Fire in
Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. – 1st Timothy 2:14, 15
In
the middle of a message I was giving when I was in Africa, the Lord showed me
that this verse was not referring to women, but to the Church. Lets’ face it, Paul was not saying that if a
woman didn’t give birth to babies, she was going to Hell, but rather that the
purpose of the Body of Christ was to win souls.
If
we are the Bride of Christ, then the picture of matrimony is a picture of our
relationship with our Husband, Jesus Christ.
We see, especially in the Old Testament, that it was a shame for a woman
to be barren. Her primary purpose, besides
ministering to her husband, was to bring forth children. Hence Rachael’s cry of “Give me children lest I die!”
But
let’s back up a verse or two.
“For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam
was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”
If
we keep the analogy in focus, then this is a reference to the fact that Jesus
Christ was first, before the Church ever was, and Jesus, the 1st
Adam, was sinless, but humanity has fallen and been deceived through sin and
our desire to be wise.
Of
course, the Trinity always was –that is a principal of the Gospel – but Jesus
was also “the beginning of the creation of God” (Rev. 3:14).
Not that Jesus did not always exist, but that He was first manifested as
the Word of God when Creation was spoken into existence, and “by Him all things
consist” (Colossians 1:17).
So
then the Church was formed after our Lord, and we are subject to Him.
So
far, so good. But let’s go back a little
bit more.
“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. “ (2:11,12)
Going
back to the actual Greek, we can see that this does not mean that women have to
come to church like deaf mutes, but that the words suggest tranquility and proper
order in the Church. In other words,
don’t get crazy on me! We are to
maintain our proper subjection, not just to our husbands, but the Church is not
supposed to take over the dominant role of the Lord.
But
when we allow our thirst for wisdom to drive us (as Eve’s deception in desiring
the Tree of Knowledge), we will develop a tendency to get ahead of the Lord in
our theological pursuits, and wind up missing the whole point. Never before have we had so many Christian
book stores filled with thousands of Christian self-help books, and yet nowhere
in America do we have the powerful moves of God like we had a few generations
ago before we were invested with all this Christian scholasticism.
Hmmm. Is something missing? Have we missed the mark someplace? Perhaps we should back off and let the Holy
Spirit take over.
Going
back just a couple verses more, we read Paul’s admonition to the outward
appearance of women in the Church:
“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; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.” (2:9,10)
If
the analogy holds, then perhaps Paul is not trying to tell women how to dress
or wear their makeup. (What man in his
right mind would try to tackle something like that?) Maybe it is more of an admonition of how we present
our churches.
I
have preached in mud huts way out in the jungle where there were but a dozen or
so believers and have repeatedly watched the power of God fall so
heavily that it crushed people on their faces to the ground, where the Spirit
was so strong that you couldn’t stop dancing, where the Shekinah glory beamed
so brightly that it overwhelmed you and all you could do is utter praises to
God.
Seen
that in any of our huge Mega-churches lately?
Constructing
huge edifices with golden altars, high-tech sound systems, rich carpets, and
laced with opulence to display our “prosperity in the Lord” does not make you
holy. Neither does it manifest the power
of God. Neither does it win souls. It’s a pretty candy wrapper, but it is not
the costly array that touches God’s heart, but the sobriety of a church that
has the fear of God and is willing to sacrifice all to see souls get
saved.
The
sacrifice that God is looking for comes from your heart, not your outward display. Your wisdom comes from the Word of God, not our
vast array of carnal intelligence. The focus
of Christianity is not about you; it’s about others.
The
beginning of 1st Timothy says it well,
“Now the end of the commandment is
charity out of a pure heart, and of
a good conscience, and of faith
unfeigned:
From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring
to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof
they affirm.”
Ah, yes. Charity – more important than faith or hope, the focus of the Word of God, the essence of Christianity, the purpose of the Cross. Charity transcends all other aspects of the Church because it is the giving of yourself, out of love, so that souls can be saved. Without it, all we have is Religion.
“She
shall be saved in childbearing…”