Well-behaved Worship

INTRODUCTION:

Interest:

All of us who are parents have undoubtedly had these conversations at some point with our children when they were young. The conversation may begin days ahead, but it surely is repeated in the car. We are on the way to a big, rather formal event, maybe a wedding reception or a significant anniversary celebration. Whatever it is, we know that it will go on for quite some time and that our children are going to be expected to sit through it…from their standpoint, forced to endure it. Our children are preschool or very early elementary age so we know that this is going to be a loooong time from their perspective. So…we give them the talk. We tell them how important it will be for them to be on their best behavior. We assure them that we know that they can do it because we know how BIG they are. We may even promise them a reward, like stopping for Dairy Queen if they are really, really good. We do everything that we can to prepare them to be on their best behavior because we know that anything less than well-behaved children will serve to distract people from the main event.

Involvement:

Well, tonight we are the children and we are going to get the talk; we are the ones who are going to be encouraged to be well-behaved.

Context:

We are going to look at the end of the second chapter in Paul’s first letter to Timothy. This is a section of scripture containing several interpretive challenges that are quite difficult while touching on deep theological truths. Furthermore, the topics dealt with in these verses tend to generate a lot of emotion because they touch on some of the biblical roles for men and women. For all of these reasons, the details often overshadow the whole in this section. And yet, that it is backwards to the way that we ought to deal with Scripture. Our first concern should be in placing the details into their overall framework.

If you able to connect with us last week, hopefully you remember that Paul addressed the topic of public prayer last week. This was the first specific topic that he addressed after laying out in the first chapter that the church in Ephesus was losing its ministry focus and, in the process, risking losing the gospel message itself. We observed that an in-focus ministry will have intentional public prayers as part of its regular public worship and that salvation of all kinds of people will be the primary concern of these prayers.

Tonight, our verses are all tied to that context. The first word in verse 8 is the word “therefore.” That word shows that verse 8 at least, a verse that deals with men, is going to give us a logical conclusion from what was just said about prayer. I guess it makes sense that having just dealt with prayer in public worship that Paul would logically move to those who will do the praying.

Verse 9 begins a longer discussion about women, but it begins with the word “likewise.” That word connects this paragraph to the preceding one. In other words, this paragraph about women is also dealing with those who are involved in public worship.

Preview:

This evening, we are going to divide our verses based on these two groups address—men and women. What we will discover, though, is that for both men and women God has the same overall message: God is concerned with our behavior surrounding our worship.

Transition from introduction to body:

God is concerned with our behavior surrounding our worship. In verse 8, where men are addressed, we learn that…

BODY:

I. Men are to be well-behaved in worship

Let’s read the verse in order to understand what sort of behavior Paul is expecting of men…<read 1 Tim 2:8>.

You may recall that last week the verses suggested that several people should be involved in the offering of prayers during the public gathering of the church. Now, Paul specifically identifies that he wants men to be involved in this.

This is to happen “in every place.” That could mean that every place that the church in Ephesus meets if it has grown to the point where it is regularly spread among several houses, or it could mean in every city that has a church. In either case, men are to be involved in offering public prayers when the worship gathers.

Application

Men, I hope that you are listening to this. You are specifically being called out to engage in public prayer. Prayer is not limited to a special group of men like pastors or to those with special spiritual gifts; it is open to men in general. I rejoiced this last week on Wednesday night, especially since I had been studying this passage during the day, when several of the men on the Zoom call volunteered to pray…sometimes it seems as if the men on the call can’t figure out how to take their computers off mute when it comes time to praying and only the women jump into pray. Men, as we will see multiple times in this letter, we are to be leaders in the church. One thing for sure that that means is that we should be engaged in the public prayers of the church.

Now, I said I was encouraged that several men prayed. At the same time, I was not encouraged that the number of people involved in our public prayer meeting remained very small compared to our overall church. For some reason we seem to think that the prayer meeting is less important than the worship service. Now, I trust you know me well enough to know that I care greatly about our worship service. At the same time, we should recognize that the public gatherings of the early NT church were much more like our Wednesday night prayer and Bible study times than they were like our formal worship services. We really should recognize that our Wednesday night gatherings are just as important as our Sunday morning gatherings, both are public gatherings of the church.

