only spends one verse on men, and six on women.
The one on men is "only" about prayer, while the five on women are much more practical. While this one verse to men is rich in its implications, so are the five verses we are about to study about a woman’s role in the Christian church.
These set of verses are among the most controversial in the Bible.
Opinions vary widely even among good Christians.
As we prayfully study these verses, I believe the key to understanding them is:
Read them in context of the surrounding verses.
Read them in context with other things Paul taught.
Read them in context with other doctrines taught in the Bible.
With all my disclaimers out of the way J, here we go.
Verse 9: I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes,
Remember the purpose of this letter. Paul asks Timothy to stay in Ephesus and oversee the church in Ephesus. It is a pastoral letter referring to how to oversee the church.
When Paul was talking about men in the last verse, he gives instructions on how men (males) are to pray.
Now that Paul is focusing on women. The two key phrases to me is "dress moderately" and "with good deeds"
Verse 10 is only addressed to believing Christian women. Verse 10 finishes the sentence of verse 9 by saying this applies to women "who profess to worship God".
It is not meant as a standard for non-believers.
Let’s go back to the "dress moderately " reference:
The primary purpose of public worship, i.e., going to church, is to worship God.
It is a privilege to go to church and not a duty. We do it out of gratitude, not as an obligation.
With that said, the focus of going to church is on God.
The concept here is to get our focus on God. If someone walks into a church service "decked out to the hilt", every head will turn and look at that woman (or that man) and get our focus off of God.
Sometimes when I go to church, I try to picture Jesus sitting in a chair in front of the altar. It is a reminder to me who I am focusing my attention upon. I pray to the father, but through the son.
The concept behind dressing moderately, as well as not having fancy jewels or fancy hairdo’s is about not drawing attention to yourself.
It is easy to get distracted in a public place. It is easy to be bored with familiar surroundings, and we want to look for something different.
This verse is not against women ever wearing jewelry. It is about not drawing attention to yourself in church. Men can’t use this verse to get out of buying woman jewelry. J
Girls, here is a verse to show to your husband or boyfriend.
J: King Solomon, in his love poem otherwise known as Song of Songs, wrote this: "Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels. We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver." (Song of Songs, 1:10-11, NIV)
Some church congregations take this verse too literally.
There are women out there who read this verse and wear no makeup to church and come looking like they just got out of bed.
They mistake the idea of "God judges my heart and not my appearance".
The idea behind this verse is not draw attention to yourself. If women, and men, look "shoddy" that too, draws attention to themselves and off of God.
Besides, let’s say you don’t shower. It may be a possible correct interpretation of this verse, but we still have to sit next to you! J
I’ll close this little section with a great thought. "If you are still not sure what "dress moderately" means, watch the women at the Academy Awards, and do the opposite".
J
Verse 10: but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.
Verse 9 warns against the "negative". Verse 10 gives the same concept with a "positive".
The whole sentence talks about how Christian women are to behave.
First it warns against overly "dressing", especially when worshipping God.
Now in Verse 10, it urges women to be "(clothed) with good deeds"
Let me give an example. I walk into church and I notice a women I haven’t seen in awhile. I think "oh, that’s Sally over there. Boy, I don’t know how she does all the things she does. She is so involved with this place. I don’t know where she finds the time for all of her involvement." That is "clothed" with good deeds".
That is the goal for Christian woman, and for men for that matter. To have a great reputation. That is how Paul wants you to be "clothed".
Does that mean you never mess up? Does that mean you never have an argument or sin? Of course not. This is not about being perfect. Who is?
This is about your reputation.
The secret of the Christian life is moment by moment, to "cling" to Jesus.
"Cling tightly to your faith in Christ and always keep your conscience clear, doing what you know is right."
(1st Timothy 1:19, The Living Bible)
If you want favor with both God and man, and a reputation for good judgment and common sense, then trust the Lord completely; don’t ever trust yourself. In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.
(Proverbs 3:4-6, The Living Bible)
If one reads Chapter 31 of the Book of Proverbs, most of the chapter is an example of how women should lead a godly life and have a good reputation.
A lot of people look at that list as an impossibility to achieve.
