Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to the Book of 1 Timothy. I told you last week that this series will be team-taught by our elders. And in hindsight, maybe I should have delegated 1 Timothy 2:8-15 to one of our elders! This passage of Scripture is—and this is an understatement—countercultural.

And yet, there are some really helpful and clarifying things stated in this passage. For one, notice how Paul makes clear that only women have babies. Who’d have thought it? I’ve heard recently the media use the term “pregnant people.” Pregnant people? You mean “women”?

Another clarifying thing that is stated here is that men and women are different. And Paul treats them differently. And that’s not wrong. In fact, I think the way forward with the gender confusion in our own day is not pretending that men and women are the same and making hermaphrodites of everyone. Instead, the way forward is acknowledging differences between men and women and even celebrating those differences. I think the Bible will give us a way forward with this if we are willing to humbly listen and believe and obey.  

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The title of today’s message is “Prayer, Propriety, and Position.” And Paul starts in verse 8 with a statement about prayer. And that’s not surprising, because the context of 1 Timothy and in particular 1 Timothy 2 is focused on prayer. 

Here’s the context of the book of 1 Timothy. Paul is explaining to a young pastor named Timothy, who is leading a tough church in the city of Ephesus, how to do church. And he’s relaying some of the requirements for leadership. And at the beginning of chapter 2, Paul communicates the priority of prayer in the church and in the pastor’s life. Paul says, “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people” (2:1). In other words, “Get praying, Timothy.”

And Paul continues that prayer initiative in our passage today, when he says,  

8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, 

In verse 1, Paul said, “I urge that prayers be made for all people.” In other words all men and women in the church should pray. But here he specifically targets the men of the church. And he says,   

8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; 

There are a few words in verse 8 that I’d like to comment on further. The first word is “men.” Paul’s focus in verses 9-15 will shift to women, but in this verse the focus is on men. 

Just so you know there are two Greek words that are translated “men” into English. The first word is ἄνθρωπος. This word can be used gender-inclusively or gender-exclusively. In some passages gender-inclusivity is absolutely necessary and is contextually warranted. This is clear even in 1 Timothy 2:1: “I urge that… prayers… be made for all ἄνθρωπος…all men…all people.”

The same thing is true in verse 4 where Paul says, “[God] desires all men [all people ἄνθρωπος] to be saved.” Is Paul talking about only males in those passages? Of course not! It’s gender inclusive. Historically, even in English, it was okay to use “men” as a gender-inclusive term meaning “mankind.” 

But listen, the word in 1 Timothy 2:8 is not ἄνθρωπος, it’s another Greek word ἀνδρός which means “male” or “husband.” Paul is purposely using a word that is unambiguously gender exclusive. He is communicating to men (males) in the church in verse 8. And he doesn’t tell them to go lead their families or start being more authoritative. He could have said those things. He does that elsewhere. He certainly wants men to be more assertive in leading their families and their churches. But his command here is simply this: “I want men to pray.” “I want men to lift up holy hands in prayer.” 

The lifting up of hands is a common posture of surrender and entreaty before God in the OT. Men and women both would often pray with their hands extended to God, sometimes on their knees. Paul wants men to pray, and he wants them to pray passionately. 

Now there are three points from the message today, and the first point from the text starts out “Men need to pray….” I’ll give you the rest of that point in just a minute, but I want to linger on those first four words for a second. Paul says, “I want men to pray.” Paul says, “I want the men in the church to move prayer up the priority list.” Because some men may think that prayer is like number 15 on the priority list. Some men think that prayer is ladies’ work. Some men may think it’s dainty or effeminate to pray. 

And maybe there’s a little bit of that thinking here today. But if you feel like that this morning, let me ask you a question: “How can crying out to the All-Powerful God of the Universe, the Eternal Judge who created the entire world with the words of his mouth, who is able to crush you in a moment without diminishing his power even slightly… how can that activity be described as dainty or effeminate?” 

It’s interesting how confused some of the gender ideologies are in our day. Some people in our day, in reaction to the accusations of “toxic masculinity” have tried to compensate for that. So people think it’s masculine to sleep around with different women and procreate without taking care of their children. People think it’s a display of masculinity to thump your chest and prove how much testosterone is coursing through your system. But that’s not biblical masculinity.

