Gendered Orders

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Don Filcek; 1 Timothy 2:8-15 Gendered Orders

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We are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsack preaches from his series,
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Blueprints for a Healthy Church, following the plan from the book of 1 Timothy. Let's listen in.
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Well, good morning and welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Filsack. I'm the lead pastor here. And I have chosen to continue to go through the book of 1
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Timothy this morning to the next passage. I am not preaching this passage because it is
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Father's Day. I'm going to preach this passage despite the fact that it is Father's Day. So, but I do encourage all of you, just as I do on Mother's Day, on this
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Father's Day, I encourage you to reach out to your father, if you still can, and to honor him in whatever way possible, if that means a phone call, if that means an email, a text, or a travel this afternoon to go to him.
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I would just encourage that as much as possible. When we say that we believe in truth, like capital
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T, truth, like that's in our core values, our name is an acronym for core values, which are replicating community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth.
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When we use that word truth in that acronym, what comes to mind are passages like this one, that we're going to look at today.
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We are a church that believes that the Bible is the word of God, inspired by the
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Holy Spirit, who is God, and is given to us for our understanding and our application.
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It is not merely information to us, so that we can understand history a little bit better, or so that we understand how they used to do it in old times, or whatever.
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It is informative to us, and directive in everything that it prescribes for us and for the church.
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And this passage prescribes things for the church. And we believe that in these pages, we find the very will of God for humanity revealed, and that's why we treasure it so much.
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Now, I set the passage up this way, because I legitimately believe, before we read it,
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I'm setting it up, I believe this message this morning could be what one of my favorite preachers,
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Matt Chandler, called a spacemaker. He would call it a spacemaker sermon. He would say to his congregation, look around the room, because there may be more seats available next week than there are this week.
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So, that's what he means by a spacemaker, it's possible. And it's due to the controversy of this passage.
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This is, by the way, what I believe is one of the most clear passages that is disagreed with. So, it's a clear passage.
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I'm going to read it in a moment, and you're going to understand what it says. And I'm going to guess that some of us are not going to like what it says.
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Some of us are going to struggle to like what it says, but we're going to understand it. And I did a Google search this week for most controversial passages, and I found that this passage rates high in all of the findings on Google.
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One of the first links that I clicked was at Ranker .com, where you can just get online and people can vote on different things, and one of the things was, you know, the most controversial
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Bible passage. And this very passage, overwhelmingly, was number one on Ranker .com.
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So, I'm not stating this just on my own opinion, this is a controversial passage. And like I said,
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I don't think there's a passage that's quite this clear that has an equal diversity of different opinions on it.
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It has the opportunity to offend us all, but it's written by God, and therefore, ought he not have the right to offend us from time to time?
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This week, I've been challenged to not merely endure this text, but I've been motivated and moved in my spirit to see within it
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God's beautiful, divine design. He has made us, and not we ourselves.
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So, as a man, I want to just point this out, because I get the privilege of being a man standing up front here sharing this message.
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I do not read this text at all with even a shred of entitlement, and I think it's important to say that up front.
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But rather, I read this passage with the awesome fear of God beating down on me.
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As if his face is drawn near to me for scrutiny. As if a higher standard will be applied to me.
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And I literally, this week, have trembled at the thought of the responsibility that he's given to me for his church.
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And so, as we read this text, I recognize that it may grade on some ears as outdated.
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Some of the words that I read this week in various opinions and diverse thoughts is that it's outdated, it's passé.
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Some who come from even an evangelical Bible -believing tradition use the word embarrassing for this text.
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But hear me carefully, church, that is not the conviction of your pastor. It is none of that.
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It is good. It is pure. It is the revelation of God for his church.
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Now, some caveats. Is it open to abuse? Absolutely. Has it been used for evil purposes and abusive purposes?
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Yes, it has. Has it been overstated at times throughout human history? Absolutely.
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Has it been used to wrongfully say false things about the dignity or value of womanhood?
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Yes, it has. Is it a good word from our Heavenly Father? Yes, it is.