The key to reading that Chapter is not to see "I have to be perfect all the time", but to see it as a goal. The mistake is always to trust in your self-disciplined ability to obey this verse. Living the Christian life comes by God working through you. It is a moment by moment trusting of God that he changes you into the woman God wants you to be.
Verse 11: A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.
12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women will be saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.
Well now, I think I’ll quit here and preserve my marriage.
J
Unfortunately, God called me to be a teacher, and prayfully explain the verses. Teaching and living the Christian life means taking on the unpopular and difficult verses as well as the easy ones.
The key to reading these verses is to read them in context. This is why I listed all of these verses together.
First of all, Paul is not "anti-women."
Paul said, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, (nor) male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)
This verse clearly teaches that Paul thinks men and women are equal as Christians.
The key to understanding what Paul is talking about is Verse 13: "Adam was formed first, then Eve". What does he mean by that?
Somebody has to lead. God created Adam first not because Adam was superior, but God created Adam to lead. God desired men to be the leaders.
There are individual woman leaders in the Bible. Often it is a case where a case where no man volunteered to step up and lead, and since somebody has to lead, a woman stepped up.
There are many churches where women have lead functions. This is often the case due a lack of men willing to step up and lead.
If you read the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis, one thing you’ll notice is that God gave Adam the job of "naming all the animals" prior to Eve being created (Genesis 2:19)
I’m sure while Adam was walking around, he noticed that all the animals were of male and female species. It must of dawned on Adam that "hey, how come all these animals are male and females. I want one of those, where’s my female?"J
Personally speaking, that may have been a big mistake.
J
Let’s talk about the idea of woman’s "submission".
Let’s start with a similar verse: "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:22-24, NIV)
A lot of 1st Timothy is about establishing order and structure in the church.
A related concept is order and structure in the home.
They are based on 1) Christ being head of the church and 2) the wives being submissive to your husbands. The focus is on structure.
Are women capable of leading? Of course. Can a wife teach husbands things? Of course, I am extremely grateful for many aspects about my faith and walk with God that my wife has taught me. There are some Christian women authors who have taught me many things that have helped increase my faith.
This is about structure. God calls on men to lead, not dominate. In order for men to lead, it calls for women to be submissive. This is difficult, especially on the ego.
Sometimes, in order for men to lead, it requires a woman to be submissive.
God desires the best of all people. He wants men and women to grow in their faith by trusting Him more and more.
Trusting requires submissiveness. For men, it means submissing your will to God. For women, it means submissing your will to your husbands so they can lead, and seek God’s will for the family.
The tough part for men and women is "why should I change first?" Here is a common quote that I hear: "Yes, I know I should be submissive, but my husband also needs to lead. If he would just be a husband like the Bible teaches then it would be easy to be submissive to him.
In the same way men have to check their ego’s to let God lead them, is the same way wives have to check their ego’s to let their husbands lead.
The command to be submissive is to let the men lead.
Would you like a better marriage? Start by "taking the lead by submitting to your huband. Pray for him. Your husband won’t stand a chance with God working for you against him!
J
One of my favorite teachers, Chuck Missler, talked about how his wife single-handedly saved their marriage by applying this principal on her own. She then started praying for her husband. Chuck said he never stood a chance as God and his wife ganged up on him!
OK, its time for the tough part, Verse 12: " I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.
Please notice there is no period after the word teach.
There are churches where women are not permitted to teach at all. The sentence is meant to be read as a whole.
Paul is not anti-woman-teaching; he is speaking against women leading.
In Paul’s letter to Titus, he urges the older women to teach the younger women (Titus 2:3).
The same Greek word for teaching is used in both cases.
Remember that Paul was grateful Timothy was raised by a godly mother and grandmother. That means he was taught by these women (Ref: 2nd Timothy 1:5).
Two of Paul’s associates where a couple named "Aquilla and Priscilla. Reading Acts 18, you get the impression that Priscilla was the leader of the two. She was the one led the instructions to the evangelist Apollos about Jesus in Verse 26.
Which leads to the question of women in church:
Should a woman be a pastor? Should they be allowed to say anything?
Verse 18 says, "I don’t permit her to have authority over a man, she must be silent.
This verse is about men leading and having the authority.
One extreme is not ever let a women up on the pulpit, at least if there is men present. The "silence" refers to authority, not corporate worship.
The other extreme is to ignore this verse completely. There are too many Christian churches that ignore the principals of this verse.