 I’ll tell you what’s masculine, biblically speaking… getting down on your knees before an All-Powerful God and crying out to him on behalf of your family and your church and the needs of this world. That’s true biblical masculinity in action. Where are the men in this world who are willing to do that? Real men pray. Real masculinity is lifting holy hands up to God not thumping your chest to draw attention to yourself.

And notice there’s something else in verse 8. Paul says, “lift up holy hands in prayer.” Everyone see that? Remember Romans 12:1 - “I offer my body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable before you.” It’s a holy sacrifice, not some polluted and second rate offering that is racked with sin and guilt. It’s a holy offering. So we don’t cry out to the Lord with blood on our hands. We don’t cry out to the Lord in prayer while simultaneously ignoring our family or living lives of sinful self-indulgence. We lift up “holy” hands in prayer. According to the Bible, real men pray, and real men pursue holiness.  

Some of you men might wonder why it seems like your prayers just bounce off the ceiling. Maybe it’s because your hands are polluted with sin? Maybe it’s because you have quenched the Spirit with your sinful lifestyle? One of the most terrifying verses in Scripture for men is 1 Peter 3:7, “Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel… so that your prayers may not be hindered.” 

Men, if you have systemic patterns of sin in your life, if you are unwilling to love your wife like Christ loves the church, if you live an unholy, ungodly life, your prayers will be hindered. If you want to get serious about holiness and lifting up holy hands to the Lord in prayer, then I encourage you to get help to break your patterns of sinfulness. Stop living lives of perpetual defeat; stop being continually victimized by the enemy. Man up. Get help. Get into an accountability relationship with another man in this church. And then pick up the weapon of prayer and start waging war against the enemy.

Are we done with men yet, Pastor Tony? No! Look at the end of verse 8.

8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; 

What Paul does here is a bit of gender stereotyping. Brace yourself for this. He says men need to stop being angry and stop quarrelling. And they need to start praying. Do men struggle sometimes with anger and quarreling? No! How dare he “gender stereotype” me like that!

Do men sometimes struggle with anger and argumentativeness? Look, some men err on the side of passivity and a lackadaisical attitude towards spiritual things. If that shoe fits, men, you wear it. And you change.  

Other men err on the other side. They are hot-tempered, opinionated, easily agitated, and argumentative. Neither of these extremes is helpful in the context of the church. They are both reflections of immaturity, and Paul is wanting these extremes to be eliminated in the church as the men cultivate holiness and a commitment to prayer. He wants men to channel their aggression for something profitable like prayer and put aside their anger and argumentativeness.  

So here’s the first point from our text today. Go ahead and write this down as #1 in your notes.  

1) Men need to pray without relational disharmony (2:8)

I knew a man once who was constantly having blowups with people in his church. He was just a big ball of rage. And mixed with his good intentions was a heaping helping of relational disharmony. He was constantly fighting the leadership of the church. He was constantly fighting with people in the church. After a while the elders just said “enough.” And they had to get straight with him. Proverbs 15:18 says this, “A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.” 

There must have been something like this happening in Ephesus in Paul’s day. There must have been individuals stirring up conflict in the church. In fact, we know that there were problems here, because Paul had excommunicated two people from the church, Hymenaeus and Alexander (1 Tim 1:20). And yet still, there were other people causing problems. And Paul had to tell Timothy, “charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine” (1 Tim 1:3). These men wanted to speculate and argue about things which Paul says they are absolutely ignorant about (1:4-7). 

And embedded within these verses is a truism about human behavior: “Men have a predisposed proclivity towards anger and strife.” Just as further evidence for that, the majority of violent crimes in this country are committed by men. Most aggravated assaults in this country are committed by men. Almost 90% of acts of murder and manslaughter are committed by men. More than 96% of rapes and sexual assaults are committed by men and mostly against females. Almost nine out of ten prisoners in our prison systems are men. It’s ironic that in our world where everyone is clamoring for equality and equity, nobody’s asking that there be equality with this! And it’s not that women can’t or don’t get angry and quarrel; they do. But men are predisposed towards it. They have a propensity for it, and this can have an extremely negative effect on the church.

So the injunction that Paul gives us in verse 8 is two-fold. First we need to pray. We need to pray for our families, and we need to pray for our church. We need to pray with holy hands lifted high. Shame on you, men, if the only one praying for your kids is your wife. Shame on you if you spend hours in front of the TV or the computer every day, and you never pray for your family or your church. Pick up a weapon, men, and get in the game. Lift up holy hands in prayer. 

