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Here we are at day five of our look together through First Timothy chapter two.

This is a fairly short chapter, but it has a lot to talk about. And I just want
to remind you, we're talking about some things about men and women and some
verses that make most of us scratch our heads a bit. I just want to remind you
of the focus of these verses.

Don't lose the focus. The focus is on living not a distracted Christian life,
but a motivated, a focused Christian life. And in talking about living a
motivated, focused Christian life, Paul is talking about some problems at this
church and that many churches face.

And that is we tend to focus on ourselves and worship and in the church, rather
than focusing on Jesus Christ as the head of the church. And in talking about
that, Paul has had some words to say to men and to women. Yesterday and today,
he is finishing up what he has to say to women.

And yesterday we read some verses that some of us are going to have to study
some more. Today, well, you're going to have to study these verses, I would
think, some more also. Listen to what Paul has to say in verses 13 to 15.

"For Adam," he says, "was formed first and 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. " All right. We read these verses and we think,
what is Paul talking about here?

It gives us something to talk about today. What does God's word mean? I want you
to notice the broad thing first.

Notice that as Paul talks about women and men and the way that we relate to each
other, he takes his examples not from culture, but from creation. Not from what
we do, but from what God has done from the very beginning. And in verses 13 and
14 that we just read, Paul is explaining the biblical reasons behind what he was
saying about a woman teaching in spiritual authority over a man.

And he says, it was not Adam who was deceived, it was the woman who was deceived
and became a sinner. Now, don't miss what he's saying here. He's not saying that
Adam is not responsible.

He's saying actually that Adam was the more responsible one. He's saying Eve was
tricked into this. She was deceived into this by Satan.

But Adam, he went into it with his eyes wide open. He knew exactly what he was
doing wrong, but he allowed his wife to lead him in the wrong direction, knowing
that it was the wrong direction because it's what he wanted to do. And because
someone else did it, he used it as an excuse, knowing full well what he was
doing.

Now, what's Paul talking about here? He talks about being deceived and the
nature of men and women. Well, overall, he's giving the sense that I think most
of us have picked up on in life, that women are more spiritually and
relationally sensitive than men.

I'm not saying every woman is, but I think most of us would agree that women are
more relationally and more spiritually sensitive than men. There's a lot of
evidence that even in the way our brains are designed, that that's how we tend
to process information and think about the world. Now, as you think about that,
women are more spiritually and relationally sensitive than men.

That would cause a lot of people to think, well, maybe a woman should be the
lead pastor of the church. I mean, you need somebody who's relationally
sensitive. You need someone who is spiritually sensitive.

And remember, Paul is writing these verses, these words to Timothy, his son in
the faith, his son in the faith who's struggling with leading this church in the
right direction. And Timothy may have been thinking the very same thing. Why
don't we just let women lead this church?

They seem to have a lot closer connection to God than I do. And there's a
warning in these verses. The warning is that that relational sensitivity can
also cause someone to be taken in at times, to be led astray at times, because
you care about another person, because you're hurt for another person and what
they're going through.

So Paul writes and he says, just remember that none of us is perfect. Is there
any man who is perfect pastor of church? Absolutely not.

But through Jesus's leadership, he can be that leader. Is there any woman who is
perfect in following Jesus Christ? Absolutely not.

We all have our strengths and weaknesses. And this idea somehow that, okay, I'm
imperfect. So I'm going to let somebody else lead, which apparently Timothy was
going through.

We're going to find out later in this book, Paul was writing to say, Timothy,
God's made you the leader of this church. So don't pass that off to someone
else. And he talks about the nature of men and women in doing that.

Now, again, that's difficult to talk about, to figure out. Adam deceived, woman
deceived. But when we get to verse 15, just like yesterday, it's the second part
that's even more difficult to understand.

Remember what I said in verse, what was written in verse 15? Women will be saved
through childbearing. That makes you scratch your head.

This is one of those verses I've got to be honest, I'm going to ask about when I
get to heaven. It feels like Paul left something out between verses 14 and 15 to
me. If he'd just written a couple of other verses, I'd understand what in the
world he's saying here.

Here's what I know it's not saying. I know he doesn't mean that you become a
Christian by having a baby. Women saved by childbearing.

If you just have a baby, you're automatically a Christian, although maybe you
should be because of all the labor. If there was any way by our own works to
become a Christian, it would be through the labor of having a child and the
labor of raising a child. But no one, not even moms, no one can be saved by
their works because none of us is perfect.

Paul again and again and again says it is by faith alone that we're saved. So we
know that he's not saying in these verses that somehow you're saved, you become
a Christian by having a child. We also know that he's not saying that raising
children is the only role for women.

We talked yesterday about how often Paul himself affirmed women's roles and
ministries within the church. So what is he talking about here? Women will be
saved through childbearing.

Well, there are three interpretations. One is that they'll be saved in
childbearing. Second is that they'll be saved through childbearing.

And the third is that they'll be saved by the bearing of the child. The one
about in childbearing is the idea that women will be saved from having so much
pain as they might have in childbearing, that their labor somehow will not cause
them to suffer too greatly. Well, that doesn't really work because you realize
there are many, many Christian women who have not only labored in childbirth but
who have died in childbirth not only in past generations but even into today.

