WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THAT?! On first reading, there’s plenty in these verses to raise eyebrows.
- 1 Timothy 2:11-15.
THREE APPROACHES TO THESE VERSES:
- These are not the only three possibilities, but I would argue that they are the three most prominent.
1. ARGUMENT #1: This Bible teaching is binding for all Christians in all eras.
- Acts 18:26; 1 Corinthians 11:5; 1 Corinthians 14:34.
- The idea is that you should take the plain and obvious meaning of the text as the binding instruction for all Christians throughout church history (including today).
- This would obviously mean that it would be something that would be binding for us today and that our church should be enforcing this belief.
- Priscilla and Aquila instructed, but privately (Acts 18:26).
- 1 Corinthians 11:5 and 1 Corinthians 14:34 speak of women praying and speaking, but not in church.
- GREATEST STRENGTH: It is a simple and straightforward way to read the Bible.
- There is beauty in simplicity. In this case, you just take what the Scripture says and obey it. It may not be easy, but it’s not complicated.
- GREATEST WEAKNESS: If you’re going to argue that here, then it’s true for other difficult passages.
- 1 Corinthians 11:2-16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 1 Timothy 2:12.
- In this passage, many conservative Christians like the idea that a woman should not the authority to teach and preach. They’ll proudly proclaim that they believe that in keeping with “clear teaching of Scripture.” But that same verse also says that women should keep silent in church. If you’re going to say that you’re just taking the words in a straightforward manner, then you have to take all of it in that manner. But there are a lot more preachers talking about women shouldn’t preach (an acceptable idea in many circles) than that women should be silent in church (an acceptable idea almost nowhere).
- Another example: in places like 1 Corinthians 16:20, the believers are told to greet each other with a holy kiss. Yet I don’t know of any churches that do that.
- Another example: in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, it clearly teaches that women should wear a head covering. (It also teaches that all women should have long hair.) Yet I don’t know of many churches where the women are wearing head coverings.
2. ARGUMENT #2: Some Bible teaching is only binding for the Christians of that era.
- Matthew 28:9; Acts 15:1-29; 1 Corinthians 7:10, 12; 1 Timothy 2:12.
- This means it would have been binding for all Christians back in that day.
- Let me share a phrase that’s going to be important from here on out: “reading over their shoulder.” To use the book we’re in tonight as an example look with me at 1 Timothy 1:2. The words of this book of the Bible were written to Timothy from Paul. We are “reading over Timothy’s shoulder,” as it were, at a letter that was actually written to him.
- If Connie received a letter from Bill and was sitting here reading it, I could (hopefully with her permission) sit behind her and read that letter “over her shoulder.” The letter is addressed to her, but I’m reading it. As I’m reading it, there are things that I can learn from it, but the fact remains that I’m reading over someone else’s shoulder.
- The Bible is like that in that we are reading letters addressed to someone else. In this case, we are reading over Timothy’s shoulder.
- Now, I fully recognize that this is the way that God desired to give us His Word. I’m in no way denying that. This was the form He chose. But as we read, we do need to recognize the form of what we’re reading and the context that it was written in.
- Someone making this argument would note that 1 Timothy 2:12 begins “I do not permit. . ..” Rather than being binding teaching that’s eternal, perhaps this is a part of the letter that is Paul’s teaching for that day.
- Something similar to 1 Corinthians 7:10 and 12 where Paul specifically differentiates between what teaching is specifically from the Lord and what teaching is just his opinion.
- Another example is in Acts 15:1-29 where it was decided that normal Jewish custom would not be binding on the new Christian believers.
- A final thought on this front: Christ put women in a high place in his ministry, especially in light of the lack of respect they generally received. Matthew 28:9 is one passage that notes that women were the first to hear the news of the resurrection of Jesus.
- GREATEST STRENGTH: It provides a way to handle some peculiar and challenging passages.
- 1 Corinthians 11:2-16; 1 Corinthians 16:20.
- Probably the greatest strength of this line of thought is it allows us a way to deal with these peculiar and challenging passages.
- Going back to the two I’ve earlier referenced: the holy kiss and head coverings for women. This allows a way to deal with that: this was teaching that was relevant to the churches in Paul’s day, but that is not binding on us today. It’s a moment when we’re “reading over the shoulder” of the first-century believers and we’re not expected to do everything that is in there. Some things were specific to the day and time of Paul’s writing.
- GREATEST WEAKNESS: It could open the door to easily dismissing passages just because you don’t like them.
- Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 11:2-16.
- The greatest weakness of this view is that it can easily open the door to dismissing passages just because you don’t like them.
- Let me give an example.
- In Romans 1:26-27, Paul argues that homosexuality is sin. Many dismiss that passage (and similar passages) as cultural in nature and not binding on us today. They’ll argue that in Romans 1 Paul says this behavior is a sin against nature (“unnatural relations;” “natural relations”) and conservative Christians argue that’s binding for today, yet in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 Paul’s argument is essentially that the natural order of things is that women should wear head coverings and we dismiss that.
- Why have we held onto the one and quickly dismissed the other? You could argue that it’s because it’s our pre-existing opinion that homosexuality is a sin and our pre-existing opinion that women shouldn’t wear head coverings, so we pick and choose.
- The danger that this creates is simple: we tend to dismiss the passages we don’t like, the passages that don’t agree with our pre-existing line of thinking. Yet often those may be the passages we most need to take in because they offer us a way out of the bound ways of thinking that we bring to the table.
- I’ve found down through the years that it’s often the passages that I’m initially the most turned-off by that I need the most. It’s often the most challenging passages that will bring the greatest spiritual growth if we dwell with it rather than dismissing it.
- That’s not true of every difficult passage, but it is true of many of them.
3. ARGUMENT #3: This Bible teaching is about a specific problem Timothy was dealing with at Ephesus.
- 1 Timothy 1:3.
- This argument is along a similar line as #2, but more limited in scope.
- The argument is this: what is going on in this passage is specific to the situation that Timothy was dealing with at Ephesus and does not give us timeless teaching either for today or even for the first-century.
- The idea is that perhaps Paul’s words were a specific answer to a specific situation. Timothy is in Ephesus because there were people teaching false doctrine (1 Timothy 1:3). As part of that problem, perhaps there were women in the church who were engaging in disruptive behavior as well as affirming heresy. Perhaps Paul’s instructions here have to do with the specifics of the problems Timothy was dealing with. Maybe the instruction for women not to teach arose from the fact that it was women who were teaching the heresy. Maybe the instruction for women to be silent arose from the fact that it was women who were being loudly disruptive in service spouting these heresies.
- GREATEST STRENGTH: We are “reading over their shoulder.”
- Going back to an argument we’ve talked about, we are “reading over their shoulder.” In the letters Paul wrote, it would not be surprising that he didn’t just share general spiritual truth (applicable to all people in all eras), but that he also shared solutions to specific problems that church was dealing with. Some of what we read might be just for that one church at that one time.
- GREATEST WEAKNESS: Paul’s wording makes a broad argument by appealing to the order of creation.
- 1 Timothy 2:13-14.
- One counter to this argument is that Paul invokes a larger argument when he brings up the order of creation: Adam and Eve.
- From this, you could easily make an argument that Paul’s instructions here are for more than just one church at one time.