But the second part of that injunction is important too. Don’t let relational disharmony spread in the church. Guard your heart. Guard your tongue. Don’t give the devil a foothold in your life by letting anger and quarreling get the best of you. 

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Okay, men. Take a break and chew on that for a while. Paul’s done addressing the men in this passage. Verses 9-15 are directed towards women. 

And you might wonder, why did God devote one verse to the men in this passage and seven verses to the women? Well, I don’t know. But I think it’s because men like it short and sweet. “Just tell it to me straight!” That’s what Paul does in verse 8. There’s no sugarcoating. Paul talks to the men like a sergeant gives orders.

But as Paul directs his comments to women in the following verses, he’s going to do more… how do I put this?... “sharing.” He doesn’t just say “what” a woman should do, he explains “why.” 

Here’s what he says. Look at verse 9.

9 likewise also that women 

I want to stop here because I have a small beef with the ESV translation. The word “that” is not in the original Greek, and the ESV Bible has added it to smooth the translation. But the Greek simply reads, “Likewise also women.” Not everyone agrees with this, but I think that Paul is linking back to the previous verse with “likewise.” He’s saying essentially, “Likewise women should pray in every place by lifting up holy hands.” Prayer is not just ladies’ work, but it’s not some boys’ club activity either. It’s not a gender-exclusive activity. Men need to pray, but women need to pray too. 

But as Paul continues he addresses a different vice with the women than he does with the men. It’s not a proclivity towards anger and quarreling like them men. It’s something different. So he says, 

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. 

Here’s the second point from our text today. 1) Men need to pray without relational disharmony.

2) Women need to pray without distracting impropriety (2:9-10)

So more gender-stereotyping here by Paul. And that shouldn’t frustrate us, because we know very clearly that men and women are different. One of the great errors of feministic thought in the 60s and 70s was thinking that men and women are born the same and their behavior is just culturally conditioned. It’s a ludicrous assertion. 

Men and women are different, not just because they have different plumbing, but because they are biologically, psychologically, and fundamentally different. God made them both, and they are both made in the image of God (Gen 1:27), but they are different expressions of God’s creative work. 

And men and women have different strengths. And they have different weaknesses too in relation to sin and to problems in the church.  

And here in verses 9-10, Paul identifies two specific matters of distracting impropriety in the church. These were vices among women that were hindering the activity of prayer in the church. Those hindrances include 1) immodesty and 2) ostentation. 

Let’s talk about immodesty first. Women, as they pray, should adorn themselves in respectable apparel. The idea here is “honorable” or “admirable” attire. The word translated “respectable” here means “having characteristics or qualities that evoke admiration or delight.” This doesn’t mean that a woman has to wear a burlap sack to be modest. There is no argument for a Muslim burqa here. Women can be delightful and attractive in appearance without being immodest. 

Also the word for “apparel” here (Greek: καταστολή) can refer to actual clothing or also to the deportment of the individual. Here Paul probably means both. Women should be respectable in attire, but also respectable in the manner of their behavior. Paul adds the words “with modesty and self-control.” These words have sexual overtones. Women in the church should not dress provocatively. And neither should they be immodest with their actions towards men in the church. Flirtatiousness is neither harmless nor pleasing to God. 

Now let’s be clear here about something. Paul is dealing with decorum in a public setting. This is a place of prayer, namely the church. He’s not communicating a standard for how women should behave with their husbands in the privacy of her own home. The last thing that I would encourage women to do is be prudish towards their husbands in private. By all means, be immodest with your husband in private. 

But here Paul is addressing public dress and the public deportment for women in the gathering of the church. There must have been some lingering issue of impropriety in the Ephesian church. Probably what we are dealing with is a culture clash between Jews and Gentiles in the church. The Jewish contingency was conservative in dress and deportment. The Gentile contingency was less conservative and probably had less of an engrained modesty among the women.

And that makes sense, because historically the city of Ephesus was home to the “Temple of Artemis” or the “Temple of Diana,” one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. If you remember, when Paul came to Ephesus in the book of Acts, his healing of a demon-possessed girl started a riot there. And the people started screaming “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” They screamed that stupid chant for two hours (19:21-41).  

