Before we begin, I must remind you of the context and purpose of 1 Timothy - Timothy is to oversee the churches in Ephesus, counter the false teachers and fight the Lord's battles. The primary context especially here in chapter 2 is meetings of the believers for worship. Paul must send this reminder because the church at Ephesus, where Timothy has been left to continue the work of ministry, is beset by false teaching (see 1:3). Certain people from within the church have departed from the true teaching of the gospel, have become quarrelsome and argumentative and are propagating doctrines that are erroneous. The false teachers had persuaded many women to follow them in their doctrines (1 Timothy 5:15; 2 Timothy 3:6-7). The false teachers were encouraging women to discard what we might call traditional female roles in favor of a more egalitarian approach to the role relationships of men and women.
(1) I urge you,*first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.
- *first of all: The first priority for believers, especially in their meetings, is to pray - prayers of petition, intercession and thanksgiving on behalf of all people
- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
- Ephesians 6:18: Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
(2) Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.
- The Roman emperors were cruel and wicked men. Nevertheless, Paul instructs the church to pray for God’s blessings upon them. Nero even had his own mother and brothers executed to secure his throne.
- In Paul's day, the Pax Romana made the spread of the gospel easier.
- Pray that leaders will act wisely and that ungodly leaders will be saved - even Nero, even some of our own politicians, some of whom believe the murder of the unborn is just fine.
- Christianity was not yet an illegal religion in the Roman Empire and was still considered a branch of Judaism.
- The prayer would be that there would order and peace so that Christians could meet peaceably, could evangelize without opposition, could conduct their lives without fear. Eventually, the Roman Empire collapsed and "Christianity" became the official religion of both the Eastern and Western Roman Empires.
- One of the debates about the American colonies declaring independence from England was over this very verse and similar scripture such as Romans 13:1-7. Read the Declaration of Independence - it is directed against the king of England:
- ....We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness......The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.....
- Romans 13:1-7: Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished. For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you. The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong. So you must submit to them, not only to avoid punishment, but also to keep a clear conscience. Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid. They are serving God in what they do. Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority.
(3) This is good and pleases God our *Savior,
- *Savior: The emperor was called savior (soter).
(4) who *wants everyone to be saved and to **understand the truth.
- *wants: Greek: thelo. This is God's will or wish, which He does not force on anyone.
- 2 Peter 3:9: The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
- **understand the truth: God wants the believers to know and understand the scripture.
(5) For there is only one God and *one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus.
- *one Mediator:
- Job 9:32-33: “God is not a mortal like me, so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial. If only there were a mediator between us, someone who could bring us together.
- John 14:6: Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
- Acts 4:12: There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
- Galatians 3:19-20: ...God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people. Now a mediator is helpful if more than one party must reach an agreement. But God, who is one, did not use a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham.
- Hebrews 8:6: But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.
- Hebrews 9:15: That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.
- Hebrews 12:24: You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel.
- Prayer offered to the "saints," or to the "Virgin," is idolatry; and, at the same time, removes the one great Mediator from the office which he alone holds, of making intercession with God.
- In Paul's day, the Jews looked to Moses (Galatians 3:19) or angels (Hebrews 2:5) as mediators and the Gnostics looked to intermediary deities (aeons). Roman Catholics and others look to dead "saints" and Mary as mediators and Buddhists look to their ancestors. Verse 5 is clear: the only mediator (go-between) between God and people is Jesus Christ.
(6) He gave his life to *purchase freedom for **everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.
- *purchase freedom: redeem - Greek antilutron.
- Matthew 20:28: For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
- **everyone: The Jews believed that salvation was strictly for them and that it could not be extended to others, unless they became Jews.
(7) And I have been chosen as a preacher and apostle to teach the *Gentiles this message about faith and truth. I’m not exaggerating—just telling the truth.
- *Gentiles:
- Galatians 2:7: Instead, they saw that God had given me the responsibility of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the Jews.
- Romans 11:13: I am saying all this especially for you Gentiles. God has appointed me as the apostle to the Gentiles. I stress this,
- Ephesians 3:1: When I think of all this, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the benefit of you Gentiles . . .
- 2 Timothy 4:17: But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength so that I might preach the Good News in its entirety for all the Gentiles to hear. And he rescued me from certain death.
(8) In every *place of worship, I want men to **pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy.
- *place of worship: The context of this and the following verses is "in places of worship", not necessarily everywhere.
- *pray:
- Psalm 28:2: Listen to my prayer for mercy as I cry out to you for help, as I lift my hands toward your holy sanctuary.
- Although paintings of ancient Christians in the catacombs depict the earliest believers praying in this posture, the raising of hands in itself is not Paul’s focus but the fact that our hands are to be “holy.” The Old Testament is filled with allusions to clean hands as symbolic of godly actions and a pure heart (Psalm 26:6; Isaiah 1:15); thus, we are to be about the business of good works with a pure heart if we would have the Lord hear our prayers. Dr. John MacArthur writes, “Hands symbolize the activities of life; thus, ‘holy hands’ represent a holy life” (The MacArthur Bible Commentary, page 1,782).
