I got a question from River next kids that reads like this… Is God he, she, or both?
I want you to try something for me. Get up. Now walk forwards five steps. Stop! Okay now walk backwards five steps. Stop! Good job! Now, I want you to walk forward and backwards five steps at the same time. What’s wrong? Yeah, it was a trick wasn’t it? You can’t walk forward and backwards at the same time. There are many things in the world that are either this or that, but not both. One of those things is that you can either be a boy or a girl, you cannot be both. It’s also true that you are always going to be either a boy or a girl you can’t change. God decided to make you what you are and he is never going to change his mind. I’ll tell you something else that is very important. God made men to be fathers and women to be mothers. Of course, you already knew that, but I want to make sure you remember that this was God’s good plan and no one will ever have a better plan than God does. Boys and girls, fathers and mothers, are equally special to God. If God made you a boy you should be very happy about that. If God made you a girl, you should be very happy about that too! But what about God, we know that he is a spirit so he doesn’t have a boy or a girl body, so what is he? Your question is very good; you asked what is he? You are right, God is a “he”. Being a man or a woman, a boy or a girl means God made your body a very special way. It also means he made you in a very special way on the inside, in your heart. Boys have a boy bodies and they also have boy hearts and minds. Girls have girl bodies and they also have girl hearts and minds. God doesn’t have a body, but he is a male. He is our father and his heart and mind are the heart and mind of a father. This doesn’t mean boys are better than girls, God made both. Both boys and girls together help us understand more about who God is. God is our good, good father and he loves us very much whether we are a boy or we are a girl.
Thanks be to God for how he has designed men and women…I am so grateful, at a very personal level.
My wife is the best person I have ever known…I would know…I live with her…I watch her.
No one has been used by God more than her to shape my life.
We have been married 43 years, we are frustrated by our differences, and we thrive and delight in those same differences.
Early on in our marriage, her mom was concerned that I was trying to turn her into a female version of me.
First of all, that sounds absolutely terrible…to be married to a female me.
Second, my wife is too just strong for that nonsense.
She is sweet…but make no mistake…she has plenty of grit…she is her own person.
That grit was a big part of what attracted me to her.
But I do understand her mom’s concern…the fact is, we were both becoming more like each other…and that has proven to be a good thing…that’s kind of the point of the whole thing.
While her mom was concerned that she was becoming more like me…my mom, well, she was thrilled that I was becoming more like Christy…and less like me.
We complement each other in more ways than I can imagine…God’s design is good, very good.
Let’s go to our passage in 1 Timothy, I will read starting in 2:8
Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument. Also, the women are to dress themselves in modest clothing, with decency and good sense, not with elaborate hairstyles, gold, pearls, or expensive apparel, but with good works, as is proper for women who profess to worship God. A woman is to learn quietly with full submission. I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; instead, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed. But she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with good sense.
Let’s get a review of the context.
Paul is mentoring a young pastor named Timothy.
Timothy is prone to timidity, and he faces many different challenges to good theology and good order in the church…both in their gathered worship and their lives outside of it.
Heresy is an idea disfunction
Disorder is a practice disfunction
Both types of disfunction undermine the church’s mission, they undermine the gospel.
Paul began chapter two with the importance of prayer in corporate worship…prayer that would impact evangelism and mission.
Paul is focused on worship as a community…but every application in “here” has application out “there.”
If fact, we do things in here…in order that they would become who we are to be…out there.
Scripture has much to say, all negative, about those whose worship and lives do not match.
The prophets said that God was disgusted with worship that did not show up in everyday life…character, purity, treating others well, honesty at work, etc.
So, if you are thinking…”We are going to spend all this time in a book about a church service?”
You misunderstand the nature and purpose of gathered worship.
Paul wrote: “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.”
Romans 12
Where and when does that kind of worship happen? Everywhere, all the time.
We train in here…for how we live out there.
God wants our worship…he doesn’t need it.
We need to worship…it is shaping us.
Our worship in here and out there…has to be pleasing to God.
1. In line with truth…sound doctrine
2. In line with order…sound practice
Last year’s theme verse comes from 1 Timothy.
Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. 4:16
Let’s work through our passage…before we do I want to give some of my rules of engagement.