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So, are you ready to do it? Are you ready? Let's do it. Let's open the Bible to God's holy and precious words, 1
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Timothy 2, 8 through 15. And let's let the word expose in our hearts the way that we've allowed the world to set the agenda versus letting his word set the agenda.
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Let's let our agenda be reset by God's word. Verse Timothy 2, 8 through 15.
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I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.
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Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self -control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness, with good works.
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Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.
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Rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
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Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self -control.
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Let's pray. Father, I stand in awe of your design of the way that you desire things to go.
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And we look at our culture and we recognize that around us this is a foreign message, an extremely foreign message, and maybe even a foreign message to some of us who have gathered here this morning.
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Some might be looking for the exit wondering, how in the world did I get in this church today? Father, I pray that you would open our eyes to see the beauty of your design, the beauty of the way that you've made things function, and to really grasp the glory and the heights of what masculinity and femininity look like together in a perfect world, in a perfect design.
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We only have known these categories in fallenness. And you call us in your church back towards the garden, back towards that which is good, back towards loving servant leadership, back towards male and female together in unity imaging you correctly.
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So Father, I pray that that would outshine any of the darkness that we've experienced. I know that there are women here who have been pushed down and abused by men.
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I know there are men here who have abdicated and just don't even really understand what it means to be a man anymore in our culture.
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So Father, I pray that this might just be a spark in our church of coming back to the right place on these issues.
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And Father, that you would shine your light in every dark corner where we misunderstand this, and let the truth prevail this morning.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, get as comfortable as possible, and keep your
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Bibles open to 1 Timothy 2, 8 through 15, more than just about any passage, I want you to have your
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Bible open in front of you. I want you to see that the things that I'm saying are coming from the Word and not from my agenda, not from any desire or any designs that I have on this message.
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This is God's Word. So Paul starts right off in our text, carrying forward the thoughts of prayer from the passage last week.
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He urged Timothy to get the church praying, and he begins our text this morning with specific instructions to men in the
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Ephesian church. Now this is Paul writing to his understudy, Timothy, leaving Timothy there in Ephesus to clean up a mess.
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There's been theological error that's been brought into the church, there's all kinds of things that are going on there culturally, and he says, hey, fix this.
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Go stay there and set it right, kick out the false teachers, and here is how you get back to order.
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So everything that he says in this text is about orderliness within the body and the gathering of God's people.
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And remember, Paul, who has established that he's a sent messenger of Jesus Christ, he used at the beginning of this entire letter, he used the title apostle for himself.
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He said, I'm apostle chosen by the will of God. And he makes it clear that he desires in all places that men should pray.
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Now that all places is defined as all places in the church. He's saying in every church, in every place, in everywhere, where there's a gathering of God's people,
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I desire for the men to pray. So there is our first instruction, guys, right from the beginning.
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We ought to be men of prayer to a person here, to a man here. And he says, lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling.
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There's a posture, a way of offering prayers in the gathering of God's people. Apparently within Ephesus there was a spirit of animosity and anger, and there was a stirred up rage and an arguing and a dissent that was going on routinely and regularly in that body.
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Obviously as false teaching comes in, and some want to stay with the truth, and some want to go over and follow these false teachers, there's all kinds of battles and wars going on.
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And some of you have experienced those, right? How many of you would just say, I've seen some ugliness in church before? Anybody?
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I have myself. And so fortunately, praise God that I have not seen that here. But I have experienced that in church context before where things can get really ugly.
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And some of the pains and the frustrations and the hurts that happen when there's quarreling and infighting within a church can just be devastating, right?
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They can be all -consuming. They can occupy our minds and our thoughts and our feelings a lot. That's what was going on in Ephesus.
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There were these quarrels going on. And the call for holy hands is an allusion to confessing sins and seeking purity before coming together.
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The emphasis is on holy hands and not as much on the form of raised hands. This is not an injunction or a command that thou shalt raise your hands while you pray.
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At the end of the day, the focus, the goal is actually the metaphor of holy hands.
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It's a great reminder that from men, God specifically is asking for a lifting of clean hands in the place of balled up fists.
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I think men have a tendency to throw down, right? Like there's a tendency within us to want to go to war with one another.
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And he says none of that in the church. Exchange holy hands lifted up in prayer for your balled up fists, he says.
