“I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing — if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.” 1 Timothy 2:12-15
This is one of the most important Bible passages in the debate over female ordination. It immediately precedes the qualifications for the office of elder.
When those of us who oppose female ordination discuss this passage, we tend to focus on verses 12 through 14. We point out that the reasons for the rule that women are not to teach or exercise authority over men are universal and timeless—Adam was created first, and Adam was not deceived by the serpent, but Eve was. Paul’s rationale is not bound to the culture of the First Century Levant or any of its cities; it is rooted in the order of creation and the history of the Fall. Then we move ahead to chapter 3 and the list of requirements for the office of elder.
In a recent comment thread, one of our readers took me to task for skipping verse 15; he told me I didn’t have a “theology” of 1 Tim. 2:15 and hence should not comment on the 1 Timothy 2:12-14.
There is truth in this criticism. I have been skipping over verse 15, and I should not have been, because “all Scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Clearly, 1 Timothy 2:15 is worthy of our thoughtful study and contemplation. Let us take a few minutes to study it.
“Yet she will be saved through childbearing — if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.”
One thing that makes this passage controversial—and tempts us to pass over it in mystified silence—is Paul’s assertion that women will be saved through childbearing. This seems wrong, because it strikes us as salvation by works instead of salvation by faith in Christ. It seems to contradict the Bible teaching that salvation is by grace through faith apart from works (Rom. 3:28; Eph. 2:8; Gal. 2:16).
Some scholars are so put off by this that they interpret the passage as meaning that Christian women will be saved from the physical perils of childbirth. For example, the New American Standard Bible (NASB) reads, “But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.” As much as we would like this to be true, it is not. Untold thousands of Christian women have died from complications of childbirth. Christian women have never been spared the physical danger of bearing children. This interpretation must therefore be rejected.
One theory as to the spiritual meaning of “being saved through childbearing” is suggested by the grammar of the sentence. You will have noticed that the case of the pronoun changes midway through the sentence. It starts out in the third person singular: “Yet, she will be saved through childbearing,” then switches to the third person plural: “if they continue in faith love and holiness, with self-control.”
Is this just a grammatical mistake? Some Bible versions undertake to correct it. For example, the Contemporary English Version (CEV) renders it: “But women will be saved by having children, if they stay faithful, loving, holy, and modest.” While I am not always opposed to modern translations that render Scripture more accessible, in this instance, the singular “she” conveys an important insight into what Paul is saying, and should not be plastered over.
Paul had just been writing about Adam and Eve—"For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor”—and it follows that he was still thinking about Eve when he wrote, “Yet she will be saved through childbearing . . .” Eve was literally saved through child-bearing because it was through her descendant, Christ, that salvation was brought to the race. This is stated prospectively, prophetically, in Genesis 3:15, in which God, speaking to that old Serpent called the devil and Satan (Rev. 12:9; 20:2), says:
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.”
Eve’s offspring is Christ; he won the victory over Satan at Calvary, and made salvation available to all. Eve was saved by her own descendant, and in a sense by her child-bearing.
And yet, while an interesting facet of the passage—and certainly worth mentioning at this season of the year, when Christendom is celebrating the birth of Christ—this cannot be the primary meaning. Unlike Eve, most women throughout history were not in the direct line of ancestry to Christ. Obviously, none have been for the past two thousand years. There must be a universal sense in which women are saved through childbearing. What is that sense?
Recall that salvation consists of three elements: justification, sanctification, and glorification. Justification is the part that takes place without works: “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” Rom. 3:28. “So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” Gal. 2:16. Our legal reconciliation to God is brought about solely through the merits of Christ imputed to us through faith.
But sanctification, which is one of the three elements of salvation, is the process of God imparting His righteousness to us through the Holy Spirit. Sanctification means the perfecting of our characters in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, and involves obedience to God, right-doing and “good works”:
“. . . God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.” 2 Thess. 2:13.
“To God’s elect . . . who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ . . .” 1 Pet. 1:1-2.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Eph. 2:10.
“Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” 2 Cor. 7:1.
So there is a real sense in which we are saved by works—not justified, but sanctified through the Holy Spirit by good works and experiences that lead to the perfection of character. I think that, in 1 Tim. 2:15, Paul is saying that childbirth and motherhood is a sanctifying, character-developing experience for Christian women.
Solomon tells us that whoever fails to discipline his child hates his child. (Prov. 13:24. See, also, Prov. 19:18; 23:13-15; 29:17) God also disciplines His children. (Prov. 3:12; Heb. 12:7; Deut. 8:5; 2 Sam. 7:14) We often hear it said that “discipline should be redemptive,” and this is the biblical model. “We are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.” 1 Cor. 11:32. God does not want us to be lost—He wants us to be saved (2 Peter 3:9)—so He disciplines us out of love, just as a good parent disciplines a child. When He disciplines us, God has our sanctification, and ultimately our eternal glorification in mind.
