1 Timothy 2

YES, especially those we have issues with. We need God to heal our hearts and He will use prayer to change our hearts towards those we are not happy with, and sometimes He will change their heart’s towards us.

Verses 3-4

Pray for all people because God desires all people to be saved.

Which is why God made a way for all people to be saved...

to the knowledge = experiential knowledge and an understanding

of the truth - the gospel truth...

Verses 5-7

Here Paul gives a bit of an explanation into the truth he just wrote about.

No one comes to a saving knowledge and thus a saving faith in God without Christ. (way truth life…)

The idea that all roads lead to heaven is not true according to God’s word.

Matthew 7:13–14 ESV

13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

There are many people that believe that if you are a good person that is enough to get you to heaven.

Proverbs 14:12 ESV

12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

who gave himself as a ransom for all - because this was the only way for God to fulfill that desire for all people to be saved.

ransom - to untie or unchain

appointed a preacher - Paul put it like this to the Corinthian church...

1 Corinthians 2:1–2 ESV

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Verse 8

Now Paul will speak specifically to the issue of men and women in the church.

in every place = in every church or every place the church gathers.

the men = the word used speaks specifically of men...

Part of the reason we see so little power in the church today and see so little influence by the church in the community is because so few men come together to pray.

I’m grateful for the few men that come to men’s group, though there could and should be more, but I am especially concerned that when it comes to our weekly church prayer time on Sunday evenings there are usually 2-3 of us men there praying. I’d like to see that change this year.

As a matter of fact, I believe the only way for our little church to have a big impact on this community as it should is through prayer.

That isn’t to say that I don’t think God will honor or listen to the prayers of the women who show up in bigger numbers than the men, but it is to say that we are upside down according to God’s word in the amount of men and women who show up fro prayer.

But also this idea of men lifting hands in prayer speaks to the order of the church. The posture of raising one’s hands in prayer was the normal posture of the one leading in prayer, thus Paul is saying that his expectation in the churches was that the men would walk out there God ordained role as leaders in the church, and in church services.

Again this is not to say that the women aren’t good enough or can’t serve, or can’t pray. But it is to say that the men have been given a role and responsibility in the church by God and the sooner men take that seriously and fulfill it faithfully, the better it will be for everyone in the church and the community.

lifting holy hands = this speaks to the condition and thus attitude of the heart of the men who’s hands are lifted up before God.

without anger or quarreling (arguments, disputing) - again speaks to the condition of the hearts of the men who’s hands are raised.

You can’t have angry argumentative hearts or their prayer lives will be hindered.

Can you imagine a guy getting up before the church and having an angry quarrelsome prayer?

Verses 9-10

likewise also - still on the subject of prayer, but now onto the roll of women in the church.

Just as the common downfall of many men (anger & quarreling) should not hinder their prayer life, so a common downfall of many women (the desire to appear attractive outwardly instead of an inward beauty of the heart that is for God was not to be a hindrance to their prayer.

Christian women should dress with modesty and decency before God and people, especially at church! Ladies should not gather with the saints wearing what is acceptable at a bar or even at the mall.

Realize that the culture in Ephesus was one of pagan worship to Artemis a goddess of fertility. in Ephesus as in Corinth they had priestesses to their fertility goddesses that were really just temple prostitutes. That’s how they collected money for the upkeep of the temples.

I hate to say it this way but Paul is basically saying that Christian women should neither dress like the world, prostitutes, or televangelists especially when they come to gather with the saints for prayer and worship.

with good works = more than the clothes, is the attitude of the heart toward God and others.

Ladies focus more on the goos works God has called you into than looking attractive outwardly.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

1 Peter 3:3–4 ESV

3 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 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.

Now let me just say this as well. This is not a prohibition from dressing nicely or wearing makeup, or having a nice hairstyle, or even wearing jewelry. It is a prohibition from making the outward appearance the main thing in your life. You are women, be pretty, just don’t make being pretty your primary focus. Remember that you are saved women now, just as the men were to remember that they were saved men and needed to set aside the things of the flesh mainly anger and quarreling.

