Like Jesus the apostle Paul understood that God created us as gendered persons, male or female. While physiological aberrations do occur from time to time, the NT teaching assumes that Christians fall into these two general categories. Often Paul will address both sexes in turn on a particular issue. This is the case in 1 Timothy 2 where he speaks to men and then women about ministry in the local church.
Paul instructs his young protege in the practice of public prayer, telling him in v.1-7 that it is necessary for the church to pray for all men to know the gospel and be saved. Since there is no other way of salvation than the one Mediator between God and men, we must pray that kings and those in authority will turn to Christ and believe. He continues in v.8 explaining how men ought to pray, presumably in the public worship gathering of the church: they are to “pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.”
Men ought to take the lead in the ministry of prayer in the church gathering. We should be active, not leaving a void that women feel they must fill.
“Pray everywhere” probably means in all of the house churches that met across Ephesus, since it is unlikely that they were able to gather in one place as we do. It’s not that men must pray exclusively – we already saw in 1 Cor. 11 that women are encouraged to pray in church ? but men ought to take the lead in the ministry of prayer in the church gathering. We should be active, not leaving a void that women feel they must fill.
Not just any guy who walks into the church should lead the congregation in prayer; Paul gives two qualifications for the men who pray. The first is that they lift up “holy hands,” which means they have lives that are upright and pleasing to God, giving public evidence by their lifestyle that they are followers of Jesus. And second, they must reject a spirit of anger and dissension within the body of Christ. Can we expect God to be pleased with our prayers, if we offer them in a spirit of hostility amid personal disputes and conflicts with our Christian brothers?
Next Paul addresses women in the congregation, saying, “in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.” It is important to notice that he draws a direct comparison between the women and the men by saying, “likewise the women.” Just as men must pray with the right kind of inner disposition that produces holiness toward God and unity toward the brothers, women must have the right kind of inner disposition: reverence and modesty. Women are not to draw attention to themselves by their clothing or accessorizing but by works which are fitting for those who profess to love and follow Jesus Christ.
In v.11-12 he says, “Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.” Is this an obscure teaching? Not really. Don’t trip over the word silence here, as it just means “stillness” and speaks to a woman’s spirit, not her mouth. Women ought to be at rest in themselves, not resisting the male authority that God has established in the church. And this is not talking about men in general but the man or men to whom God has given oversight of the body, those called to teach and preach his word to the gathered congregation.
Men are responsible to lead in prayer with holy hands and peaceful hearts, and the ladies, too, are to be at rest in themselves as they submit to Christ by submitting to the teachers he has chosen. It’s not an insult to women but a reflection of God’s wise and good design. This is why Paul refers to the events recorded in Genesis 1-3 to explain the rightness of this model of church order.
Our First Parents’ Example
“For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control” (1 Tim. 2:13-15). Paul says we must learn from the example of Adam and Eve, both positively and negatively. Positively, God created the man before the woman, and the created order is good. Being first-born meant that even before sin entered the world Adam was to take the lead. From the beginning, the man was responsible for spiritual leadership in the home. The same order is good when applied to the church. Negatively, we learn that when we overturn God’s order, bad things happen. It’s not that women are more gullible than men, but that the man failed to protect and care for his wife, leaving her vulnerable to Satan’s deceit. The responsibility for disobedience falls squarely on his shoulders rather than hers.
But there was still hope, because the Lord promised to raise up the Seed of the woman to crush the serpent’s head in Gen. 3:15. This, I believe, is what Paul has in mind when he speaks about the woman being saved in childbearing. He’s not promising salvation through fertility or protection from death in childbirth for Christian women. Eve’s only hope was in her offspring, because it was by means of childbirth that God would send the promised Seed. And this is true for all women everywhere, because it is only by the Seed of the woman that anyone is saved. His name is Jesus.
In sum Paul does prohibit women from teaching in the public gathering of the church and from taking authority in place of the men he has called to lead. Instead, they should focus on learning and cultivating a gentle and quiet spirit as the word is proclaimed. There will be ample opportunity for women to use what they learn to make disciples, a subject we will address next.