1Timothy Chapter 2

For the first time since beginning this blog, the verse of the day on BibleGateway is the verse I’m starting with.

Paul is instructing Timothy on how to set up the Church.

¹ I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

Exhort means to strongly encourage, so Paul is strongly encouraging Timothy to start with supplications (asking humbly with earnest pleading or begging), prayers (request made to God and worship), intercessions (seeking God for others) and the giving of thanks, be made for all men. Paul was instructing Timothy to cover everyone in prayer and to give God thanks.

² For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

We should be praying for our leaders and those who have authority, not just a shallow prayer like “Help the president to make Christian choices” but, “Lord, lead our president/governor/mayor/sheriff/boss to be a man/woman after your own heart, to lead this nation/state/city/company as a Christian who governs from the Word of God. Protect them from evil influences, bring forth helpers who also serve you.”

³ For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

I need this today. I need to always walk in love towards others. I want to walk and do what is good and acceptable in the sight of God, my Savior.

⁴ Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Right now, post election, it would be so easy to enjoy the distress the left is feeling, but it would be Godly to instead pray for them and love them in spite of how they treated us on the right. It would be better for us to overcome evil with good and pray for them to find Jesus and to come to the truth. That solves problems and reconciles us…. where mocking and making fun of them only widens the division and causes us to stop walking in love.

⁵ For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

The mediator is Jesus… he alone can bring us back to God, he shed his blood to forgive us of sin and reconcile us to God, there is no other way. This was the verse my mother quoted often. Being raised a Catholic, she was told she had to confess her sins to the priest in order to reconcile with God. When she married my Baptist father, she learned the truth, that only Jesus can reconcile a man or woman to God. This became her verse after that.

⁶ Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Jesus is the mediator because he died for us. Jesus who knew no sin, took onto himself our sin and paid the price we owed with his own life… he shed his blood and his blood washed our sins away. This is what makes it possible for me to have a relationship with God, because I repent of my sins and accept the gift of salvation and forgiveness from Jesus.

⁷ Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.

Paul was ordained as a preacher and an apostle after he accepted Jesus as his savior and became a teacher of the Gentiles in the faith.

⁸ I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

⁹ In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;

This is a hot topic for the women. I’ve been in a conversation online where the preacher confronted his church and told the women he wasn’t going to have them coming into church dressed seductively anymore. Of course, there were women in the comments that were saying the men need to control themselves and not act so lustfully. Men, like women, deal with temptation… but is this only about not tempting men? Men and women go to church to worship God… and to give him their undivided attention… so dressing and acting in a way that draws attention away from God onto ourselves is wrong…. it’s self-seeking and prideful…an attempt to cut in on Gods worship time and claim part of it for ourselves. Just walking into a Church dressed in a way that will draw attention to yourself is a sin…. even if all the men ignore you…. because you are trying to compete with God for their attention.

¹⁰ But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.

Godly women don’t dress to provoke men to lust after them. Pointing at men and saying they need to control themselves is not the solution. Banks don’t leave their money sitting out in reach of people because people need to control their thieving. They control the problem by not tempting people to steal.

¹¹ Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.

Men are the leadership… not women… and that is just how it is. Men are better at leading than women. God made us in a different order and with a different function. We will never reach our full potential until we embrace our Godly position in life.

¹² But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

It doesn’t say we as women can’t teach… just in the Church we are not to hold the office of Pastor or to have authority over the men. We can teach other women and the children. Again, we need to grow where we are planted. It isn’t degrading to me as a woman to follow the Word.

¹³ For Adam was first formed, then Eve.

God formed man first. God told Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree. Adam was given leadership by God, this is his plan and design.

¹⁴ And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

It was Eve that listened to Satan and who decided that the fruit was good for food, in spite of knowing it was forbidden to eat by God. Mankind fell into sin because Adam listened to her and sinned. Anytime a man gives his authority as the head of the home over to his wife and becomes dominated by her, this is a departure from God’s plan.

¹⁵ Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.