1 Timothy 2, "Do You Know How to Behave?"

First Timothy chapter 2 starting in verse 1 here the word of the Lord First of all, then

I urge that supplications prayers intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people For kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life godly and dignified in every way

This is good And it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge

Of the truth for there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men the man

Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all which is the testimony given at the proper time

For this what for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle i'm telling the truth

I'm, not lying a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth I desire then that in every place the men should pray lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling

Likewise also that women should adorn themselves Inrespectable 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

Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness I do not permit a woman to teach her to exercise authority over a man 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 Yet she will be saved through childbearing If they continue in faith and love and holiness with self -control

May the lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word Well, do you know how to behave?

Mr. Perry knows how to behave My very first memory of church as a small kid probably about ramans

It may be a little younger raymond as being dragged out by the arm by my father and given a spanking because I wasn't behaving in church

You know how to behave in church. We're not gonna have to drag anyone out by the arm and spank anybody here. Are we? i'm looking at i'm looking around Uh, so we say that to kids when they misbehave don't you know how to behave?

We expect all adults though, of course to know how to behave, you know to not Just be talking about randomly

In the middle of sermons that kind of thing you expect to know that we we so internalize the rules of how to behave

You know, maybe shake hands when you greet someone greet them with a smile if you're meeting for the first time you give your name We don't even have to think about it anymore.

It's just we just think that's normal We think that's the way everyone is but that's in a way when we find a little nerve -wracking

To meet someone of a different culture because now suddenly you have to really think

About the basic rules of how to behave if you're with chinese take your shoes off at the front door

Don't forget that don't go in their house with shoes on what's wrong with you? Do you know how to behave? If you hand them something do it with both hands

If you welcome them to your house ask them if they've eaten And be prepared to give them something if they haven't and offer a drink at least

If you're greeting an ethiopian and maybe all africans, but I don't really know for sure shake with both hands

Don't shake him with just one hand you use both hands if you if you don't do these basic things

People might think you're just uncivilized. You're like a small kid that doesn't know how to behave Maybe you're just a jerk

And they don't want to listen to anything else you have to say from you But people that deal with other cultures all the time like diplomats government

They actually have assistants who will tell them how to behave when they are meeting Foreigners from all kinds of different countries.

There's even a term for it protocol You got to learn the protocol of whoever you're dealing with, you know, you're meeting the

The king or whatever he's called from saudi arabia or the queen of england or the prime minister of japan

You got to know the protocol of how to deal with these different kinds of people. In fact, the u .s state department has an office a protocol

So they have people experts who will be telling our representatives our president whoever you know This is how you deal with these kinds of people the protocol you don't want to actually start a war with some country just because We didn't know, you know deval instead of shake hands or whatever

Different cultures have different expectations on how to behave on what is the protocol in dealing with leaders particularly with leaders with authorities

Maybe about family specific things too like What to do at funerals? When the british were ruling over india, they encountered the indian practice of widow burning called sati

Now traditionally in india if a man died left his wife His body was burned. They cremated the body and along with his body being burned.

They burned his wife alive Uh, the british thought that that wasn't the way to behave.

So you had a conflict of cultures william carrie the great missionary Campaigned against it. He asked the government the british government ruling over india to ban it and so eventually they did

The hindu priests though when the order came down that they could no longer do this the hindu priests objected saying, you know

Here in india widow burning sati was their custom and it should be respected

And the british governor responded great quote. I love this be it. So This burning of widows is your custom

Prepare the funeral pile But my nation also has a custom When men burn women alive

We hang them Let us let us all act according to national custom

They saw they were convinced by that argument and they stopped burning their widows now who's right of course the modern attitude

Now is that really no one is right. There's just no one right way What's right in in india is different from what's right in britain

What's right in singapore is different from what's right in america and that might even be true about many kind of Non -moral things about a lot of little things like whether to eat with chopsticks or with forks

There's no one right way whatever you want to do, but about other things. Sometimes there is a right way to behave

Especially in god's household and that is the overarching theme Of the next two chapters and really chapters two and three kind of should go together, but we split them up Um, whoever did the chapter split them up and just looking at chapter two