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Now I would say, the problem when you start talking about male and female, you do start to stereotype a little bit.
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But I think that some of these things in Scripture lean us in a direction. And I do believe that there are propensities and tendencies within men and within women that drive some of these injunctions and instructions in the church.
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Men are often driven by impulses to lust. Now women can be driven by these things too. Sin is an equal opportunity destroyer.
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Did you know that? Men don't have a corner on these things, but there's tendencies within us.
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And men are often driven by impulsiveness to lust, to anger, to the wicked use of their hands.
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And so he is basically telling us what men should wear to the worship gathering.
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What should you wear, men? Well, certainly I would encourage some clothes. I think that's a given.
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It's not stated in the text, but let's just run with that, okay? So certainly wear some clothes. But it would be easy to show up to the gathering of God's people without the one thing
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Paul encourages all men to bring to the gathering. What does he say we all need to bring to the gathering?
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Holy hands. Bring holy hands. Talk to God on Sunday morning.
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Talk to him before the gathering of God's people. Confess your sins and receive his holiness.
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So we have our instructions, men. But in the same way, Paul would like the women to show up in the worship gathering who show up to adorn themselves in respectable apparel.
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He uses a pretty generic word there, respectable apparel. There was not a ton of variety. So in the
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Roman culture and in the Greek culture, they would have understood they would have had a name associated with respectable apparel.
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There's not a lot of variety for women to wear in Roman days. And so there was the stola. The stola is the
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Greek term. It was a whole lot of material forming a covering that revealed little of the form or shape beneath.
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Think a woman wearing curtains. Okay, lots of folds. Lots of material involved in a stola.
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That's just the reality. Then there was the toga, which could be fashioned and designed according to the fit.
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And so the toga was often worn, often the clothing of choice for the prostitute. Other people would wear a toga as well, but there was some variability in how much material you included in the toga.
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So prostitutes would cut the material to form in order to accentuate what was being advertised.
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And again, this is well documented in ancient history. So even secular Roman women would change to the stola after marriage.
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A married woman, a respectable married woman would always wear the stola after she was married.
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And that would be determined to be respectable apparel. The principle, of course, is not to dictate how much material.
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The principle here is not to talk about skirt length or tightness or plunging necklines or anything like that.
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Just like anything, I hope those of you that have been around here long enough know that I don't list movies that are banned.
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I don't talk to you about what kind of music you can or can't listen to. I encourage you as much as possible to have a relationship with God by which you check in with Him on these things.
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That's always going to be my encouragement. That I believe that the Holy Spirit is powerful enough in your life to drive you to where He wants you to be.
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I trust Him with you. I don't have to micromanage you. That's a strong conviction in my heart.
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But the principle needs to be... I hope you hear the principle from me in verse 9. And that's that women should dress respectfully with modesty and self -control.
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And the text is saying that. Do you see it in the text? Nod your head if you see it. Are you getting it? Okay. That's encouraging to me to get some feedback and make sure that you're not...
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You know, you're kind of doubtful that that's what the text is saying. Modesty and self -control are actually
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Greek words that I had to look up this week and figure out. They have actually sexual overtones. Demonstrating that Paul is concerned in this statement.
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That women would be garnering sexual attention in the church gathering.
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Now, I want to point out that it's not necessarily that they were intentionally trying to. That they were. They were.
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And I don't even think that this is necessarily a question of intent. As if you dressed this morning to try to entice some man.
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It's just straightforwardly that some clothing is going to drive in that direction.
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This is not, he says, Paul says, this is not respectable nor modest. Nor demonstrating self -control.
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But verse 9 goes on to double up on the concerns for female fashion. And I think just kind of all fashion goes down a couple of lines.
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It seems like an emphasis, dare I say, in the entire world and in all times. There are twin temptations regarding fashion.
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There is a temptation to draw sexual attention that's already been mentioned. The fall of humanity in the garden, of course, brought with it the shame of nakedness.
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We can go back and kind of, you can do a theology of clothing. And where did clothing come from? And why are we dressed this morning?
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And there's a reason we're dressed this morning. Because with the fall came shame. You guys knew that, right? So there was a shame.