Well Artemis was a fertility goddess in the Roman pantheon. She is often depicted with multiple breasts exposed, symbolizing fertility for both your fields and your family. And buying an icon of her, and keeping it at your house, was a kind of fertility ritual. And it’s conceivable that some of the sexually loose standards and immodest dress of Ephesus had crept into the church culture. This would almost have to be the case if the church was doing a lot of raw evangelism and leading unbelievers to Christ. If so, then Paul is firmly, but also compassionately, setting appropriate standards for propriety in the church. 

So there’s the issue of modesty here. But there’s also the issue of ostentation. Paul says that women should not adorn themselves…

with braided hair and gold or pearls or costlyattire, 10 but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. 

Again the issue here is cultural practices that have found their way into the church. “Braided hair” was commonly used by women of royalty in Paul’s day, and that fashion symbol eventually trickled down to other women of fortune. Sometimes hair braids would be extremely elaborate and required large amounts of time. Hair was often braided with gold or costly pearls for maximum effect. You get the impression that women in the Ephesian church were causing distractions with their gaudy show of beauty and wealth and even making it a competitive thing within the church. Who’s got the most “bling” on Sunday morning?

I’ve been in places where church on Sunday morning feels more like a fashion competition than a worship service. Everyone shows up to see and be seen, instead of worshipping God. It’s distracting, and it’s distasteful. 

But listen, it’s not like we should be overtly casual or disheveled with our attire either at church. I’ve been to some other churches and it’s like a competition to see who can be the most slovenly dressed person at church! That’s not better. Our dress should be modest, respectable, and honoring to God. Try to avoid the ditch on both sides of that. 

And let me say this as well. This passage is not a wholesale prohibition against all jewelry or gold or pearls. I know there are some Christian denominations that prohibit gold jewelry (even wedding rings) because of this verse. I respect their intent, but I don’t think that a wholesale prohibition is what Paul has in mind here. He’s saying let your adornment be found in godliness and good works instead of some ostentatious display at church. Proverbs 31:35 says, “strength and dignity are the clothing” of the virtuous woman.   

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. 

One of the images that comes to mind when I read this verse is the red-carpet event that usually precedes the Oscars or the Grammys. Typically the women and the men on display in those events are beautiful. They are talented. The women are often dressed in provocative gowns that cost more than a Ford F-150. And every reporter at the event goes around saying, “What are you wearing? What are you wearing?” And those events are a kind of worship service. The paparazzi and the adoring fans are worshipping the best looking and best-dressed men and women in the world. So should the church be anything like that? God forbid!

Instead women are to be clad with godliness and with good works because “Charm is deceitful, beauty is vain but a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised” (Prov 31:30). 

Now do we have a problem with this at our church? No, I don’t think so. Our culture has a problem with this. But I don’t see this issue as a pronounced problem in our church. So this message today, I think, is more of a cautionary warning than a rebuke. And to be honest, this is something that the women in the church need to self-regulate on. It’s really difficult for a man in today’s culture to go up to a woman who is not his wife and say, “What you are wearing is immodest and inappropriate.” That probably isn’t going to end well. Now if we have to do it, we will as elders. 

But here’s a better approach, and it’s a Biblical model too. Paul encourages older women in the church to teach the younger women of the church. Paul says in Titus, “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled (2:3-5).” So I’m looking to elders’ wives and older women in the church to help with this. I think that’s right. 

And sometimes the issue of immodesty or ostentation isn’t a matter of defiance, it’s just ignorance. People get saved, they come to church, and they don’t know what they should wear. They don’t know that tight or revealing clothing could be a stumbling block to others. And so they need to be taught. 

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Speaking of teaching, Paul goes on to talk about women teachers in the church in verses 11-15. Paul says, 

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,35 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.

Now there’s a lot in these verses, and I want to take some time to look specifically at all of Paul’s statements in these verses, but let me first give you the overarching principle from these verses. Paul is saying not only that “Women need to pray without distracting impropriety,” but also,  

3) Women need to forego ecclesiastical authority (2:11-15)

So why don’t we have female elders here at church? Why don’t we have female pastors? Well, I don’t mean to be pedantic, but it’s as simple as this—because God said so. This passage in particular, as well as others in the OT and NT, has made it clear that women need to forego ecclesiastical authority. 