Transition:

Now, men are to be well-behaved in worship; that includes being involved in the public prayers of the church. Yet, before a man should be recognized to offer a public prayer on behalf of the gathered church, there are a couple of conditions that he should meet.

First, he should…

A. Engage in public prayers from an unpolluted life

I want us to look at that phrase “lifting up holy hands.” I think when we read over this we tend to focus on the physical idea of upraised hands. Yet, I don’t think that Paul is describing the physical posture that we are to assume in prayer…we are not more spiritual if we lift our hands in prayer. Rather, this is the only time Paul uses this phrase in the NT and he uses a word for “holy” that means unpolluted rather than the common word for “holy” that means separate or set apart. Men are to be able to pray to God with spiritually unpolluted hands. In other words, the image that Paul is creating is that of an unpolluted life that we can be offered to God.

Illustration

I expect that many of you have heard of the famed Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Copacabana Beach is nearly 2.5 miles of incredible sand in a gorgeous cove located on the centered edge of the city. I remember walking that beach, taking in the beautiful ocean on the one side and some of the most exclusive buildings of the city on the other. What I remember most vividly, however, is one point where wastewater from the city…I assume from the city’s storm system…flowed across that beautiful sand and emptied into the ocean. Coming out of the city, that water had picked up a lot of pollution that had discolored the sand and contaminated the water for quite some distance into the cove. I wanted to be far away from that spot before I had any desire to stick my feet into the ocean.

Application

It doesn’t take much pollution to destroy what is pure. Men, in order to engage in public prayers, we need to have unpolluted lives spiritually. It would be very poor behavior indeed to regularly indulge in sin throughout the week and then try to offer prayers on behalf of the church when it gathers.

Transition:

Engage in public prayers from an unpolluted life. That is the first thing required of men to be well-behaved in worship. Second,

B. Engage in public prayers from a unified spirit

Do you see the end of verse 8 where it says to pray without wrath and dissension? Both these words refer to attitudes that create divisions between people. A man should be seeking unity rather than division when he prays publicly.

Application

Men, prayer is certainly not the time to make your final point in an argument or to trumpet your position on a point of debate. In fact, if you have been doing this at other times when the church is gathered, you are not ready to pray. When someone leads the church in prayer, he is leading the church collectively into the very presence of God through our shared righteousness imputed to us by our common Savior, Jesus Christ. Corporate prayer is an act of unity and needs to be offered from a unified spirit. Everything about a man’s demeanor and attitude should generate unity as he engages in public prayers.

Transition:

Men are to be well-behaved in worship. That means that men are to engage in public prayers from an unpolluted life and a unified spirit. Men, this demonstrates our main idea; God is concerned with our behavior surrounding our worship.

God is concerned with our behavior surrounding our worship. Of course, this is not true of men only…

II. Women are to be well-behaved in worship

Verse 9 begins, “Likewise, women…” Paul is not only concerned with how men behave when the church assembles, but also how women behave. In fact, at this point, he has more to say to the women than men. Let’s read verses 9–15…<read 1 Tim 2:9–15>.

As I mentioned a moment ago, this paragraph is tightly tied to the previous one regarding men. In fact, it is so tightly connected that we must pull the verb “I want” from verse 8 because Paul doesn’t even bother to repeat it. What this means is that while there is certainly no need to limit the direction of what Paul says in these verses to prayer, there is also nothing to indicate that Paul is moving on to an entirely new topic from prayer. It is clear from places like 1 Cor 11 that Paul assumes women will be involved in the public prayers of the church. But Paul is concerned here with their behavior more broadly in worship rather than only while they are praying.

Transition:

There are three things that women are to do while they engage in worship that Paul spells out in these verses. First, women are to…

A. Engage in worship with proper adornment

Apparently, then, as now, the manner in which a woman dressed revealed a lot about what sort of woman she was. There has always been a temptation for wealthy women to flaunt that wealth in public. There are also typically certain styles of apparel that become associated with unrighteous and even immoral women in every culture. Paul tells the Christian women in Ephesus that they are to avoid any and every manner of dress that would carry these types of associations.