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There's a shame associated with nakedness. Anybody have that dream? You have that dream where you showed up for your first day of class and you forgot something?
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Anybody? Do you know what pastors routinely have a recurring nightmare about?
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I'm going to double -check myself here. This is not a bad dream. Yeah, I mean, there's shame associated with it, right?
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There's been a regular attempt, though, throughout history to push back by getting as close as we can to that line without shame.
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A brash denial and pushing down of that shame that all of us feel.
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And you can go to the beach and find that. But the second is not just merely pushing that line of nakedness, pushing that line of shame back towards sexual attention, but the second is the ever -present temptation to show off wealth by what we wear.
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Clothing can communicate all kinds of things, right? And long before there was Gucci or Versace or Armani, why do they always end in the
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E sound, right? What's that about? But there were gold, pearls, and costly attire, some specifics that Paul was able to latch onto and say, some people are dressing this way particularly to draw attention to their wealth.
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Now, Paul gives, I want to be clear, I think that Paul is giving some specific cultural expressions of excessiveness in his culture, but that doesn't cross over to all cultures.
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So don't, like, some of you are like, I'm wearing gold. Uh -oh, you know, I braided my hair this morning. I've got, you know,
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I've got some pearls on. Trying to cover them. Is Don going to see? Whatever. The specifics are not the issue here, but what
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I want to point out is every male and female in the room needs to work through the implications of this passage on their own.
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The basic principle stands that women must be mindful of what she wants to display to the world and to the church.
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And verse 10 gives a proactive target to shoot for, not just saying don't do this, but do this.
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Be known for what in verse 10? Your good works. Don't draw sexual attention.
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Don't flaunt your wealth through your clothing, through your hairstyle, or your accessories. Instead, let your reputation be one of adorning yourself with good works.
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I mean, I think the question stands that all of us need to ask. And I think this runs down a principle line for men as well.
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What do you want to be known for? What do you want to be known for? You're going to be known for something.
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It might be, it might, I recognize how unfair it might seem to the women in the room right now, how unfair it might be that by wearing certain clothing you could gain a reputation as eye candy for men.
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Does that feel unfair? Anybody want to agree with me that that just feels unfair? But do you know it's true?
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But fair or not, we need to choose what we are going to be known for. And Paul doesn't pull any punches in verse 10, saying that proper adornment for a woman who professes godliness, who says
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I want to honor God well. He delineates to that degree.
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Like if you want to be a woman who professes godliness and says I want to honor God, then be known for your good works.
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Be known for that. Let that be the thing that people see about you. Church, are we okay?
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We're doing all right right now? Okay. So far, Paul in tackling the orderliness of the corporate gathering of the church has encouraged men to think through what it means to gather for prayer with holy hands.
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And then make sure that you adorn yourself with those when you come to church. Women are to adorn themselves with good works, not showing off their bodies or their wealth.
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And so far, we might have some sense of like, okay, this feels a little bit better to our culture because at least through verse 10, there's parody.
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The men are taken to task in Ephesus for their anger and their quarreling and for showing up without holy hands and without confessing and repenting of their sin.
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And so they're called to task for that. The women for immodesty and a lack of self -control. And we love equity in our culture.
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And so maybe we should just close the Bible and pray and be on our way right now and just kind of skip what comes next. Just kidding.
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You guys know me well enough to know that's not going to happen. So all this text falls under the heading of instructions for the corporate gathering of God's people.
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And so now in verses 11 through 15, Paul addresses what was obviously an issue in Ephesus. But I firmly believe that what he does is he uses the opportunity of the problem locally, that local issue, by giving a general church -wide instruction.
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He is speaking and saying what he desires to happen everywhere that God's church gathers. And he said that back in verse 8.
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But we know that there's a specific local issue that's going on based on 1 Timothy 5 .13.
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So we're going to get there later. Later in the same letter, remember, he's writing a letter. The expectation would be that that letter was read in one sitting in the gathering in Ephesus.
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And so it would have been read in one chunk. And Timothy would have sat down and read it in one chunk.
