1 Timothy 3:14, 15 These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; 15but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
I. Prayer In The Local Church
A. The Priority Of Prayer V. 1a
1. V. 1a-First- first in time and place; first in a succession; at the first, chief, principal.
2. Prayer should be a priority for leaders, and for the church. Especially leaders.
B. The Nature Of Prayer V. 1b
1. Supplications- has to do with personal needs; here, with needs as they are related to our government.
2. Prayers
a. Ephesians 6:18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—
b. Constant prayer and regular prayer about all things.
3. Intercessions- to fall in with a person, to draw near so as to converse familiarly.
Has the idea of intervening or interfering. To be involved with another.
4. Giving of thanks-Being mindful and thankful for all the temporal and eternal blessings one has, including whatever good does exist with one’s government.
5. Led by the Holy Spirit-
a. Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
C. The Goals Of Prayer Vs. 2-7
1. Vs. 2, 3-Immediate Goals Vs. 2, 3
a. Pray for your civic leaders
b. That all citizens, and the church might have quiet and peaceable lives
i. quiet- tranquil, stillness
ii. peaceable- quietness; description of the life of one who stays at home doing his own work, and does not officiously meddle with the affairs of others; silence.
iii. godliness- the right worship of God
iv. reverence- integrity, honor, dignity, right and proper behavior with people
c. He does not say to pray so that we can become rich, have special privileges, etc.
d. Matthew Henry- The summit of the ambition of a good Christian is to lead a quiet and peaceable life, to get through the world unmolested, in a low private station.
e. This is good and acceptable to God
i. Good- Beautiful, precious, useful, morally good, noble, approved.
ii. Acceptable- Agreeable. We are in agreement with God when we pray.
2. Eternal Goals Vs. 4-7
a. V. 4- Pray for men to be saved and know the truth about God
b. Vs. 5, 6- Paul explains that that truth is about who Jesus is.
c. V. 7- As Paul speaks to them, he explains that that is his calling: to trach and preach about Jesus Christ. His ministry was to the Gentiles.
II. Men & Women In The Church
A. Men
8I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;
B. Women
9in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing,
10but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.
11Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.
12And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.
13For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
14And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
15Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
Ezek 33:11 Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’
John 5:39,40 “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
He wants them to be saved, and come to (epignosis) advanced and full knowledge of the truth.
People need to come to a knowledge of the truth, for it is truth that leads them to Christ, and Christ can save them.
2:5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
one God- there are not many roads to God, to Heaven; there is only one.
He is one God, in three persons.
This verse does not affect the doctrine of the tri-unity of God.
But it does say clearly that there is only one God, and one mediator between God and mankind.
If there is only one God, and His will is that all men be saved, then that speaks highly of God’s heart towards man, and man’s opportunity to be saved.
The One True God wants man to be saved.
This One True God and man can be joined together by Jesus Christ, both God and man.
Jesus can be sympathetic with both men, and with God.
mediator- one who intervenes between two, to make or restore peace and friendship.
One who helps to form an agreement, or ratify a covenant.
Jesus came to restore the harmony between man and God, the harmony that was broken by sin.
His life was the means whereby God could be in agreement again with man.
2:6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,
When we think of Jesus giving himself, don’t limit it to his humanity.
True, he gave all his human life had to offer, to the point of death.
But to start at His humanity is to miss the greater picture.
Start before Genesis 1:1.
In the beginning was the Word, the W. was w/God, the W. was God….The W. became flesh…
We must remember the great condescension made by Jesus in order to become man.
There was never a time when Jesus didn’t exist.
He stepped out of the glory of eternity past, and was born in a feeding trough.
ransom – the setting free of a person or slave for a certain price paid.
Money, or some other object, is substituted for the life of the captive.
A counter price.
What is the worth of the lives of every human being that has ever lived?
What is the price that their sins would cause them to pay?
Jesus=that cost, that price.
for all- refutes the doctrine of Calvinism, which says that Jesus died only for those who would accept Him.
1 John 2:2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Notice also: the death of Jesus Christ, the Innocent, was satisfactory in appeasing the wrath of God against the sins of all humanity in all ages.
We can set side by side, juxtapose, the sins of all humanity, and the death of one man for them all.
This shows us the value of the life of Jesus Christ, and the efficacy of his death in securing forgiveness for all mankind.
This does not cancel out man’s responsibility in make a personal commitment to Christ.
A personal acceptance of what He did on their behalf.
to be testified in due time,– when all that has been prophesied, and has been slowly, imperceptibly coming to pass, suddenly comes to its fullness by one decisive event.
The death of Christ, and God’s acceptance of it, was the decisive event that finally came to pass, but had been building towards for millennia.
1 Pet 1:10-12 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
2:7 for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle; I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying; a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
preacher- one who makes an announcement, a public herald.
A man would ride into a town, and make a public announcement for a king.
He would speak for the king, and represent the king through his words.
