A Commentary in Simple English on 1 Timothy

CHAPTER 2

Verses 1-8: Prayer and answers

In these verses Paul begins to give teaching about the worship when the church meets.

In 1:20, Paul spoke of two men who made wrong use of speech. They 'blasphemed'. Now he speaks about the right use of speech. James writes about right and wrong use of speech in his letter.

In verse 1 there is not very much difference between the three words for prayer. The first word is 'supplications' or 'requests'. This word means that we know we need something. So we go to God and ask him for what we need. The second word is 'prayers'. This word means that we feel and know that God is very great. We are so small. Still we go to him. We are humble when we come to him. The third word 'intercessions' means that we go to God like children. He is our Father. We tell him what we want. He gives us what is good for us. Then we must also give thanks to God when we ask for his help. But there is no limit to our prayers. We are to pray for all men. In verse 2, Paul says that we are to pray for the people who rule over us. In Paul's time, none of the people who ruled were Christians. But we can pray to God for our rulers. God is 'King of Kings'. He rules the people who rule us.

There are many things that we would like our government to do for us. We would like health care. We want schools for our children. We want food when there is not enough. We would like roads. Now our government may not be able to give us all these things. It may not have the money. But there is one thing we pray to God that our government will give to us. That is quiet and peace.

Paul said (Philippians 4:13) that he could do everything through Christ who gave him strength. He was not a man who said: 'I cannot do anything about it.' And a Christian leader or pastor should be a man who says: 'Yes! There is a need. There is a problem. I can do something about it.' Christ gives us light in our minds. He will give us wisdom (James 1:5). Christ sets us free from the fear of spirits. This all means that we can help other people. But we must be ready to listen to other people. And we must set a good example.

We would like health care. But better health may not mean that we need 'medicine' to give to people. They may need clean water. They may need different food. They may need clean homes. These things can lead to better health. Simple stoves will burn much less wood than an open cooking fire and they are safer too. There may be no school for our children. We should ask whether the church could do something. And if there is a school, someone might teach the children who are too young to go to school for an hour or two each day. This would give them a good start when they are old enough to go to school.

In many places, there is little food because there has been no rain. We can only pray about that. But if one food crop does not do well, we must teach people to plant others. There have been times when food has not been stored properly. Rats and mice have been fat, and the people thin. And the rats and mice spread illness. Grain is all too often used to make strong drink. And then the people and animals are hungry.

Christian men should be able to work well together. They should be able to build better houses for their families. If they are healthy and do not get drunk, they will be able to work. They may be able to raise cash crops together. Then there may be a need to make a better path or road to the town where there is a market.

In many parts of the world, people from the villages want to go to live in the cities. And often they find that in the city there is no work. There is no house. There may be no water. There is no money and no hope.

Now there is one way to stop this. It is to make sure that people in the villages have a good life. We want them to have plenty of food, clean water, good houses and schools. Then they will not want to go to the cities.

The first answer to prayer comes at the end of verse 2. This says four things about the life the Christian wants to live.

a) It is 'tranquil' or quiet. It is a life of peace. We do not want to live with fear in our minds.

b) It is 'peaceable'. We do not want trouble from other people around us.

c) It is 'godly'. It is a life which will please God.

d) It is a good life which will lead other people to honour us. Better, they will look at our lives and give the honour to God (Matthew 5:16).

Verses 3 and 4 say that prayers like this please God. God has given us the Good News about Jesus. He has told us to take the Good News to all men (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15). This is one reason why we can pray for all men. The Good News is for the poor and the rich. It is for the weak and the strong. It is for men and women. It is for young and old. It is for all nations. This means that we can never look at anyone and say: 'It is not God's will to save that person.' It is God's will to save some people of every kind (Revelation 7:9). So we must preach the Good News to everyone. Yet we know that not everyone who hears the Good News believes it.

We should be careful when we speak of 'God's will'. We have a 'will of our own'. We decide what we want to do. Sometimes our will is strong. Sometimes it is weak. Now the will of God is very wonderful. It is much greater than our will. Anyone who speaks as though he understands God's will is not wise. Just look at Isaiah 53:10. That verse begins:'It was the will of the Lord to bruise him' - that is, to crush or break in pieces our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was God's Servant: yet God made Jesus suffer. So that was not just the will of the people who killed Jesus. It was also the will of God. But at the end of the verse Isaiah says: 'The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.' That means that Jesus will rise from death and do all God's will. So the will of God is two different things. This should lead us to worship, not to worry or argue. We worship because our God is great and wonderful. And we should not ask: 'If God wants all men to be saved, why is it that most people are not saved?' God has his secrets (Deuteronomy 29:29). We cannot find them out. We should not even try to. He has chosen some men and women to have faith in Jesus. And it is his will that we should take the Good News to everyone.