But the overarching theme is in chapter 3 verse 15, which broadening quoted for us at sunday school today But it's really in chapter 3 verse 15 kind of concludes these two chapters saying how to behave in the household of god

Which is the church of the living god You know just as you may have rules about how to behave in your household, you know, whatever it is

Wash your hands before you eat pick up after yourself that kind of thing. God has rules about his household and And this is what we see in first timothy god's household rules

How are you going to behave? in his family Here we see those rules And why to follow them

In two major parts in chapter two first what to do in god's household and then how to do it

And under both why? What do you do in god's household? First of all

Paul begins what would you expect? You were just asked what is what is the first thing and you notice it begins first of all

I don't think it means because it just means this is the first thing i'm talking about I think this is the thing of priority What would you expect to be the number one priority of how to behave in god's house

What would you think What's the number one thing we should be doing? Welcome visitors with a with enthusiasm and a friendly smile at the door.

That'd be nice. Okay, we should do that Maybe great emotional worship music with lights and and feeling rodney talked about sunday school

Some church had laser beams and smoke and sparklers or whatever Or or maybe people want inspiring the first thing you need to do the first thing you need to pay attention to is inspiring practical messages on topics

You can use practical things like child rearing or dating or money Of course have a skit in a video and then a talk not a sermon

Just a talk with a smiling guy who comes across As a friendly neighbor, you know kind of just giving his two cents worth not some overbearing preachy expert who wants that or maybe if you're reformed

You want to lecture on the order of the decrees in the mind of god before the creation of the universe? Something like that.

You think that's the first thing? What's the first thing? Paul says first priority number one offers supplications

As requests, please first thing pray me You know offer prayers intercession uses four different kind of words for different kinds of prayer

We'll dissect them. Each of them are pretty self -explanatory. I think Our intercession is praying for others.

We did that right in our prayer. Um, we did we pray for our leaders as I said, we we thank god for what he's given and he's telling us that that the worship should contain request and You know in prayer for all kinds of things and all kinds of people uh, and and this is why

You ever notice you ever wondered why we don't open with a prayer. That's does that all seem unusual to you

I I I organized this order of service and that's the way kids behave. You just got to get the kids do that So now if if it were a 40 year old man running across and coming back, that would be different.

We would expect better But kids you just screen it out don't worry about it, but everyone why we don't open with the prayer that's in the the reason is because Often when

Environments i've been in where the service opens with a prayer. It's like it's done as an attention grabbing device

It's done not really to pray to god. It's done is a marker now. We're starting

All right that now we're now the show is beginning And I don't think that's what prayer should be used for Seems like making announcements is a good

Use for that prayer is first of all, it's an important thing when something's important you prepare for it

So we prepare with a song we prepare with we read a passage and now We sing the passage now.

We're ready to pray We're building up to prayer because the prayer is important our worship service the way it's designed has two major parts

One is around the prayer the psalm From which is the the prayer which we're praying to god because that's important and the other is sort of the base is driving

Toward the sermon Even this even the song before the prayer at the beginning is try to get a song that's relevant to the psalm

We're singing which guides the prayer, but the prayer is important. First of all, it's a major component of what we're doing

It's not just you know, we're christians and we're about to start a worship service So let's pray and you just you know, whatever off the top of your head

No prayer deserves more attention than that. First of all pray and But pray for you notice he says pray for all kinds of people

I mean there should be a breath to our prayers a wide concern For for all kinds that he means all races all nations now

Does this literally mean then you know because he says pray for all kinds of people pray for all people Does this mean you have to pray for every individual, you know, maybe we get a phone book up here

Go through the name every name pray for every person because I only get the heads of households I don't know how that works.