We read in Genesis 3 that when our first parents fell, God imposed redemptive discipline on them. God cursed the ground and decreed that Adam, and all subsequent men, would have to work very hard—with “painful toil”—to earn a living. “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food.” Hard work is not fun, but God intends it for us for our redemption, and there are many reasons why it tends to help men stay away from sin and perfect their characters.
Likewise, discipline was also decreed for Eve and all subsequent women: “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.” The difficulty and pain of childbirth are part of the post-Fall redemptive discipline that God has imposed on women.
Accordingly, it ought not surprise us when Paul tells us that childbearing can facilitate sanctification in Christian women. Paul is confirming that the discipline God placed upon our first parents was redemptive discipline; it was motivated by God’s fathomless love for us.
Motherhood begins when a woman becomes aware that she is pregnant. Suddenly, her health is not simply her own affair but affects her unborn child. She is eating for two, and she must consider the affect on her child of any substance she introduces into her body. The child is months from being born, but already selfishness is in retreat.
As the day approaches, hope is mingled with fear. The expecting mother knows the birth will be painful; in prior ages, it was also dangerous and potentially fatal. The very real risk of death in childbirth tends to drive out trivial considerations and focus the mind on the things of eternity. Today, most births take place in hospitals, and physicians now understand germ theory and have learned basic sanitation, so the risk of death from complications of childbirth is far less than it has been in most times and places. But women throughout history have selflessly accepted the risks of childbearing as the price of new life and the joy of children. This is ennobling.
Childbearing isn’t just having the baby, it is caring for, rearing, and educating the child. While some aspects of childbearing are punitive—e.g., the labor pains—most of motherhood is an unalloyed blessing. And not just the joy of motherhood, but the hardships, too, are a blessing. The process of motherhood directs thought away from self and places it on the child, further crucifying self-seeking and love of ease. Not only does motherhood work against selfishness, it tends to draw out the finest qualities in women.
In counseling a woman who had married a man with small children, Ellen White stated:
“Your marriage to one who is a father of children will prove to be a blessing to you.... You were in danger of becoming self-centered. You had precious traits of character that needed to be awakened and exercised . . . By the care of children affection, love, and tenderness are developed. The responsibilities resting upon you in your family may be a means of great blessing to you. These children will be to you a precious lesson book. They will bring you many blessings if you read them aright. The train of thought awakened by their care will call into exercise tenderness, love, and sympathy. . . . By the experience that you will gain in your home, you will lose the self-centered ideas that threatened to mar your work and will change the set plans that have needed softening and subduing.... You have needed to develop greater tenderness and larger sympathy, that you might come close to those in need of gentle, sympathetic, loving words. Your children will call out these traits of character and will help you to develop breadth of mind and judgment.” Adventist Home, 270.
The other-centeredness of motherhood lasts a lifetime. Children need their parents even when they are grown, married and have kids of their own. The Christlike grandmother helps her children, especially her daughters, with their own children. At this time of life, having garnered wisdom from several decades of life experiences, the grandmother can be a wonderful blessing to her extended family. She can,
“urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.” Titus 2:4-5.
She remembers the birthdays of all of her children and grandchildren, and is there to celebrate births, baptisms, graduations, marriages and other milestones for each one of these precious descendants. Motherhood, like sanctification and, by the grace of God, in concert with sanctification, is truly the work of a lifetime.
Of course, many women go through childbirth, motherhood and grand-motherhood without being saved by the experience. A favorite proverb of Charles Spurgeon was, “the same sun that melts wax hardens clay.” The same experience that leads to sanctification in some leads to rebellion in others. This is why Paul was quick to add, “— if they continue in faith and love [Greek = agape] and holiness [being made holy], with self-control.” In other words, motherhood will tend to be sanctifying if the woman has Christian faith and love, and continues being sanctified, that is, cooperating with the Holy Spirit in the process of sanctification.
An interesting footnote: The Greek word σωφροσύνη (sōphrosýnē), here translated as “self-control” and elsewhere as “modesty,” “sobriety,” “sober-mindedness,” “self-restraint,” etc., literally means soundness of mind, sanity, the opposite of “mania.” In other words, don’t let motherhood become a mania. It is possible to try to do too much for your children, and some mothers get carried away, past the point of sanity. A while back, a Texas woman named Wanda Holloway so badly wanted her daughter to make her junior high school cheerleading squad that she tried to hire a hitman to kill the mother of her daughter’s cheerleading rival. That qualifies as maniacal.
Men are useful in avoiding maniacal motherhood. On significant decisions, a mother should bring the father into the decision-making loop, and his counsel should be heeded. Women tend to love unconditionally and unreservedly; men are generally (but not always) better at demanding the “sterner virtues” of nobility and good behavior. Men are also generally better with rules and government, and acknowledging that our kids, even though they are ours and we love them intensely, are subject to the same rules that apply to everyone else, and we are subject to certain rules and conventions while we raise them.
So Paul’s message is, “women will be saved by child-bearing and motherhood, if they continue in the Christian faith, continue selflessly loving, and consciously seeking sanctification—and don’t lose their minds.
Saved through childbearing? Yes, indeed!