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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Section 2 - 1 Tim. 2
Paul’s
first instruction to Timothy is that “requests, prayers, intercessions
and thanksgiving” be offered for everyone, including kings.
The reason why Paul wanted prayer for everyone, including kings,
was so that they could live a peaceful life in all godliness. Paul had
inner peace with the Lord, but he didn’t have external peace with the
world around him. The
addition, and the specification of "kings" here is interesting.
Many people, including Christians would not want to pray for kings
because they were tyrants. Yet
Paul says, "pray for everyone, including kings", as if to say,
"don't leave out kings, even though you don't feel like praying for
them". Note
that Paul lists four things here, requests, prayers, intercession and
thankfulness. Giving thanks to
God is not all that hard to understand.
But what about the other three things he lists here. The
Greek word for “request” (supplication in the KJV) is “deesis”.
This word means “ request or prayer based on a need or a
desire”. The words “need
and desire” are the important words here.
Paul is saying to pray earnestly for your needs.
The
Greek word “proseuchomai” is the word translated as prayer.
It is the most often used Greek word for prayer used in the New
Testament. It simply means to
pray, or to speak to God. The
Greek word “enteuxis” is the word that is translated as
“intercessions” . The
basic definition of this word means “a meeting with”.
Thus it is used as a meeting with someone to request something on
the behalf of someone else. It
was often used in the first century in respect to meeting with kings to
ask a request of him. Intercession
is coming before God and petitioning him for something, usually on the
behalf of someone else. It
is thus clear that there are more than one type of praying.
Four aspects of prayer are listed here in this one verse, that is,
general praying, asking as a result of a need or even a desire,
petitioning on the behalf of someone else, and giving thanks to God. Paul
says that this kind of praying “is good and pleases God our Saviour who
wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”. There
are two things that God wants according to this verse, and they are, all
men to be saved, and all men to come to the knowledge of the truth. Paul
emphasized knowing the truth. In
our world of relativism, knowing the truth is not all that important.
Even in many Christian circles, some would rather have an
experience than know the truth. I
always say that the reason why I am a Christian is because I believe that
Jesus and what He says is the ultimate truth, and if this indeed is true,
then I have no other logical choice other than to be a Christian. It
many not mean a lot, but knowing the truth follows being saved in this
verse. I believe truth
matters, even though the Evangelical world of late is de-emphasizing the
importance of Biblical truth. Because
knowing the truth follows being saved in this verse, I think that God
expects us to grow in truth as Christians.
We often don't though. Verse
5 states a very important theological truth. It says that there is “one
God” and also that there is “one mediator between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus”. There is only
one way to approach the only God and that is through Jesus.
Once again, this thinking in our society seems very archaic, but
this is what the Bible clearly states and this is what Christians must
believe. This is a
fundamental Biblical fact that cannot be compromised.
“Who
gave Himself as a ransom for all men”, Paul says in verse 6.
The Greek word “lutron” is the root word of the Greek word that
we translate as “ransom”. “ The
next phrase that says “the testimony given in the proper time” seems
to suggest to me that the life of Christ
was a testimony given in God’s timing.
God seems to have a timetable of events and nothing is done outside
of His timetable. Paul
says, “for this reason I was appointed a herald and an apostle”.
The only reason why Paul was appointed to God’s service was to
spread this news that Jesus Christ ransomed His life for all.
Then Paul goes on to say that he was also appointed to be a
“teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles”.
Paul was set apart as the spokesman of God to the Gentile world.
He knew his calling and he devoted every breathe of his life to the
fulfilling of this calling, or as he said earlier “the command of God to
preach the gospel”. In
verse 8 he says that “he wants men everywhere to lift up holy hands in
prayer, without anger or disputing”.
Lifting up “holy hands” is a form of submissive worship to
Jesus. By using the word
“holy” this tells me that simply lifting up hands that may not be holy
is not good enough. These
hands must be holy hands to be a true act of submissive worship.
Then while we have our hands raised we must not be angry or in a
dispute with anyone we are lifting our holy hands with.
This would be something to think about the next time you lift your
hands in a worship service. In
verses 9 and 10 Paul speaks to Timothy about how woman should dress and
act in a time of worship. He
is basically saying that the good deeds of women should be more visible
than what they wear. Modesty
in dress should be foremost in the thinking of women when they think of
what to wear. Concerning the
braided hair, and expensive gold and pearls that some might have worn,
this was often viewed as
seductive, since it appears prostitutes of the day dressed in this
fashion. Without getting too
legalistic, I think the emphasis here should be modesty of dress and good
works of women. A person’s
life, whether man or woman, should reflect Jesus and not ones self.
Showing off a body in public may not necessarily reflect Jesus, but
ones body instead. The
last paragraph is somewhat controversial in nature and is often
interpreted as being culturally relevant.
That is to say that this is a cultural thing and not necessarily
something for us today, but we need to be careful with such thinking.
If one passage of Scripture is interpreted culturally not relevant
to us, where do we draw the line with other passages? Paul
says such things as women “learn in quietness and in submission”.
The text seems to imply “submission to men”.
He also says that a woman should not teach or have authority over a
man. Why?
“Because Adam was formed first, then Eve”.
Paul’s argument on this point is based on creation.
He most likely foresaw some
questions being raised by this command and decided to get to the bottom of
the issue by basing his comment on God’s creation.
Since God made man first, then he made woman for man, therefore man
should have authority over woman. I
believe we should simply accept the truth of this statement with no
argument. Paul is not putting
women down. He is only setting
forth an authority structure that he believes is from God.
When men and women know their place, and when they function in it
properly, things will go better for both of them. Paul
goes on to say an interesting thing when he says that man was not the one
who was deceived. We know the story of creation and Eve was the one who
gave into satan’s inquiries. Indeed
Eve was deceived. Adam simply
followed in Eve’s deception. Paul
says that Eve became a sinner as a result of her being deceived.
Paul does not say that Adam became a sinner.
Did Adam actually become a sinner then?
I believe Adam became a sinner too.
I also believe that Paul thought that Adam became a sinner because
in Rom. 5:12 he says, that “sin entered the world through one man
(Adam). If sin entered the
world through Adam, then Adam sinned and became a sinner. Although
Eve was the one who was initially deceived, the command of God was given
to Adam, not to Eve. Therefore
Eve was deceived, and Adam was disobedient. Both
became sinners, resulting in us being born into sin. In
the last verse of this chapter Paul says that “women will be saved in
childbearing”. Many
interpretations have been given to this verse.
One popular one is that woman will actually be saved, or become
Christians by giving birth. This
is ridiculous and far from Scriptural.
Just because one sees the word “saved” here does not mean Paul
is speaking of salvation. You
must interpret words in the context in which they are being used. The word
saved is used in all sorts of ways in the Bible.
Here I believe Paul is saying that the Lord will help a woman
during giving birth to her child if she truly has given her life to Jesus
and is walking it out in practice, or even save her life if she is in
danger because of giving birth. The
reason why Paul would have said this in the first place is that one of the
judgments placed on Eve after her sin, was that she would give birth in
great pain. Paul is suggesting
that to a certain measure, Jesus will help soften the judgment of God
placed on women as seen in Gen. 3:16
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