Women in the Church

1 Timothy 2:8-15

Immanuel – 9/21/25

          Today we have come to one of the most controversial passages in the entire Bible. If it is not the most controversial passage, it is certainly in the top three. Paul’s words are absolutely offensive to our modern ears: “Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” It sounds oppressive, patriarchal, misogynistic.

          It seems like endless books have been written on these verses espousing different perspectives, debating with opposing perspectives, diving scarily deep into the meaning of single words – or even parts of words. The amount of extra-biblical information and scholarship over these eight verses is dizzying. But that is to be expected when there’s raging debate over a topic.

          As a result, I’ve done more preparation for this sermon than I have in a very long time, knowing that there were mountains of material I couldn’t possibly explore. And I know there will be people in this congregation, and listening online, who will disagree with me from either side of the debate. Just know that I have set out to be as biblically faithful as I know how. Hopefully you know by now, that’s my goal every week.

          That being said, let me define three interpretive lenses people wear when interpreting 1 Timothy 2:8-15. These are the three modern positions on gender dynamics in the Bible: Patriarchal, Complementarian, and Egalitarian.

          Patriarchal says that men and women have equal value but distinct hierarchical roles. This is true in all sectors of life (family, church, society).

          Complementarian says that men and women have equal value but distinct hierarchical roles. This is true in some sectors of life (family, church).

          Egalitarian says men and women have equal value and no distinction in hierarchical roles. This is true in all sectors of life (family, church, society).

          These are extremely basic definitions, and lack almost all nuance, but they get the general idea across. I want you to know up front that I am a Complementarian, and this is the interpretive lens I believe is the most biblically faithful.

          Just an additional word about complementarianism: As I said, Complementarians believe God has created men and women with extraordinary and equal dignity and value. But he has given them distinct roles, roles that complement one another, that harmonize with one another, that when working together as God designed will lead to the profound flourishing of both male and female.

But it is not just man and woman what will flourish, but the whole world around them: Our world will become subdued and fruitful, abounding with ambition and artistry, an Eden of peace and prosperity, a place to cherished and honored.

          All this fell when our first parents sinned against God, and creation fell into chaos, and the roles of men and women became corrupted. But Christ is working through the church to subdue the chaos, heal the corruption, and kill the curse, to restore us to our Edenic state. Brothers and sisters, the Tree of Life is in our midst, and he has given us the leaves of healing: leaves of the tree…for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2).

          It is from this place – of defeating the curse, of returning to the roles God gave man and woman in Eden – that Paul issues his apostolic dictates for the church in Ephesus. And before he addresses the role of women, he speaks to the men.

          Read vs 8

          Worship Standards

          124 words in our passage today, and only 18 of them are directed towards masculine conduct. What might seem an imbalance is quickly corrected when you realize a much larger chunk of chapter 3 is directed towards men.

          And though verse 8 is only 18 words, it sets a very helpful tone when seeking to understand what follows; so let’s spend some careful time with it.

          I desire then that in every place men should pray. The then in that sentence means Paul is dropping down a thought from the previous section of chapter 2. Remember from last week the “universal all.” Paul wants the church to pray for all people and all rulers because God wants to save all; for Christ gave his life as a ransom for all and is Mediator of all. Because of this, Paul wants all people in all churches to pray.

When Paul says this is his desire, he does not mean, “I really hope it happens.” No! He is God’s authoritative Apostle. This is what he commands in every church, and this is what he expects Timothy to command Ephesus: all people in all churches are to pray – especially the men!

 And when they do pray, they are to have Christ-like dispositions – both men and women. For the men, they are to lift holy hands without anger or quarrelling. This does not mean that women are allowed angry prayers, weaponizing them for their personal quarrels. Of course not! But Paul is touching on weaknesses that particularly affect men: anger, being argumentative, constantly trying to prove they are right, one-upmanship, and related sins.