1. I am not going to talk about the sometimes helpful and sometimes not helpful…labels…egalitarian and complementarian…. they are on a spectrum too wide to be helpful in a single sermon…if you don’t know what they mean…its fine.
*We are fully complementarian…but that’s enough said about that.
Let’s let Paul speak for himself, as much as we can, using his own words.
2. I have studied this passage pretty exhaustively…I’ve read a number of books, commentaries…one entire book on just this passage.
I’m not saying that to say that I know it all…I don’t.
My point is I have come to settled conclusions on these matters…I’m 67, I’ve studied this a long time…I am not undecided, or still deciding…I am fully decided.
What this means practically is that I am going to tell you what I believe Paul IS saying and the implications…I am not going to talk about all the different things that Paul is NOT saying.
*That’s what commentaries are for…If you want a good one, I really like..
The Letters to Timothy and Titus: the Pillar New Testament commentary…Yarborough
If you want a single good book, written by a female theologian, my favorite is:
God’s Good Design: What the Bible Really says about men and women.
By Claire Smith…she has a PhD in New Testament.
By the way, the people doing some the best work in the biblical study of women in ministry are female theologians. I will give a couple of more at the end.
Now, let’s jump in…Paul first gives two examples of worship disfunction.
1. Two examples of worship disfunction:
They are in verses 8-10
(Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument. 9 Also, the women are to dress themselves in modest clothing, with decency and good sense, not with elaborate hairstyles, gold, pearls, or expensive apparel, 10 but with good works, as is proper for women who profess to worship God. )
Paul is addressing dysfunctional internal dispositions, heart issues, that show up in external forms of disorder.
He begins with “Therefore”…so he is not introducing a new topic he is refreshing the point that began this chapter.
He said at the beginning of the chapter…
“I urge then, first of all”…so this is still about priorities in worship.
When he says…”In every place” means that this is what should be true for every congregation not just Timothy’s church.
First, fellas…pray…lift up holy hands…without anger or argument.
This doesn’t mean women should not pray in worship…he knows that they will and they do…he says so in 1 Corinthians 11.
He is pointing out a particular point of weakness that affects men’s prayer…anger.
Lifting up holy hands is an OT image of godly men imploring God with arms lifted to heaven.
Aaron, Ezra, David…did this.
You can literally lift your hands…I sometimes do, but I usually don’t.
It is about our heart posture to God, not what we do with our physical hands.
He calls them “Holy hands”…we don’t literal have holy hands…but we can have holy hearts.
Holy means that the heart is right…the hands lifted imply the lesser submitting to the greater.
“Without anger” communicates what should be obvious…anger and disputing (argument) signal hearts that are far from God.
Jesus said in Matt 5:23-24 “If you are offering a gift in worship and remember that your brother or sister had something against you…go make it right with them…then come back and continue in worship.”
“Oh God, I worship you, I give my life for you…here is my offering to you…”
God’s response is: “Yea, I can’t hear you…all I can hear is the anger and unforgiveness in your heart.”
“Go get right with them, then come back and try this again.”
Angry men, argumentative men…leading churches is a terrible thing to behold…I’ve seen it.
This disputing and arguing is mostly about men wanting to be right.
Both the need to be right and the corresponding anger are fueled by their pride.
AND
Pride is the opposite of worship.
He’s not saying that women don’t get angry…he is illustrating a heart challenge that tends to trend, in his experience, more male than female.
In my experience as well.
How many road rage incidents have you read of that are initiated by women? Not many.
In my own marriage, Christy tends to get sad and I tend to get mad about things…you can get mad…but not very often.
Even when I am sad, I most am often sad-mad…she is usually just sad-sad.
And, I am ashamed to say…I often overreact because I usually want to be right…this is in me, it’s been a lifetime of Christ working to change it.
But imagine what happens to men…who just give themselves over to this anger and the need to be right…and what happens to these churches who are given over to these men?
That’s Paul’s warning.
Second, ladies…watch your hearts in worship…do not be overly concerned with your appearance.
Again, men and women can both get angry…but he is pointing out what he has seen as a pattern.
He is not saying woman are vain and men are never…he is pointing out a pattern, in women that can undermine worship…the pattern is vanity, the problem is still the heart.