- When Jesus confronted the moneychangers, he said; “My Temple will be called a house of prayer.”
(9) And I want *women to be **modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes.
- *women: Again, the context is in places of worship, though the argument for decent and appropriate dress applies everywhere else too. Is it possible that among the false teachers some were women or the women were being heavily influenced? We do know that women were particularly being targeted by the false teachers:
- 2 Timothy 3:5-7: They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!
They are the kind who work their way into people’s homes and win the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by various desires. (Such women are forever following new teachings, but they are never able to understand the truth.)
- 2 Timothy 3:5-7: They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!
- **modest in their appearance:
- Or to pray in modest apparel.
- The Greek word for modest is kosmious, which means orderly, well-arranged, seemly or modest. In other words, "modest" refers to clothing that is neat and appropriate for the occasion.
Modest dress doesn't call attention to the wearer. Costly jewelry or elaborate hair styles can also be immodest. People should notice a Christian because of who he is and not because of what he is wearing. - Paul’s directive in verse 9 means that Christian women should not dress in a seductive manner nor in a luxurious, fashion-conscious manner that would arouse jealousy on the part of poorer women. Rather, she should put her emphasis on good deeds.
- Peter fully agrees with Paul’s teaching:
- 1 Peter 3:3-4: Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.
- We have a huge problem with sexuality in our culture. Paul is saying that there is a right way to dress and a wrong way to dress. Paul is saying in this passage, “instead of aspiring to be seductive and provocative in the way we dress, let us adorn ourselves instead with a beautiful character and life.”
- Paul is perhaps even meditating on the characteristics of the woman in Proverbs 31. You remember how she is described? She works hard, she has her husband’s trust; she advances his reputation; she cares for the poor; she speaks with wisdom; she’s a person of strength and dignity, and she has the praise of her family. Now Paul is saying, “Women, that’s how I want you to be known. Not because you dress provocatively; not even because you’re the most gorgeous thing that ever walked the planet.” He’s saying that Christian women ought to aspire for beautiful character and life, and that we ought to avoid anything that is improper and immodest, and indiscreet in terms of our clothing.
- Perhaps an even more acute problem was that of insensitive women flaunting their dress, jewelry and hairstyles in a way that hurt the feelings of the poor in the church. The kinds of adornment mentioned (braided hair . . . gold . . . pearls . . . expensive clothes) all belonged to that culture's critical caricature of wealthy women. At worst, this is what the prostitutes did.
(10) For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do.
- Proverbs 11:22: A beautiful woman who lacks discretion is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout.
- Proverbs 31:30: Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.
(11) Women should *learn quietly and **submissively.
- *learn: Remember that in those times and places, women were not allowed to learn at all. Unlike the rabbis who prayed according to the Talmudic liturgy every morning, “Lord God, I thank You that I am not a Gentile, a slave, or a woman.” Now, that was the prayer that the liturgy instructed every Jewish male to pray when he got up in the morning. Women were not included in the discipleship of the rabbinic circles, but in Christian circles Christ had made women to be disciples, and Paul is affirming that. Women are to receive instruction. They are disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. They are to be taught. And elsewhere Paul also makes it clear that they have a role in training and teaching. In Titus 2, the women are going to be helping to teach and train the other women, and there are going to be some cases, even in private, where women with greater Scripture knowledge are going to help some men who don’t know the Bible as well as they ought to—such as Priscilla and Aquila instructing Apollos in good Bible teaching. This was a radical and liberating departure from the Jewish view that women were not to learn the law.
- **submissively: The Greek word (hypotage) means "to rank under". In military life, a private who ranks under a colonel is not necessarily of less value or possesses less ability than his or her superior officer. Rank has to do with order and authority, not personal superiority and inferiority.
- 1 Corinthians 14:34-35: Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. They should be submissive, just as the law says. If they have any questions, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is improper for women to speak in church meetings.
(12) I do not let women teach men or *have authority over them. Let them listen quietly.
- *have authority: Or usurp their authority.
- According to Paul, women must be learners and are not allowed to be public teachers in the church; for teaching is an office of authority, and the woman must not usurp authority over the man, but is to be in silence. But, ought to teach their children at home. Timothy from a child had known the holy scriptures; and who should teach him but his mother and grandmother? - 2 Timothy 3:15. Aquila and his wife Priscilla expounded unto Apollos the way of God more perfectly; but then they did it privately, for they took him unto them - Acts 18:26.
- What Paul forbids is speech that usurps the authority of the men and of male leadership in the church. Thus, women are specifically instructed to be learners, and not teachers, in the church meeting. They are not to exercise authority over men in the church. In this regard, women are to be quiet.
- Galatians 3:28: There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
(13) For God made Adam first, and afterward he made Eve.
- 1 Corinthians 11:8-9: For the first man didn’t come from woman, but the first woman came from man. And man was not made for woman, but woman was made for man.
