1 Timothy 2:9-15: Orderly worship (please click here for todays passage)

Without getting into detail on the more controversial aspects of this passage, I do want to underline certain truths that I believe are in keeping with all Scripture.

  • God has an order/a pattern for public worship. We are not free to ‘bin it’. Everything in the Bible is important, and we must apply our hearts and minds to understand it, and try to make faithful application to church and personal life
  • God has an order/a pattern for male-female relationships. This applies to the home, the church and society at large. This template entails men taking a lead. ‘’I don’t let women take over and tell the men what to do.’’ The Message .But this is not because men are superior to women or more important creatures. They are in fact both equal before God in Christ (Galatians 3:26-28). Paul gives theological reasons for his argument here in (13, 14); but be clear that he is not arguing that men are lesser sinners than women. ‘’Adam was made first, then Eve; woman was deceived first – our pioneer in sin! – with Adam right on her heels.’’ The Message. It’s beyond the scope of these daily inspirational thoughts to fully unpack the details of Paul’s argument (and there are many good commentaries available that can help you). But it must be born in mind that in the Bible’s big picture (and every text must be understood in terms of this larger context) many women played important leadership roles.
  • God’s order/pattern for public worship involves dressing in a way that does not distract our brothers and sisters from the worship of God. Although the message is delivered to women in this passage, it is surely applicable to both sexes. True beauty is inward, not outward. It is the beauty of holiness: ‘’…doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it.’’ The Message.

Donald Guthrie, the renowned New Testament scholar, believes that these verses may relate to a specific problem at the time of writing where women, who were downtrodden in that culture, but now newly liberated through faith in Christ, and were beginning to dominate men in the church. So they were in danger of bringing the church into disrepute. Guthrie writes these wise and balanced words, and I find them helpful: ‘’If we say that Paul was culturally conditioned, so that if he were writing today he would emphasize only the equality of the sexes, we make God’s revelation dependent on transitory fashion – changing from year to year. And who can tell what Paul would write if he were here today? If, on the other hand, we insist on a precise application of each feature of first century practice, we run the risk of being irrelevant to modern life and even ridiculous. Our task is to discern the basic biblical principles which do not change and apply them sensitively to our present situation, bearing in mind that it is better, in the last resort, to appear ridiculous than to be disobedient to God’s loving purposes.’’ ‘The New Bible Commentary’, p.1298.

One final word, it is possible that the rather strange sounding fifteenth verse may refer to the ‘’childbearing’’ of Mary, who brought the Saviour, Jesus into the world. But it is by no means certain that this is the correct interpretation (lovely thought that it is) and the point continues to be debated.

Prayer: Thank you for your Word Lord. I want to always bow to your wisdom, when I understand it and when I don’t.