On Sunday morning we looked at 1 Timothy 2:8-15. Here Paul described the roles of men and women in the church. God has designed us differently. Neither gender is better than the other. Each has been made by God to uniquely reflect his glory. Men are to model initiative. Paul addressed the men first, he called upon them to lift up holy hands in prayer. They are to take the spiritual lead. Women are to model modesty, both in what they wear and in how they learn in the church.
In many quarters of the church, this passage is controversial. Mainline churches refused, long ago, to accept the God-given differences between the genders. They wrongly opened up the office of pastor to women, contrary to the clear teaching of 1 Timothy 2:12.
God did not inspire this text to give birth to controversy but to inspire worship. How could this be?
Last Sunday morning, I ended the sermon listing three ways the different roles of men and women in the church should lead us to worship Christ:
First, we get to see what God values.
Think about biblical manhood. Brothers, God values men who pray with holy hands (v. 8), men who take the initiative to spiritually lead their family and church. God values men who are willing to model for others a passion for the lost and for God’s glory.
Think about biblical womanhood. Sisters, it is not your physical appearance that God values, it is your heart. Are you adorning yourself with good works (v. 11)? Are you learning quietly and in all submissiveness (v. 11)? Don’t let the world sell you a false bill of goods and tell you that to really be successful you need to be Martha Stewart and Angelina Jolie rolled into one. No, true beauty is a life lived for the glory of Christ.
Second, we get to see God’s wisdom.
As I read 1 Timothy 2:8-15 and learn that women are not to teach men in the church because God made Adam first, I’m left wondering, “Why?" Paul doesn’t say. So all I can do is trust God’s wisdom, even when I don’t understand it through and through. The Christian life is like that a lot, isn’t it? We are constantly faced with truths in Scripture and facts of life that we have a hard time understanding. Instead of using them as an excuse to run away from God, we should count in an opportunity to remember that God is not like us. He is different, he is wise, and he is good. Our job is not finally to understand him, but to praise him.
Third, we get to see God’s grace.
How many men feel like they do a good job leading spiritually, initiating in worship at home and at church? How many women struggle with modesty, and have a hard time accepting that God has given men and women different roles in the home and in church?
It is easy to be presented with these differences and get discouraged because we have failed to embrace them the way we should.
Thankfully, the gospel does not begin with you being a biblical man or a biblical woman. The gospel begins with you being a sinner, who deserved God’s wrath and judgment. It is because we were not the men and women we should have been, that Christ came. Men, Christ had to come because you refused to lead. Ladies, Christ had to come because you refused to follow.
But Christ did come, and this is grace. There is hope for you and for me and for each of us. God doesn’t want us first to godly men and women; he wants us first to be humans who see our sin and our need for the blood of Christ to save us. It begins with grace. God isn't calling on us first to embrace biblical manhood and womanhood but biblical grace! As Charles Wesley wrote about our Savior:
He purchased the grace which now I embrace;
O Father, Thou know’st He hath died in my place:
His death is my plea; my Adovcate see,
And hear the blood speak that hath answered for thee.
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