 George Bernard Shaw once called the Apostle Paul the “eternal enemy of women.” Maybe that’s because of 1 Timothy 2, I don’t know. Some people have tried to ameliorate the offensiveness of this text. They try to say that Paul was only engaging in a kind of accommodation to first century culture. Maybe that works for you? But that doesn’t work for me. And I think you do violence to the text of Scripture when you try to weasel out of the difficult things that the Bible says. The Bible, as you’ve heard me say before, is an equal opportunity offender. And the goal is not to make the Bible less offensive. The goal is obedience.  

So let’s be hearers of God’s Word here and obey. Look at verse 11.

11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.

At first read, I realize that the visceral reaction of many women to this text is consternation. But in reality, this verse cuts in two directions. In a western culture like ours many are offended by the statement that a woman should learn quietly with all submissiveness. This smacks of misogyny and chauvinism to our modern ears. But in other cultures, the idea of a woman learning in a church setting would be the offense. Paul actually utters a command here, “Women have every right to learn as men do.” “Let them learn.” 

The Bible is never one to kowtow to culture, and so I think it’s appropriate here that its message would be an offense to people on both sides of that spectrum. Paul says, “Women should learn. Teach them the Bible and let them have a participatory role in worship.” That was extremely countercultural in Paul’s day. 

He goes on to say,

12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.

There are two prohibitions in this verse. The first prohibition is that women should not assume a teaching role in a mixed congregation. The assumption behind this has to do with the teaching of doctrine and the role of a pastor/preacher/elder in the church.

 Paul tells Timothy later in 2 Timothy 4:2 to “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” This is an activity that is specifically reserved for men who serve as elders in the church. And it’s because of this verse and others, that we don’t have women who serve as pastors or elders. 

Paul also prohibits a woman from exercising authority over a man. And we need to be careful, because this doesn’t mean that women can’t have leadership gifts and that they can’t lead ministries in church. They can and they do here at our church. But the context of this is in regard to eldering and pastoring. That’s made clear in chapter 3, where Paul gives extensive instruction on the character and qualifications for an elder. And that’s not just in the church. It’s also in the home, where the NT teaches clearly that men should lead their homes (Eph 5:22-33; Col 3:18-19; 1 Pet 3:1-7).

I know some women and men who have gotten hung up on the disqualification of women from authority in the church. But to be honest, Paul is going to disqualify 95% of the men in churches as well in chapter 3. Because the character qualifications that Paul gives for elders are exacting. And most men are disqualified too. 

Now the key word in verses 11-12 is “quietly.” Paul wants the women of the church to learn with quietness and submission. That doesn’t mean absolute physical silence. It couldn’t be, because there are examples of women praying and prophesying in the church (cf. 1 Cor 11:5). You even have the example of Priscilla instructing Apollos in the book of Acts (18:26), and also you have the command for women to teach other women in the church (Titus 2:3-5). 

In fact, I was just doing some research on this last week. The word for “quietness” here is the Greek ἡσυχία. It’s used twice in this passage. It’s translated “quietly” in verse 11 and “quiet” in verse 12. That word is cognate with the Greek ἡσύχιος in 1 Timothy 2:2 where Paul says offer up, “prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings … for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet [ἡσύχιος] life.” Paul also tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:11 to “aspire to live quietly.” Does that mean we should live absolutely silent lives in this world like that movie “A Quiet Place” where if you make a sound the aliens will come destroy you? No. Of course not! 

Instead, this quietness is an attitude of tranquil and confident submission to male authority as a woman submits ultimately to God. And this is something that needs to be true of women both in the church and also in the home. That doesn’t mean absolute silence. It means voluntary submission.  

By the way, this expectation for women to submit isn’t a requirement for women to submit to all men in the church all the time. That’s not how this works either. No, it’s a submission to elders and those men who are empowered and appointed by God to lead the church. 

One commentator on this verse put it this way: “Paul was not demanding physical silence [in the church] but a teachable spirit.” And it’s not so much a confidence in the competency of men to exercise authority, but a confidence in God’s purpose and order. God has purposed for men to lead, and he has his reasons for doing so. 

One of the things that we need to understand is that submission does not imply inferiority. We know this clearly from the Trinity. God the Son voluntarily submits himself to God the Father (see 1 Cor 11:3). Does this mean that God the Son is inferior in any way to God the Father? Absolutely not! If that were true, the orthodox understanding of the Trinity would fall apart.

