1 Timothy 2 Commentary
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus”. Verse 5. The reality of this blessing is such that all other efforts and philosophies aimed at salvation are nothing. A waste of time and energy!
Do you know this mediator?
We are all born estranged from the Creator God. We feel it; we know it. It is a deep void in each one of us. It’s a hole we all want to fill up but won’t and cannot. Only one mediator exists – the man Christ Jesus. Do you know Him?
If you know Him, this chapter has some instructions for you. Let your petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for kings and all those in authority. Obey this instruction and the LORD is pleased. Verse 3. Politics may lead us to complain or even hate the people we should be praying for. We don’t have any instructions from the holy script for activism other than prayer.
If you know Him and are a man, lift up holy hands in prayer. Let there be no anger. In Paul’s day, civil authorities weren’t always friendly. They caused pain and suffering. There was every chance that the saint would be angry. His response in such an environment should be prayer.
If you know Him and are a woman, dress modestly and adorn yourself with good deeds. Fashion trends shouldn’t distort this injunction. The scripture defines your wardrobe.
Then Paul defines the role of women in the church – so we think. But we need to understand the background. Just like false teachers needed to be stopped (Chapter 1), Timothy needed to stop the pagan-like feminist-centered church institution. Remember, this is Ephesus. We have the temple to Diana in this city! Acts 19.
Probably, some women, like the bad men of Chapter 1, sought to infiltrate the church with their pagan worship ideas. These must sit down and listen in obedience. Paul references the Book of Genesis to highlight yet another moment of the fall that may result from ‘Eve’. The women must have put forward some truly horrible and antichrist interests in front of them and sought to establish them in the church. Let Adam have it also – the kind of thinking. It shouldn’t happen again!
“But women will be saved through childbearing”. Verse 15. It is yet another reference to the “seed” thought of Genesis. The woman would bear a child – the Seed. The Seed would crash the head of the serpent. Paul has used shorthand; women would be saved through Christ Jesus! That is the seed – the fruit of the woman’s womb.
The “if” condition at the end of the chapter nullifies the thought that physical childbearing for every woman is a special passport to Heaven.
The female deacons recorded in the scripture would also nullify the thought that women can never evangelize. Otherwise, the Samaritan woman by the well wouldn’t be such a hero!
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