So the idea that somehow all women will be kept safe in childbearing if they're
just a believer in Christ, that doesn't hold water. You just look at history and
you realize that's not true. There are others who think, well, this means that
women will be saved through childbearing, that somehow through the bearing of a
child, as we talked about earlier, you become a Christian.

Well, we know that that's not true either. And then there's a third idea, and
this is going to be the most attractive to you probably, but I want to say
something about it in a moment, and that is that this means that women will be
saved by the bearing of the child with a capital T, talking about Jesus Christ.
Paul has been talking about what happened in creation and what happened in the
fall and men and women being deceived, and then he says women will be saved
because there was one day going to come a child, Jesus Christ, through the fact
that women could bear children, one day a child would be born, his name is
Jesus, and that is how all of us are saved.

Now, I like that because it focuses on salvation by grace, and I realize that if
this word, there are two words that you have to get a hold of in verse 15, the
word childbearing, and what does it mean? But I also have to get a hold of the
word saved, and what does it mean? And if the word saved in verse 15 means what
we usually think it means, how we usually use it, my salvation by grace, my
relationship with God, then the only interpretation that makes sense is the
bearing of the child, because the only way that we're saved is through the
child, Jesus Christ.

However, there are times in the scriptures when this word saved is not used to
mean salvation by grace. It's also used this same word sometimes to mean
fulfilled or given purpose, not salvation, but given purpose in life, and if
that's the way that this word is used here, what Paul is saying is that although
women have struggled in life, God also has wonderful roles for women. Same thing
is true of men, but he happens to be talking to women here.

He says women were deceived and they became a sinner, but God has incredible
purpose, and he points to one of the greatest purposes of women, not the only
purpose, but he talks about the fulfillment of childbearing. Now, he then says
if they continue in faith and love and holiness with propriety, and those verses
lead me back to the interpretation of the bearing of the child, although there's
some problems with that one too. So I just got to say, because what's the
problem with that one?

Well, it's not through the birth of Jesus that we're saved, it's through the
death of Jesus that we're saved. So I've gone sort of full circle with this to
say I don't know totally what this verse means, but I do know what it doesn't
mean, and I do know that it should not point us away from salvation being by
grace alone. And I do know that for many, many women, the fulfillment that comes
through bearing children, living out a life of faith in front of their children,
if that is what this verse is affirming, I have seen that again and again and
again in the lives of women.

And this verse, if that is affirming that, it's affirmed other places as well,
is a powerful verse. As we've talked about this, the last thing I got to say is
why did this come up? Why is Paul talking about women saved through
childbearing?

Well, remember verse 14. He's thinking about the Old Testament. And in the Old
Testament, women were told, God told Eve that the curse that would come upon her
life was be labor in her childbirth, told Adam that the curse that would come
upon his life would be hard work all the days of his life because of their sin.

Their lives were changed because of the fall. Paul is saying here in some sense,
in some way, and there's some mystery to this, but I have no doubt that in some
way he is pointing to the fact that yes, there has been a fall, but now Jesus
Christ has come and he is now redeeming us from that fall. He's giving us new
life in the midst of that fall.

And you and I think about men and women and what we've talked about these last
three days. It's really a question of what's the answer? Is it just let men
rule, just have women stay at home somehow?

Well, that's not in the Bible. That's not the answer. Is it the women's movement
somehow?

That somehow women should rule and men should figure out that they have no place
really in relational and in some of the leadership positions? Well, that's the
wrong answer because those answers are man's answers. Those are women's answers.

Those focus on us and not on God. The Savior isn't chauvinism. It's not
feminism.

It's not humanism. The Savior is Jesus Christ and Jesus loves us all, men and
women. Remember that Jesus' apostles were men, but remember also that Jesus
chose first to appear to women after his resurrection, men and women both.

He loves us all and in loving us all, he has a purpose. He has a fulfillment for
us to live out. That's the focus.

And if these verses have caused you to focus more on questions than on answers,
let me get back to the answers as we close. As we pray together, let's focus on
the answers that he's given to us. Jesus Christ, thank you that you are the
answer and thank you that focusing on you and on serving you and on living out
your word and on trusting you, that is the answer that we need.

You are our Savior and we can trust you. We can't, in focusing on ourselves, we
can't find the way to salvation, but in you, you have given us the way to
salvation. And so we choose in this moment to focus on who you are.

These are verses that are all about focusing on God and worship. And in trying
to figure out what these verses mean, we don't want to lose the focus, Father.
So right now we focus back on you and we ask that you help us to understand how
to live out these verses.

You help us to keep the focus on you as we live out these verses and we ask this
Father in Jesus name. Amen. And we'll see you back next week, chapter three of
first Timothy.

We're going to talk about the life that honors God. And let me just say one
final thing to those of you who are walking together through life's healing
choices right now, this campaign we're doing as a church and others are doing
with us. This chapter about focusing on God and worship, it is so important for
life's healing choices.

As you're walking through some of the things from your past, the past hurts or
the habits in your life that you're struggling with right now, it is easy for me
when I'm struggling with my hurt or I'm struggling with my habits to get my
focus on the hurt or on the habit. I need to think about the hurt and the habit,
but I need to focus on God because the answer isn't in the hurt. The answer
isn't in the habit.

The answer is in God. As you walk through how God's healing you, keep your focus
on the God who is healing you during life's healing choices.