“Only if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle (as in a real friendship or marriage!) will you know that you have gotten hold of a real God and not a figment of your imagination.” (Tim Keller, The Reason for God).
In our reading today we have one of those parts that offend, the question is will we recognise that this is God speaking or will we try and change the message to make it more palatable? In 1 Timothy 2 we are told about salvation (v3-4) and this offends some people because they don’t think they need to be saved. We are told there is one God and one mediator (v5) and this offends those who think there are many gods and those who think that a priest or an ancestor can act as a mediator.
Further Paul says men should come to pray without anger or quarrelling (v8), and this offends argumentative angry men! But perhaps the part that most offends our culture today is when God tells us that men and women are equal but different. In our Western 21st culture, we like the ‘equal’ part but detest the ‘different’ part, yet in other cultures, they would dislike the ‘equal’ part! God challenges every culture in every age.
In marriage, the husband is to model Christ’s self-sacrificial love by laying down his life for his wife, dying to his own interests and putting his wife first – what a challenge (Ephesians 5:25)! The wife is to model the church’s obedience to Christ by submitting to her husband (this never gives grounds to abuse for she is called to submit to a husband who is loving her sacrificially). In the church family, God wants men to lead and preach and the reason given is tied back to the creation order. God created man and woman to rule over creation (1 Timothy 2:13). In Genesis 3 we see the order tragically reversed as Satan in the form of a creature deceives the woman, and the man rather than protecting his wife by asserting what God had said, listens to his wife and disobeys God. The results are devastating, sin and death entered the world.
That could have been the end, but in His loving mercy, even before the man and woman rebelled, God had given marriage as a picture of what he would do in giving His own Son as our saviour. Men and women are saved by the one mediator Jesus Christ. And now in the church we are called to accept and rejoice in the different roles He gives us, rather than seeking to upset the created order once more. I think that is what is meant by the final and tricky verse of 1 Timothy 2. The way to live out our faith is to accept the roles God gives us. Men cannot give birth! That is something unique to women, and whilst not all women will have children, God is giving great value to the role of a mother. God challenges men and women to rejoice in being made differently and to live out our different callings.
Heavenly Father, we thank for your Word, some parts of it are easier to understand than others, some parts are more challenging than others. Thank you that you are God and you know what is best, help us to trust you, especially when your word challenges what our culture holds dear. Help us to let your Word rather than the culture shape the church. Amen
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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