Then you got to somehow get phone books from all over the world You know pray for all people Go through the whole world phone book after phone book and name after name trying to name everybody

Of course, of course not you couldn't do that. We probably couldn't even keep up with the birth rate Babies would be born faster than we could name them

So it doesn't mean that but neither should it mean, you know, we do we pray just like tiny tim, you know

Lord bless us everyone. Okay. Well now we've done it. We pray for all people What paul means by all people is what the bible frequently means by all it means

Especially especially you see later in this chapter all kinds of people Not those who are just like us

Are not just us But all all kinds god is concerned for people from all nations of the world all races all types

And so should we be so enlarge? The reach of your love do not be provincial or narrow sectarian nationalistic elitist or racist in your prayers

Don't just pray for yours the few people, you know, let your prayers embrace all kinds of people especially pray he writes for for authorities

Now those dreaded authorities why pray for them? I mean they have it easy, don't they? Normally we think of praying for people that you know

Really the really needy the oppressed people in some islamic country in the middle east or the victims of terrorism in syria

Or do we really only pray for our soldiers? Hmm? I don't know about you, but I really think of praying for the authorities

You know after all they seem to have like going for them They got they get paid pretty well. They get to live in mansions.

They get free travel and food, you know Big airplane fly around in they get security What do you got to pray for them for?

You know much less he's even not only says pray for them plead to god for them intercede for them Hardest of all he says thank god for them

You know, what if? No, I didn't vote for that person. I don't want to thank god for him Why but he says to do it.

Well here the here's the why in the middle of verse two so that We may lead a peaceful quiet life godly and dignified in every way.

That's what we pray to our authorities To produce an environment that helps us be quiet godly dignified in every way

We want them to rule well So we can live well You know if our leaders give us a country of peace and prosperity

Then we're not having to worry about staying alive You know just scrounging through dumpsters because the economy has crashed or we don't have to hide from marauding armies

Because there's a big war going on or sheltering from falling bombs We can have the time and money and freedom to spread the gospel and god's household

You behave behave as if the spread of the gospel was more important than your friend's uncle's surgery

God approves of our prayers for peace because he approves of the advance of the gospel.

It is pleasing to him Paul writes in verse three when we pray and live in a way that makes it easiest for the gospel to spread

And so if you want to give god pleasure, how do you give god pleasure? How do you make him enjoy?

This day we'll pray Pray for all kinds of people and don't just pray that they feel better Uh pray that they be saved go to god asking that he bring people to salvation once again, we see that we see what god

Ask of us is our priority in prayer. Remember just was it just two weeks ago three weeks ago two weeks ago

Two weeks ago john 17 jesus's prayer. What was his priority? It's a lot like here, isn't it?

uh yeah, now sure we have a body because a lot of times prayer meetings are just consumed with with praying for physical needs

They say uh in the capitol hill baptist church to just to break the habit of everyone praying for some

You know ailment or some sort some relative surgery. They just made an absolute rule no praying for health and you know

It was hard because they had to make for a while just to break the habit I'm, not saying we'll do that. But that's what it takes.

Yeah. Sure We have a body but sometimes it's right to pray for healing But what pleases god is when the scope of our prayer

And our love is larger than just ourselves Or just a few people close to us and when we care for more

Than just our physical bodies Just another few more years of health It pleases god.

He says it gives god pleasure when we pray for all kinds of people black and white americans and foreigners

That they'd be saved that they'd be right with him and we see that in particular how god himself is described notice

It pleases in verse three god our savior savior

Is who god is? And he wants to do what he is Our prayers for people's salvation pleases him because it shows that we have a desire that he has

God desires it says in verse four all people to be saved And to come to a knowledge of the truth

Because they don't have it naturally they need to come to it Ezekiel Tells us that god takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked

That's not what pleases him what pleases him is our prayers Corresponding to his desires that all peoples be saved

Again as with all people in verse one You know you you think he means pray for every individual without exception

No in verse one pray for all kinds all peoples in verse one Um for people all races ethnicities and religions here the desire of people just to be safe is all kinds

And you got to remember the context of the situation in paul's day Then many christians were jewish they had they were raised up in that environment a jewish environment in the synagogues and so forth and Some of them hadn't fully learned the lesson to the cross that christ came as a sacrifice for all peoples some of us southerners haven't learned that either but Never mind.

So paul is speaking to such people and telling them that god did not send christ for just one nation but for every nation

That's why he reminds them that he is an apostle notice how he reminds them. I'm an apostle for the

Gentiles literally means for the nations But for these peoples christ came for the world without distinction

Not for every individual without exception Okay, so he wants some from all groups to be saved we find that in revelation finally at the end

People from every language every ethnic group every nation every race is gathered there around the lamb and that's that's the goal that he's after and and so You know

Then that tells us that he wants some from every group to to be saved to know the truth to be disciples of christ to enter

God's household the church. How do you behave in god's household? You open it up to people from all kinds of nations

Okay, you don't exclude any kind Segregated church is a contradiction in terms Absolute contradiction in terms if you're keeping out certain types of people.