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But we break it up and so we miss the flow. But in 1 Timothy 5 .13, many of the women in Ephesus were not leading peaceful and quiet lives with all godliness and dignity.
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That standard that we saw from last week, the thing that we pray for, the reason we pray for our leadership is that we might be able to lead quiet, peaceful lives.
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We might be able to practice godliness in a life of dignity. But it appears that some of the women were going from house to house, stirring up gossip and dissent according to what's stated for us in the text, in 1
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Timothy 5 .13, that that was happening in Ephesus. They were stirring up dissent.
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They were spreading the false teaching. They were gossiping about one another and driving the wedge deeper, dividing, dividing, dividing people.
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And so Paul gives a reasonable standard in that context. And I think really at the end of the day for the entire church, let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
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I couldn't find a way to soften the universality of that calling this week. In other words, this is indeed an instruction to all women in the church despite the fact that it was written to solve a specific issue in Ephesus.
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But just like we saw in last week's message, to live a peaceful and quiet life is to live a life of tranquility.
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To call women to quietness is not about decibels.
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It's not like, well, a woman can come up here and preach as long as she's quiet, as long as she whispers, then we'll be okay.
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It's not a question of quiet like the decibel level and make sure that women keep their voices down.
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He's talking about peace and tranquility in that word. Let them come and learn in peace, not stirring things up.
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Paul's encouraging women to learn and to do so with a heart attitude of submissiveness, a word that, boy, we don't want.
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Why don't you just say, that's a charged word. That's a charged word. But the Greek word for submissiveness is in a form, an intentionally different form that leads some to see an important level of decision being placed in the hands of every woman that hears this today.
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It's your decision. It's your choice. You have a choice to live in submissiveness or not.
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That's up to you. Now, there's different forms to that word that could be active, and if it's active, then it's 100 % on you.
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If it's passive, it's something that's done to you. That's the tyrant. That's the one that says, submit today, now.
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Thou shalt submit. That would be the passive voice of this word. This is in the middle range, a middle voice.
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It gives the choice to the woman, but it is encouraging you to lead a tranquil, quiet life within the church, a peaceful life within the church, actively choosing to be submissive.
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There's no object in the sentence, so submit to what would be a logical question, and it indicates that he is rather calling women to an attitude, a hard attitude, meaning that he's asking women to adopt a life of calm, peace within the church.
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Before we launch out into verse 12, it would be good to refresh ourselves on the truth that the apostle Paul was an apostle called by the will of God.
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He is writing to Timothy with that level of authority. He is writing to Timothy with the intention of setting the church in order, and his expectation is that Timothy is going to do the things that he encourages him to.
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And the called -out emissary of Jesus Christ, the spokesman for Jesus Christ himself,
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Paul the apostle, says that he does not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but rather she is to remain quiet.
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Again, peaceful. He's telling us his way of ministry here in the text. He is showing an
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MO that is reflective of the way that he ministered throughout the book of Acts and throughout his other letters, and consistently, this is not an isolated passage that is the only place that you find this strange or bizarre teaching.
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It is a consistent teaching from Genesis to Revelation. Now, there are two things that Paul is prohibiting explicitly, and one that he's prohibiting implicitly here in this text.
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First, he's prohibiting a woman from teaching over men in the church, and secondly, he's prohibiting women from exercising spiritual authority over men in the church.
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Now, I qualify this with the phrase, in the church, because all of this instruction comes under the heading of things that Paul desires in every place where the church gathers.
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This is not talking about in the high school. This is not talking about in your workplace. Well, what happens if I report to a woman at work?
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There's all different kinds of questions that can come up in this. This is talking about orderliness in the way that the church runs.
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Every indication throughout all of Scripture is that within the family unit and within the church, the roles that God has given to men and women will stand out.
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They will be distinct, they will be different roles, and they will stand out from the culture around us. And I don't think it's accidental.
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I think it's intentional. And the two explicit prohibitions, don't permit a woman to teach over men or exercise authority over men, may produce a lot of questions within us.
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Can a woman lead a community group? Can she teach middle schoolers? When does a boy become a man?
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What does authority look like? And what is the line for exercising authority over a man in the church?
