We heard part 5 of Graham’s Timothy series this morning, focusing on 1 Timothy 2:15.
Apologies that the post was late both last week and this. We have had some technical difficulties which are now resolved.
1 Timothy 2:9-15
1) Women to dress modestly v9
Modest dress. Is this a light-weight comment?
Some scriptures used to tell women not to wear adornment:
Proverbs 7:10
Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent.
Isaiah 3:16-23
The LORD says, The women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, tripping along with mincing steps, with ornaments jingling on their ankles. Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion; the LORD will make their scalps bald. In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, the ear-rings and bracelets and veils, the head-dresses and ankle chains and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, the signet rings and nose rings, the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls.
Context
Girl approaching me, she appeared to wave to me, then signalled as though turning a corner on a bicycle, then she plunged a hand down her cleavage. When she got near to me I saw she had not been signalling to me but was pulling out the cables for her earphones.
Firstly remember that the pastoral letters are about church and how Christians fit together in church. So we see that men, women and different groups is church are spoken about, and in relation to each other. Context makes a difference!
What is this modest dressing about?
(a) Sexual temptation of men
I am uncomfortable with teaching about this text that overly stresses modest clothing for women because of men and their temptations to lust. If a woman goes too far with this thinking she would end up wearing a sack. A man needs very little to provoke sexual lust. The gospel deals with the hearts of men without needing to repress women.
I think men are to bear the responsibility for their own lusts. Jesus challenged men about looking at women with an attitude of lust. He did not say the blame lay with the women.
(b) Unity in the church
This is firstly referring to women in the church gathered. I come to that conclusion because of the context. This therefore refers to dress in the gathering of the Christians. To parade inequality or differences in social standing or wealth would not be helpful in a fellowship of believers where all are to be treated with equal value.
James 1:9,10
The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower.
James 2:2-5
Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, Here’s a good seat for you, but say to the poor man, You stand there or Sit on the floor by my feet, have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?
The rich were incapable of braiding their hair without the help of servants or slaves. This is not about vanity, or about banning the wearing of pearls, it is about unity within the church.
Think about it. A pearl or a fancy hair do does not damage a church, but disunity does.
See John 17:20-23
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
First in this chapter we were told there must be no disunity between men, and prayer was mentioned, and the comment to men about no arguing. Now we have an appeal for no disunity between the women, and this is addressed by warning about displaying superiority and social difference through displays of status by the way they dress.
(c) A woman’s sense of self-worth
I have heard it preached that a woman in immodest clothing calls attention to herself therefore this is about display of pride instead of humility. It is usually men I have heard preaching this. I wonder about those preachers. What sort of cars do they drive? In what way is their car immodest, or a way of displaying of pride instead of humility, of calling attention to themselves?
See Proverbs 31:25.
She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.
Or Song of Songs 1:9-11 and the celebration of female beauty.
I liken you, my darling, to a mare harnessed to one of the chariots of Pharaoh. Your cheeks are beautiful with ear-rings, your neck with strings of jewels. We will make you ear-rings of gold, studded with silver.
1 Peter 3:3,4
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewellery and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
Peter says a women’s beauty should not come from outward adornment, but it does not say there should not be any outward adornment! I can not conclude that it is wrong for a woman to make the most of herself, to think of herself as a great creation and to frame this wonder in the best way she can.
But does your clothing display who and what you are accurately?
Self Control
“Self control” This shows that in some way this is a heart matter, a matter of the inner person. “Self control?” Instead of what tendency? I would appreciate feedback from women following this sermon as I am trying to understand this scripture but somehow feel they may have some insight into this!
What is immodest clothing? What is modest clothing and in what way is it better than the alternative? I have heard immodest clothing defined as clothing that is showy, extravagant or sexually revealing. If we follow that line of thinking we could come up with some rules. The problem with that approach is that when it has been tried before it has resulted in pettiness and legalism. Perhaps it is easier to thing of the heart attitudes. If those attitudes are correct the rest may follow.
Is it the temptation to project ones self-image in purely sexual terms? Then the problem is about self esteem or a low view of ones own worth, instead of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Last week I said men may tend towards irresponsibility and being prayer-less and are challenged about that in this chapter, but here women are being encouraged to challenge something in their own female nature. The warning here is to be careful about portraying themselves as nothing more than the superficial and nothing more than sexual.
Sexual display
At one time people would tut tut over short skirts. Now it is the display of stomach with low trousers or lots of cleavage that is common. Interesting that in the days of the very short mini-skirt, the amount of cleavage that even Christian young women show now would have been considered shocking then even by non-Christians.
Young women, do you want to catch a partner and think that giving out overtly sexual signals is the most efficient and reliable way of getting a partner? If this is your way of catching a partner, what sort of partner do you expect to catch? Is this the way to catch a best friend, a husband to cherish and treasure you, and a father to your children? I think not!
The girl that has caught her partner by showing off her stomach or cleavage or a short short skirt has little excuse for complaining that, “We never talk.” Talk!? He will say it had never been put on the menu.
Some women will say to objectify women is always the fault of the male, but I reply that women should not cooperate in that error.
Forced prostitution and Clause 13
Clause 13 of the Policing and Crime Bill will probably be debated and voted on this month in the House of Lords. The clause proposes to make it illegal to pay for sex with someone who is subjected to force, i.e. someone who has been trafficked or is being controlled. Paying for sex with someone subjected to force is currently legal.
At Committee Stage in the Lords the debate on Clause 13 was discouraging - one peer even said that poorer men could only pay for sex with women who were subjected to force and therefore to criminalise this would be social discrimination! There is a need to highlight the fact that forced prostitution is a tragic occurrence, with all kinds of socially damaging side effects, which needs to be stopped.
I wonder what experience of womanhood did this peer have? It could not have been very good!
Young men, learn to see women, past the packaging (which will fade) and see the real person.
2) Women to learn in quietness and full submission v11. Next week.
I look at the context. Were some of the false teachers women? We know that women had high positions in the churches by this time. This comment must have had some relation to the church situation in Ephesus. This was written to Timothy about the Ephesian church before it was written to us in the 21st century.
3) Women will be saved through child-bearing
And so they will, because scripture says so, but what does this mean?
(a) Have children?
One interpretation is that by having children women will earn their salvation. If that is the case, how many children are necessary? And are the childless women lost? This is contrary to the gospel of grace so substantially that it must be rejected out of hand.
So how many children you must give birth to in order to achieve your salvation? None! It can not be about that. I know how a woman finds salvation, it is because of Jesus alone through grace alone, received by faith alone.
(b) Child-birth will be safe?
Some teach that this means women are saved from death in the act of child-bearing. Nice claim but historically we can not back this up. Christian women have died in child-birth as well as those who have not known Christ.
(c) Woman-kind bore the Christ-child?
Another interpretation is that women, women kind, are saved because a woman bore the Christ-child.
Or! (d)
I think I know what this is about.
Remember this section is about the church, the Christians gathered. Then, for a clue, link to the verses in Philippians 2:12,13
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed- not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence- continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
How is a man saved? The same way a woman is, then we say it is worked out in action, working out their salvation.
When Paul was writing, and down the centuries since, bearing children, parenting them and launching them into the world has been a main way for many women of working out, living out, their salvation with faith and submission to the Almighty God.
Child-bearing in the Greek from verse 15:
TEKNOGONIA. “To beget, denotes bearing children, implying duties of motherhood.” From Expository Dictionary of NT Words by W E Vine.