You're not a church period Now we so we should never have the attitude Well, they're just like that you know that nation

They're just like that ethnic group those kinds of people they believe in their religion. We believe in ours We should we should just be content to leave them be

Live at peace, right? Uh, no, that's not the peace. He's talking about that's the false peace of what's called pluralism

Leaving people unreached in their false Religion and their doctrine false doctrines. That's not peace.

That's not even warm acceptance They may think they're accepting and tolerant really it's just cold ice cold negligence

And it does not please god, but our prayers and our work to get the gospel to people from all backgrounds

That's what pleases god he wants that because in verse 5 You notice where paul says there's only one god

You think why does he throw that in there? Of course, we know well it's a lot of times people Live is this?

Yeah, sure. I have one god and you have one god and your one god is different from my one god Are I have one religion you have another religion?

um, he is not it's not as though there's just one god and one religion for one group of people and Another god or gods or another religion for another group of people and it really doesn't matter what you believe

It's just so long as you happen to You believe your particular religion sincerely. That's what one lady once told me.

You have your religion. I am mine So so leave me alone But there is one god and to approach him in his way and the way he determines

Is what he wants all kinds of people to do not in this way we want That's why we need a knowledge of the truth

Right, not just opinions about the truth But a knowledge of what it really is and there's only one mediator.

He says there's one god. There's one mediator and the one mediator isn't muhammad or buddha or even mary as Sincerely as many decent people believe in these supposed mediators.

Everyone is sinful and needing a mediator a mediation right

Inter It's a good term. I don't Go between between us and god to avoid eternal punishment to be saved

Everyone's going to need that all are guilty through the disobedience of adam paul writes in first in roman chapter 5 verse 17

We all died spiritually and we all add to our own spiritual death. We you know in case you think that's not fair Why am

I blaming for adam's sin? Well, you send yourself enough Okay, don't be arguing about Doctrine of imputation you've added your own lengthy rap sheet of sins any one of which

Is enough to damn us and so we need a mediator We need a go -between and there is but one of them provided for by god himself.

Indeed. He is god himself And he is a man christ jesus everyone who trusts in another mediator.

There's only one so if you don't trust in the right one And if you trust in the works or prayers of someone else

No, you'll be disappointed Everyone there's no other go -between. There's no other way There is one door

Like that british governor you can keep your national customs, but you'll find you know, you do it one way

God's national custom will be well, it won't be so good The lord jesus paul writes in verse 6 gave himself a ransom

For for all kinds of people he he gave his life in exchange Um so we could buy back our lives now having done that don't you think he wants us to work and to pray?

That more and more people here in this area among families and groups Particularly among families groups that have not truly believed and come to worship god in god's way or in other parts of this country or overseas

Don't you think he wants us to get the gospel to them so that they can hear? the truth and believe

Yeah Paul says yes in verse 7 for this Just getting the gospel out

I was appointed a herald a proclaimer a messenger and an apostle a sent one like an ambassador

And I I speak the truth. I do not lie a teacher of the nations the nations of the gentiles the peoples in faith and truth our exclusive god

There's only one of him There's only one mediator. There's one truth. There's one gospel.

He's exclusive You can't get to him any other way than that which he has said He excludes all other ways

But he our exclusive god leads to an inclusive mission to reach all kinds of people

To not give up on any of them whether they're next door Or whether they're overseas not keep out anybody because of their race their nationality

The the same reason that paul was appointed a herald as a proclaimer Of the good news to reach the nations to people from every ethnic group

The same reason then is why the church must always be involved in missions and evangelism.

