Let Scripture Define Your Life

MadGabs, is a game which makes it hard to understand what someone is saying, they will say a phrase that makes them sound like they are speaking with marbles in their mouth and you have to guess what the phrase actually was. For example, read these phrases aloud and see if you understand them:

Wouldn’t it be helpful if you were given some context? Like think of food, sports, toys, etc. Isn’t it better to understand these phrases with concepts you already know and are sure of?

Here are the answers:

When it comes to God’s Word there are times when we may not understand what God was saying through His human author. Oftentimes people have tried to redefine what God has said. I always want to be faithful to God’s truth so that whoever reads or hears my words know that they can trust the Bible, not just what I say about it or what you’ve heard from other people.

Looking at this passage I can’t tell you 100% that I understand what exactly it means. I have read and reread it, I have prayed over it, I have discussed it with other believers, I have studied it and tested it against other Scriptures. Therefore that’s what I want us to focus on today: how does Scripture Redefine our lives, not the other way around. As believers, we ought to be careful to never let our lives redefine Scripture.

Let’s start with what we know about the context of what we are about to read: who wrote it to who, who taught Timothy about Jesus? We know that there were people in the church who were usurping the place of the church leaders and spreading lies about Jesus and what it meant to be a Christian. We know that some of them were wealthy women who were showing off their fancy clothes, making it seem like if you wanted to part of their group that you had to be beautiful, dressed up, and wealthy. Paul has just said that God wants all people to be saved, not just wealthy ones who do their eyeliner perfectly and have airforces. Paul was telling the believers to pray, why?

Because God “Wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth”

(1 Timothy 2:4)

Now Paul continues by saying:

“8 Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing. 9 I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, 10 but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

(1 Timothy 2:8-10)

If I didn’t know the context of these verses I would feel embarrassed that I wear the pearl earrings my dad gave me on my 16th birthday. But because I do know the context, I am able to look at these verses and recognize: Paul is telling every person: stop trying to look important with your arguments (trying to be smarter than everybody). Stop with your dressing a certain way (trying to look wealthier than everybody). Instead, submit to God. Praying is submitting what you want to God and accepting that He will do His will in His own time. Dressing and acting humbly is submitting to God because we are recognizing that we don’t have to impress anyone, instead we live in the freedom that we can show good deeds to others and our reward will be in heaven. Therefore, we are encouraged as believers to pray rather than fight, pray with a pure heart (not wishing evil upon others) and to do things that don’t bring attention to us but instead do good things that bring attention to God. We can let Scripture define these things for us easily. The context of the letter and the passage help us. These are things we know.

We are going to keep reading what Paul wrote, but as we read it we need to think about an even broader context. Who is Paul, what else has he written? What else does the Bible say? What is the overarching story in all of Scripture? This passage is hard for me to understand, so I am telling you that I test it against the things that I know to be true.

“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.”

(1 Timothy 2:11-12)

Here are the things that I do not know: does Paul mean to say that women should never teach to groups of men or any men at all? Does Paul mean that women should never have the job and role of a pastor? Or is Paul just saying that the women in Ephesus at that time should be quiet and listen to the truth when they were going around telling lies? I have a lot of questions about what Paul meant in this passage and I am not alone. I didn’t even want to teach on this because I don’t want you guys to be confused, but I would rather you hear it and ask questions here and at home than hear it in college and think “why did no one ever tell me this?” My goal is to help you look for answers for yourself. The best way to do that is to look at how Scripture interprets Scripture.

I get all cringey inside when I read the word submission. When I don’t understand why Paul would say this I look at other places in Scripture where even he wrote to the church in Ephesus:

“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

(Ephesians 4:21-25)

All believers submit to God. We can submit ourselves to someone who loves us. I can entrust myself to Andrew because I know that he loves me and what he does will be for my own good. We submit to God above all else and as believers we learn to submit ourselves under those who are teaching God’s word. Paul says something very similar in Colossians 3. Telling the believers to love one another and live out their roles as husbands and wives knowing that they are representing Jesus and His church. A man who loves unto the point of sacrifice and a woman who loves unto the point of submission. I’ve tested what Paul has said against things I know to be true and consistent in Scripture so I trust it.

But what about when he says women shouldn’t teach? Should women share the gospel? Yes. Who did Timothy learn from? Who were the first people ever to tell the good news about Jesus’ resurrection? WOMEN! If there is something that doesn’t make sense in Scripture, look for other places that might clarify. Where do we see women in the Bible who are out teaching and sharing God’s Word? Exodus 15, Mariam who saved Moses and is called a prophet, Judges 4, Deborah who leads the Israelites in battle and shares God’s Word, Paul mentions in Romans 16 Pheobe who is the one he gave his letter to to teach the Roman church how to live right, and in the book of Acts 18 we see women like Lydia and Priscilla who open their homes and teach people about Jesus. So when I test the things I don’t know against the rest of these passages I learn that God has a place for women in ministry. Women should be sharing the gospel with others alongside men!

Paul goes on to “explain” why he’s said this,

“For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.”

(1 Timothy 2:13-15)

Some questions that might pop up: didn’t Adam sin too? Do you have to have a baby in order to be saved? How does the rest of Scripture answer these questions? In Genesis 1-3 we do learn that Adam was created, given the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Then Eve is formed. From my understanding of this passage Adam has failed to tell his wife the command, and even if she knows it he does not remind her the truth of it when she is deceived, in fact he doesn’t say anything to her until after they have sinned against God! I don’t know why Paul presents it to timothy that way, but I do know that both Adam and Eve (and the rest of us) are equally guilty of sin. Guess what else I know? I know that getting pregnant won’t get me into heaven. It was a different woman’s pregnancy and baby that saved me. It was Jesus coming down to earth and reversing the curse found in Genesis. He was the promised baby (seed) and because of his birth, life, death, and resurrection all who have faith in Him will be saved. Perhaps Paul here is simply reminding us that God has roles for all of us, we all have part to play in his grand story, whether you are a man or a woman God wants you to know the truth and live by that truth.

So if you come across a question, like why God takes so long to answer prayer? Go to Scripture. What do you know to be true? That he listens to his people, that he cares for us, and that He longs to give us all of our daily needs and to bless us beyond we can imagine (whether it comes in the timing we want or not). If you don’t know how God feels about lgbtq+ community, I want to ask you what do you know to be true? God is love the Bible says. We read last week that He wants everyone to know Him and to be saved. If you wonder why He allows pain, I ask you what do you know about Him? You know that Jesus suffered with us to give us a future without tears or sorrows, you know that Jesus went around healing and loving people. You know that His heart breaks and that longs to bless us. I want to help you guys find answers, so if you have questions like these ask your parents, come to my office, if you want I will make time to look into Scripture with you and we can find what is true together. If you don’t understand scripture, don’t disregard it- test it with what you know to be true!

The first time I wrestled with this passage was my last year of college. I was the only female Bible major at the whole school. I was the only person in my class who didn’t have a beard. I knew I always wanted to work at a church and teach the Bible, but the job I applied for denied me, but hired my boyfriend at the time. I told him, “I’m really start to doubt if teaching the Bible is really my calling. What if I’m not supposed to teach? What if women aren’t supposed to teach the Bible?” Instead of reminding me to test my feelings with the truth and what I knew, my ex just said “Yeah, maybe you aren’t supposed to.” That really hurt and confused me. I felt for a long time like God didn’t love me and that I didn’t have a place in His church. But that was wrong! It took me studying God’s Word, asking Him in prayer, seeking advice from older believers for me to see that I couldn’t let my culture, my hurt, my feelings define the truth: I had to let God’s Word Redefine my life.