Paul does not use the simple word for 'knowledge' here. He uses a word which means 'full' or 'complete' knowledge. God wants men to come to a 'full knowledge about the truth'. If we only know part of the truth about anything we can go badly wrong. If we have full knowledge of the truth we need never go wrong.

Verse 5 tells us what this truth is. It also tells us why there is only one Good News for all men. It is because there is only one God. Many false 'gods' and spirits belong in one place. The 'spirits' are thought to belong to a stone or a tree. A false 'god' was often the 'god' of one city. But the living God is the one God who rules all the earth. There is only one way to go to him. Sinners can only go to God through Jesus. So Christ Jesus, who is himself man, is the Mediator or 'go- between' between God and man. Men seem to us to be very different from one another. Yet the one message of the Good News is what they all need.

So in verse 6, Paul tells us how Jesus became the 'Mediator' or 'middle man'. Jesus did not just die. 'He gave himself' for us. He gave himself when he died on the cross. Then he paid the price to set us free from sin. He paid the price, the 'ransom', to bring us back to God. This happened at the proper time. It was the time that God chose. It has been said that it cost far more to 'redeem' us or buy us back to God than it cost to make us. This is true. [2.1]

We do not know what the 'false teachers' said about Paul. But it is likely that they said: 'He is not an apostle. He was not one of the twelve men who followed Jesus. He is not a teacher or preacher that you should listen to.' Verse 7 seems to be a short answer from Paul to those who said such things. But also we can see that Paul says: 'I preach and teach the Good News both to Jews and to those who are not Jews. I have to spread this 'testimony'. Jesus had given his 'testimony' (6:13).

Verse 8 finishes off what Paul says about prayer in these verses. 'Everywhere' or 'in every place' may only mean 'in every city or village where Christians meet'. The Christians did not have special buildings for worship in the time of Paul. But they did use other buildings to meet in, so that this may mean 'in every building where Christians meet together'. It was often a large house.

When we pray we must be right with God and with one another. It may seem strange that Paul says men should pray without anger, and that they must not argue when they pray.

1. We must remember that the false teachers tried to make people in the church argue with each other. They thought that this was good. Paul wants people to pray.

2. Sometimes when we pray in a group of Christians we do not really talk to God at all. It is not real prayer. We use our time in 'prayer' to tell other people what we think. This makes other people angry. Such 'prayers' are quite wrong, of course.

3. It may just be that women were speaking in prayer in the church worship. Some men felt that this was wrong, and it made them angry. Paul may be saying: 'I agree with you when you say that it is wrong. But it is also wrong for you to be angry about it.' This does not seem likely. But Paul will speak in the next verse about the place of women in worship.

Christians do not need a temple or a special building in which to worship God. Whenever two or three Christians meet in the name of Jesus, God promises to be there.

Although verse 8 belongs with verses 1-7, it also looks forward to the next verses. Paul has spoken about men who pray. Now he will talk about women in worship.

Verses 9 -15: Christian Women

Women always become more free when the Good News comes to a people. Jewish women took no part in Jewish worship. Some women in Paul's time wanted to go too far in their new freedom. So in these verses Paul has to tell them that they may not teach in the worship meetings of the church. (1 Corinthians. 14:33-35). There are so many other things that a Christian woman can do (5:10). It seems that Christian women did pray in the churches. (See Acts 1:14 and 1 Corinthians 11:5.) Priscilla was one lady who was important in the early church (Acts 18:2, 18 and 26; Romans 16:3; 1 Corinthians 16:19). There are more Christian women who work hard in Romans 16: 6 and 12 and in Philippians 4:2 and 3.

Today, many people do not like this teaching. It is quite true that Christ makes men and women equal to each other (Galatians 3:28). Both men and women are saved by the same grace of God. But God made men and women different from each other. And so men and women have different work to do in the church of Christ. Some women want to become Christian ministers. But this is often because they have a wrong idea of what the ministry is. It is first of all the ministry of God's Word. God's ministers are not 'priests' as the word is often used by such people. And some women are ready to cause trouble and to divide churches because they want to become ministers. This is not a true Christian spirit.