You can bet those false teachers in Ephesus were promoting debates and vain discussions, filled with arrogant and ignorant assertations. The men in the Ephesian Church certainly needed a reminder to lift holy hands, not ones stained with anger!

As Jesus said, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”

-Matthew 5:23-24

          Brothers, Christ has called us to be ambassadors of reconciliation. These things are not just for the first century, they are for us! Likewise, so is Paul’s exhortation to women.

          Read vs 9-10

          With Apostolic authority, Paul appeals to women in the church to be modest and self-controlled, with their attention on good works. It is clear Paul is targeting particular weaknesses of women: vanity, physical comparison, sensuality. It’s not that men are allowed to dress immodestly for worship, but broadly speaking, vanity is a temptation more felt by women.

          Generally speaking, men want to be strong, respectable, powerful. Corruptions spilling out of these desires are anger and quarreling. Generally speaking, women desire to be beautiful, captivating, desirable. Vanity and immodesty are corruptions of these.

          Paul mentions braided hair, jewelry, expensive clothing; these represent a myriad of ways women might enhance their beauty. These are not bad in and of themselves, it’s the desire behind them concerning Paul. Using a worship service to showcase beauty, looking down on women less fashionable, or judging others for being fashion obsessed, dressing to get looks and worse, desiring to draw a male gaze; all these undermine our collective worship of God!

We are here for our Father in heaven, the Son who has redeemed us, the Spirit dwelling in our midst! We are here to worship our awesome God! If anyone – man or woman – tries to draw attention to themselves during this gathering, it is a plague to us all!

          Of course, Paul is not advocating for women to wear burkas, concealing themselves like Islamic Sharia law demands. It is ok for women to wear fashionable things, and to be beautiful. It is not ok when those things become the focus.

          Rather, in modesty and self-control, let a godly woman adorn herself with good works. Sisters, show us your love, not your bodies. Show us what it means to serve Jesus, with the elegance of self-control, and let fashion follow after. Deeds outshine decorations. 

          Here is a pearl from the Proverbs.

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.                                                                       -Proverbs 31:30

          Now we come to the crux of controversy.

          Read vs 11-12

Our culture tells is to hear Paul words and think, “Sexist!” It’s like we are trained to hear Paul is saying, “Women, shut up and submit, the men are talking!” Rather, I want to show you that the last thing Paul is, is sexist; and women are not to bow before men, simply because they are men. There is something good, and beautiful, in God’s created order that Paul wants to see reflected in the church.

There is layered meaning behind Paul’s requirement that women remain quiet in church. I’ll touch on only two. First, and related to the preceding verses, a woman who flaunts her appearance in a humble worship gathering is quite loud. Let her presence be quiet – self-controlled and modest – helping fellow worshippers be undistracted.

A second layer remembers Paul is commanding Timothy to let women learn quietly. The social environment of the first century was indeed sexist. Women, especially women outside of the nobility, were discouraged from learning. Then especially in some Jewish contexts, women were prohibited from learning (recall Ephesus was infected with legalistic, Jewish false teachers).

Paul is saying, Timothy, permit her to learn, do not prevent her. And permit her to learn in a quiet environment, free from distractions, free from chaos. (This in one reason we believe in childcare during the worship service.) Unlike many other religions, Jesus gives men and women equal rights to discipleship. Thus in all churches, Paul requires that a woman’s desire to learn must be taken as seriously as a man’s desire to learn.

And let her learn in all submissiveness. Submission is a dirty word in our culture, but it is most certainly not in the Bible! How many times did we see Jesus actively, willfully, submit to the Father? In every instance, it is good when the disciples submit to Jesus. Submission, in this sense, does not mean subjecting oneself to domination. It means recognizing the value of a person’s authority, the holy beauty of serving, and obediently serving them.

So when a woman is learning with all submissiveness, who is she submitting to? The biblical teaching that is being offered. Yes, a male elder is regularly delivering that teaching, but no one should listen to that elder unless the elder is himself living in submission to that same teaching. In other words, women and men, congregant and elder, all are submitting themselves to the Word of God.