Do I have a problem with women going to seminary or Bible college? Of course not. I believe anyone can benefit from learning more about God. The Bible calls for women to lead and teach over women.
My interpretation of this verse is that God does not call women to be head pastors. That would be having authority over the men of the church.
I further understand there are cases where no man is around to lead. In the Book of Acts, Chapter 16, Verse 13 there were some Jewish women meeting by a riverside. Personally, I suspect there were no men there to lead, so the women took it upon themselves.
Let’s wrap up with the last three verses again:
13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women will be saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.
I actually only wanted to talk about Verse 15 here, but it needs to be read in context of Verses 13 and 14 as well.
Verse 15 says women "will be saved through childbearing".
I don’t believe Paul meant "saved" as in salvation. That would not make sense in light of the other scriptures. We are saved by our faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross. We are not "saved" by having children.
Therefore, this verse must be talking about something else.
The key is to read Verse 15 in context of Verses 13-14. Here was Paul talking about Adam and Eve. Then he makes this remark about women being saved through childbearing.
If you remember Genesis, what was Eve’s "punishment" for eating the fruit?
"To the woman he (God) said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." (Genesis 3:16, NIV)
This should "ring a bell" with the topics taught in today’s lesson.
J
Because
Eve committed the sin, her punishment was 1) labor pains and
2) your husband will rule over you.
The principal applies to all women, not just those who have a husband and children. (By the way, the Bible does not condemn women who don’t get married or don’t have children. That is a whole separate topic.)
When Adam and Eve choose to sin, (Eve by "deception", Adam by his desire to be with Eve-in-sin, out of love for Eve!), the price she had to pay for this sin was labor pain and submissiveness.
God knew what he was doing when he designed this punishment.
Remember God could have "zapped" Adam and Eve for this sin, or at least send them to hell eternally. Personally, I do believe Adam and Eve are in heaven. God gave them a way to repent.
This "punishment" is the key to understanding what Paul is talking about when he says women are "saved" through childbirth!
There are two possible interpretations of this verse, and both of them stem from Adam and Eve.
The first is 1) that "saved through childbirth" is a reference to the "seed of the women" eventually giving birth to the Messiah.
By the sin of Adam and Eve, sin came into the world.
Another man (Adam means "man" in Hebrew) was needed to take away sin. Thus women (corporately) are "saved" through the childbirth of Jesus coming into the world and fulfilling his purpose.
"For this one man, Adam, brought death to many through his sin. But this one man, Jesus Christ, brought forgiveness to many through God’s mercy." (Romans 5:15b, TLB)
The second interpretation is that this is about the "structure" within the church. How God called man to be the head of the household and be the primary moneymaker and women (corporately) are called to raise up the family. Remember that Adam’s punishment was that he was to "toil the ground" all the days of his life.
To summarize, Adam’s punishment was to "work the ground", thus he was called primarily to work to support Eve.
Eve’s punishment was "child labor" and "submissiveness" to her husband.
God’s "punishment" of Adam and Eve sets up the family structure that has existed, well, since the Garden of Eden!
Which leads back to Paul saying, "women are "saved" through childbirth. This is an Adam & Eve reference to what God called women to do through history.
OK, time for some more disclaimers. J
Of course there are women who can’t have children.
God does call some women to remain single.
Of course there are widows.
As to divorce, it is "frowned upon", but whenever you read the list of sins of the "ungodly" anywhere in the Bible, divorce is never listed among those sins.
Of course there are women who God raises up to be leaders.
These verses are about structurein the church.
It focuses on the rules, and not the exceptions.
Last part of Verse 15: (women are) saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.
Again, this is not saying "if you don’t have kids, you don’t make it to heaven".
The focus is on living a "godly" life that God has called you do.
For most Christian woman, the primary ministry is on raising children and Paul mentions "faith, love and holiness (meaning separating yourself for use for God) as characteristics of a godly woman. This is God’s "ideal" family structure. Exceptions existed in Paul’s time as well as today.
With that, I’ll wrap it up and run for cover. J
Let’s pray: Father, some of these lessons are difficult to understand and even more difficult to accept. Moment by moment, help us to turn our will over to yours, and help us all be submissive to you and seek your will for our life. For we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.