He-Hive

 

He-Hive

1 Timothy 2: ⁸ In every church service I want the men to pray, men who are dedicated to God and can lift up their hands in prayer without anger or argument. ⁹ I also want the women to be modest and sensible about their clothes and to dress properly; not with fancy hair styles or with gold ornaments or pearls or expensive dresses, ¹⁰ but with good deeds, as is proper for women who claim to be religious. ¹¹ Women should learn in silence and all humility. ¹² I do not allow them to teach or to have authority over men; they must keep quiet. ¹³ For Adam was created first, and then Eve. ¹⁴ And it was not Adam who was deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and broke God's law. ¹⁵ But a woman will be saved through having children ( or will be kept safe through childbirth. ), if she perseveres in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.

 

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Ugh! This is a “He-hive!” I read these words and struggled to think of any example. Over the years, these words have been misused to cause pain and support inequality. After reading the words, one could go down a rabbit hole of misogynism  So I had to dissect them carefully to understand.

 

My Observations

Prayer, good deeds, and learning should be done by men and women.

Childbirth is a very difficult, stressful scary time that only women can experience.

Faith, love holiness with modesty should be done by men and women.

 

Paul writes to Timothy and is usually addressing specific issues. There may have been a situation where men were getting distracted to lust over women, causing marital problems, as best I can tell. An answer was to have the women teach each other.

 

As far as the curse, this is harder. GOD laid out a curse when Eve was deceived and disobeyed HIM. Paul reminded Timothy that the curse still stands in GOD’s eyes.

 

One would miss the solution if not reading with the right spirit, namely faith and love and holiness bring the relationship back into balance.

 

Challenge

What are your observations about women from the writer?

What are your observations about men from the writer?

What do you know about the curse GOD placed on humanity in the Garden of Edan?

Should faith, love and holiness be performed by only one gender?

Will you accept the fact that men and women were created as equals and the only balance in equality is through surrendering your life to CHRIST with faith, love and holiness today?