Instructions on Worship
1I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone-- 2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave himself as a ransom for all men--the testimony given in its proper time. 7And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle--I am telling the truth, I am not lying--and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.
8I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.
9I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, 10but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.
11A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15But women[1] will be saved[2] through childbearing--if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.
The second chapter of 1 Timothy is 15 verses in length. This entire chapter is devoted to instructions on prayer (v1-7) and worship (v8-15) in response to false teachings on these crucial elements of the faith. The latter half of this chapter emphasizes the divisive spirit of the false teachers. Let’s take a look:
1) V1-4 – 1I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – 2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Paul, with the word “then,” ties chapter 1 to chapter 2. He has urged Timothy to continue in faithfulness to Christ without being overly concerned with the appearance of outward success. How might Timothy best accomplish that task? Paul says with four different words that it comes through prayer. Praying for “everyone” (v1), or “all men,” is meant to show the inclusiveness of the gospel, in the response to the exclusivist false teachers; but it is often misinterpreted. Paul clarifies what he means in v2, basically including all kinds of people. So praying for everyone means praying for all kinds of people, including those in authority and even kings.
Praying for Nero at this time was probably not something that came easily to persecuted Christians, but doing so was intended to ease their trials (“that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”) Because Nero, and others in authority were persecuting the church, or trying them by teaching divisive and false doctrine, living peaceful and quiet, godly and holy (or dignified) lives, did not come easy; but maybe through prayer God would alleviate some of that tension, for godly living is good (v3; Jeremiah 29:7). The false teachers in Ephesus were unwilling to include certain people groups – namely kings and those in authority – in their prayers, thinking them too unspiritual and therefore unworthy of intercessory prayer. On the contrary says Paul, these prayers, including intercession, requests, and thanksgivings, please God our Savior (v3).
In v4, Paul says that God “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” We can acknowledge that Paul’s statement refers to God’s general benevolence in taking no delight in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23; 33:11). God wants – He commands – all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). But at the same time, all people everywhere are not saved. So many question God’s will here. This is an illustration of His revealed will; in terms of what would be nice for each individual human and beneficial for humankind, salvation through faith in Christ (“a knowledge of the truth,” referring to an intimate, personal and complete knowledge of God) and repentance. God wants this, but His decretive will is that all kinds of people – from every tongue, tribe, and nation – would be saved. God, therefore, has not elected all people to salvation, but all kinds of people; the elect don’t come only from the poor class, or from Israel – they come from everywhere. God has a special love for His elect, as He brings them (us) to Himself. And another part of His decretive will is that some people would experience just judgment, while others receive mercy (Romans 9:1-24). This is all due to nothing on the part of the individual, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; but we are saved by His grace according to His good and perfect purpose. Allow Calvin to conclude:
“We see the childish folly of those who represent this passage to be opposed to predestination. ‘If God’ say they, ‘wishes all men indiscriminately to be saved, it is false that some are predestined by His eternal purpose to salvation, and others to perdition.’ They might have had some ground for saying this, if Paul were speaking here about individual men; although even then we should not have wanted the means of replying to their argument; for, although the will of God ought not to be judged from His secret decrees, when He reveals them to us by outward signs, yet it does not therefore follow that He has not determined with Himself what He intends to do as to every individual man. But I say nothing on that subject, because it has nothing to do with this passage; for the Apostle simply means, that there is no people and no rank in the world that is excluded from salvation; because God wishes that the gospel should be proclaimed to all without exception. Now the preaching of the gospel gives life; and hence he justly concludes that God invites all equally to partake salvation. But the present discourse relates to classes of men, and not to individual persons; for his sole object is, to include in this number princes and foreign nations. That God wishes the doctrine of salvation to be enjoyed by them as well as others, is evident from other passages of a similar nature.”
2) V5-7 – 5For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave Himself as a ransom for all men – the testimony given in its proper time. 7And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle – I am telling the truth, I am not lying – and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.
