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Understanding 1 Timothy 2:15 – “She will be Saved through Childbearing”
One of the most perplexing verses in the New Testament is 1 Timothy 2:15, “Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control” (ESV). Although this is a difficult text to understand, the application of this text is important for our understanding of the roles of men and women. There are a variety of questions that arise from this text about the nature of salvation and even how childbearing fits into the equation. I address the most important of these questions as follows. Who is the “she” in verse 15? The immediate context of 1 Tim 2:11-12 demonstrates Paul is speaking about the role of women in general. Paul commands that women are to “learn quietly,” (v. 11) and to refrain from teaching or exercising authority over men (v. 12). As support for this command, Paul refers to the history of Adam…
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A Tale of Two Mothers and Two Mindsets
Different mothers have different mindsets. Last week my wife (who herself mothers two children quite well) directed me to an article on parenting in the Washington Post. In the article, a mother was confronted by her 4th grade daughter for writing about her and posting her pictures all over the internet for her articles. As I read through the article, I was struck by the thought process of the mother. She acknowledges that she had to intentionally fight against the peer pressure of mothers to sacrifice for their kids. She knows that most mothers or fathers in her position stop writing about their kids to protect their privacy and allow them to be their own individual. But she says in the article, “I respect that approach and understand why it works for many writers, but it’s not a promise I can make. … Promising not to write about her anymore…