Paul is very concerned that they get this right…both men and women…because as he wrote in Gal. 5:9, “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”
A few key angry men and a few key vanity obsessed women…will set the whole culture of the church in a wrong direction…this is not petty stuff.
Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, Guard your heart…from it flow all the issues of life.”
This is foundational, bottom-line stuff…it is the heart…everything, good and bad, start there.
Paul is not saying women should dress in burkas or that underdressing is godly.
He is saying that women are just as responsible for their impact on worship as men are.
The point of worship is to prioritize God…to make much of him.
When men are angry and demanding and trying to be right…or women are dressing to draw attention to themselves…this is the opposite of worship…it is about self.
“Look at God” is worship.
“Look at me” is not.
There is no style of dress that is “godly”…there are some that are clearly ungodly.
Styles differ through the years and in different cultures…that’s not the point.
In Paul’s context “women” would be females of age…for that culture, where women often married in their early teens it would be similar to those who are in here on a Sunday…around 6th grade and older.
These women of age were to dress in ways that don’t undermine worship.
Again…he is not saying that men should dress inappropriately…he would think that should be obvious…and it wasn’t likely to happen in that culture.
He gives three examples: Hair styles, jewelry and luxurious dress.
The list is not an exhaustive list…any more than the only thing that men could do wrong is “be angry or argumentative”
So, it representative not exhaustive.
He is focused on hearts at worship…and the kinds of things that can go wrong.
Paul is not demonizing fashion.
A person could just as easily dress like a slob in worship with the intention that everyone would notice them.
The point of dress and demeaner in worship is so that we do not highlight ourselves…we must highlight God.
If I am going to speak at an event…I always ask what the dress is, not so that I won’t be uncool (I do prefer to not feel out of place, so to be honest…not looking dumb is a factor)…but I mostly ask so that I won’t stand out in my appearance.
I want the message I present to make an impact and not be diminished by how I dress or act.
You could really go wrong in this by over or under dressing.
Paul hones on this fact but saying how he does want women to “dress”…he wants them to be clothed in “good deeds”
Of course, we know enough about Paul to know this has nothing to do with earning salvation…it has everything to do with lives that honor God.
Men are to bring “holy hands” not angry hearts to worship.
Women are to “bring lives focused on loving others” not hearts caught up in appearance.
Let’s to verse 11
2. Women must be allowed to be learners
11 A woman is to learn quietly with full submission.
The priority in gathered worship is the teaching of the Word of God.
Paul takes seriously each woman’s importance as a learner.
This is different from some Jewish traditions and many Muslim traditions that exclude women from learning.
A. Allowed: In the Greek is an imperative “Let a woman learn.”
Timothy, was to see to that the woman who seeks to learn is able to do so.
B. “Quietly” doesn’t mean “shut up!”
The same word is used in 1 Thess 4:11
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
1 Thess 4:11
Clearly Paul didn’t mean that they should not never speak in church…but to pay attention to factors that will lead to order and Christ being honored.
C. Full submission:
This is not saying every woman is to submit to every man…that is ridiculous.
It doesn’t mean that any woman is to submit in everything to any man…even a husband.
In the military, members swear to obey the orders of those over them…what is not said, but is clear…is that this means to obey every lawful order.
We are never to disobey God, in any circumstance…it doesn’t matter who is compelling us to do so.
One translation tries to get at the heart of Paul’s meaning with this,
“Let a woman receive training in a quiet demeanor with complete respect for order.”
The flow of the text is that women are to submit to the word being taught and to the God who stands behind the word.
Submission is a common Christian response in Scripture:
-All things will ultimately submit to Christ (Eh. 1:22, PHil 3;21)
-The church submits to Christ as the head (Eph 5:24)
-Christ will submit to God the Father (1 Cor. 15:27-28)
-We all submit to one another
Submission is not unique to women; it applies to everyone depending on the context.
Submission is clearly not a bad thing, Christ does it.
Let’s go on to verse 12.
12 I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; instead, she is to remain quiet.
3. What is Paul not saying, what is he saying?
He is not saying women are not competent to teach or that they may never teach.