(14) And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived, and sin was the result.
- 2 Corinthians 11:3: But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent.
- It is not meant here that Adam did not sin, nor even that he was not deceived by the Tempter. Satan knew to tempt the more emotional one and to use her to bring about Adam's downfall. When it is said that Adam was not deceived, it is not meant that when he partook actually of the fruit he was under no deception - he knew exactly what he was doing.
(15) But women will be saved through *childbearing, assuming they continue to live in faith, love, holiness, and modesty.
- *childbearing = the childbearing: Genesis 3:15-16: And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you
- Or will be saved by accepting their role as mothers, or will be saved by the birth of the Child.
- Childbearing is not the only significant contribution a woman can make, as Paul’s later words will clearly indicate. But childbearing is a most significant contribution. A woman may not take a prominent leadership role in the church, but she most certainly plays a vital role in the home, as she bears and raises up godly children.
- 1 Corinthians 11:3-16: But there is one thing I want you to know: The head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. A man dishonors his head if he covers his head while praying or prophesying. But a woman dishonors her head if she prays or prophesies without a covering on her head, for this is the same as shaving her head. Yes, if she refuses to wear a head covering, she should cut off all her hair! But since it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut or her head shaved, she should wear a covering. A man should not wear anything on his head when worshiping, for man is made in God’s image and reflects God’s glory. And woman reflects man’s glory. For the first man didn’t come from woman, but the first woman came from man. And man was not made for woman, but woman was made for man. For this reason, and because the angels are watching, a woman should wear a covering on her head to show she is under authority. But among the Lord’s people, women are not independent of men, and men are not independent of women. For although the first woman came from man, every other man was born from a woman, and everything comes from God. Judge for yourselves. Is it right for a woman to pray to God in public without covering her head? Isn’t it obvious that it’s disgraceful for a man to have long hair? And isn’t long hair a woman’s pride and joy? For it has been given to her as a covering. But if anyone wants to argue about this, I simply say that we have no other custom than this, and neither do God’s other churches.
- Ephesians 5:21-25: And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.
For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her
- When a husband leads like Christ and a wife responds like the bride of Christ, there is harmony and success in the home.
- Paul, throughout his ministry, was supported by significant women. Paul was hardly a woman-hater, as some teach. Paul often found the greatest reception for his gospel preaching amongst godly women. Think of Lydia, the businesswoman that he met from Thyatira, who responded to the preaching of his gospel. Look at the greetings of Paul in his letters, and the final salutations and messages at the end of his letters in the New Testament. They are filled with greetings to women who were near and dear to him. Look at how Paul responds and relates, for instance, to Priscilla, the wife of Aquila. Paul is writing in a situation where the Gentiles do not know the long-standing practices of the Jewish tradition. In a Jewish synagogue, the women would have sat on one side, or stood, and the men on the other. In a Jewish synagogue, the men alone would have prayed. The women would have remained silent. And Paul is speaking to church life where some Gentiles don’t know the standing practices of the Jewish synagogue.
- Jesus talked with women publicly, He reached out to them compassionately. The woman at the well, the woman caught in the act of adultery, the woman with the issue of blood. He made women a key part of His ministry. As a matter of fact, the first people He appeared to after His resurrection were women - even though at the time, a woman's eyewitness testimony meant nothing in court. Historically, Christianity freed women, recognizing them in society as real people.
- "Women will be saved in childbearing": Many people regard this as one of the most difficult passages in the whole Bible. On the surface, it could be taken to mean that if a woman continues in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control, that God will bless her with survival in childbirth – which was no small promise in the ancient world! 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, meaning, "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." Probably, the idea here is that even though the "woman race" did something bad in the garden by being deceived and falling into transgression, the "woman race" did something far greater, in being used by God to bring the saving Messiah into the world. Don't blame women for the fall; the Bible doesn't. Instead, thank women for bringing the Messiah to us!
Proverbs 31:10-31: Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is more precious than rubies. Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. She finds wool and flax and busily spins it. She is like a merchant’s ship, bringing her food from afar. She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household and plan the day’s work for her servant girls. She goes to inspect a field and buys it; with her earnings she plants a vineyard. She is energetic and strong, a hard worker. She makes sure her dealings are profitable; her lamp burns late into the night. Her hands are busy spinning thread, her fingers twisting fiber. She extends a helping hand to the poor and opens her arms to the needy. She has no fear of winter for her household, for everyone has warm clothes. She makes her own bedspreads. She dresses in fine linen and purple gowns. Her husband is well known at the city gates, where he sits with the other civic leaders. She makes belted linen garments and sashes to sell to the merchants. She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future. When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness. She carefully watches everything in her household and suffers nothing from laziness. Her children stand and bless her. Her husband praises her: “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all!” Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised. Reward her for all she has done. Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.
NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, the scripture version used is
the New Living Translation.
NOTE: Sources and References are on line at: http://1timothy-study.blogspot.com/2010/12/1-timothy-references-and-sources.html
