ALL People {1 Timothy 2}

If you’ve been following our posts all summer, you probably have caught on that the Apostle Paul has been telling us to pray.  I know that these readings have made a huge impression on me, and I want to pray – and pray for people and circumstances I never considered in the past.

Paul reminds us here to pray for ALL people.  We are supposed to pray.  We need to pray.  But there’s a challenge here for all of us – we are to pray for ALL people.  For rich people, for poor people, for different ethnicities and nationalities.  Don’t let your prayers be for just the people you know and like.  We need to pray for ALL leaders.  Are you praying for our president?  And not that secret prayer that he will fall from his current position.  What about the leader of Russia?  How about your mayor?  ALL those politicians you disagree with?  We need to pray intentionally.  We need to pray for peace amidst persecution.  We need to pray for peace for the Church to thrive and not be in opposition.  Think about this - who was the ruler of the Roman Empire as Paul wrote this?  Nero!  Nero was the ruthless leader who had no trouble persecuting Christians.  He even executed his mother.  And burned Christians alive.  Paul was painting a picture of God wanting everyone to know of His salvation.  That cannot happen if we hold a grudge against a certain person or group of people.

We are saved by grace.  Undeserved!  I like what Richard Baxter, an old English pastor said about prayer.  “Do you not care who is damned as long as you are saved?  If so, you have sufficient cause to pity yourself, for it is a frame of spirit utterly inconsistent with grace.”

 

We pray because God desires the salvation of ALL people .

We pray because God deserves the honor of ALL people.

There is one God over all kinds of people.

We pray because Christ died for the rescue of ALL people. 

As we pray to God for all people, we preach the gospel to all people.

Did you know that one popular college degree is in gender studies?  Why do you think people are so interested in gender?  God’s Word applies to ALL people, ALL the time!  It’s not outdated or obsolete. 

Paul reminds men to pray with holy hands.  What are holy hands?  “Without anger or quarreling”.  We cannot pray before God when we have conflict with one another.  Prayer before God is fake if there’s no peace between you and someone else. 

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”  Matthew 5:23-24

I wonder how often we go to church without being honest with God.  It’s so routine, that we don’t truly worship Him.  How often do we go in with an attitude or expectation?  How often are we clinging to sin?  I am grateful that as I enter my church, I enter with an opportunity to confess – to humbly come before the Lord and lay my sin down.  I can confess before the Lord before the worship service begins.

And then we come to verse 9.  Ladies, even over 2,000 years ago, women struggled with modesty.  Who are you dressing for when you go to church?  Are you attempting to draw men to look at you?  Are you choosing things that you will draw eyes to you?  Or are you asking yourself, “what can I wear that can best express a humble heart that wants nothing but the worship of God?”  Whose attention are you competing for?  GOD’s!  You want your worship and your life in every way, to draw attention to God, not to you.  I realize this is totally against the societal grain – but we have got to get this across to our children (and the lady sitting next to you)!

And finally, vs. 11-15.  Just as Paul was dealing with false teachers in his day, we too are constantly battling with the roles of women, especially in the Church.  God created men and women with equal dignity.  Men and women are equally valuable before God.  (Gen. 1:3).  Neither is superior or inferior.  To demean women is to sin against God.  To demean men is to sin against God.  God created men and women with complimentary roles.  From the beginning in Genesis 2, men and women are different, distinct, not in value, but in role. 

We don’t have to look far to see the best example we have.  The Father and Son.  The Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, both equally God, but the Son is submissive to the Father, and the Father directs the Son.  The Son doesn’t ever complain.  The Father doesn’t ever domineer over the Son.  This is loving authority and glad submission.  The man and woman relationship is a complementary one and a reflection of the nature of God.  Different roles, equal value, beautiful harmony.

Paul reminds us that women can teach, just not above the elder (you’ll see more about this tomorrow in chapter 3), or as an elder.  Women should be listening to the teaching of the elders and then teaching/sharing what she has learned.

Women have all kinds of opportunities to teach.  This is not contradictory as some people try to argue – scripture is not contradictory.  Paul is simply reminding us women to listen to the elders and go out and share what we have learned.  We are not to be elders, pastors or overseers (v. 12).  And as our perfect example of Christ, we are not to rebel against the leadership.  We are to gladly serve the body of Christ.  (I cannot wait to get into Titus 2!)

We need to reflect God’s pattern in scripture.  We need to protect ourselves from Satan.  He is very crafty at deception.  Just remember, God created man first with leadership responsibility.

I just want to say in this gender equality and gender neutral world, God created you as a man or a woman, and there is unique significance behind that.  We are not working out our salvation as just some generic person.  We are working out our salvation as a man or a woman of God!  Uniquely blessed.  Uniquely formed.  Uniquely gifted.  You have been given unique opportunity for His glory to be made know through you, in a way that is distinct from His glory being made through someone else. 

Women and men are saved through the death of Christ.  Sin has distorted this world that we live in.  Satan has distorted God’s design for our lives as men and women.  He has distorted God’s design for our marriages, our families, the Church, the culture, but Christ has come, and He has conquered sin, and He has trampled Satan and in Christ, we can thrive.  Jesus died to make us the men and women God created us to be.