What About Women, Paul?

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If you're looking for a passage of Scripture that runs directly counter to the prevailing wisdom of our culture, then 1 Timothy 2:8-15 is a good place to start. Our culture is terribly twisted on issues of gender and sexuality, and the pressure for the church to compromise and conform on these issues is great. Pastor Mark Dever captures the seriousness of these realities:

The most important revolution of the [last] century has been the sexual revolution.... Contraception replaced conception. Pleasure was separated from responsibility. It was as if a license was given out, legitimizing the bending of every part of our lives around serving ourselves. Since that time, divorce, remarriage, abortion, premarital sex, and extramarital sex, as well as homosexuality have been accepted by increasing percentages of the public. Pornography is huge business. This is not just a problem with society out there. Many churches have found their members plagued by failed marriages and illicit affairs, by so-called private sins that turn into public disgraces, some of which are known, some of which are not yet known. (Dever, Message, 547-48)

We live in a culture, on a world, and (sadly) amid a church marked by rampant sexual immorality, skyrocketing divorce, the degradation of marriage, and the confusion of gender. The current debate over homosexuality and same-sex marriage is just one example of these36 disturbing trends. But these issues are much larger than mere politics, and as pastor John Piper has reminded us, the results have been disastrous:

Confusion over the meaning of [manhood and womanhood] today is epidemic. The consequence of this confusion is not a free and happy harmony among gender-free persons.... The consequence rather is more divorce, more homosexuality, more sexual abuse, more promiscuity, more social awkwardness, and more emotional distress and suicide that come with the loss of God-given identity. (Piper, "Vision," 33)

The issue of manhood and womanhood strikes at the core of who we are and who God is, which makes a passage like 1 Timothy 2:8-15 sound laughable to the world. However, this passage is essential to the church. God's Word is not out of line, and it is not out of date; it is true and right and good. May we repent of our unbelief and arrogance and gladly submit to God's good design.

To Divisive Men in the Church

To Divisive Men in the Church

1 Timothy 2:8

When we come to this text, we need to remember that it does not stand alone. It is tied to what comes before it in 1 Timothy and, as we'll see in chapter 3 concerning elders and deacons, what comes after. Paul was calling Timothy and the church at Ephesus to pray and to worship in light of the following realities: God's desire for the salvation of all people (2:4), God's deserving of the worship of all people (2:5), and Christ's death for all people (2:6). So we've already seen in chapter 2 who to pray for and what to pray for. Now Paul is telling us who we need to be as we pray—men and women who bring glory to God in the church.

So this text does not stand alone in 1 Timothy, but neither does it stand alone in history. Paul was clearly addressing situations and problems that were evident in the church at Ephesus in the first century, and these instructions don't just come out of nowhere. They were written to a specific people at a specific time, and though we don't have all of the details, some things are clear from this passage. In verse 8 Paul talked about men who were either not leading in prayer at all, or they were praying in the church while fighting with one another. On the other hand, verses 9-12 talk about women who were wearing some distracting things to church, and they were apparently disrupting the teaching and37 leadership of the church in some way. Nevertheless, even though these various instructions to men and women come out of a specific historical context, God's Word still applies to all people at all times. But in order to understand how it applies to all people in all times, we've got to put ourselves in the shoes of the people who were first hearing these words.

Paul mentioned in verse 8 that he wanted men to pray "in every place," which is either a reference to the many homes that the church in Ephesus would meet in, or more broadly, the gatherings of believers across the world. Either way Paul wanted men to pray in all these places, and most importantly he wanted them to pray with purity before God. He spoke of "lifting up holy hands," with the emphasis here not so much on posture as on purity. Two examples from the Psalms speak to the kind of purity God desires. The first one comes from Psalm 24:

Psalm 26 says something similar:

Both of these passages emphasize the need for God's people to be pure. In Psalm 26:6 the psalmist talks about going around the altar, a reference to the temple worship in the Old Testament. When he speaks of washing his hands, he may be alluding to the pools of water the people washed their hands in before they prayed as a picture of the cleansing of their hearts (Ryken, 1 Timothy, 78). We see, then, that purity is essential to prayer.

It makes no sense to hold on to sin in your life while approaching a holy God in prayer. Instead, humbly confess your sin, be cleansed by the mercy of God through Christ, and then pray with purity before God. Though Paul was addressing men in verse 8, all followers of Christ need to ask themselves the following question: Is there a deliberate sin that I am holding on to in my life? If so, confess it now. Don't play games with God. Be pure before Him.