So why does God expect men to lead and women to follow? I don’t know why exactly. I think that physical and psychological strength is one of the reasons why. God has created men with a greater capacity to carry burdens and engage in conflict. These things are essential for church leaders. From my own experiences, I’ve noticed that I have a greater capacity to handle stress and pain than Sanja. I can go without sleep better than she can. I can compartmentalize better then she can. I can work and function with a significant amount of conflict and complex challenges around me. This doesn’t make me superior or make Sanja inferior; we’re just created differently. 

On the opposite side, I’ve noticed that women have greater emotional sensitivity. That’s not a weakness, by the way. Women have the capacity to empathize with others better than men. Women, typically, are better at building relational capital. They are better at forgiveness. They are better at looking past people’s shortcomings and seeing the good in people. They also have a maternal, nurturing instinct given to them by God. That’s a strength, but it can become a weakness in situations that require tough decision-making or confrontation. 

You know when I was a kid I trembled when my mom said, “Wait till your Father gets home, and I tell him what you did!” I never heard my dad say, “Wait till your mother comes home and I tell her what you did!” God made men and women different, and that’s okay. In fact, I’ve heard recently some Christian researchers implore us to stop using the term parenting. And that’s because there’s research that shows that there’s no such thing as gender-neutral parenting. There’s fathering, and there’s mothering. And those two things are very different. And they are both needed and mutually beneficial to children. 

So why does God expect men to lead and women to follow? Ultimately the answer to that question has to be because God said so. And God is God, and he gets to make the rules. We might not know all the reasons why. But that shouldn’t keep us from obedience. 

But Paul does give us two reasons in verses 13-14 for why women should not teach and serve as elders in the church. 

13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 

The two reasons given by Paul are basically what you would call the creation order taken from Genesis 2 and 3. One reason is pre-curse and one reason is post-curse. The first reason (the pre-curse reason) comes from Genesis 2, and it’s pretty basic. God created Adam first and his creative order dictates authority and submission. Eve was formed as a “helper” (עֵזֶר) for Adam. 

This in no way implies inferiority. Women were made in God’s image just like man (Gen 1:27). Even the word “helper” does not imply inferiority. God is described in the Psalms as our עֵזֶר, as our “helper” (e.g. Pss 33:20; 54:4; 70:6). And the NT describes the Holy Spirit as our “helper” (e.g. John 14:26). But God’s creative intent, even before the fall, was that men would lead their homes, and women would follow the leadership of their husbands. 

One of the battle cries of Christian feminism and egalitarianism is “reverse the curse.” What do they mean by that? Well they mean that Genesis 3 brought the curse of male leadership and female submission. And they want to “reverse that curse.” But here’s the problem with that. Male headship and female submission didn’t begin in Genesis 3. It was part of God’s creative intent in Genesis 1-2, that which God described as “very good” (1:31). 

The second reason for male leadership in the family and also the church comes from the incident in Genesis 3. Satan, the great enemy of God deceived Eve and she became the first transgressor. Not only was she guilty of usurping male authority in that moment, but she was also guilty of usurping God’s authority. Satan tricked her into believing that she would be like God, a diva. Paul, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, states that Adam wasn’t deceived. Yes he sinned by eating the fruit; but he wasn’t deceived like Eve.

Now let me clarify a few things here in verse 14. Adam is not being exonerated in this verse. In fact, Adam is guilty of passivity in that moment. He should have protected his wife and told that stupid snake to beat it. But he didn’t. Eve’s usurping is matched by Adam’s passivity, and they are both guilty before the Lord. 

In fact, elsewhere Adam is held responsible for this sin. In Romans 5, Paul specifically attributes the fall in the garden to Adam, the first Adam. And that’s why we need a second Adam, Jesus, to undo what the first Adam had done. 

So yes, Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. She was deceived and became a “transgressor.” But Adam sinned in the Garden too. And God’s plan of redemption is under way right now for both genders. In other words, every person in this room, men and women both, have the opportunity to become coheirs with Christ Jesus (see Rom 8:16-17; 1 Pet 3:7). How’s that possible? How can we be saved? Through faith in Christ who redeems male and female, slave and free, Jew and Gentile alike (Gal 3:28). 

Finally, look at verse 15. This is tough.