Illustration

I remember several years ago when a young woman in our Christian school at the time asked me where the Bible says that having a pierced eyebrow was wrong. I told her that such a verse didn’t exist; there is no verse that says “Thou shalt not pierce your eyebrow.” I also told her, however, that at that in our culture of that time…this was well over a decade ago…such a piercing was still connected to some extent to the rebellious subculture from which it originated culturally in America. Eyebrow piercing arose from those who wanted to openly flaunt their rebellion. I admitted there may come a day in which such a piercing was so mainstream that the association was lost, but until that time a Christian woman should avoid it because it was not a proper adornment for a godly woman.

Instead of these things which carry the wrong connotations, Paul says that a godly Christian woman should adorn herself with good works. In fact, the word “godliness” that Paul uses in verse 10 is unique, used only here in the NT. It carries a strong ethical note. A Christian woman should seek to live ethically pure so that such behavior adorns all of her life, much like clothing covers her.

Application

Ladies, what adorns your life? Is it your outward apparel or your good works that people most think of when they see you walk into to church for worship? As one commentator put it, “Every Christian woman should prize more highly a testimony to her Christian labors than a reputation as the best-dressed woman in the congregation.” Is that what you prize?

Transition:

Ladies, first engage in worship with proper adornment. Second,…

B. Engage in worship with proper demeanor

Verses 11 and 12 are wrapped with the idea of quiet, a woman’s demeanor in worship should be characterized by quietness. Now, I know that the KJV translates the idea as “silence”, but I believe that misrepresents Paul’s idea in English. Paul is talking about a demeanor here, not the absolute absence of speech. The idea is not that a woman never speaks up in the church, the concern is with her attitude or demeanor that she uses when she does so.

The demeanor that Paul advocates for women is one of receiving instruction within the church rather than giving it. A woman is to be the teachee, not the teacher. In fact, the form of the grammar used in verse 12 in the word we have translated “to teach” indicates the person rather than the function. A woman is not to be an authoritative teacher in the church; she is not to be the declarer of doctrine. Rather, she is to be the submissive receiver of such teaching by the men God has called to that role in the church. Now, we will see when we continue into chapter 3 that not all men are teachers in the church, but before we get there Paul is making it clear that women are not to have that role.

Paul even strengthens this idea by the term “exercise dominion” that he uses in verse 12. That word means to domineer. The governing authority of the church is ascribed to men. Women are to be careful not to act in any way that puts them in a position of domineering over the male leadership of the church, teaching doctrine would be one way in which they could do that.

Application

I know that this is a very unpopular position to take in our country. We are now two generations into the feminist movement which has loudly proclaim that women can do anything men can do at least as well, if not better. I also know that I have certainly met some women who are brilliant, who no doubt have the mental acumen and skills to understand the technical details of Scripture in the original languages better than I do.

But that is not the point here. The point is God’s order that He has sovereignly decreed for His creation and specifically for His church. The question is whether we will submit to God in this matter or not.

Paul does not give any conditions that would allow exceptions to this rule, that make it culturally based, or indicate that he was only addressing a localized issue is Ephesus. All of those positions have been argued in an effort to set Paul’s instructions aside and allow for women to authoritatively teach in the church, but we simply cannot do that.

In fact, Paul gives two historic reasons to explain why women are not to assume the authority of a teacher. The first lies in the creation order itself; he simply observes that Adam was created by God before Eve. This chronological sequence indicates that Eve was not intended to direct Adam, it was the other way around. If Adam was to receive his direction from Eve, then there was a time in history when he would have been directionless. And if you think back to Gen 2, it was exactly the time when God was bringing the animals before Adam to have them name to demonstrate Adam’s authority over creation. Adam realized that he was lacking a helper, but it wasn’t to have one with authority over him. When God brought Eve to Adam, Adam named her as well.

The second historic reason references what happened in Gen 3, the events of the Fall of mankind into sin. Paul observes that Eve was utterly deceived by the serpent and his false teaching. Paul even uses two different forms of the original word in verse 14 to emphasize that Eve was utterly deceived. It wasn’t that she was mentally inferior to the man; it was that she was deceived in doctrine.