Not only does Paul say that we should pray with purity before God, but we must also pray with peace before others. This is what it means to pray "without anger or argument." Ask yourself another question:38 Is there anything in my life right now that is unreconciled with another brother or sister in Christ? Is there anger, quarreling, or conflict? If so, make it right. Peace with God is artificial if there is not peace with others.

Clearly there were false teachers and all kinds of disputes in the Ephesian church, and the situation was apparently contributing to an attitude of anger and conflict among believers (1 Tim 1:4; 6:4-5). To this situation Paul essentially said, "Don't pray before God when you're not right with your brother." We're reminded of Jesus' words in Matthew 5:23-24:

We have a tendency to rush into corporate worship and bypass our need to honestly confess our sin before God. But a right heart attitude is crucial for prayer and for God-honoring worship in the church. By the grace of Christ, let your hearts be clean before God. Worship and pray with purity before God and peace before others.

To Distracting Women in the Church

To Distracting Women in the Church

1 Timothy 2:9-10

After addressing the men, Paul turns his attention to women who had become a distraction in the church. We can infer that this was the case from his instructions in verse 9. So what exactly was Paul talking about here? Do we need to post security officers at the entrance to the church in order to check for braided hair and costly jewelry? This is another situation where it's helpful to understand the culture into which Paul was speaking, a culture that in many ways is parallel with our own.

Like many ancient cities into which Christianity was born, Ephesus was filled with sexual immorality. It was common for women to use ornate fashion to attract attention to themselves, sometimes in seductive ways. But Paul gave the women in the church at Ephesus an altogether different exhortation: Adorn yourself with modest dress. And consequently, Christian women today should also have a different motivation in their dress than the surrounding culture.39

First, Paul said, do not draw attention to physical beauty. Women should not dress in a way that draws other people's attention, particularly men. Their clothing should be "modest," a word that can have sexual overtones (cf. Ryken, 1 Timothy, 83). Modesty is a huge issue in our own culture, for we are extremely liberal when it comes to what women wear: skin-tight clothes, low necklines, high hemlines, and short shorts are the norm. This kind of clothing falls far short of the biblical ideal of modesty and self-control.

With all due respect to our sisters in Christ, the way some women dress in the church is at best a distraction from honoring God and at worst an attempt to seduce men in the church to sin. Sisters in Christ should not be asking, What makes me look the most attractive? That's the wrong motivation. Instead, the question should be, What can I wear that best demonstrates a humble heart devoted to the worship of God? This biblical and God-centered perspective should affect everything about us, even our clothing.

Along the same lines Paul gave Christian women another exhortation: Do not draw attention to worldly wealth. Part of the point of mentioning the "hairstyles, gold, pearls" and the "expensive apparel" is that these things were highlighting the distinction between the wealthy and the poor in the church. This is of the world! Some women were using their dress to assert their social status, and to these women Paul says not to adorn yourself with that which draws attention to you, particularly when you gather with the church for worship. Remember the One you are competing with for attention—God! You want your worship and your life in every way to draw attention to Him.

In addition to modest outer adornment, women should also adore God through a Christlike demeanor. Don't miss Paul's point here. He's not saying, "Don't adorn yourself with anything." Instead, he's saying, "Adorn yourself with godliness." This is what matters—the fruit of faith in Christ. Paul calls on Christian women to be adorned "with good works, as is proper for women who affirm that they worship God." When you look in the mirror, look for good works. Jesus' words in Matthew 5:16 come to mind: "Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven."

May God raise up women across our churches who refuse to get up any day, especially on Sunday, and think, "What can I wear today that will make me look good to the people around me?" Instead, may our sisters in Christ ask, "How can I dress, and what can I do today that will40 draw the most attention to the glory of my God?" Women in the church should not distract others but instead live to attract others to God.