God wants all kinds of people To be saved. He's not consigned any entire group to hell

And so neither should we? So what does god want us to do what

Does he want us to do in his household? Well first pray Ask god for peace ask god for a harvest from all kinds of people now how

How are we to pray how are we to live together as a church how are we to Behave in this household starting in verse 80 gives us practical instructions on how

How do we behave in god's family? Well again pray

In their day they often prayed by lifting up their hands and looking up Today more christians are beginning to feel that's an appropriate way to pray and to praise and if it is for you feel free to do so If it's not then don't uh

As long as you are looking to the lord part of what it means being a god -centered church is that our focus is On the lord during the worship service not on whether you or someone else is is raising their hands the posture

Is not as important as the purity The holiness of the hands notices. I want to be in every way to lift up holy hands

I think it's much more important to him that the hands be holy Than that they be raised up But the hands are up or down is not as important as whether they have been set apart to serve the lord

During that throughout the whole week That they're holy hands and coming to church is to indeed to pray and to To pray for and seek him and he noticed he says without wrath and disputing

You know go to Paul writes and we don't come to win an argument our support a faction further in agenda

We come as people set apart for the lord focusing on him in love and peace

Praying for the salvation of all kinds of people Again why Again, why are we praying and not arguing?

Um, you know, I like to argue I have a weakness for arguing. So why should I pray and not argue? So that we'd be seen as respectable

And and so respected and well, okay, that's why everyone likes to be respected. I like to be respected But it's not just for ourselves.

So It's a respectable person respected for what? Um, but we look like people who aren't just living

For looking good for this world for this life For the the jewelry and the perfect hair and the fancy car

We are showing off that we've you know, we made it we got some money in the bank. We can we can flaunt it

No, but as though we really do have a treasure in heaven

All right, it's for a missionary purpose for for how our behavior in god's household

Um makes the gospel look To those who aren't yet in that household

That's what's behind the next five verses I know I may did those verses get your attention the second half of the chapter is strong Controversial In other words today, maybe they're not politically correct, you know

Whatever we want to call them words on women and we can get so distracted by those sharp Call it, whatever you will chauvinistic words that would get you so distracted.

You might miss the point The point is how do we behave? So that we make the gospel not ourselves look good

How do you behave in god's house? There's a protocol to follow right? You're you're trying to communicate from one realm one culture to another

How do you communicate between the kingdom of god where we're supposed to live and the world

Where all these other kinds of people? That god wants to save Where they live

If you don't follow the protocol If you're not taking your shoes off at the door Okay, the thing they see about you is that you are making my house filthy.

You are an untrained barbarian And okay, I understand you're not chinese

So therefore you're not very civilized and I i'll be gracious to you and not make a big issue about it But that's all they see you take your shoes off if you're not shaking hands with both hands

You haven't been raised right? or Are you dressing to show off?

Look how well you can you know, look at the money you have to pay for that nice suit You're adorning yourself as if you're a model

You're driving A car that maybe you're a tech billionaire. What did you found facebook?

What's going on? You're making yourself look As if you have a treasure on your treasure were on earth

If that's the way You're you're behaving They might not hear you.

At least they may not hear the gospel from you. They might be offended Or they might even be impressed with you

You're such a great success you look man you're flaunting it they might even be won over To the gospel of silk italian suits and big diamonds and mercedes benzes

You can win them into that sure, but that's not the true gospel. We have a protocol to follow

So that we communicate the right thing Are you following it?

Now for women he writes adorn yourself to adorn is to decorate make yourself look attractive

So you're to decorate yourself to look more attractive and that and that in itself is not bad But you must remember to do it for the right reason

What are you trying to make look attractive? Just your body Something else the woman who adorns herself seductively is doing it merely draw attention to herself

For the advantage that she can gain for the eyes that she she can draw Maybe for you know for her own the attention she can get maybe for her own feeling of power

I can manipulate these men. Well, look what I can do to them with my beauty and you might think What's wrong with that?

What's wrong with a woman feeling attractive? Well, there's nothing really but the christian woman has a higher purpose for her dress uh

For for how she makes herself, uh look than just Making her her body look good

She's supposed to communicate something much more important than just the uh allurement of her

Of her body our missionary purpose should determine how we adorn ourselves, you know in 19th century china the the english missionary hudson taylor

Broke with the other western missionary who kept dressing like western people and he dressed just like a chinese of their day Even the chinese in that day.

I forgot was a ming dynasty. I forget but they had these long pigtails And it looks the men the chinese men dressed like that.