He encourages women to teach other women and Children (Titus 2:3-5, Eph 6:1)
He commends the instruction Pastor Timothy received from his mother and grandmother (2 Tim. 1:5, 3:14-15)
He urges all believers to teach and encourage one another. (Col. 3:16)
Women were active in church services with prayer and prophecy (1 cor. 11, 14)
These are not the things that Paul is addressing in our passage.
It is a certain sort of teaching in gathered Christian community that is reserved for a male, the Pastor.
Claire Smith was being interviewed by a non-Christian reporter.
She was asked if there were any verses in the bible to support her position that women ought not to be ordained pastors.
Claire gave her 1 Tim 2:11,12.
The reporter wrote it down and quoted them back to Clair.
“That’s what it says?” She asked…looking puzzled.
“Yes, that’s what it says” Clair replied.
The reporter said, “Well what’s the argument about then? I would’ve thought if that’s what it says that settles it?”
The reporter put the verses on the screen that night on her television report, she thought they were self-explanatory.
Now the role of preaching in the gathered community is not just reserved for men, it is reserved for what Paul calls qualified men…called and gifted by God.
Not every man is called by God or qualified to serve in the role of pastor…more on that when we get there later in this book.
Let’s go on…Paul gives the reasons for this command
13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed.
Paul starts with the fact of temporal order… he just gives the plain reading of Genesis.
“Here’s what happened”…he says.
Adam is the firstborn and he has the responsibilities that go with that fact.
The first reason is creation order…this is how God did it…the assumption, he did it like this on purpose…he had his reasons.
The second reason is what happened when God’s ideal was disobeyed…Eve took it on herself to doubt God’s word…she took the lead, sinned, and then she lead Adam into sin.
Eve was deceived and disobeyed.
Adam was passive and disobeyed.
But how can Adam sin without being deceived?
He was, but she was first…and he foolishly, passively, followed.
Adam is still held responsible for human sin: God approaches him first in the garden and then Eve.
And in the NT overall, original sin is booked to Adam’s, not Eve’s account.
Paul’s point is that male spiritual leadership is justified in a pre-fall world, and a post-fall world.
It is God’s design.
This is more about practical than cosmic advice for Timothy in all this..
Tim is not sitting around in a first century Starbucks reading Paul’s blog posts…he is on the front lines trying to survive and lead a church…in a hostile culture.
Hostile both inside and outside the church.
He is trying to deal with some charismatic knuckleheads and trying to lead his church faithfully.
Paul’s instructions are about worship order…for the good of the gospel.
For the good of everyone in the church.
Pastoral leaders, who were to be men…are to preach and lead the church.
Everyone, men and women alike, he will later tell Titus…are to be peaceable, considerate to each other.
In this scenario the church will be a place where all can become more like Christ…including women…as Timothy sees to it that they can learn.
He is promoting, not demoting women to a place of full discipleship.
Paul says nothing about women’s capabilities…he simply says based on Creation order and actual history…God’s design is that the participation and contribution of women is different in the church from those of men.
Again, some men, not even all men…those men qualified as scripture outlines.
Finally, that mysterious verse 15.
15 But she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with good sense.
There are several views on this verse by people who take Scripture seriously…again, I’ll give you just the one I find most plausible.
I think it ties into the principle found in 1 Tim. 4:16, “Watch your life and doctrine closely, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
Of course, Paul didn’t believe that Tim could actually save his hearers, only Jesus can do that.
But by faithfully discharging the duties of his ministry…teaching and living the truth of the gospel…Tim would be ensuring that neither he nor those he led would depart from the truth and shipwreck their faith.
This is about right column living…be faithful…believe, teach, live the truth.
Likewise, Paul is not talking about childbirth as a means of salvation for women.
Childbearing is the most distinct difference in the responsibilities and privileges of men and women.
Childbearing is a part of continuing in faith and love…it is one of the good works, one unique to women, that was under threat.
We will see this later in this book…some were forbidding marriage…turning singleness and sexual abstinence into a kind of super spirituality.
Paul will encourage marriage…it has been the normal course for most people in history…as bearing children has been.
Cleary this is God’s design…otherwise we would have gone extinct long ago.
Some heresies undermined the physical body, marriage, sex…denying God’s plan.
Now it is more about idolizing the body and sex…and undermining the majesty of childbirth.