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And if you have specific questions about applying this in the church, I would encourage you to open the app and put your question down on the connection card that you find there.
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And Spencer and I would love to field those questions over the coming couple of weeks if you have questions about the specifics.
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But I do that rather than attempt to spell out every potential question. And this could turn into a 10 -part series, which
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I think would be giving this text a lot more attention than it deserves in the book of 1 Timothy, because it's just this chunk.
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So I would rather just address it that way. If you have follow -up questions, use that app and get in touch with us.
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But the church is not... What I think we need to focus on is rather than all of those... You know, we could spread out and water it down into all different kinds of questions, but there is the most obvious message coming at us from this text, one that's been unpopular in our culture, but one that is hopefully just as clear to you as it is to me.
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The church is not free to permit a woman to preach in the assembly of his people. And she is not to participate in authority over men in any role within the church.
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The prohibition here is on the activity explicitly, teaching and exercising authority, but then also on a particular office implicitly.
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The two primary functions of an elder slash pastor, two interchangeable words, elder and pastor mean the same thing and are used interchangeably throughout the
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New Testament. But the two primary functions of that role in the church are to teach and to exercise authority.
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So here in this passage where Paul is just about to launch out into chapter 3, we'll see next week a message on eldership and on what the qualifications are for eldership.
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And here in that context, he prohibits women from two of the primary duties of elders.
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This is not an accident. See, what happens a lot of times in practice over this passage is that churches will prohibit women from the office or the title of pastor, but then give them the function of pastor.
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They will have a woman preach, don't call her an elder, don't call her a pastor, and think that they're obeying this.
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Well, we didn't have a pastor preach. Or they will give her the responsibility of an elder in authority, but not give her the title.
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But this text prohibits both the actions of teaching and exercising authority over men in the church and therefore also prohibits the office of elder or pastor as well.
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And now Paul gives two reasons. And this is the crux for me. This is the point where I stand where I stand.
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By the way, this isn't the first week that I've studied this. I just want to clarify that. I have spent a lot of time on this passage over and over the years.
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I remember before we started Recast, I was studying this passage. So, I mean, I've been well acquainted with this.
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Again, just so much written about it, so many things about it. And this is the primary reason. By the way, I was in a seminary class.
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I'm going to take a second that's not on my notes here. I was in a seminary class where, this is just about two or three years ago now, up at Grand Rapids.
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And the topic came up about this. It was a theology class, Systematic Theology 3.
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And we were talking about this. So, there were about 25 students in the class. And the professor just drew a line on the whiteboard right down the middle.
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And he said, OK, what I want everybody in the class, I'm going to go around and I'm going to ask you where you stand. On this side is egalitarian, women can be pastors.
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On this side is women cannot be pastors. And I want you to tell me where you're at.
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And I want you to give me your most compelling reason why you're in that camp. Why are you there?
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So, out of a classroom of 25, anybody want to throw out a number and guess how many people were on the side of women cannot be pastors? Anybody want to throw out a number and guess?
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Fourteen? Five? There were three of us. Somebody said zero? Wait a second.
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I was in the class. Alright, well, you're not listening.
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Sorry. But, three of us. And there were only two reasons given that were scripture.
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Guess which side they were on? They were on that side. My reason was this passage.
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This is the passage I can't get past. And it's particularly verses 13 and 14 that convinced me. By the way, the majority of the responses were,
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I've met a female pastor and she did just fine. Do you know what I mean? It's just practical, right?
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It's pragmatic. We're a very pragmatic culture. She's a really good teacher. She's really capable. I'm actually convinced, and I mean this sincerely.
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I think my wife could do just fine up here. I think she could do it.
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And she would do fabulous at it. But it's by conviction that she doesn't.
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She would just as soon tell you that she stands exactly where I stand on this. Because of the word of God.
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So he gives these reasons. And I think it's beneficial to kind of think of what he doesn't say.
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So let me give you some things that Paul doesn't say in verses 13 and 14. He does not, he doesn't say, hear me carefully, he doesn't say men are smarter.
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He doesn't say, I don't permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over men because men are more valuable.
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He doesn't say women are incapable. He doesn't say the objectively best teacher in every church is male.
