The second chapter of 1 Timothy turns to the church at worship. It begins with prayer for everyone, even the rulers who persecuted Christians, because God wants all people to be saved and has provided one way to Himself: one Mediator, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all. Then Paul addresses how men and women should conduct themselves when the church gathers, in words that have been discussed and debated for centuries and must be read with care.
A study in 1 Timothy 2 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 18 min read
Prayers For All Men
“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”
1 Timothy 2:1-2
“First of all” — before anything else in the church’s life, prayer. And prayer of every kind: requests, worship, pleading on others’ behalf, and thanks. But the most striking thing is who it is for: “all men,” and specifically “kings, and … all that are in authority.” The emperor at the time was Nero. Paul tells the church to pray for him.
The reason is practical: “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life.” Christians are not to be revolutionaries or troublemakers in society. They pray for good government so that they can live godly lives in peace and, as the next verses show, so that the gospel can spread freely.
Who Will Have All Men To Be Saved
“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
1 Timothy 2:3-4
Why pray for everyone? Because God wants everyone saved. This verse rules out any idea that God has chosen some people for salvation and passed others by. His desire reaches every human being. If anyone is lost, it will not be because God did not want them.
“‘This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all.’ Titus 2:11; 1 Timothy 2:3-6. The Spirit of God is freely bestowed to enable every man to lay hold upon the means of salvation. Thus Christ, ‘the true Light,’ ‘lighteth every man that cometh into the world.’ John 1:9. Men fail of salvation through their own willful refusal of the gift of life.”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, p. 262
One Mediator
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.”
1 Timothy 2:5-7
These verses are among the clearest in the Bible about how a human being comes to God. There is “one God” — so there is one way to Him. And there is “one mediator.” A mediator stands between two parties to bring them together. Only one Person can do that between God and humanity, because only One is both God and man: “the man Christ Jesus.” He is fully divine, as Philippians 2 and Colossians 1 showed; here Paul stresses that He is also truly human, one of us, able to represent us.
“One mediator” leaves no room for others. No priest, no saint, no angel, and no church stands between the believer and God as a go-between. Every believer may come directly to God through Christ, and Christ Himself carries on that ministry today in the heavenly sanctuary: “he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). Through the long centuries of apostasy described in the study of 2 Thessalonians 2, God always kept a people who held this truth.
“In every age there were witnesses for God—men who cherished faith in Christ as the only mediator between God and man, who held the Bible as the only rule of life, and who hallowed the true Sabbath.”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, p. 61
And He mediates on the basis of what He paid: He “gave himself a ransom for all.” A ransom is the price paid to free a captive. The price was Himself, and it was paid “for all” — the same “all” whom God wants to save.
Lifting Up Holy Hands
“I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.”
1 Timothy 2:8
Early Christians often prayed standing, with arms raised, as the orant figures painted in the Roman catacombs show. What matters to Paul is not the posture but the hands: they are to be “holy,” and the heart behind them free of “wrath and doubting.” Anger toward others and distrust toward God both choke prayer.
“Many have separated themselves so far from Him that they feel under condemnation in approaching Him. They cannot ‘come boldly unto the throne of grace,’ ‘lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.’ Hebrews 4:16; 1 Timothy 2:8. They have not a living connection with God. … Prayer is communion with God, the Fountain of wisdom, the Source of strength, and peace, and happiness.”
Ellen G. White · Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, p. 42
“In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.”
1 Timothy 2:9-10
Ephesus was a wealthy city, and its wealthy women displayed their status with elaborate braided hairstyles woven with gold and pearls, and expensive clothing. Paul does not want worship turned into a fashion show. A Christian woman’s true adornment is her character and her “good works.” Peter gives the same counsel (1 Peter 3:3-4). The principle applies to men too: simplicity, not display.
“The Bible teaches modesty in dress. ‘In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel.’ 1 Timothy 2:9. This forbids display in dress, gaudy colors, profuse ornamentation. Any device designed to attract attention to the wearer or to excite admiration, is excluded from the modest apparel which God’s word enjoins.”
Ellen G. White · The Ministry of Healing, p. 287
Let The Woman Learn
“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.”
1 Timothy 2:11-15
Few passages in the New Testament have been debated as much as these verses. Sincere Bible students, including within the Seventh-day Adventist Church, have reached different conclusions about what they mean for church leadership today, and the church continues to study the question. This study will not try to settle that debate. But several things in the passage and its setting are clear, and they deserve attention.
“Let the woman learn.” In Paul’s world this was itself remarkable. Many religious teachers of the day considered it improper to teach women the Scriptures. Paul commands that women be taught. The “silence” he asks for is the quietness of a good student, the same word he used in verse 2 for a “quiet” life, not a gag.
The setting was Ephesus. The whole letter is written to deal with false teachers who had arisen in the church there (1:3-7), and later in the letter Paul describes certain younger women going “from house to house,” speaking “things which they ought not” (5:13), and warns of those who “creep into houses, and lead captive silly women” (2 Timothy 3:6). The word translated “usurp authority” is a rare and strong one, found nowhere else in the New Testament, carrying the sense of seizing control or domineering. Whatever else Paul forbids here, he is forbidding a grasping, disruptive seizure of teaching authority in a church already troubled by error.
Paul worked alongside women in ministry. The same Paul commended “Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea” (Romans 16:1), called Euodias and Syntyche women who “laboured with me in the gospel” (Philippians 4:3), and gave instructions for women who pray and prophesy in worship (1 Corinthians 11:5). Priscilla, with her husband Aquila, took the eloquent preacher Apollos aside “and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly” (Acts 18:26) — right there in Ephesus. Philip had “four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy” (Acts 21:9), fulfilling Joel’s promise that “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (Joel 2:28). And Seventh-day Adventists believe God called a woman, Ellen G. White, to exercise the gift of prophecy to His remnant church, including extensive public preaching and teaching.
“Adam was first formed … the woman being deceived.” Paul grounds his instruction in the Genesis story. Readers differ over whether he is stating a permanent principle of order or illustrating the danger of deception that the Ephesian church was facing. What is not in doubt is that Scripture never teaches that women are less intelligent, less spiritual or less valuable than men; both were made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), and Adam, though “not deceived,” sinned with open eyes.
“She shall be saved in childbearing.” This cannot mean that women are saved by having children — that would contradict everything Paul teaches about salvation by grace through faith, and it would exclude every woman who never bears a child. The phrase in Greek has the definite article: “through the childbearing.” Many have understood it as a reference to the promise made to the woman in Eden, that her “seed” would bruise the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). Through the birth of that Child, Jesus, salvation came into the world. The woman who was first deceived became the one through whom the Saviour would come. And the condition is the same for every believer: “if they continue in faith and charity and holiness.”
What it finally comes down to. Whatever conclusions readers draw about church offices, the spirit Paul is asking for is not in doubt. A Christlike woman builds up the church, including the authority of its male leaders, as Christ Himself would do. She does not lift herself up by tearing others down. That is exactly what the false teachers at Ephesus were doing, and it is the opposite of the mind of Christ, who “made himself of no reputation” (Philippians 2:7). And it is no different from what Paul asks of the men in verse 8: to pray “without wrath and doubting,” not grasping, not quarrelling. Every believer, man or woman, is called to “let each esteem other better than themselves” (Philippians 2:3; see the study of Philippians 2).
So the chapter holds together a great truth and a practical call. The great truth: God wants every person saved, and has given one Mediator, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all. The practical call: a church that believes this will pray for everyone, worship with holy hands and humble hearts, dress and behave simply, and make sure that everyone in it, men and women alike, is taught the truth.
