2:1 - A call to be prayer warriors for all people. Not just the ones we love...not just the ones we know...but all people. What could you do to make this a practical reality? Maybe you could pray for a different people group each day. Maybe you could pray for people you have a bias against.
2:7 - Simple, yet powerful statement of missional living. There is only one God. There is only one way to get to God (Jesus). My mission in life is to introduce as many people as possible to this truth.
2:8A - This is not a command that all men should constantly lift their hands in prayer, it is about an attitude of the heart. Lifting the hands was a Jewish custom of honoring the holiness of God. Paul is basically calling men to live lives worthy of the holiness of God.
2:8B - Anger and disputes stand directly in opposition to the holy life God has called us to live.
2:9ff - Women should dress modestly, not drawing attention to themselves through alluring clothing...they should draw attention to themselves through godly living. In Paul's day, he had to war against the pagan influences getting into his churches. The Greek society had female priestesses that slept with men for the glory of their fake gods. They had women who would dress extravagantly to impress people around them and show their superiority. Paul was willing to speak hard truth to fight against these kinds of things getting into the church. Today, we live in a much different world with an emphasis on gender equality (this will be discussed more in a minute), but that doesn't change the fact that we need to make sure the church is not twisted by outside influences. If women of this world dress to put their bodies on exhibit and get attention from men for all the wrong reasons...Christian women should seek the opposite end of the spectrum. They should live godly lives that draw attention towards God.
2:11ff - These are some of the hardest, most controversial passages in all of the New Testament. Yay! The first thing that we have to understand here is that context is king. Paul was living in a world where women, whether Greek or Jewish, were rarely, if ever, permitted to teach. Paul was writing to Timothy who is living in Ephesus. Ephesus was a center of worship for the goddess Artemis - who consequently had a huge following of sex obsessed male worshippers and free-love prostitute priestesses. Paul was dealing with some outside influences that could really crush the Christian church in its infancy...he had to make sure that pagan cultural ideals were not being taught in the church. Secondly, he never makes his statements about women a command...did you notice that? He says, "I do not permit..." In the context he is working in, he does not allow women to teach, but there may be contexts in which it is acceptable. In I Corinthians 9:22, Paul talks about how he is willing to become all things to all men so as not to become a stumbling block for non-believers. So, taking all that into account...I believe Paul would find it acceptable in our modern culture of equality that Christian churches would allow women to lead and teach. If we want to become all things to all men to avoid causing obstacles for non-believers, don't you think allowing women to use their God-given gifts or teaching and leadership would be an example of that. How many non-believers have mocked Christianity and turned from it in the modern world because they perceive it as oppressive and chauvinistic? Think about it. That said, the focus of the passage is about living peaceful lives of holiness. Whether a man or a woman, that is what you are supposed to be doing...so go do it.
3 comments:
what's with his explanation? because eve was deceived and adam wasn't
i guess i can see a way this can be true, but that would be not fair to women with the modern outlook
Part of what Paul may be explaining through his reference to Eve in this passage is not that all women should be quiet because Eve screwed up first, but that women should not be teachers in the Jewish/Christian world because too many of the people of the church have been taught to believe that women are more easily deceived and brought sin into the world. Because of this environment, it would be unfair to shove them into a leadership role where they would receive no respect.
I really appreciate the call to pray for all, even including our leaders without any other prerequisite. It doesn't say to pray so long as we are from the same side or believe in the same things. At the end of the day, God is the only true God, regardless of who believes, and his name will be glorified in ALL THINGS, so to sit here and decipher who to and who to not pray for is absurd!
The gender equality debate is super frustrating, but it is in scripture. I see where Paul's call to withold women from excersicing authority and teaching (2 seperate actions by the way; no to be translated as "authoritative teaching"), since it's hard to explain, but present nonetheless, the differences between men & women. Even so, it's awesome to see that several times in scripture where women are used as the driving influence in the ongoing, overall story & impact of the gospel. It was Mary who had to deal w/ a birth outside of marriage; it was a woman who first shared the Gospel; it was Lydia who was used to get the gospel into Asia (and easily inferred that she performed a ton of baptisms). In all this confusion, I am very quickly reminded that in ALL THINGS, God can't help but to be glorified. Dr. Mark Moore once put it this way: Men are clearly called to leadership over women in scripture; but if men don't rise up, the women will.
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