October 23
1 Timothy 2: 11: Let the woman learn in
silence with all subjection. 12: But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to
usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 13: For Adam was first
formed, then Eve. 14: And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived
was in the transgression. 15: Notwithstanding she shall be saved in
childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
The first woman in the world was Eve. She
was first in the transgression, just as every saved sinner will confess that
they are first in transgressing against our God (1 Tim 1:15). Adam was not deceived. He sinned
with his eyes wide open and plunged all those he represented into spiritual
death. But by declaring the Seed of woman (Christ) was coming, God magnified his
unchangeable grace toward the woman (Christ’s bride, the church). (Gen 3:15; Mal 2:16; Isa 62:5; 54:13) Also, God declared the woman (the church)
would have great sorrow in childbearing, that is, as she bear Christ the
promised Seed. (Gen 3:16). This sorrow speaks
not of what women endure as they give birth, but the travail the woman (the
church) endured as Satan tried to prevent Christ from coming into this earth. Pharaoh
ordered all the male Israelite children killed; Haman sought to destroy all Jews
(Est 3:6); Herod slew all the male children that
were in Bethlehem, (Mt 2:16; Rev 12:1-6). God declared the only salvation for
the woman (the church) is submission to her husband (Christ Jesus) who rules
her in wisdom, providing her every need (Gen 3:16; Song 7:10; Isa 26:8; Eph 5:22-33).
The doctrine of submission of the
woman to man is despised in our day.
False religion places women in pulpits and allows women to usurp
authority over men. By their message, they teach that the woman has the rule
over her husband by saying that the sinner (the woman) must give Christ (the
Husband) permission to save her. The more this heresy is promoted the more
hated it is for male pastors to be in authority over the church and for the husband
to be over his wife and children in the home. They even view the scriptures as
old-fashioned and politically incorrect. But at the center of it all is Satan,
attempting to turn Christ’s bride from submitting to Christ Jesus her Husband.
“Notwithstanding she shall be saved
in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity
and holiness with sobriety” (I Tim 2:15). By continuing to believe on Christ,
God saved the woman (the church) so that she had the child, the Seed of Woman,
Christ Jesus. So the church was saved by that particular child, Christ Jesus,
being borne. As members of the church, believing men and women are the bride of
Christ. As the woman, the church has a responsibility to submit to Christ our
Husband and to teach our children to do so. If we continue believing Christ, being
in all subjection to him, constrained by his love for us, sanctified by him and
in him, the woman (Christ’s church) shall be saved by Christ, the child born, the
Son given. What a glorious privilege of grace. What a glorious privilege God
has given to every believing woman to set forth this picture by her submission
to her husband. May we never take it
for granted!