1 TIMOTHY 2:8-15 WORHSIP IS ABOUT GOD
8 I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.
9 I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, 10 but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.
11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.
The focus of worship is to be God and not ourselves. While prayer takes our focus off ourselves, the root of anger and contention is the self. Likewise, good deeds are directed toward others while excessive ornamentation and extreme fashion call attention to the bearer. In both cases, St. Paul is striking both genders where they are traditionally most vulnerable; the self.
In the context of admonishing against disputing, it is ironic that St. Paul launched into one of the most controversial passages about women in the Church found in the New Testament. There is no easy way out of the tar pit on this one. The two extremes of dismissing it or, as John Stott says, “enthroning” it are both just ways of not dealing with it. In a short devotion it is not possible to resolve this controversy, but we can seek an application for all believers.
By placing his teaching about women in the church in the context of creation, the fall (verses 11-15) and the need to keep our focus on God (verses 8-10), St. Paul is directing us to attend to the matter of God’s order in our corporate life. In God’s perfect plan there was an order which was to be exercised through mutual submission. Man and woman were different but complimentary, and together, in their innately different ways, they would worship God perfectly. The fall disrupted that order, and also resulted in the pronouncement of the consequences for the woman that “he will rule over you” (Genesis 3:16), and for the serpent that her offspring (Jesus) “will crush your head” (Genesis 3:15). St. Paul’s pronouncement is a double-edged sword. Both men and women have taken their eyes off God and made themselves the focus of their lives and worship. This passage is like a good headline for a news article; it gets our attention so that we will read and attend to the message.
News flash from St. Paul: We are to be about God’s kingdom, power and authority, not ours.
Almighty Father, you are the Creator, Redeemer and sovereign Sustainer of Creation. To you alone belong the kingdom, the power and the glory. Help me remove myself from the throne of my life so that I might live peaceably and humbly in your Church. May I always resort to prayer whenever questions arise so that I might be made aware of your perfect will. Amen.