Paul announces that there is one God; this is the fundamental affirmation of Judaism and Christianity and was absolutely contrary to the cultural polytheism of the day. He also declares Christ as the sole mediator between God and men (remember it is in this sense that Jesus is our hope from 1 Timothy 1:1). This is another reason to pray for “everyone;” salvation is not found in every faith, but only in Jesus Christ. And God uses prayer to bring people to faith, and therefore salvation, in Jesus Christ.
Paul emphasizes the humanity of Jesus here, as 1st (all the way through 4th) century false teachers commonly denied it, due to the resurrection. (Only beginning in the 4th century was His divinity questioned.) Essentially, God is One Being, One essence, with three distinct, co-eternal, and co-equal Persons. And Paul acknowledges that God Himself – in the Person of Jesus, as “the man” (pointing to Jesus’ full humanity) – fulfills the role of Savior (v3).
V6 recalls the way in which Jesus served as mediator (v5) – by becoming a ransom (Isaiah 53). He “gave Himself;” the Father sent His Son, and Jesus “gave Himself.” You can see clearly the roles that each Person of the Godhead has to fulfill. The ransom here is a vicarious, substitutionary atonement and propitiation. And when Paul mentions all men here, he is undoubtedly referring to the same “all kinds of men” as in v1 and v4. Paul certainly knew that Jesus’ death was a sufficient ransom for all, but that it was efficient only for the elect, which included all kinds of men. Calvin says, “The universal term all must always be referred to classes: of men, and not to persons; as if he had said, that not only Jews, but Gentiles also, not only persons of humble rank, but princes also, were redeemed by the death of Christ. Since, therefore, He wishes the benefit of His death to be common to all, an insult is offered to Him by those who, by their opinion, shut out any person from the hope of salvation.”
Furthermore, a ransom paid without the return of the kidnapped is unjust, and there is no injustice with God. If a ransom was paid, then the person is redeemed, for God would be unjust to keep the ransom without redeeming the ransomed party. This is obviously not true of all men, but it is certainly true of all kinds of men, again, according to God’s sovereignty. And wrapping up v6 with an aside, Paul says that the work of Jesus Christ is “the testimony given in its proper time.” Genesis 3:15 offered the protoevangelion, and the rest of Old Testament foreshadowed Christ. The Gospels reveal that proper time, in which Christ came humbly and won victory at Calvary; and now Paul acknowledges that the whole of history is His story, ordained from before the creation of the world, according to His will.
Paul was appointed to preach the gospel, as “a herald and an apostle…and a teacher (2 Timothy 1:11) of the true faith to the Gentiles,” to the world. The statement thrown in the middle of this claim, in v7, is odd if this letter is intended solely for Timothy, but this clue, along with others throughout the letter, reveals that the letter was intended for the entire Ephesian congregation. God’s saving love is truly for the world, as He includes Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female, all who, by grace, have the “true faith.”
3) V8-15 – 8I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing. 9I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, 10but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. 11A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15But women [or she] will be saved [or restored] through childbearing – if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.
In v8, Paul mentions “men everywhere.” After covering prayer, he’s now transitioning into corporate worship, which includes prayer, rightly done by lifting holy hands (with words and lifestyle in agreement, opposed to those described in Isaiah 1:15), “without anger or disputing” (v8), a “settled opposition,” especially in attitude, toward each other. He’s excluding the false teachers and their messengers (perhaps young widows) with these elements of proper corporate prayer. Now Paul is not limiting participation to men (Acts 2:18, quoting Joel 2:28-32; 1 Corinthians 11:5), but it may be a clue to the specific problem in Ephesus. Perhaps the men were struggling with unity in worship, instead tending to anger and disputing; perhaps the men had become angry and discontinued corporate worship and prayer altogether, which led to the problem of women taking over the leadership, which Paul will address later. In other words, maybe the men weren’t stepping up to leadership, so the women did; but that wasn’t a justifiable reason. Whatever the reason, when Paul mentions the lifting up of holy hands (Psalm 63:4; 141:2), he’s thinking, again, of attitude issues. That’s reflected in his admonitions to women as well.