On the Distinctive Roles of Men and Women in the Church

On the Distinctive Roles of Men and Women in the Church

1 Timothy 2:11-15

Paul continued addressing women in the rest of chapter 2. Again, he was likely addressing specific things that were going on in the church at Ephesus. We know from chapter 4 that teachers at Ephesus were encouraging men and women not to marry and thereby undercutting the beauty of marriage. And we see in chapter 5 that younger women were not getting married but were instead spending all their time gossiping in the church. When we turn to 2 Timothy, we find out that a group of women were giving in to false teaching and living according to worldly passions (2 Tim 3:6). So what we have in Ephesus is a problem, likely a significant problem, with women undercutting godly doctrine, godly behavior, and godly leadership in the church. Keep in mind, however, that Paul was not just picking on women here. He just spent all of chapter 1 railing against men in the church who were teaching false doctrine. The apostle was addressing a variety of issues in this letter.

First Timothy 2:11-15 represents one of the most controversial passages in the New Testament. As we think about how to understand these verses, we need to begin by considering two principles of interpretation, both for this passage and for any passage of Scripture. The first principle is the principle of harmony (Stott, Message, 74), which says that we interpret each particular Scripture in light of all Scripture. This fits with what Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:16, that "all Scripture is inspired by God," or as the NIV translates it, "All Scripture is God-breathed" (emphasis added). Among other things this verse tells us that Scripture has one author, God. And since we know that He does not contradict Himself, whenever we see two passages that seem to contradict each other, we should look at each passage in its context with the conviction that the passages are ultimately unified.

The way we understand the doctrine of the Trinity may provide us with a helpful example of this principle of harmony. In the Lord's Prayer Jesus tells us to pray to the Father, whose name is to "be honored as holy" (Matt 6:9). So the Father is clearly God, fully divine. Then when we get to John 10:29-38, we learn that Jesus is God. Yet, according to Acts 5:3-4, the Holy Spirit is also God. This forces us to ask the41 following question: How can one God be our Father and Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit? We have to understand these truths and these texts in light of one another. There is one God, and He is revealed in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although we don't have one verse that spells this out completely, the full testimony of Scripture makes the doctrine of the Trinity inescapable. Much more could be said about how we arrive at this conclusion, but the point is this: We put all of Scripture together to understand each individual passage of Scripture. This is the principle of harmony.

We also need to understand the principle of history. God has revealed scriptural truth in the context of specific historical and cultural settings. For example, the letter of 1 Timothy was written from Paul to Timothy for the church at Ephesus in the first century, so we have a specific historical and cultural context. This should lead us to ask at least two questions when we approach the text.8

First, what part of the text is cultural expression (which changes)? Once again, a concrete example will help illustrate the point. Let's consider Paul's exhortation to women about their "elaborate hairstyles" (v. 9). If we were ministering to an African tribe where Christian women had preserved traditional hairstyles with intricate designs, what would we say to them? Is this sinful? Paul was not saying that all elaborate hairstyles were always sinful in all cultures; he was saying that elaborate hairstyles in Ephesus violated modesty, decency, and good sense. So if the women in that African tribe were dressing to elicit lust or envy, then we would address that as a moral issue. But if the intricate braiding is neither a sign of wealth nor an attempt to seduce, then the answer is "no"; we're not dealing with sinful behavior. In African culture elaborate hairstyles are actually modest, decent, and sensible. In that culture, elaborate hairstyles do not express the same meaning as they did in the Ephesian culture. This is why understanding the cultural context matters.

We need to ask a second question as we approach the text, namely, what part of the text is central revelation (which never changes)? The specific example Paul gives is "elaborate hairstyles, gold, pearls, or expensive apparel"; the general principle he is commending is "modest42 clothing... decency and good sense." The examples will vary in different cultures, but the principle will remain the same. Clearly God has said to all people of all times in all cultures not to be adorned with things that draw other people's attention for the wrong reasons. That principle always remains true. If something is part of God's central revelation, and not merely a cultural expression, then we submit to His Word.

Let me give one word of caution as we apply this latter principle of interpretation. People have begun irresponsibly to throw all kinds of truths out of the Bible, claiming these truths are just commands about cultural issues. Take the issue of homosexuality as an example. Homosexuality was a problem in the time of the Bible, these people say, because the science wasn't available then to let people know that same-sex desires are natural and thus can't be changed. We know better now, or so we are told. This attitude about Scripture is a dangerous mind-set.

We must be extremely careful not to accommodate our culture by discarding truth that the Bible addresses clearly and repeatedly. Homosexuality, like many other sins, is identified throughout Scripture as part of man's rebellion against God, regardless of one's culture or context (Lev 18:22; Rom 1:26-27). When Paul forbade it, his words were grounded in God's pattern in creation (Gen 1:27-28). This is central revelation, not cultural expression.