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He doesn't say that. Do you see that in the text? He doesn't say that the best teacher in every congregation is male.
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He doesn't say it. He doesn't say, my ancient Roman culture and the way that things were going in Ephesus lead me to this conclusion and therefore
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I kind of am bending what my convictions and what my beliefs are because I just want to fit in with the culture around me.
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Because Roman culture kind of denigrated women so I do too. Is that what he says? He doesn't say it is because I got burned by a woman once and now
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I feel a little misogynism in here. He doesn't say that. What does he say?
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He says, God designed an order from creation.
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Verse 13. This means that God had a role for manliness, masculinity. He had a role for womanliness, femininity.
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Feminism. That's the only word that was there for a second. Whoa. From before the fall.
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From before the fall. He had a design before the fall. Man was created first and was given headship.
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He is given responsibility to serve. To serve. To serve with strength. To serve with decision.
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To serve spiritually. And Paul is not arguing, by the way, here's what some people have misunderstood.
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He's not arguing that first is always best. Some people who really hate this passage have retorted with snark that if first is better then the animals should rule the man because they were created first.
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Have that, guys. But God is here revealing his specific plan for husbands in relationship to a wife.
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He does that throughout the New Testament and along the same lines as well as the role for man and woman within his gathered family.
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He created man to bear the spiritual responsibility. And the second reason is a demonstration of what happens when man abdicates that responsibility.
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So the first human sinner was a woman named Eve. She was deceived and fell into sin there in the garden but the man, it says in the text, was not deceived.
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And you go, what? Does that make him better? This is not a commendation of Adam. When you really get down to it, both
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Adam and Eve sinned with a high hand against God. Both knew the truth. Both knew the command of God.
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She was deceived by the serpent but Adam, Adam entered into sin together with Eve knowing what he was doing.
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She didn't trick him. He said, okay, I'll do that. Against God, I'll do that. High -handed sin.
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And no, men are not off the hook. Our sinful nature here where we sit today ties directly to the sin of Adam according to Romans 5, 12 through 14.
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All of us bear the mark of sin because of Adam. Now Eve was the first human sinner.
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That's clear from the narrative of Genesis. And although it's true that Adam was right there with her, the text of Genesis says as much, and her husband was with her, but her hand reached up and took the fruit.
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And hear me carefully, church. I do not believe it's healthy or helpful to extrapolate beyond what this text says.
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It does not say women matter less than men because men were created first.
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It doesn't say men are better than women because a woman fell into sin first. Nor does it say that women are more gullible or more easily deceived.
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The text ties the order of roles in the church to narrative history. And the history is simply this.
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Man was created first and was given the role of leadership in the family and the church. You can see that in 1 Corinthians 11 3, by the way, if you're curious about how that's spelled out for the family as well.
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But the historical fact is that the woman Eve became the first human sinner, and she became the first human sinner, and that came about by the first man,
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Adam, abdicating his leadership to the woman. Paul highlights
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Adam not leading in this moment of deception. Adam was there with Eve. She was deceived.
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He didn't lead. But letting her lead, he took and ate with her.
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And for these reasons I believe that all of this text is God calling his church back to the plan that he originally set forth for man to have the role of teaching and lovingly exercising authority in service in the church to all.
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Verse 15 has been often misunderstood, but what he says makes sense in light of what he has just done to us.
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He's dropped a bombshell on the sexes in this text. Someone here right now might already be thinking, what,
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I can't be a pastor in this church? See ya. Some men are here thinking, what,
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I'm called the lead? I'm responsible? See ya. And knowing that this is all open to misunderstanding the value of women,
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Paul concludes this section by reanimating women with dignity and very, very, very high honor.
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Keeping with Eve, and talking about Eve, he highlights her salvation and her rescue. The rescue for the representative woman of the human race,
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Eve, is that she would be restored to dignity, which I think is kind of a reasonable translation and context of that salvation.
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She's going to be restored, femininity is going to be restored to dignity through childbirth.
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What does that mean? Is that just the fact that they give birth to the human race is the point?
