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Friday 3 May 2013

1 Timothy 2:8-15 - Authority over a man

Paul now gives instructions on worship. Men are to pray without "anger or disputing". Women are to dress modestly. Now this does not mean that it is wrong to wear nice clothes, but church is not to become a fashion parade! Now are women to provide a distraction for men. We are to focus on what really matters, which is good deeds. This is also a challenge to our image obsessed culture.
Verse 11, of course, is controversial in terms of whether or not women should be allowed to preach or have roles in leadership. There is an interesting analysis of these matters if you follow this link. The key issues are over the extent to which these instructions are situational or absolute. Elsewhere Paul does allow women to prophecy, so we should not take this as an absolute ban on women speaking in church.
If we take a more positive view, ie focusing on what should happen, rather than on what people cannot do, then men should take up responsibility. A key failing on our society, and in the church, is men failing to take up the proper responsibilities that we have. 
The reference to Adam and Eve may tend to imply that the instructions are more absolute, rather than being particular to the situation in Ephesus. However, v14 most definitely does not mean women are inferior to men. Adam sinned, and the general teaching in the NT, and in Paul in particular, is about Adam's sin. 
The talk about being saved through childbirth is even stranger to us. Some see it as meaning we are saved through "the birth" of Jesus, but this is stretching things a bit. Perhaps it is better to see it as a positive endorsement of the importance of childbirth and the role of a mother. This is still relevant today, for there is a tendency to denigrate childrearing, seeing it as an interruption to pursuing a career. This is wrong thinking. Bearing and raising children is perhaps the most important thing a person can do.

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