Now that we've looked at two general principles for interpreting Scripture, we need to consider how to think about the specific issue of gender. It would take much more space to explain fully the foundation of biblical manhood and womanhood we find in Genesis 1-3, but we should note at least two reminders from those important early chapters. First, God created men and women with equal dignity. That is, male and female are equally valuable before God.9 Therefore, to demean men or women is to sin against God. Paul's instructions in 1 Timothy 2 have nothing to do with the value of men and women; rather, he was talking about the roles of men and women, which leads to the second reminder.

God created men and women with complementary roles. Men and women are different and distinct in their respective roles. Man was created with a role that complements woman, and woman was created with43 a role that complements man. And this is all by God's good design. It is even in the nature of God. Once again, the relationships of the Trinity provide us with a helpful analogy.

The Father, as we saw earlier, is fully God. And the Son is also fully God. Yet the Father and the Son have different roles: the Son submits to the Father (Phil 2:8), and the Father directs the Son (John 14:31). The Son doesn't complain, "Oh, I've got to submit to the Father," and the Father isn't domineering over the Son. There are different roles among the persons of the Trinity, though each person has equal value. And all of this is in beautiful harmony. Similarly, God has designed men and women with equal dignity and complementary roles.

God's good design is seen in the home as husband and wife relate to each other with specific, complementary roles. In Ephesians 5:22-32 Paul instructed wives to submit to their husbands "as to the Lord" (v. 22), and husbands were commanded to love their wives "just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her" (v. 25). In a similar way, 1 Timothy 2:11-15 tells us that there are also complementary roles in the church. Men and women have distinct roles to fulfill when God's people gather together. But remember, Paul's instructions in this passage are not new, for they accord with what we see all the way back in Genesis 1-3. Whether in the home or in the church, God has assigned equal value to men and women, yet with roles that complement each other.

So we've considered two principles and two reminders, and this leads us to two prohibitions in this text. Paul said in 1 Timothy 2:12, "I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man." The first prohibition is that women should not teach men in the church. We know Paul encouraged women to teach in some settings, since Titus 2:3 makes clear that older women should teach younger women. Paul was not making a blanket statement, as if women like Beth Moore were in sin. But what, then, was Paul saying? To understand the apostle's point, it's helpful to connect these two distinct prohibitions—do not teach and do not exercise authority over a man. This perspective is warranted from the broader context of 1 Timothy.

In chapter 3 Paul talked about elders, or pastors, with authority in the church. And these elders express their authority by doing what? By teaching. In 1 Timothy 3:2 we see that the ability to teach is a qualification for an elder, so that you lead the church through the teaching of God's Word. That's the only authority anyone has to lead in the church. We see the same thing in 1 Timothy 5, where Paul said in verse 17, "The44 elders who are good leaders should be considered worthy of an ample honorarium, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching." So the picture in 1 Timothy is clear that elders do two primary things: they lead and they teach. To put it another way, they teach with the authority to lead. Therefore, when Paul said women are not to teach or exercise authority over men (1 Tim 2:12), he was pointing specifically to the two primary responsibilities of elders.

At the very least two things are being prohibited in 1 Timothy 2:11-15. First, based on what we've just discussed above, it is clear that women should not teach as elders (or pastors or overseers) in the church.10 Men who don't have a gift of teaching or who don't meet the qualifications of an elder in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 likewise should not teach as elders in the church. We'll see more about elder qualifications in the next chapter, but Paul was making clear here that even a woman who has a gift of teaching is not intended by God to teach as an elder. Instead, women listen willingly to the biblical instruction of elders. When the text says that they should "learn in silence with full submission" (v. 11), it is not saying that once a woman steps into the gathering of the church, she should go mute. We know that because at other points in the New Testament we see women praying or prophesying when Christians gather (1 Cor 11:5). This text is simply saying that a woman should listen attentively with a teachable spirit to the God-ordained leaders in the church when they are teaching the Word.

