In the midst of an all assault on the image of God, femininity, sexuality, children and family, we will remember the honor and blessedness of motherhood.
1 Timothy 2:11-14
11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.
This passage acknowledges the sinfulness of womankind and Eve’s part to play in the fall of man, but how, by God’s grace, women have a unique blessing to bring life and redemption to the world.
With regard to the prohibition of women in leadership, Paul seems to be addressing an attitude among women in the churches that despised motherhood and sought to be free from the “bondage” of domestic life. There is ample of evidence of women in ministry in the New Testament (Romans 161:1-4, 7; Acts 2:17-18; 21:8-9; 1 Corinthians 11:5).
1 Timothy 5:11-15
11 As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. 12 Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. 13 Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also busybodies who talk nonsense,saying things they ought not to. 14 So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. 15 Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.
“Saved through childbearing” refers to how God ordained the role of women to bring up and nurture children and to further God’s redemptive plan for the world. Through mothers God raised up deliverers, leaders and prophets– Moses, Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist–and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Genesis 3:8-16
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”