September 25, 2016 1 Timothy 2:8-15

Pentecost 19

For some time I’ve planned to have a sermon on the roles that God has given us as men and women. It’s no secret that this teaching from God’s Word is unpopular and under attack today, even in churches, so we need to turn to God’s Word and learn from him why it’s important and still applies in his world. There are a lot of texts I could have chosen, but this one from Paul’s first letter to Timothy gives the key principle to guide us in living our roles as God intends. When I first looked over these words, though, I didn’t know where to begin. So much has been written about this Bible teaching,and there’s so much confusion and even animosity about it! But Paul tells us where to start. He keeps it really simple: go back to the beginning, when God created all things and made us as he wanted us to be.

First let me explain a couple Greek words. I’ll pick up where we left off last week in v. 8:“I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.” The Greek has two words for man. One means “mankind, people”, such as in, “God our Savior wants all men (i.e. people) to be saved…” The other Greek word means “males”, and that’s the word that’s used here, “I desire that in every place men (males) should pray”. He’s talking about worship services, where Christians are gathered to praise, listen to God’ Word, pray, and encourage one another. It’s the man’s responsibility to lead the worship and do it in a peaceful way, “without anger or quarrelling“so that everyone is edified.

We also need to know that when Paul says, “I desire”, it isn’t just his personal opinion. Paul is speaking as Jesus’ chosen apostle with Jesus’ authority.This is important to remember as he goes on to speak about the women in worship, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” In other words, she is not to take the man’s position of leadership. Again, Paul is speaking for Jesus.

But what if Paul is just talking about the customs of his day? After all, times do change. Cultures change. And that’s a good point. But we know that Paul isn’t thinking about the culture of his day becausehegoes back to creation. That’s when God designed the roles for man and woman. Those roles didn’t develop over time but were built in. It’s part of who we are. We read about it in our Old Testament lesson this morning. God made a spectacular world and universe for Adam. He then gave him the responsibility of taking care of it for him. That was his role.But God also wanted him to have a companion and helper. ” The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” The woman was created as a gift to man, the perfect complement to him physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Her role was to help him carry out his responsibilities. His role was to lead and take care of her. They were made to work together. And it was very good.

OK, that’s crystal clear. So why did Paul have to address a tug of war that was going on between man and woman?Why did men need to be reminded of their leadership roleand women need to be reminded of their helper roles?What’s the problem? Paul takes us back to a short time after creation to the day when the man and woman were tempted to defy God’s Word and take matters into their own hands.

Have you ever wondered why Satan talked to Eve instead of Adam?The devil knew very well the roles God had given them at creation. He knew how wonderful their relationship was and how wonderfully they could serve God together. But he also knew that if he could get them to disrupt God’s order, they would put themselves under the same eternalcondemnation he had and bring a world of hurt into theirlives. So it wasn’t because Eve just happened to be available. It wasn’t because Adam wasn’t there at that moment. In fact, he was there all along! The devil deliberatelywent to Eve first to lure her out of her role as helper and tempt her to take on Adam’s role at leader. And she did. Instead of getter her husband when thesalesmanknocked at the door, she opened up to his temptation and listened to his sales pitch. Satan’s plan worked. Paul explains: “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.”

God doesn’t tell us if things would have been different if Adam had stepped in and Eve had kept quiet. What he does tell us is what actually happened. By tempting Eve to take on Adam’s role, Satan got a foothold and spread the poison of sin to her soul, and then to Adam’s soul, and then to every soul since.

Yes, Eve was the first human to sin, but have you ever wondered why in Romans 5 it doesn’t say and “by one woman sin entered the world” but instead says “By one man sin entered into the world”? Or why we don’t call our sinful nature our “old Eve” or our “old woman” but our “old Adam” or “old man”?It’s because Adam was responsible. God created him to take care of Eve and be her leader. And he failed. And because of Adam, we all fail.

It’s important to see that the fall into sin didn’t change our roles. Man still had the role of leader, and woman still had the role as helper. What has changed is that sin blinds us from knowing and living in our roles as God intends. And the wages of that sin is death.But God is not willing to let us die in our sin. He gave us a Savior, his own Son Jesus Christ, who shed his blood to wash away the guilt of our sin and restore us to new life through faith in him. That is when we begin to understand how God made us and appreciate why he made us the way he did. Only when we know his love do we desire to live for Jesus and find out what pleases him.

That’s why we need to keep growing in God’s grace in Jesus and the knowledge his Word. That’s how the Holy Spirit teaches and transforms us. As our faith growswe avoid going back to our old ways and being influenced by the thinking of our age. It’s obvious and sad and tragic that the world is blind and confused. Without God’s Word people keep trying to figure life out and come up with all the wrong answers, even to the point of changing their sexual orientation because they aren’t satisfied with how God made them and have no idea what it is. That’s how we’d be, too. But God has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. His church is his salt and light to influence the world - to show what marriage really is, what family really is, what love really is, and what the relationship between man and woman is meant to be to attract them to asked for the reason for the hope that we have andlearn about their Savior, too.

Meanwhile, we ourselves struggle with the same sin that once listened to the devil in the garden. We’re still tempted to think his suggestions make good sense. We still want things to go our way and we’re still tempted to think that God’s ways are unreasonable or inconvenient. And that’s why Paul had to give these instructions to Timothy so he could teach both the men and women in his churches about their created roles and why it was so important to live in them.“I desire then that in every place the men should pray. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” Many women are terrific teachers, and our Sunday School is blessed with several. But God’s will is that she doesn’t teach men or exercise authority over them. Paul reminds us thewhen a woman takes a role for which she was not created or a man doesn’t carry out the responsibility for which he was created, Satan gets a foothold and there is disorder and spiritual harm.

So brothers and sisters in Christ, let us fall on our knees before Jesus’ cross and thank him for saving us from our sins. Honor the roles God has given you. Women, learn about your role from God, not from the world. Be a helper for the man, not his competitor or director.Help him carry out his important responsibility of leading the church with God’s Word, whether he’s preaching or teaching or making decisions in a voters’ meeting. Do it with all submissiveness, that is, not grudgingly but gladly and willingly. Find joy in the most precious blessing of being woman – the gift of bearing and nurturing children, as Paul adds, “[women] will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control. In other words, “Praise God for your amazing role and be content to serve God in the unique way he made you. Treasure it asa blessing to you and to others!” And men, learn about your role from God, not from the world. Learn to be the leader God made you to be. Care for the women in your home and church. Seek and accept their help because God says you need it! All of us, learn to love and appreciate that God designed us to be different from each otheron purpose so we may complement each other.

Finally, realize that God designed our roles for his glory as much as for our good. He did it all in love. Now for Jesus’ sake, let us do it all love for him…together! Amen