This is causing many problems worldwide…as people, individually and entire governments think they are smarter than God.
In 1968, Paul and Ann Ehrlich published a book called “The Population Bomb. ”
It predicted imminent, widespread famine and societal collapse due to population growth, they advocated for urgent population control measures.
It was widely believed and was based entirely on junk science…which is not science at all.
Everything in the book was wrong.
As it has been said, “Ideas have consequences, bad ideas have victims.”
The real problem, as it turns out, is the looming under population crisis.
What Paul is saying here is that a women’s faith is kept safe as she lives within her God-given female responsibilities…play your role, be faithful.
There was surely also some real comfort for women in a time…were they usually married in their early teens, and were grandmothers in their early 30s.
Around 50% of children died by age 6 and female life expectancy was mid-20’s to early thirties.
Women commonly died during or shortly after childbirth.
While Paul was not saying…”Trust Jesus and you won’t die in childbirth.”
He was saying…”Walk in obedient faith as a women… you will be saved…trust Christ, whether you live or die.”
“Now, go be a women…play the role God has given you.”
Of course there were and there are those who do not marry because of God’s good purposes for their lives.
And there are those who are married but childless…many not by their own choice.
The application is the same…be faithful in what God has given you…watch your life and doctrine closely…you will save both yourself and you will impact those around you for the gospel.
A few practical points in conclusion.
1. There is much more that can and needs to be done than preaching on Sunday’s…both by men and women.
My calling to pastoral ministry was something I fought against for years, it was literally the last thing I wanted to do.
But it became clear that this was my calling and God gave me the gifts and opportunities and training…necessary to live out my calling.
*Clearly I am not called by God to lead worship, if so he failed to give the requisite gifts.
-Or, “Terry, you didn’t practice.”
-That’s true, but practice or not…I assure you that I lack the gifting.
I’m okay with that.
There is nothing more special about my calling as a pastors than yours, in whatever you do…all Christians are called to full-time discipleship; all have the same great commission…all have the same responsibility…BE FOUND FAITHFUL.
2. A summary of my conviction about women in ministry is this:
-Women can serve in any role in the church except for positions of spiritual authority over heads of houses…adult men.
-This means, every position except for elder/pastor…and in our church of around 800 there are just a handful of those who are in this role.
The real pointy tip of the spear in the church is front lines ministry of the gospel in life-on-life settings.
I speak up here 30 minutes a week…you live out there, 168 hours in a week….in those hours you have opportunity to walk with God, to see God moving and join him.
Someday I will stop speaking from here, but I will never, as long as I have breath stop doing the most important work of the church…evangelism and discipleship.
Scripture tells me that my main job is to equip you to do the work of the ministry.
I am not diminishing the importance of preaching…God uses it to shape us.
But truth be told…I pump the gas, you go fly the planes…the real, important work of the gospel is personal and portable.
It is who you are, wherever you go
I will finish with two quotes from two female theologians.
Monica Rose Brennan,
First Timothy 2:9–15 is one of my favorite Scriptures in all of God’s Word. There is so much in this passage that, when understood in context and applied to our lives, can literally change our perspectives and behaviors.
It addresses biblical principles specifically pertaining to women that are so important!
These unchanging principles guide a Christian woman to walk in her true identity (femininity), principles such as modesty, propriety, teachability, submission, respect to God’s order, authority, and proper conduct in the church and the home.
First Timothy 2:9–15 clearly fits with the rest of Scripture.
Paul highlights this reality by taking the reader back to the Genesis 1–3
One of the many beautiful things about this passage is that Paul refers not only to the creation order (Adam first, then Eve) but to the creation disorder as well (Eve taking on Adam’s unique role and Adam taking on Eve’s unique role).
Through Scripture interpreting Scripture, we see the importance of God’s design before and after the fall.
Finally, Mary Kassian writes
If seen through the human lens of sinfulness and abuse, the woman’s design as “helper” might indeed seem inferior—until one notes that God uses the same word for himself.
Is God inferior because a facet of his own being is to function as “helper”?
As modern women, we face the same test as Eve, and the test is as relevant in the church today as in the garden long ago. Can we trust God and his design for man and woman? If not, we will inevitably abuse that design or abdicate it.
Christy please come pray for us.