15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

What in the world does that mean? This final verse is probably the most perplexing statement in this passage. After saying that the woman, Eve, was deceived, Paul says, “yet she will be saved through childbearing.” What does Paul mean by that? Obviously, he doesn’t mean that a woman is justified and redeemed as a sinner before God through the bearing of children. That would be antithetical to the gospel of grace through faith that is espoused throughout the NT. 

So what is Paul saying here? Here’s what he’s saying. He’s actually doing two things with this verse. 1) The first thing that he’s doing is making a cryptic reference to the childbearing of Eve and the other women including Mary that brought about the Messiah. God said that the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:15). If it wasn’t for women giving birth, we wouldn’t have a Messiah. And female childbearing makes salvation possible for all humanity. Did I mention already that only women can give birth to babies? Do you think that’s significant theologically?  

2) But also Paul is referencing the work of sanctification that God brings about in the life of a woman through primarily her role as a mother. In this way “childbearing” (Greek: τεκνογονία) is a kind of synecdoche for a women’s domestic responsibility. Whereas men have leadership in the home and leadership in the churches, women have extensive leadership responsibilities over their children. 

And they are saved by this, not in the sense that they are justified and redeemed by the blood of Jesus. But saved in the sense of sanctification; they are made more like Christ every day. Tommy Nelson said it this way, “When a woman gives birth to a child, she gives birth to a cross.” And those children are the primary means of her sanctification as a follower of Jesus. They will force her to become less selfish and less self-centered and more self-sacrificial like Jesus did for them. 

Now for many women, they have voluntarily or involuntarily committed to a life of singleness and childlessness in order to fulfill other purposes. This is perfectly acceptable in the Scriptures. Paul said, “It’s better to be single if you can” (1 Cor 7:1). And singleness should be affirmed by men and women in the church. 

But for the majority of women, their heart’s deepest desire is to raise and nurture children. That’s a God-given instinct. And that’s something that should be encouraged within the church and never disparaged. And that process of raising and disciplining and nurturing young children is the primary mode of sanctification that God uses to grow your faith. Moms, when you gave birth to a child, you gave birth to a cross. Those children of yours are your primary means of sanctification. Feel free to remind them of that on their wedding day!

If any of you would like a testimony of the sanctifying work that God can do in the life of a mother, just ask one of the older moms in this room. Ask my mom! She’ll be happy to tell you how God sanctified her through raising me, and my siblings. 

But also notice that child-raising by itself does not bring about sanctification. In verse 15 Paul states that this must be added to perseverance in faith, love, holiness, and self-control.

15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue 

Continue? What’s that? That’s perseverance of the saints.

15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

You might ask, why does Paul make this final statement about women and childbearing in verse 15? What does this have to do with women forgoing ecclesiastical authority? The reason that he says those things is so that women will forego ecclesiastical authority and harness their talents and energy for the nurturing of their children. Andreas Köstenberger puts it this way: “The first woman [Eve] did not keep her proper place and fell into sin. How can women in the church age fare better? Paul’s answer: they will be preserved from Satan if they adhere to their God-given role centered on family and the home.” 

I can testify personally to the dramatic impact that a mother can have on her children. And my mom is a teacher. She has a teaching gift. She taught Sunday School for years when I was a kid. She taught AWANAs as well. My mom is incredibly talented as a teacher. She’s a leader. She’s creative. My sister too. She was a children’s ministry director for many years. 

And my mom in particular spent herself teaching and leading and discipling young kids. In fact, she spent the best years of her life, and the best of her energies and talents, raising my brother, and my sister, and me. She taught us the gospel. She taught us the Bible, like Eunice did to Timothy (see 2 Tim 1:5). And she discipled us to become men and women of God. 

Now let me ask you a question. Do you think that my mom feels like she wasted her time and energy and talents raising us? I don’t think so. The world might say that of her. But she won’t hear that from me. And she shouldn’t hear that from the church. 

I know, for some women, the idea of foregoing ecclesiastical authority creates much disappointment and consternation. It shouldn’t, though. Instead it should stir the hearts of women to use their gifts, talents, and skills to bless the children that God has entrusted to them. That’s what Paul is communicating in this verse.

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So, three things.

1) Men need to pray without relational disharmony (2:8)

2) Women need to pray without distracting impropriety (2:9-10)

3) Women need to forego ecclesiastical authority (2:11-15)

Next week, we’ll talk more about ecclesiastical authority, specifically the role of elders!