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I don't think so. I think he's still in Genesis. I think he's still thinking the context of all of this
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Adam and Eve business. And in Genesis 3 .15, childbirth features in the conversation between God and Eve after the fall.
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Genesis 3 .15, the promises of an offspring. You're going to give birth, your descendants are going to give birth to one who will crush the head of the serpent.
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I think he had a particular childbirth in mind when he said, women will be restored to dignity, women will be saved in their role through that birth.
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I think it makes sense that he stays in Genesis through this text. So women are restored to high honor despite the fall by being the way the
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Messiah came into the world. But to avoid now an over -reading of the point, Paul clarifies the extent of that salvation.
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I believe it is a saving of dignity and honor, but not a saving unto eternal life as if, wow, glad you were born a woman because now you just get to go to heaven because Jesus came through Mary.
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That's not what he's getting at here. They still need to continue in faith, he says.
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If they continue in faith in Jesus, continue in love that comes from a sincere faith, they continue in holiness, which is a gift of the new creation of a new heart.
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And if they continue in self -control that comes through a sincere conscience now driven by the Holy Spirit.
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All pictures and models of saving faith in our generation. I don't think
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Paul in this text has any interest in disparaging women. All accusations of his misogynistic tendency must ignore the primary place he gives them in redemptive history in verse 15.
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He gives no role to men in the bringing forth of the Messiah. What did we do? We stood out like shepherds in the hills and just received him.
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Okay, he's here. Okay, we'll go. No role for the man at all except to receive the
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God -man born of the Virgin Mary. It's a tough passage, just being honest.
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But it's a good passage. And here are the applications. Men, lead well.
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Lead well. Come to the gathering of God's people adorned with holy hands.
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Lift them up in prayer. Shun anger and quarreling. That includes the shouts to the backseat in the minivan on the way here.
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How can you show up here with holy hands when you've just shouted down your five -year -old? Think it through.
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A real practical injunction that we would make Sunday mornings in our household, a time of confession, a time of joy, a time of gladness.
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We get to go be in the house of God. Let's make sure we come with holy hands.
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Women, let your reputation be for a peaceful life of modesty and good works.
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This message has been a little bit longer than normal. And I recognize that there's a whole bunch of unanswered, potentially unanswered questions.
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So as I said earlier, I encourage you to use the connection card. You have an actual paper one or grab the app and that would be really helpful if you could use that to get in touch with us.
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And be sure that you include your name and your email. I think those might be required fields on that connection card, but make sure you give those to us so that we can follow up with you.
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It'd be a big bummer for you to write a question and us not know who to answer it to. So, follow up with that if you have any questions.
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But as we come to communion, let me emphasize that Jesus Christ died for us. Maybe, and no other message is it as valuable that we realize that the blood of Christ covers us in unity.
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He died for us, male and female. The same blood shed for me was shed for my wife.
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The same blood shed for my sons was shed for my daughter. Jesus loves us all.
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And our unity and equality, our unity and equal value does not wash away his unique role for the sexes.
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We are not driving towards being androgynous people. Culture is, but the church is not.
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We are in his image, male and female, with all of the delight and joy of complementary roles that that brings.
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And so rejoice in his salvation this morning as you take the cracker to remember his body that was broken for all of us and the cup of juice that reminds us of his blood shed for all of us.
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And then let's go out from here in faith. It's a call to faith, trusting that he has got it right in his creation of male and female and our complementary roles.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for your word. I thank you for a word that corrects so many issues and problems in our culture today.
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A word that challenges us. A word that drives to the heart some of the areas where we wrestle.
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And it would be wise for us to wrestle with these things. But I pray that to a person we would land where you land in your word.
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This is a clear word, not difficult to convey, just difficult to convey in our context.
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So Father, I pray that you would open hearts and minds. If there's anybody who is tempted to bolt for the door and never come back,
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I pray that you would at least grace them with the boldness to have a conversation with me or Spencer to jot down a note.
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If there's any misunderstanding there, we could work through that. But Father, I thank you that we have an opportunity in unity to come to the table this morning.
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Men and women being redeemed by you day by day. Not getting it right every time, but seeking your face.
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pray that you would honor that time with unity in our church. In Jesus' name. Amen.