They wore their hair like that and uh Of course the englishman didn't but then hudson taylor did he dressed just like them

So the so that his foreign dress which wasn't foreign anymore But it wouldn't his dress would not

Distract from the gospel the other western missionaries thought he was crazy But you know, he wasn't he put aside everything that distracted

From the gospel and so we to address it a way that makes the spread of the gospel easier

For example, you know if wearing a suit and tie So when I was raised up that was men wore suit and ties to church everyone did

Especially the preacher for crying out loud. He wore suit and tie all the time But but if doing that now

Even though it's traditional the way I was raised that puts people off makes you feel and makes some feel uncomfortable

If it if it defeats the missionary purpose of this Of the household of god you just feel i'm too formal too stuffy

You're distracted by the the look then we should find another way of dress that's dignified

And isn't as an obstacle to the spread of the gospel Now, yes, you can't adorn yourself

But in a way in a way that is respectable that is modest It displays that you're a lady of self -control and he's particularly talking to women here that you are encouraging self -control

And others so how are the ladies to adorn themselves? paul says in verse 10 with good works

That's what they see about you they say good words You're suing you're doing good things you do acts of kindness and generosity

Living that will cause unbelievers to to see they'll see your life and they'll praise our father in heaven far from the church being a place

Uh, because you can take some of these words and look well look women Not allowed to do anything but far from that being the case

We we should be overflowing with opportunities for for women to You know

Display their love for one another to do good things I think we have a lot of those

We're running out. We need to think of more Uh, then people will see that it is god's house And in god's house, there is authority the inspired apostle here gives us directions on how

He intends for his household to be ordered as as counter cultural It just is offensive because this second half of this chapter is is as offensive

As it could possibly be to modern people modern americans, it's just But these really are not optional rules

These aren't just man -made things. It's inspired by god. This this isn't our little club here, you know That we can just make up new rules in is this suits ourselves whatever makes us comfortable and ignore the rules established by the owner

We can't do that That's not what the church is in any true church. God is the owner

And is awkward Old -fashioned what he would call it is some of these instructions are we simply don't have the we don't have the right to ignore them as we see fit

And one of the household rules of god Is that there are some different roles for men and for women.

I know there are a lot of christians in our day And they want to ignore that who want to say that what paul says here is simply just saying, you know

That's he's a man of his times. He's a chauvinistic man of the first century What does he know but we are told that all scripture is inspired by god and all scripture includes first timothy chapter two

So this isn't just paul speaking. This is the holy spirit speaking Now some would say well, okay.

I understand it was true for paul's day But not for ours now things are different, but we start down a very slippery slope when we start to picking and choosing which scriptures are for today and which in our estimation are expired

Right. Some will say well look You know, so and so She's a gifted woman pastor

You know people are flocking to go hear her. Yeah, I know but we don't make our doctrine off of our limited experience

We don't we heard from that in sunday school. That's pragmatism Okay, she can pack them in it's okay to have a woman pastor.

That's the simple way people think today It is god's household

He is the authority So when he says that it's it's settled but there is one thing we need to understand about this passage

So that we don't get the wrong idea and that's the meaning of the word teach We are used to teachers in our culture.

And so we think you know, we we've all you know Many years in school. We've encountered a lot of teachers Let's say there's a few here.

There's one right there I don't know where emily went but she's a teacher and we assume that we know what god What paul means and god means but our eye but our idea of a teacher

Is quite a bit different from what paul had in mind in paul's day a teacher was more than just a purveyor of information

There's someone who gave a lesson that tried to communicate facts Someone you learned from a teacher in paul's mind was a leader a discipler

A teacher had a personal and authoritative relationship With those that he was responsible for teaching

He wasn't just someone you know Maybe you were just assigned to that teacher that class by the school

And the first time you met the teachers was on the first day of class and you never saw him or her again after graduation

That's not the kind of idea of teacher that paul has in mind here when he's talking about women being teachers

Now the chinese had the word and here i'm going to try to pronounce chinese words, which I always butcher But you don't know it except for this row here.

They know it but the rest of you don't The chinese had the word laozu Laozu They can pronounce it for you.