Because, Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

                                                                   -Romans 10:17

Hear it clearly, when the church gathers in worship, both men and women are to learn quietly with all submissiveness to the word of Christ! Both have equal right and equal responsibility to do so.

But Paul wants Timothy to be clear, though men and women have equal right and responsibility to learn, only men have the right and responsibility to teach and oversee the church. As Paul says in verse 12: I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.

Teaching and exercising authority, these are two responsibilities reserved for the office of elder – as we will see in next week’s passage. Elders teach the word of God, with authority, to the church. And Jesus has given to elders the spiritual authority over the members of the church – to lovingly shepherd them, to oversee their discipleship. And Paul does not permit women to serve as elders.

(Elders=Pastors)

Let me briefly interact with three prominent egalitarian arguments explaining why Paul’s words do not prohibit women from serving as elders today.

First, many egalitarians will claim Paul was offering a preference to have male elders, not a command for all churches for all time. “I do not permit women to…” somewhat sounds like, “This what I do, but not everyone else does it.” But that totally runs counter to the logic Paul has employed.

Consider his command to the men, which he began with “I desire” the men should pray. That was not a preference: like, “Some may desire men to pray, some may not.” No! It was a command for men to pray free from anger and quarreling. And since Paul has not broken his logical flow, he is telling Timothy not to permit women become elders – as Paul does in every place.

Second, many egalitarians will say Paul was only prohibiting women from being elders in Ephesus. You may recall that one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was located in Ephesus: the temple of Artemus. Ephesus was the Asian epicenter of cultic worship of the goddess Artemus. Because she was a female deity, women occupied the priesthood. The priestesses of Artemus were incredibly powerful in Ephesus and a type of hyper-feminism developed in the city, so much so that it had infected the church in Ephesus. Paul is not prohibiting all women everywhere from becoming elders, he is offing a corrective to a specific church plagued by domineering, feministic, women.

The problem with this argument is that historians and scholars have entirely debunked it. Though there were some powerful women in Ephesus, the Cult of Artemus and the city itself were predominantly run by men. There is almost no historical evidence of a feminist strain in Ephesus. And without that feminist strain, Paul’s words were not a corrective for Ephesus, but were for all churches everywhere.

Third, many egalitarians will say the Greek word for exercise authority does not mean exercise authority – as in exercise authority over men. The Greek word authenteo has been translated incorrectly. They say it should translated “to incite violence,” “be the originator of,” “to dominate,” or even “to murder.” (I do not permit a woman to teach or dominate a man. I do not permit a woman to teach or be violent towards a man.)

Trust me, the arguments egalitarians use to make this case are incredibly complex and require a deep understanding of ancient Greek. Additionally, so much literature is written about this single word, authenteo, telling us it does not mean what we think it means.

Without diving into any of that, let me simply say, I find their arguments to be unconvincing.  After looking at some of their literature, and a variety of translations, I think the ESV gets authenteo correct (remember, I’ve called out the ESV when I think it gets it wrong), Paul does not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.

But the greatest reason I think these three arguments fail, is because of the way Paul grounds his logic. He grounds his logic not in preferences, not in culture, not in correctives; but in the created order.

Read vs 13-14

The Order of Eden

This is not about patriarchy, this is about God’s created order; and God embedded a hierarchy into his creation. We see it in the Godhead, first Father, then Son, then Spirit. None is better than the other, but their roles are distinct and there is inherent hierarchy in their relationship. So with man and woman: equal value and dignity, distinct hierarchical roles – all of this imaging our Creator!

Man was created first. And the man received God’s command, and the man was given work, and the man was given authority over the animals. Then God created woman – the pinnacle of beauty in creation. She would be the perfect complement to man, and man to her. But man informed her of God’s commands, and man told her about their work, and man shared his authority with her. All of it was theirs together, but through a hierarchy: from God, to Adam, to Eve.