Verses 11-12

silence is the same Greek word as peaceful in verse 2. The idea is of a quiet, tranquil, peaceful attitude.

Apparently the ladies in Ephesus were a bit rowdy and were causing some trouble during church! Haha!

There is not a prohibition here from woman making verbal noises while in church as some accuse te text of saying. Paul who is writing this also wrote in other places about how women and men were to pray. So obviously women were allowed to take part in church and not just sit there in silence.

The broader idea here is that when the man that God called to lead the church service is serving through preaching, teaching, or simply leading the church service the women were to receive from them what God had called them to minister to the church peacefully (without contention) and in a submissive spirit unto God.

Submissiveness speaks to a God established order of things, and as we talked about at our Christmas Eve Services, when things are in their proper order we will experience peace.

Submissiveness isn’t about value or ability, it is about an established order given by God.

Now onto verse 12!

This verse has caused confusion, division, and even outright rebellion against God because people don’t like what it says and therefore want to do what they want and accuse God’s word and thus God Himself of bigotry. Or they want to say that this applied only to the church of Ephesus and can’t possibly apply to the rest of the world, or that it only applied in that particular time, but not today. But all of the contention and trying to explain it away only goes to show the unwillingness of people to simple study and accept what God has said.

So let’s dig into this.

First of all the statement is within the context of the roles and behavior of men and women in the church gatherings. We have already been told that the men were to be the ones to step up and lead and that the women were to receive from the men.

So at the very basic level we can see that the role leading the church is something that God has called the men to do.

As for the the issue about women teaching… This is in direct relation to teaching doctrine. Paul left Timothy in Ephesus to straighten out false teaching and instructed him specifically...

1 Timothy 1:3 ESV

3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine,

So this prohibition about women teachers of doctrine in the church is part of Timothy’s calling to straighten out. So what was the big deal? Was it that the women were in authority or was it that they were teaching the men?

The bigger issue was that there were contentious (not peaceful) women who were taking a role of authority that was not there God given place, and establishing themselves as teachers of doctrine over the church as a whole.

This is not a prohibition from women speaking in church, so long as they are under the authority of the man that God has called to Pastor the church, but it is a prohibition from a woman being a Pastor of a church, and it seems is a prohibition from women taking the pulpit to teach men at all.

That is not to say that a man cannot receive instruction from women. I have recieved plenty of worthwhile things from women. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but I have learned many things from my wife even! haha

We see women instructing men in scripture, just not as leader of the church in the pulpit.

Acts 18:24–26 ESV

24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

Verses 13-14

Genesis chapters 2 and 3 lay out the order

God created man Adam and gave him the rules if you will, and the man Adam taught those things to the woman Eve. Therefore we have the established order of things from the beginning, and with that order comes the order of responsibility that fell upon Adam and today falls upon men.

Verse 15

There are 3-4 ideas that people typically have about this verse.

Some think it means that a women by having children will be saved, but that presents a ton of issues chief among them are what becomes of the barren women?

Some think that Paul is saying that a man’s place is to teach and a woman’s place is to have kids. And while that seems to be the sense in the Greek it isn’t as simple as all that.

1 Timothy 5. Being a Christian Woman in Light of Eve’s Curse (15)

She will be saved in childbearing: A better way to approach this passage is based on the grammar in the original Greek language. In the original, it says she will be saved in the childbirth. This has the sense, “Even though women were deceived, and fell into transgression starting with Eve, women can be saved by the Messiah—whom a woman brought into the world.”

Paul has already reminded us that salvation is in Christ alone.

The word saved here is not to be saved from sin, but rather speaks back to the order that God established in the home and the church.

The idea of a coming Savior through the woman was promised back in

Genesis 3:15 ESV

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

So we might look at this and say that though Eve gave Adam the fruit, Mary bore the Redeemer of humanity.

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