Paul and other New Testament authors also made clear that women should teach in various settings of the church in accord with elder instruction. This means that, outside of elder leadership, there are all sorts of teaching possibilities for women. In addition to the command in Titus 2:3 for older women to teach younger women, Scripture mentions a number of instances where women played a significant teaching role. Consider the following:

• Timothy received instruction from his mother and grandmother (2 Tim 1:5; 3:14).
• Pricilla and her husband Aquila both took Apollos aside and "explained the way of God to him more accurately" (Acts 18:26).45

There is also a more general teaching role in the New Testament, applying to both men and women. For example:

• Men and women both make disciples, which involves going, baptizing, and teaching people to obey everything Christ has commanded us (Matt 28:19-20).
• Paul told the whole church—men and women—to be "teaching and admonishing one another" as the word of Christ dwelt in them richly (Col 3:16).
• Paul seemed to allow for women praying and prophesying in public worship, though with proper humility and submission (1 Cor 11).

Women who are gifted at teaching should use their gifts to build up the body of Christ but not in the role of elder. Their teaching should be in accord with, and not contrary to, what the elders of the church teach. Of course, this requirement applies to both men and women who are teaching in the church.

After the prohibition for women not to teach as elders, Paul gave a second and related prohibition in verse 12: Women should not lead as elders/pastors/overseers in the church. Instead of exercising authority, women should "learn quietly with all submissiveness" (v. 11 ESV). By God's grace women submit gladly to the servant leadership of elders. I emphasize the term "servant leadership" because it needs to be emphasized, for elders are intended by God to lead by serving, or more specifically, by serving the body with the Word of Christ. An elder or pastor is intended to love, care for, nurture, and serve the body of Christ by diligently and wisely teaching the Word of Christ. And as this happens, Paul said, women (and other men who are not elders) should gladly submit to such servant leadership. They shouldn't rebel against the leadership of qualified, Christlike men in the church.

Does that mean, then, that a woman can never be in any type of leadership position in the church? I don't think that's what Paul was saying at all. Based on the rest of the New Testament, women should lead in various positions of the church under the authority of elder leadership. In other words, when they submit to elders, women are free to lead in a variety of different positions. They are intended by God to thrive in various ministries across the church.

When you look throughout the New Testament, you see women teaching, helping, serving, equipping, and spreading the gospel. As46 John Piper has said, "The fields of opportunity are endless... for the entire church to be mobilized in ministry, male and female. Nobody is to be at home watching soaps and reruns while the world burns. God intends to equip and mobilize [all] the saints [under the leadership of] a company of qualified men who take primary responsibility for leadership and teaching in the church" (Piper, "Freedom to Minister"). Don't tell Lottie Moon or Amy Carmichael or Elisabeth Elliot or Kay Arthur that they are sidelined in the church. These women have embraced exactly what Scripture has outlined, and they have thrived for the glory of God through ministering in the church.

Some might ask, "Apart from an elder, are there any other positions a woman should not lead in? What about a small group? What about teaching theology in a class or at a seminary?" There are so many different scenarios and possibilities, each of which I believe need to be approached by the elders of the church with care and consideration. However, I think there are at least two questions that should guide elders on these issues.

First, As a woman teaches or leads, is she reflecting God's pattern in Scripture? We see women doing many different things in the New Testament, and where we see these things happening in healthy ways in the early church, we can be encouraged to see the same things happening in the contemporary church. Just as you see older women commanded to teach younger women in the New Testament church (Titus 2:3-4), so that needs to happen in our churches today. You also see women teaching children, so it is good for us to foster teaching and leadership roles for women among children. (However, please don't forget that our children also need to see prominent men leading them in the church as well!) This leads us to the second question.

As a woman teaches or leads, is she reinforcing God's priorities in the home? We want to be careful not to undercut God's design in the home with the way we lead in the church. Especially in our day, we want to display godly, humble, loving, and sacrificial leadership by men in the church in a way that models that kind of leadership for men in their homes. And we also want to display glad, willing, godly submission of women in the church that models that kind of life for women in their homes. When we gather as God's people, we should point one another toward biblical faithfulness on these issues of gender.

To be clear, I'm not saying these two questions make everything easy or that all of the answers become evident. However, I do believe these47 questions are helpful in considering what teaching or leadership roles a woman should have. Scripture is clear on the prohibitions against teaching and leading as an elder; beyond this it's not quite as clear. So we need to be clear where Scripture is clear, and we need to be wise where Scripture is not as clear.