In v9, Paul addresses modesty for women (1 Peter 3:3-4). Greco-Roman culture appreciated extravagant dress, but again, this exhortation has motive and attitude in mind, not just mere behavior. We may again speculate that some of the Ephesian women had gotten caught up in the women’s freedom movement that spread throughout the Roman Empire at this time in history (1 Corinthians 11:2-16). Or perhaps we could conclude that the false teachers were going after the wealthy women of the congregation whose husbands were too busy to guard their wives from these wolves. Nevertheless, women ought to dress with modesty and discretion, in order that they would be esteemed as modest and discreet women of God.
Much ado is made about Paul’s statements in v11-12, but submission is the matter at hand. Paul’s command for Christian to submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21) is not a matter of value or status in God’s sight, but rather a matter of God-given roles within various relationships. Interestingly the Greek word for “to have authority” in v12 more literally implies the usurping of authority, which again, was a particularly Ephesian problem of the moment, and it is used only here in all of Scripture (see 1 Corinthians 14:34). So again, maybe the men weren’t leading well, so the women took that role. It’s good for the women to want good leadership, and it’s quite a testimony to Christianity that women were encouraged in that day and age to be disciples and learn Biblical instruction; but rather than take it themselves, they ought to strive to encourage the men of the congregation to lead it. And God gave the leadership of God’s Church (the preaching and teaching eldership) to qualified men; Paul will detail those qualifications in the next chapter. Finally, it’s important to guard against the two extremes for women (and for men, for that matter) – that they can do nothing and that they can do everything. All people in the Church have God-defined roles, which are crucial for the Body of Christ to function as God intended.
V13-15 wrap up Paul’s thoughts here with an analogy. He appeals to creation for his command (see 1 Corinthians 11:8-12), and his reasoning is almost certainly situational. The Ephesian women were being deceiving by the false teachers (1 Timothy 5:11-15; 2 Timothy 3:6-7); so Paul takes a Scripture passage to show that it wasn’t the first time. But elsewhere (Romans 5:12-19; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22), Paul is comfortable blaming Adam for the introduction of sin into creation. Calvin comments:
“Because [Eve] had given fatal advice, it was right that she should learn that she was under the power and will of another; and because she had drawn her husband aside from the command of God, it was right that she should be deprived of all liberty and placed under the yoke. Besides, the Apostle does not rest his argument entirely or absolutely on the cause of the transgression, but founds it on the sentence which was pronounced by God. Yet it may be thought that these [following] two statements are somewhat contradictory: that the subjection of the woman is the punishment of her transgression, and yet that it was imposed on her from the creation; for thence it will follow, that she was doomed to servitude before she sinned. I reply, there is nothing to hinder that the condition of obeying should be natural from the beginning, and that afterwards the accidental condition of serving should come into existence; so that the subjection was now less voluntary and agreeable than it had formerly been.”
Paul speaks of the deceived women being saved, as in “redemption from deception” (v14). Though Paul is deemed controversial at best when he mentions childbearing as the apparent means to this salvation (v15), he is claiming that women need to return to their God-given role (Genesis 3:16), instead of seeking church leadership in sexual abstinence, which may have been encouraged by the pre-Gnostic false teachers. There is nothing to gain salvifically for women to strive for something other than for what they were created (to help their husbands). The goal should always be evangelism and discipleship, rather than pursuit of personal freedom and societal advancement; and this is true for both men and women, though they attain that by different means (roles). Paul suggests instead continuing in faith, which again points to a proper attitude of submission to God’s commands, and it was clearly especially important for these deceived women regarding their God-given role.
Footnotes
- 2:15 Greek she
- 2:15 Or restored
Bible text from Gospelcom.net. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.