This week, in VABC lifegroup we continued on with our study of 1 Timothy. We went through the whole of Chapter 2:
1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; 9 likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire,10 but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. 11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control. (ESV)
There is a lot in this passage to talk about, and a very controversial few verses at the end, but we will get to that.
Let us start with the first few verses:
"First of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way." (ESV)
Paul urges Timothy to pray for all people, especially our government. Never doubt the effect prayer has on things. Paul understood the power of prayer. Last week I speculated, that when Paul stated (of Hymenaeus and Alexander) "I have handed them over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme" he was stating that he ceased to pray for these individuals (which makes sense when you take the two chapters as part of a whole letter). So at the end of Chapter 1, I believe that Paul stated: "I have ceased praying for these men, ceased asking God to work on their hearts and to protect them, I have handed them over to Satan." Now at the beginning of Chapter 2 Paul tells Timothy to pray for all people, especially the leaders of the government. At the time of Paul's writing, the Roman Empire was in control of the known world, and at this time they were ruled by Nero, a man who was one of the biggest threats to the Christian Church. Shortly after the writing of the New Testament a fire destroyed much of Rome, and Nero decided that the Christians were to blame. He made the Christians an "Enemy of Rome" and tried to destroy them. It is for this man and his government that Paul tells Timothy that "Supplications, Prayers, Intercessions and Thanksgivings be made for...that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life." Paul command is that we pray for our leaders so that they would allow us the freedom to practice our faith. This exhortation was very key for the early church, but is just as important for us today. It seems every time I look at the news I read of this radical group or that government preventing people from having freedom to choose their own faith. We need to pray for our governments that they would soften their hearts and allow us the freedom to worship.
Verse 3 and 4 are fairly understandable so lets skip to verse 5 and 6:
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
In the time of Paul, the roman government considered the Caesar almost equal with a god. They also had many other god's and would pray to certain people, and god's even to Caesar, in hopes that these individuals could petition the higher gods for blessings. We see similar mindsets in some of the more religious extreme governments: there are a few governments in our world that consider themselves god's representatives for the people. Paul is reminding us here that there is only one mediator between God and men, and that is the Man Christ Jesus. We could spend a great deal of time talking about what a powerful statement that is: "The man Christ Jesus" but I would rather save it for a study through Hebrews. Instead I just want us to remember that there is only one way to God, and that is through Jesus. Who became a man, died for our sins, paid the price for our ransom, was resurrected and returned to stand before God as our mediator. If anyone else tries to tell you of a different way to God they are a liar.
Verse 7 is Paul repeating his commission: An Apostle to the Gentiles.
The next set of verses talks of the behaviour of men and women in the church. Verse 8 says:
I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarrelling.
So when the church comes together, it should be in unity with prayer and thanksgiving to God, there should not be strife, anger, or quarrelling. How often have we seen it where at church meetings and bible studies people will get into arguments of vain topics. There is an appropriate way to discuss a differing of opinions, but we must remember that when we gather as a church body it is to build up and encourage one another, not to prove to everyone how smart you are.
Next we get into one of the more controversial sections of scripture: Verses 9 - 15:
likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.
This portion of scripture (and a few others on the role of women in church) have caused a great deal of dispute and quarrelling among modern day churches: "How should a woman dress at church?" "According to this a woman should never have braided hair or jewellery on at church." "Woman are not aloud to be in leadership of a church!" "Woman cannot teach in church." "No it is OK, these scriptures were written for this specific church and do not apply for us today." Even the mention of this topic causes people to instantly get upset, or defensive, or offensive, or stop listening. In fact this section is so controversial that I almost glazed over it and told the students, "Find your own answer." But I read few things, study a few things, and listened to my heart and decided to share a bit of my opinion.
There tend to be two camps on verse such as these: There are the people who say: "All scripture is timeless and applicable to all times; thus we need to apply this to our church; thus women cannot teach in church." We will call that Group 1. Group 2 would say: "This scripture was written to a specific church, for a specific issue and does not apply to us today, so we can ignore it." The problem with Group 1 is that you tend to get very legalistic, not just in regards to these verses, but to all verses. After all, every single verse is still applicable today, so I must follow and obey every single verse in the bible....ummm, I don't think that is right. The problem with Group 2 is "where do I draw the line between what is and is not applicable to me right now?" After all, all scripture was written almost 2000+ years ago, how do I know what should be applied to me know and what shouldn't. Scripture can very easily loose it's authority. Other people have said: Well you have to look at the context of the verse, but even then I find they are simply sitting in group 2's position. I believe there is a balance and an understanding that we can gather from these verses, I do not know if I have it, but I have come across a few things I would like to share, these come from other postings I have found that seems to make sense, I will sight the references, I encourage you to check out the sources.
First, nearly everyone (except maybe some extremely strict people in group 1) agrees that the verses about woman's dress is a verse meant to be interpreted in light of the culture of the day. That what Paul is saying here is that woman (and men for that matter) should not dress in away to flaunt their worldly wealth. The church is a place where the worlds standards do not apply. We are all equal, we are all part of God's family, there is no class or caste in the church. So we should make every effort to dress in a way that is modest (not extravagant), and respectable. The way I described it to the students is this: "Think of it like a family dinner or reunion. When we gather with our families, say for Thanksgiving, we don't wear our most expensive outfits, but then neither do we wear our work out clothes. We wear something that is comfortable, welcoming, and respectful. We do not have to impress anyone, but we also do not want to embarrass anyone. Church is a family dinner. Wear something nice, but don't try to out dress your sister."
For the other verses...well this post is getting quite lengthy, so let us not spend too much time on them. First let me link you to two resources, and than sum up what I think might be being said: First my friend Shawn did a study through 1 Timothy a while back and was quite well spoken on this matter. Here is the link to his blog:
http://pirate-pastor.blogspot.ca/2012/07/i-do-not-permit-woman-to-speak-and.html
The other resource is the Inter Varsity Press New Testament Commentary:
https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/ivp-nt/Appropriate-Demeanor-Women
These resources offered me a lot of insight, feel free to take the time to read through them...I read through all of Shawn's post for study, the other resource I just referenced.
A brief summary of what I learned from reading these two resources is thus: The church was a place where the worlds rules of social structure no longer applied. In the church men, woman, slaves, free, Jews, gentiles, rich, and poor, and everything else in between were welcome to come and worship and fellowship together as a family. Leadership was not dependent on your wealth, or lineage, or anything else that the world uses to measure a person. In the church a slave could be the teacher. In the church there is still an authority structure, there are still leaders, but they were established on different criteria. What may have been happening is that woman, and slaves, and whoever else were taking advantage of the freedom the found in the church and taking over, thus causing chaos, confusion, and maybe even false doctrine to be taught. Maybe the woman where coming into the church, where they were given freedom and were turning around and treating the people around them in the same abusive manner they had be treated outside the church. So perhaps that is what Paul is saying: while enjoying the freedom found in Christ, we must be careful to treat each other the way Christ would treat them. Christ taught us that if we want to be in authority, we must be the servant of all. (This is a very rough summary of these to resources...I strongly recommend you read them for yourself.)
Ultimately, we are Christs representative, and our conduct must be out of love. When it comes to difficult scriptures such as these, we must ask: "What does Love tell me to do?" or "How would Christ treat my sister?"
Next week we will talk on Chapter 3, the qualifications of church leaders.
Thank you for staying with me through this post.
Tyler
A Boy WonderLabels: 1 Timothy, Bible Teaching, VABC