I Timothy 1&2I hope your time in Meditation on Scripture was meaningful last night. It was a blessing to me to see you allow Psalm 103 get up close and personal. This week's readings will center on building our lives on God's Word as we experience it through Holy Scripture. I hope you notice what I just wrote. We don't just read the Bible to get helpful information and guidance, we read God's Word to encounter Christ, the Word who became flesh. Remember our goal in deepening our Christian life - total transformation. Concerning God's Word, we might consider the words of Jesus from the end of the "Sermon on the Mount" in Matthew 7:24-27,
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."Have we sung the little children's song about this passage so much that we no longer hear its words. Our lives are to be founded on God's Word, both knowing it and practicing it. I know so much more than I practice, how about you?
The letters to Timothy are written during a time when there were many competing philosphies and teachings (not unlike our own day). Believers were easily led astray by "false teachers" (not unlike our own day). Paul writes to Timothy to encourage him to be strong in his faith and fervent in proclaiming God's truth. Timothy is a son in the faith to Paul (I Timothy 1:2) and Paul sees him as a key person to take the faith to the next generation. Never has the need been more pronounced to bring along a new generation of leaders than the one we are in. The present bankruptcy of the church (spiritual and missional)is partly due to the fact that the church got comfortable in its relative success and did not mentor leaders for the present generation. Regrettably, I can show that trend in every level of the church. We forgot that the church is always one generation from extinction.
After his greeting, Paul immediately addresses the problem of "false teachers". While the dominant ones were gnosticism, that set up Jesus amidst a hierarchy of beings, and docetism,that denied that the Son of God could take upon himself the sins of the world, there were also others who wanted to implement a new Jewish legalism into the Christian faith and still others who wanted to take obscure parts of scripture and create exotic versions of the Christian faith. An contemporary example of exotic use of traditional religion would be Kaballah with Judaism(remember Madonna among others in the entertainment industry). But there is a more widespread practice done by self-appointed biblica experts who take certain images and make more of them than the Scriptures ever did. Some studies of the tabernacle, the food laws, and an overuse of Messianic interpretations of the Old Testament would be just some examples. When anyone says to you that they have gotten a new revelation from God that no one else has, run!
In chapter 1, verses 12-17, Paul shares with thanksgiving his conversion story. Remember that we started the class with our BC/AD stories. It's important to remember your story of faith as a way of staying rooted in both changing and trying times. Paul finishes the chapter by calling Timothy to stay strong and "fight the good fight", even admist some high profile people who have fallen away. I'm not sure we realize as USAmericans how easy we have had it in our faith. For a few generations, the Christian point of view was the dominant one (not that we all necessarily lived by that view!), but we are now part of an era where faith will once again suffer and be persecuted. There are and will be casualties as some step away. We too will have to "fight the good fight" in following Christ.
Chapter 2:1-8 is a wild paragraph, as Paul launches into a "stream of consciousness" discussion about prayer. We are to pray for those in governmental authority. Are we as prone to pray for the one that we did not vote for or just complain? Notice in verse 4 says that God wants all people to be saved. Regrettably, my NIV Study Bible says in the commentary,"On the other hand, the Bible indicates that God chooses some (not all) people to be saved." Just because we see that only some respond to God, does not mean that God didn't choose them. All have sinned and all can find salvation in Jesus Christ. Some just choose not to live in their chosenness, but choose selfishness and resistance to God instead. Let's not make that God's doing.
Would that chapter 2 had ended at verse 8! First, I will address what is positive about verses 9-15. The call to modesty in how one dresses and how much bling is worn is a good one. Our worship of God and our following of Christ is not for self-glorification. And there isn't a preacher, teacher, scholar, or even servant of people that doesn't need to die to self-glorification on a regular basis. This does not mean that we should abase ourselves and demean ourselves with how we dress. But it does mean that we should not flaunt our looks or personality to a degree that they become the message or ends in themselves. We have a message to share and a kingdom to demonstrate and nothing should get in the way.
Chapter 2, verses 11-15, remind me that the Bible was written in real historical times with particular structures. The Jewish faith was highly patriarchal and Roman society was very harsh toward women. Some defend this writing, saying that the early Christian women were often of ill repute and needed to be quiet. Paul's justification of his position is based on created order (Adam first then Eve) and Eve's disobedience in the garden of Eden (which Adam also shared in without hearing from the snake!). For me, this argument does not work and has been used even to the present day to justify the persecution and stifling of women. While I am not a fan of taking to heart only the passages of the Bible you agree with, I cannot hold these five verses in the esteem that I hold most of the rest of the Bible. I welcome your comments.
1 comment:
I agree that this passage at the end of I Tim chapter 2 is given in a time where there is a patriarchal society existed and women were subject to the male dominate culture. These same people that would give this the passage the strength of law seem to ignore I Cor. 11 and the uncovering and covering of the head as being cultural. We are subject to it all and again under law or we are subject to Christ as our Lord and free from the law. This is what we see in Gal 3: 22-28:
“22. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise of faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. 23. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, closed off unto the faith which should have afterwards be revealed. 24. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 26. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus”
It is not whether you are male or female, but we are one body in Christ and subject to Him. Most of the discussion of women in the bible revolves around marriage and its function in society and the orderly conduct. For example Jesus is challenged by the Pharisees in Matt 19: 3-6 and Mark 10: 2-8, Jesus brings up the two shall become one flesh when the Pharisees asked if the man has the right to put away his wife for every cause. Jesus did not reply stating the man is the head and he can do what he wants. But Jesus made the case for the partnership as one flesh.
I think Paul lays out the best case for this marital structure between a man and a woman in Ephesians Chapter 5. Marriage should be the mini example of the body of Christ. Christ loved the church and gave his life for it, as the man is to love his wife with that same level of love. We love Christ as the woman is to love her husband. This joint love and the flesh becoming one brings the marriage (body of Christ) to it’s fullness in Christ.
So how do we reconcile I Tim 2: 9-15 with the rest of the Bible? I think the other reference to women keeping silence in the church in I Cor 14: 33-35 will shed some light on I Tim. Confusion penetrated the Corinth church and I believe keeping silence here refers to women were speaking out while husbands were preaching or ministering. This disrupts God’s work. This passage then states to ask their husbands at home. What if they are not married? Verse 40 of this chapter sums up this passage and I Tim chapter 2.
“40. Let all things be done decently and in order.”
This chapter in Timothy is about order living under governments, order in prayer, order in dress and order of women not to usurp the authority of the man ordained to be a leader in the church as Timothy is a leadership epistle. Understanding in that culture men were the leaders, this then fits with the other references cited in this post. Let me know your thoughts about this research I did, or other thoughts about this passage in Timothy.
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