Next, I want to consider two reasons from Scripture for understanding these verses in 1 Timothy in this way. First, God's design in creation: God gives authority to man. As Paul says in verse 13 of our passage, "Adam was created first, then Eve." This statement tells us that what Paul is saying here is not just cultural expression—this is central revelation. The basis for what Paul says goes all the way back to Genesis 1-2 when God created man before woman, a reality that undergirds the headship of man. Paul is not basing his view merely on human opinion, which changes, but on divine revelation, which never changes.

After pointing to God's design in creation, he then points to the second reason for his teaching about gender roles: Satan's distortion of creation: man abdicates authority and woman assumes it. When Paul said in verse 14 that it was the woman and not the man who was deceived, he was not saying women shouldn't lead because they're more easily duped. No, he was pointing back again to the picture of sin entering the world in Genesis 3, when Satan subverted God's design by approaching Eve instead of Adam, thereby undercutting Adam's responsibility as the leader of his home. In turn Adam sat back and did nothing, and God's design was distorted. In short, sin entered the world when man abdicated his God-given responsibility to lead. Man didn't step up with godly, gracious leadership. Paul used this truth to say to the church that God's design in the home and in the church is good. God's design for qualified men to lead as elders is good, just as God's design for godly men to lead as husbands is good.

All of this leads to one of Paul's most difficult statements in 1 Timothy 2:15: "But she will be saved through childbearing, if she continues in faith, love, and holiness, with good judgment." What does that mean? Two things we don't know for sure.

First, Is 1 Timothy 2:15 talking about salvation through the offspring of Eve? Some commentators have said that this verse is a deliberate reference to the fact that, even though the woman ate the fruit first and sin entered the world through her, the promise remains that the Savior would enter the world through her. According to Genesis 3:15, a child would be born through Eve's line that would one day48 trample the serpent. John Stott espouses this view when he writes the following:

Earlier in this chapter the one mediator between God and men has been identified as the man Christ Jesus, who of course became a human being by being born of a woman. Further, in the context of Paul's references to the creation and fall, recalling Genesis 2 and 3, a further reference to the coming redemption through the woman's seed, recalling Genesis 3:15, would be most apt. The serpent had deceived her; her posterity would defeat him.

So then, even if certain roles are not open to women, and even if they are tempted to resent their position, they and we must never forget what we [all] owe to a woman. If Mary had not given birth to the Christ child, there would have been no salvation for anybody. No greater honor has ever been given to woman than in the calling of Mary to be the mother of the Savior of the world. (Stott, Message, 87-88)

Stott gives us one possible interpretation. A second question leads to an alternate interpretation: Is 1 Timothy 2:15 talking about the significance of women nurturing children? In light of the ways women's roles in the home, in marriage, and in bearing children were being undercut by false teachers, could it be that Paul was simply emphasizing the one facet that, without question, only women can do—bear children? A culture can do everything possible to minimize the differences between males and females, but this distinction still remains. No guys are giving birth. Paul was possibly saying that God has created women uniquely, and their responsibilities are uniquely good in the church, in marriage, and in bearing children. All of this should be embraced in faith and love and holiness. In other words, women who are truly followers of Christ must and will persevere in obedience to God's will (though never perfectly) as they anticipate full and final salvation. These are the two most plausible interpretations.

This passage does not mean a woman must bear a child in order to be saved. If Paul believed that, he would not encourage some women to stay single, as he did in 1 Corinthians 7. He'd say, "Get married and have a kid... fast. Your eternity depends on it!" There are a lot of things we know Paul was not saying and some difficult questions about what he was saying; however, two things we do know for sure. First, women are49 sanctified as they glorify God in the distinct roles and responsibilities He has entrusted to them. There is meaning and significance behind a woman's gender, so sisters in Christ should be working out their salvation, not as generic persons but as women of God with inherent beauty and value as well as distinct giftings and opportunities. Sisters in Christ should thrive in their roles as wives, mothers, and women of God.

Finally, the second thing we know for sure is that women are saved not through the birth of a child but through the death of Christ. For that matter, women and men are saved through the death of Christ. Sin has disordered this world we live in, and Satan has distorted God's design for our manhood, our womanhood, our marriages, our families, the church, and the culture. But Christ has come, and He has conquered sin and trampled the Devil. In Christ we can all thrive. He died to make us the men and women God created us to be. Will you submit to God's good design?

Reflect and Discuss