He would do it in such a way that demanded attention, b/c of the authority and gravity with which he used. He demanded attention.
That was what Paul was.
Paul gets back to the order of affairs in church gatherings-
The following section seems to be suited to when the saints gather together.
This would cover the order of church meetings.
2:8 I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;
The men were to pray then, for all peoples, and for leaders.
They were to pray w/o wrath.
orge, or-gay’; violent passion, punishment:–anger, indignation, vengeance, wrath.
Prayers for others were not to be made with bitterness in the heart.
doubting- They were to pray in faith.
2:9 in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing,
Paul begins to bring forth the picture of godliness for a woman.
He does so by use of comparison.
What a woman is known for, or how she is recognized.
modesty in dress- appropriate not only in privacy, but in monetary cost.
Not only that which is not provocative visually, but that which does not provoke jealousies, concerns, or cause others to feel less presentable.
propriety– That which is appropriate to the nature of what one is.
not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing,
The prohibition is not against gold, pearls, or costly clothing.
Those things are all relative to a culture or social group.
What is appropriate here, is considered luxurious in other countries.
That which is not affordable and is inconsistent with the nature of the Christian woman.
2:10 but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.
That which is truly attractive is a godly life. Good works.
There is great beauty in this direction. Good works, or deeds of benevolence, eminently become a Christian woman. The nature of woman seems to be adapted to the performance of all good deeds demanding kindness, gentleness, and tenderness of all feeling; of all that proceeds from pity, sympathy, and affection; and we feel instinctively that the acts of hardy enterprise and daring in a good cause peculiarly become a Christian man, there is something exquisitely appropriate to the femaile character in deeds of humble and unobtrusive sympathy and benevolence. God seems to have formed her mind for just such things, and in such things it occupies its appropriate sphere rather than in seeking external adornment. Albert Barnes
2:11, 12 Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.
Silence- quietness; description of the life of one who stays at home doing his own work, and does not officiously meddle with the affairs of others; silence.
Silence- found also in v. 2, translated “peaceable”.
NVI- 11 La mujer debe aprender con serenidad, con toda sumisión.
In life, things are created after a certain design.
They are the way they are, b/c He created them that way.
God, through Paul, seeks to show the place and position in life that woman have in relation to men, w/in the church of Jesus Christ.
The Bible continually brings forth the headship, or leadership, of man over woman.
This is the order of God’s creation among humanity.
Within the Christian church, men are to lead, and not to be lead by women.
Women are not to pastor over men, or take positions of authority over them.
This is the arrangement God has established for the functioning of His church.
I read books by Christian women. They seem to be closer to Christ than I.
They have more insights, more experience, more wisdom.
But they do not pastor me; that would not be in alignment with God’s design.
2:13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
Some say that this was a command just for Ephesus, and that there were cultural reasons for this command.
That is not accurate, for Paul bases his argument on what happened at creation.
Paul goes back to God’s original design and plan.
Paul seeks to show by order of creation that the man was first formed, and the woman created to come alongside him and help and support him.
The woman was created to fill what lacked in the man, not the reverse, though that is also true.
2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
In many traits of character, and among them those which are most lovely, woman is superior to man; yet it is undoubtedly true that, as a general thing, temptation will make a stronger impression on her than him. Albert Barnes
The statement tells us that through independence of the man’s leadership, the woman fell.
That generally, women are more susceptible to deception than men.
God had ordained that men should fulfill the position of leadership over his wife
Leadership w/in the church.
NOTE- Is this not one of the greatest complaints that wives have of their husbands?
No spiritual leadership?
Is this not the great failure of many Christian men?
They don’t lead their wives and families in godliness?
They are not the priests of their homes.
God’s ways become perverted.
The woman tries to do perform that which lacks in the home.
Commendable, but inappropriate.
The man is lazy or indifferent, and is happy to let “the wife” take care of church, spiritual matters, and raising the kids in church. “They” need it, but he does not.
2:15 Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
What it can’t mean:
Salvation from sin, forgiveness of sins, justification, etc. Not Biblical
“They” doesn’t refer to the children, because then the woman’s salvation would depend upon the good behavior of the children. Not Biblical.
Saved- sozo- used also in 1 Timothy 4:16
Speaks not only of justification, but of wholeness, completeness, healing.
Matthew 9:21 For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.”
RV- 21 porque se decía a sí misma: «Con solo tocar su manto, seré salva».
NVI- 21 Pensaba: «Si al menos logro tocar su manto, quedaré sana.»
A Christian woman is made whole, complete, she is satisfied, when she fulfills her position as a woman, and does not try to find her fulfillment in trying to lead her husband, or pastor over a church.
Women often feel a great need to fill the position of leader because of the laziness or indifference of the man in the home, or the men in the church, or in the community.
A woman who is pastoring can be used by God, but the original design is that a man would lead the church, and lead the home.