So Christian leaders are wrong if they just say: 'You are a woman. You may not teach. It is against Scripture.' Church leaders must see to it that Christian women are able to use all their energy and gifts in the service of Christ.

We have seen before that we can only guess most of what the 'false teachers' said at Ephesus. But we do know (4:3) that they did not want people to marry. It may be that they said: 'Look at Genesis 3:16. This was when Eve had sinned. God made it very painful to give birth to children. God punished women in this way. It is better not to have children. So do not marry.' If they did say this, they did not remember what Eve says in Genesis 4:1. These Jewish teachers may also have wanted women to speak in public worship.

But first in verse 9, Paul talks about dress. He wants women to dress in a plain, simple way. What he says is true of both men and women. We all feel that it is right to be clean and tidy when we go to worship. It is a way to honour God. It is a way to show other people that we want to honour God. But we can go too far in this. Our clothes should be plain and simple. The rich people must not dress in such good clothes that they make the poor people feel shame (James 2:2 -6). We must be low and humble when we worship God. Rich women should not wear fine clothes so that other women will say: 'I wish I had clothes like that'. The rich should not hurt the poor by the way that they dress. The poor should not be made angry by the way that rich Christians dress.

So in verse 10, Paul says that both rich and poor women should do good. And their good works will be far better than fine clothes.

It is verses 11 and 12 which tell us that women should not teach or preach in the worship of the church. Silent worship of God is very important.

Some women in Paul's time hardly ever went out of their homes. So they knew very little about the world around them. The wives did not learn to read or to write. If their husbands became Christians they would let them have more freedom. Such women might become excited in worship. They might say things which would show other people how little they knew.

There are still parts of the world where women are not free to go out of their homes. They are not able to learn to read or write. Christian husbands have a duty to teach their wives if the women have to spend all the time in the home.

Now we must look at Genesis 3 if we want to understand verses 13 to 15. Already in verse 12, Paul has said that a woman should be silent. Now he says that God made Adam first (Genesis 2:7). There was no one to care for the ground (Genesis 2:5) so God put Adam in the garden to care for it (Genesis 2:15). Then God made Eve (Genesis 2:22). God gave Eve to Adam to help him (Genesis 2:18 and 20). In Genesis 3:1 the 'serpent' or snake comes from the field, outside the garden. He is Satan. The woman talks to the serpent. So she forgets that she is to be Adam's helper. She does not escape from the serpent. Now perhaps we can see why Paul says of women: 'She is to be silent' (1 Timothy 2:11). Genesis 2:1-6 tell how the serpent led Eve into wrong ways. She became a sinner. At the end of verse 6, Adam is weak and does just what his wife tells him.

Now we are ready to go back to what Paul says in 1 Timothy 2. If we look at verse 15, we can see at once that Paul does not mean that women will be lost if they do not have children. He means: 'Eve did not escape from Satan. She sinned and fell. This does not mean that women today will fall. They can escape from Satan'. That is what 'saved' means here. Then Paul tells women today how to escape. Eve did not only sin against God. She took authority over Adam. That led to her fall. So really the advice is: 'Let women be men's helpers.'

The word 'childbearing' means more than just 'giving birth to children'. If you look at 5:14, Paul uses a word like this one again. So Paul does not only mean that women will come safely through childbirth. He means that they should care for their husbands, their homes and their children.

There are many women in the richer countries of the world who think it is more important for them to work and to earn money. Christian women should be able to see that the most important work that they can do is the care of their family. We know that some women never marry. Some wives never have children. Many people are so poor that the wives must work to keep themselves alive. Yet a Christian husband will want to free his wife so that she can care for the home and family.

Paul does not name the devil in these verses, but he often mentions our great enemy in these letters. (See 3:6 and 7; 4:1 and 5:15 and 2 Timothy 2:26.)

It is not enough to begin the Christian life. We are followers of Jesus. We must follow him as long as we live. So Paul says that women should 'continue'. (See also 2 Timothy 3:14.) They should continue to live lives of faith in God, love to other people; holiness in heart and mind; and self-control or 'modesty' in the home. [2.2]