1 Timothy 2: Instructions For Worshipping God

In 1 Timothy 2, Paul breaks down the proper way to act, and worship God.

To me it’s almost like he’s writing out people should act and treat each other in a church service. He states that men should be worshipping God without anger, and women dressed modestly.

The Chapter itself says some very controversial things and I believe they’ve been taken out of the text causing these issues. But I’ll explain that below.

The main thing we need to remember is that we are called to love God, love each other, and spread the gospel.

A couple of things we need to remember as we dig into this text.

• The Bible is full of different older cultures we sometimes have trouble understanding
• It was translated from a couple of different languages, and the wording might be off.

I don’t like useless arguments, they bug me, however, this is directly related to the text but if you go in remembering my two bullet points above we should be able to learn something new today.

1 Timothy 2: Paul Gives Instructions About Church Worship

2 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. 

² Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. 

³ This is good and pleases God our Savior, ⁴ who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. 

⁵ For, There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. 

⁶ He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time. 

⁷ And I have been chosen as a preacher and apostle to teach the Gentiles this message about faith and truth. I’m not exaggerating—just telling the truth.

1 Timothy 2:1-7

1 Timothy 2: Jesus Is The One Who Will Reconcile Us:

I love that statement in 1 Timothy 2:5 it reminds me of John 14:6 (Jesus is the way). He came to save us all, and this was accomplished through his death and resurrection. Our earth is dying, our sin has killed it, and it’s a sinking ship. Jesus came to it and said come I’ll bring you all to safety.

Some people get aboard, and others don’t think there’s any danger. The ship band plays on and the ship starts to sink. Meanwhile, as the ship starts falling beneath the waves, Jesus begs and pleads for people to get on his boat but the band plays on, and the people keep dancing.

That’s how our world is. Unfortunately, many people are making the wrong choice, but that’s what love does. It gives us a choice.

1 Timothy 2: In Every Place Of Worship

⁸ In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy.

⁹ And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes. 

¹⁰ For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do.

¹¹ Women should learn quietly and submissively. ¹² I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly. ¹³ For God made Adam first, and afterward, he made Eve. 

¹⁴ And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived, and sin was the result. ¹⁵ But women will be saved through childbearing, assuming they continue to live in faith, love, holiness, and modesty.

1 Timothy 2: 8-15

1 Timothy 2: How To Deal With Controversial Texts:

Taken at face value the text, “Women will be saved through childbearing.” Can be a hard verse to swallow. It sounds like it contradicts Eph 2:8, which states that we are saved through faith and not works.

Does childbearing count as work? I think most mothers would say yes, I’ll never be pregnant so I’ll take their word for it.

Truth be told, there have been countless arguments from scholars to church folk about this verse. It’s strange and possibly divisive. However, I think Paul is telling us something else than women are saved by having kids. This is mostly in part from the contradictory message of the gospel and I’m not okay with that.

This means a couple of possibilities:

1. The translation might be off. The Bible has lots of translations, and if you don’t know the original Greek or Hebrew. Sometimes we aren’t getting the complete message.
2. Paul could be speaking about something only the readers and he knows about, but it isn’t in our knowledge base 2000+ years later. (think inside joke but not funny, Or idioms)
3. Or there was something in the culture that Paul was trying to state. A lot of times these scriptural anomalies can be traced back to something in the culture. What it is I’m not sure.

For example, a lot of ancient religions had women dress up fancy with gold earrings and small amounts of clothing. These women were viewed as temple workers, which essentially are sex workers.

I think the best example is to understand Paul is trying to have the congregation differentiate itself from the world.

I want to dig into this more, as I’d love to know more about the culture in which this letter was written. In 1 Timothy 2 Paul is most likely writing something directed toward a cultural belief that is known to the readers but it’s not generally to us unless we dig into history.

1 Timothy 2 My Conclusion

I’ve looked into it, and there are a couple of theories out there, but I won’t share them here because I think they all have their flaws. I will state that men & women are saved by faith and not works.

I tend to think it has to do with the curse that was put upon humanity in Genesis. In the fall of Man, God placed a curse on mankind. This curse stated that men have to live by the sweat of their brows and women will have pain during childbirth.

However, there is no direct connection between the curse in Genesis and 1 Timothy 2. But it works in my head. Either way, I don’t like vain arguments. The truth is that Jesus loves each and every one of you. And he came to die and rose again so you could enter heaven with him.

This means a lot to me, all other theology is pointless and we need to ask God how we should act.

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