In verse 14, Paul gives us the first and horrific example of when this hierarchical order was disordered: the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Adam was given first position of rule, Eve second. But when Eve took the forbidden fruit and ate it, Adam abdicated his position to Eve. Adam was right there the whole time, listening to the lies of the serpent, watching his wife reach for the fruit, receiving it from her, following her lead, and eating. And all creation came crashing down into disorder and corruption and futility. Adam had abdicated to his wife, and together they sinned. What would have happened if he rightly led?

And through Eve had taken the fruit and was first to eat, who did God confront after the Fall? Adam. Who was the one to bear the greater portion of the curse? Adam. Paul tells us that sin entered the world through one man: Adam. Though Eve ate first, God held Adam responsible; for he gave man the greater authority. Unmitigated disaster erupted when through sin, God’s hierarchical order was thrown into disorder.

This is what Paul grounds his statement in. He does not permit women to exercise authority over men because God holds the man responsible; and because when the hierarchy is disordered, corruption follows.

Let me get very specific for a moment. All men do not have authority over all women. No, that dips into patriarchy. The hierarchical structure where men have authority over women relates only to marriage and the church. Wives are to submit to their husbands – only (Ephesians 5:22). Female congregants are to submit to their male elders – only, but so also must the male congregants submit to the elders (Hebrews 13:17)!

As Christ loves the Church, so are husbands to love their wives. As Christ loves the Church, so are elders to love the Church. Deeply invested care, love for the flock, abounding prayerfulness, a longing for unity, working towards maturity, chasing after those who wander, laboring in the Scriptures; if the elders are pursuing these things, it will be a joy for all congregants – male or female – to submit to their spiritual authority, learning quietly from their teaching.

But because of God’s created order, Paul instructs Timothy not to permit women to teach or to exercise authority over men. The woman’s ambition should not be for leading the church. Her ambition should rest in childbearing.

Read vs 15

This is another verse that is difficult in our modern age. Not only because it sounds like women must be confined to the home, but because not all women have children. Personally, I feel the sting of this verse. My mother died in childbirth, and consequently I never got to know her. It doesn’t feel to me like she was saved through childbearing.

But remember again the context of 1 Timothy. As I pointed out a few weeks ago, the Ephesian false teachers were forbidding marriage (1 Timothy 4:3). Consequently, we can infer, childbearing was under attack. A bit later in this letter, we will hear Paul say,

I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.                     -1 Timothy 5:14

Childbearing and marriage were clearly under threat in Ephesus. But again, this is not only for Ephesus. God’s first command to man and woman was “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), an impossibility if women did not concern themselves with childbearing.

It was only after the fall that childbearing became cursed.

To the woman God said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”                                                    -Genesis 3:16

But Christ is making all things new, and he is working through his church to kill the curse and undo the chaos of the fall. He has called us into a radically counter-culture kingdom. Perhaps Christian women (and men) should take more seriously the curse killing call to raise up children after God’s own heart!

But regardless of whether or not an individual woman has children, salvation is not merely a matter of reproduction. As verse 15 ends, it is a matter of faith, love, holiness, and self-control. This is virtually the same thing we saw Paul telling Timothy in chapter 1. Thus we see again that women are given the same right as men: full access to salvation! God saves us – male and female – through faith, which produces love, and we are made holy, so we responsibly exercise self-control.

What should we know?

God created men and women with equal value and dignity, but he gave them distinct hierarchical roles in marriage and the church.

What should we believe?

By these things Jesus is using his church to make all things new. He is using you women, just as much as the men, to be killers of the curse! Men, anger and quarreling come from the curse. Women, vanity and immodesty come from the curse.

What should we do?

Pray with holy hands. Submit to God’s word. Receive from Christ faith, love, and holiness. Pursue self-control. Jettison anger and vanity.