I can't uh, which means teacher but it's a term of respect Meaning literally old person of skill, although you can be kind of young and be allowed to I guess

They have another word that emphasizes the authority of teachers like jesus like paul master Uh, I believe it's shifu or fushi.

Which one is it shifu? Yeah, she said it my Very good you're learning

The word for teacher here in the bible would be more like that like master if someone was your teacher

He wasn't just someone who tried to keep your attention while trying to communicate ideas to you He he was someone who had authority over you someone who led you

Someone you had allegiance to He was someone you followed Like the disciples followed jesus the disciples called the lord.

Jesus teacher And by that they meant that he was their master And it is this kind of relationship that paul is prohibiting a woman to have

Over a man. She's not to be his master So keep in mind that the prohibition here is not not teaching as we usually think of it today but a pastoral discipling

A relationship in verse 12 paul underlines the authority aspect of the idea

I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man It isn't mere the mere speaking

What we today call teaching that is prohibited, but the authoritative Relationship over men and we know that because paul permitted women to participate vocally

In the worship services in first corinthians chapter 11 verse 5 He tells he tells the women there in the church

How They should publicly pray and prophesy so they were publicly praying and prophesying in the church there in corinth

He tells them how to do it He tells them that they should do it under what he called a sign of authority, but they may in fact

Do it different roles Does not mean different worth Women and men have different some different roles and one of those roles that women have is childbearing

In that last and most difficult verse That i'm not going to try to take apart carefully and give you every opinion on what it might mean

But whatever it means exactly It does mean that women can pursue their service to god.

That is their missionary calling That we all have the women can pursue it the missionary calling to spread the gospel

Not by denying their natural childbearing and maternal instinct instinct They can pursue it through that In other words, they could be mothers and disciples of christ missionaries two at the same time

That may not seem revolutionary to us here I don't think but you have to remember in many for much of church history that it was denied

That if you really wanted to be spiritual, but you really wanted to serve god what you needed to do was you forsake marriage you go and live in a convent or a um, whatever they call those places, you know, and you'd be single the rest of your life and doing that that was but Here we see that's not true

So there are indeed ministries for women, but they are not they are sometimes not the same as for men

There are differences. There's we call a complementarity That is a harmony of different roles where two things work together each differently but for the common good

There's a dance. I don't know a whole lot about dancing, but i've never really done it but in dancing each partner has to Complement the other that means say good things about the other although I guess that would be nice too

But I mean working together harmoniously if they're both doing the same thing. They're both trying to lead

There will be no coordination But god has made us to dance together complementing coordinating for a beautiful dance

Don't fall for the lie of the world Just because one role is different than the other is maybe more submissive more often behind the scenes

Supportive that it is for that reason inferior Don't fall for the lie of the devil that the only role that really matters

Is being the master? Like god that we should all be grasping for that That was the lie told in eden remember

You can become like god You can know you can be in charge

And so she grasped for equality with god And adam gave up his role

And he followed Don't fall for the lie That for there to be equality

There must be sameness Men and women aren't are different. They're not the same. They have different roles in god's household, but there are no little people

There are no second -class citizens Submission does not mean inferiority

And we know this Because the son himself the one mediator came and submitted

He submitted himself to death That's how he became the one mediator

Through not grasping for equality with god for laying down his rights for by praying

Not my will but yours be done. That's how he became the mediator through submission

He brought the one sacrifice to the father to make peace for our sins

And it came through his submission our culture's hatred of the idea of submission and of service

Is a fruit of that original sin in which eve believed the lie That she would become like god not having to submit and not having to serve anymore

And adam too disobeyed ate the fruit and became the father of death and they are our first parents the mother rebellion

And the father of death and we've inherited their natures entirely And the only way we can be saved from that from rebellion

And death deception Is by the one mediator To be ransomed to be bought back from rebellion and death by the god man christ jesus by him

They could be made different different from the world Finally loving submission like he did

Like the one who wanted so wanted all kinds of people to be saved

He did not count equality with god something to be held on to to be grasped at but he humbled himself becoming a servant submitting to death

And he because he so wanted us to be saved He so wanted it

He died for it so that we could become like him Submissive to god his father and that's

That's how you behave in god's household Did you know that?