By contrast, Adam was not deceived about what he was doing when he took and ate the fruit; he entered sin with full awareness that he was violating God’s mandate, even if he did not fully understand the consequence of that violation. What happened, if you think about it, is that Adam allowed Eve to exercise leadership over him by taking, eating, and giving him the fruit to eat. The roles that God had designed were inverted.

Application

Ladies you are to engage in worship with proper demeanor, a demeanor of quiet submission to the teaching of the male leaders in the church. Now, outwardly I do not see any problem in this area in our church. I do, though, want to challenge you to examine your hearts. Do you have an inward struggle with this principle? Has the cry of our society that this is not right seeped into your thinking so that you inwardly chafe at this divine restriction. If so, then I would urge you to admit your struggle to God and ask Him to help you yield to His pattern.

Transition:

Women are to be well-behaved in worship. That means engaging in worship with proper demeanor. Third, women are to…

C. Engage in worship with proper evidence

Verse 15 is a notoriously difficult verse to understand. Where the NASB has translated “will be preserved” most versions translate “will be saved” since that is the word that Paul uses. Yet how can women be saved in childbearing? Does the bearing of children provide evidence that a woman is worshipping correctly? That certainly makes no sense. We all certainly know plenty of single godly women and married women who do not have children, don’t we?

Now, there are several ways that this first phrase of verse 15 is explained but I actually think that itis not giving the evidence that I am referring to in this third point; rather it is completing the 2nd historical illustration of the Fall. Eve was deceived, but lest we conclude from that that she could not be saved, Paul adds this clarification. I will not take time this evening to review all the various suggestions that have been given by church leaders over the centuries; there are too many. I am just going to give what I believe is the most likely explanation for what Paul means by this phrase and then move on to the proper evidence that he points to in the end of the verse.

There are two grammatical elements in this phrase that are important, but hard to see in our English translations. First, the verb “will be saved” is singular. It is inaccurate to translate it, as the NASB does by supplying “women” as the subject. The translations should be “he will be saved” or “she will be saved” with the context making it clear that “she will be saved” is correct because “the woman,” Eve, is who is to be supplied as the subject like the KJV and the ESV do. Secondly, there is an article before “childbearing”; it is “the childbearing.” What Paul is throwing in here is the idea that “the women being deceived, fell into transgression but she will be saved through the childbearing.” Well, when we think about Eve, there is one significant Child she was promised in the very same chapter in which her Fall is recorded—the Child who would bruise the head of the serpent while His heel was bruised—the promise in Scripture of the Savior. Eve was deceived, but she will be saved through the same Savior that Paul is so focused on ensuring is properly proclaimed to others.

So if the evidence that a woman should have as part of her life when she engages in worship is NOT childbearing, then what is it? It is the three things listed at the end of the verse: faith, love, and sanctity with self-restraint. Paul couldn’t end the thoughts of the paragraph focused on Eve; he had to open it back up to all women. All Christian women are to engage in worship, but to do that they need these three things in their lives because these three things provided evidence that they are truly saved. They are to have professed faith in Jesus Christ. They are to have love for others rather than themselves. They are to live as if they are set apart for holiness as demonstrated by personal self-restraint.

Application

Think about these three things in comparison to the angry women we see so often on television, promoting themselves and whatever cause they have aligned themselves with. A Christian woman engaging in worship of her great God through her glorious Savior should have a completely different life; there should be evidence that she is not like the unsaved women of the world. Ladies, do you have this evidence in your life? You are to engage in worship with proper evidence—evidence that you are a believer.

Transition from body to conclusion:

Much like men, women are to be well-behaved in worship. Well-behaved means that you will engage in worship with proper adornment, with proper demeanor, and with proper evidence. This is necessary because God is concerned with our behavior surrounding our worship.

CONCLUSION

God is concerned with our behavior surrounding our worship.

As I said at the outset, much like young children being take to an important event, Paul has given us the talk tonight; he has given us the talk about how we are to engage in worship because it is imperative that we are on our best-behavior when we worship our God. There are matters of behavior that are specific to both men and women. Tonight, both of us have been challenged regarding our behavior. Let’s examine ourselves and make whatever changes the Spirit has revealed to us as necessary in our lives. It is time to straighten up—God is watching.

God is concerned with our behavior surrounding our worship.