Note: I’m indebted to Ray Stedman for the title of this sermon - it was just too good to pass up!
Read 1 Timothy 2:8-15 (NIV)
Questions to ask:
1. Should this be applied universally for all believers at all times?
2. Is it a complete handbook for church behavior?
3. Was Paul a chauvinist?
4. Should I quit while I¡¦m ahead?
Two potential dangers:
1. Ignore the cultural context and apply this passage too literally.
2. Over-emphasize the cultural context and miss the principles
CONTEXT
- Overall purpose of Paul’s letter
Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
1 Timothy 3:14, 15 (NIV)
- Immediate context of this passage
Beginning in 1 Timothy 2:1, Paul is addressing the conduct in public worship, particularly as it deals with public prayer. NIV is not a real good translation of v.9. Literally it should read, "Likewise, I want women to dress modestly..." Likewise refers back to v. 8 where Paul is addressing the role of men in the public worship gatherings of the church. It’s important to understand that all of Chapter 2 deals with how various people are to conduct themselves in the public worship of the church.
- Cultural context
Jewish women were forbidden to learn the law. In the synagogue, they could have no part in the service ¡V they were seated in a separate section or in a gallery. Women could not teach in a school. Jewish men would pray and thank God that He had not made them ¡§ a Gentile, a slave, or a woman.¡¨
The temple of Diana in Ephesus had hundreds of priestesses who were "sacred prostitutes" that plied their trade every evening on the city streets. Respectable Greek women led a very confined life. They lived in their own quarters into which no one but their husbands were allowed. They could not appear in public alone.
Overall, Paul is not putting women down or relegating them to some unimportant role in the body. In fact, we’ll see this morning that he is actually elevating the position of women far above the culture of his time in much the same way that Jesus Himself had done during His earthly ministry.
Six issues regarding women in the public worship of the church
1. Their appearance
I also want women to dress modestly, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes...
1 Timothy 2:9 (NIV)
The word for "to dress" is the Greek word from which we get our word "cosmetic". It is a word that means "to make ready" or "to put in order". Women (and men for that matter) are to make themselves ready or put themselves in order before the public worship time and part of that preparation has to do with putting on appropriate clothing.
I once heard Phyllis Diller say that she spent three hours in a beauty shop - and that was just for the estimate!
Paul moves from the general principle - women are to dress modestly - to more specific instructions about hair, jewelry and clothing. The issue was not those items themselves, but the fact that in the culture of Ephesus of that day, women wore elaborate hairstyles, fancy jewelry and expensive clothing to call attention to themselves. I guess some things never change. The other problem was that the temple prostitutes often dressed in that way and Paul wanted to make sure that no one would associate the women in the worship service with those women.
Principle:
Dress in a way that does not distract from the worship and call attention to self.
There are some women who have taken this passage and gone to the other extreme. They don’t wear any makeup or fix their hair and they dress kind of frumpily as if somehow that would make them appear more "spiritual". In effect, they are really violating the principle by just calling attention to themselves in a different way.
2. Their attitude
...with decency and propriety...
1 Timothy 2:9 (NIV)
The idea here is that a woman is humble and self-controlled. She would not desire to do anything that would distract others from worshiping God.
3. Their testimony
...but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.
1 Timothy 2:10 (NIV)
A woman who truly loves God will behave in a way that is consistent with her professed faith. That includes holding to God’s design for the role of women in the church:
4. Their role
A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.
1 Timothy 2:11, 12 (NIV)
In the Greek, it is clear here that Paul is commanding that the women are to be taught in the church. A more literal translation would be:
"Let a woman receive...instruction...
As I’ve already pointed out, that was an incredible instruction given the cultural role of the women of that day. However, it appears that some women had overreacted to such suppression by seeking a dominant position and becoming disruptive to the public worship of the church.
Paul had previously addressed a similar situation in the church in Corinth:
women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.
1 Corinthians 14:35, 25 (NIV)
First of all, it is quite clear that Paul is not saying that women can never be teachers within the body of believers. For example:
Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
Titus 2:3-5 (NIV)
He [Apollos] began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.
Acts 18:26 (NIV)
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 3:14, 15 (NIV)
Secondly, neither Paul, nor the New Testament in general, treat women as spiritually inferior. Jesus first revealed His Messiahship to a woman; he healed women; was ministered to by women; He first revealed himself to a woman after His resurrection.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28 (NIV)
However, spiritual equality does not preclude different roles. In verse 11 Paul lays out the general principle - women are to learn in quietness and full submission. Then in verse 12, he interprets what he means. A more literal translation of v. 12 would be "I do not permit a woman to be a teacher". In other words, Paul is not prohibiting women from teaching under appropriate circumstances, but he is prohibiting a woman from holding the authoritative role of "teacher" within the local body.
He also prohibits a woman from exercising authority over men. Because of the parallel construction of the sentence, Paul seems to be specifically addressing authority as it relates to the role of the teacher in the public worship of the church. Taken together, the general principle seems to be that women are not to fulfill the role of the authoritative teacher as it relates to the doctrine of a local church body. That role is specifically reserved for the elders of the church, as we will see more clearly the next two weeks. And as we’ll also see, the Bible is very clear that only men are eligible to be elders.
This interpretation of women as being excluded from eldership is confirmed by one incontrovertible fact: There were, in the New Testament, no women apostles and no women elders! Jesus could have settled this controversy at the very beginning by appointing Mary Magdalene as an apostle, but he did not do so. Neither Paul, nor any of the apostles, ever chose a woman to be an elder of the churches they founded, though they could easily have done so if it were right. There were many godly and capable women available, but none was ever put in the office of elder.
Many of the comments you read on this passage will make it appear that Paul is prohibiting women from this kind of authoritative teaching only because of the cultural patterns of that day. That is not true. Paul says there are things that stem right from creation that are different about men and women, and which have application to this problem here.
5. Their design
For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.
1 Timothy 2:13, 14 (NIV)
These verses make it clear that Paul’s instruction in the previous verses is not merely a matter of culture. His instruction is based on the divine order that God established at creation.
The word "first" in verse 13 is a word that means "first or chief in order".
Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God¡ for man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.
1 Corinthians 11:3, 8, 9 (NIV)
Adam and Eve had an ideal marriage. He didn’t have to hear about all the men she could have married, and she didn’t have to hear about the way his mother cooked.
At that time God performed the first surgical operation, complete with anesthesia. He put Adam to sleep and took a rib from his side, made of it a woman, and brought her to Adam. The first word Adam said was, "At last!" (Men have been saying that about tardy women ever since!) But what Adam meant, of course, was, "Finally, I have found that which completes me, corresponds to me, is equal with me, is sent to help me fulfill the task which God has given me to do."
Top 10 Reasons God created Eve:
10. God worried that Adam would be lost in the Garden of Eden because he wouldn’t ask for directions.
9. God knew that someday Adam would need someone to hand him the TV remote. (It has been noted that men don’t want to see what’s ON TV; they want to see WHAT ELSE is on.)
8. God knew that Adam would never make a doctor’s appointment.
7. God knew that when Adam’s fig leaf wore out, he would never buy a new one for himself.
6. God knew that Adam would not remember to take out the garbage.
5. God wanted man to be fruitful and multiply, but he knew Adam would never be able to handle labor pains and childbirth.
4. As "keeper of the garden," Adam would need help in finding his tools.
3. Adam needed someone to blame for the Apple Incident, and for anything else that was really his fault.
2. As the Bible says: "It is not good for man to be alone."
And the No. 1 reason of all:
1. God stepped back, looked at Adam, and declared: "I can do better than that."
Paul’s second argument comes also from the difference created in nature. He says, "Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a sinner." Paul implies that the reason woman was deceived was because her nature made her more vulnerable in this area.
After the fall in Garden of Eden, Adam was walking with his sons Cain and Abel. They passed by the ruins of the Garden of Eden. One of the boys asked, "What’s that?" Adam replied, "Boys, that’s where your mother ate us out of house and home."
We ought to remember that Adam was more culpable, he was a worse sinner than Eve, because, not being deceived, he still deliberately sinned, while Eve thought she was doing the right thing, something which would benefit her husband and herself. The apostle seizes on this as an indication of a difference between man and woman, suggesting that this is not a matter of inferiority at all, rather, it is just a difference.
6. Their contribution
But women will be saved through childbearing - if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.
1 Timothy 2:15 (NIV)
Literal translation:
But she will be saved through the childbearing, if they remain in faith and love and holiness accompanied by self-control.
She = Eve
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.
Genesis 3:15 (NIV)
They = Christian women in general
The primary contribution of Christian women in the church is to exhibit, faith, love, holiness and self-control, which frankly they often do much better than men. Even though they may not take on the role of leaders, they are equal in the eyes of God when it comes to salvation, spiritual gifts and the ability to serve within the local church.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
- Women are not given the role of final decision on doctrinal issues. They are not to be the authoritative teachers of the church.
- Women may teach and pray as part of the public worship of the church as long as they do it under the authority of the elders
