Berean Break
May 11, 2003 broadcast
Gods Women
by George Sinkie
Good
morning and welcome to this Berean Break. My name is George
Sinkie and I especially want to welcome each of the Moms to todays
program and wish you a Happy Mothers Day. I am so
glad that you are making this time together studying the word
of God a part of this day. I believe that says a lot about
the type of woman that you are and that you desire to become
in this world. Lets have a word of prayer,
Great God in heaven, We thank
You for this day in our lives, And for the many blessings that
You have given to us. We thank You for our mothers, through
whom we have life in this physical world. We pray that
You bless each of the moms today, Help them, as well as all of
us, to do Your will. Be with us now as we look into Your
word, Help us to understand Your will, And apply it into our
lives. In Jesus Name, we pray !! AMEN !!
Today I want to consider some of
Gods will for women, as revealed to us through the writings
of Paul. On todays program we are only going to be
looking at the instructions given in 1 Timothy and Titus. Throughout
the New Testament there are instructions given that apply to
men and women alike. But there are also some teachings
that apply to just women and others that apply to just men. First
of all lets look at 1 Timothy 2:9-10
9 Likewise, I want women
to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly,
not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments;
10 but rather by means
of good works, as befits women making a claim to godliness.
The
word that Paul uses here to say adorn, comes from
the root Greek word [dc:
cosmos]. This is the word
that we translate world. It has to do with
the cosmetic or outside appearance of something, in this case
the Christian woman. In referring to a person this word
usually means, orderly, well-behaved, regular, discreet,
or quiet. This woman is to clothe herself in a certain
way. Her clothing is to be proper. What makes clothing
proper? Paul goes on here to describe this clothing in
two different ways. First it is modest. One of the
most interesting descriptions of modest I have heard is, with
respect for others. The godly woman will consider
how what she wears effects other people. The second description
is discreetly. This has to do with having soberness
or serious thought. This term is used also in Acts 26:25
25 But Paul said, I
am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I utter words
of sober truth.
This too shows that the woman
will consider others when she selects the clothes that she wears.
In our world today sex is used to sell everything from
shampoo to cars to breakfast cereal. When a woman dresses
in the ungodly manner of the world, she is not allowing Christ
to be manifested in her life.
Paul goes on and says, not with braided hair
and gold or pearls or costly garments.
Paul here is not condemning these things but has the same
meaning as what Peter says in 1 Peter 3:3
3 And let not your adornment
be merely external braiding the hair, and wearing
gold jewelry, or putting on dresses;
Both Paul and Peter are using
the style of writing that is called an ellipsis. In the
NASB, in 1 Peter 3:3, the word merely is in italics.
That means that it is not in the original Greek, but it
is supplied to give the sense or meaning of the Greek. Sometimes
the translators did this, as in 1 Peter, and sometimes they did
not, as in 1 Timothy 2:9. There are other ellipsis used
in the Bible. Consider 1 Timothy 5:23, note that the word
exclusively is in italics,
23 No longer drink water
exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your
stomach and your frequent ailments.
Paul is not forbidding Timothy
from ever drinking water again, but simply not to drink only
water. Another place where Paul uses an ellipsis is in
1 Corinthians 1:17
17 For Christ did not send
me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of
speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void.
Paul doesnt mean that Christ
did not want him to immerse people, because then Paul could never
bring anyone into the kingdom of God. But neither was Paul
sent only to baptize. Paul was to preach the gospel and
those who hear the gospel needed to decide whether to believe
it and be immersed so they could be saved or reject it and continue
in their lost state.
Getting back to the womans
dress, it is not the external things that make a woman beautiful.
All the make-up, and jewelry, and fancy hairdos, and clothes
in the world will not make an ugly woman beautiful. It
is whats on the inside that makes a woman beautiful, from
the Christian point of view. A friend of mine was asked
one time if he could love an ugly woman and his reply was, No,
not even if she looked like Elle McPherson, (a Super-model).
You see the old saying beauty is only skin deep
is a lie by Satan, because true beauty starts in the heart. So
ladies, braid your hair if you want to, wear gold and pearls
if you want to, and put on a beautiful dress if you choose to,as
long as they are modest and discreet, but never, ever, forget
to be beautiful on the inside by submitting to the will of God.
This is what Paul points out in
verse 10. The woman who is making a claim to godliness,
needs to do good works. The only way to determine what
is a good work is to search the standard, which is the Bible,
and see what God says about that work.
Lets continue on now looking
at Gods instruction for women. Look at what Paul
writes in 1 Timothy 2:11-12
11 Let a woman quietly receive
instruction with entire submissiveness.
12
But I
do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man,
but to remain quiet.
We have considered this verse
in our program dealing with Woman Pastors, but it
applies here as well. This verse shows the relationship
that God wants between men and women in teaching. When
dealing in a religious situation the man is to be the authority
and the woman is to be submissive. This is not an old-fashioned,
out-dated concept, it is the will of God. When considering
the wives of those who are elders and deacons, Paul writes in
1 Timothy 3:11
11 Women must likewise be
dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in
all things.
First of all here women are to
be dignified, That means that they are to be worthy of respect
or honor. They become worthy of this because of the type
of life that they have lived which as we see in the end of this
verse is faithful in all things.
Second they are to not be a malicious
gossip. Now we should not take that to mean that it is
OK to be a gossip, just not a malicious gossip. Gossips
here comes from the same Greek word that is sometimes translated
as devil. Some English translations use the
word slanderer. The greatest accuser in the world is Satan
and this is teaching that Gods woman is not to be like
Satan. One of the biggest mistakes that most people make
concerning gossip, is that they think that gossip has to be a
lie about someone. This is not always the case. If
what is said tears down another person rather than builds them
up then it is gossip. The last thing mentioned here is
that women should be temperate. The root of this word indicates
being free from the influence of intoxicants, it is used in conjunction
with the idea of watchfulness.
Now lets move on a to Pauls
letter to Titus and see why the Christian woman is to have these
qualities in her life. Look at Titus 2:3-5
3 Older women likewise
are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips,
nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good,
4 that
they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to
love their children,
5 to
be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their
own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored.
This shows the ongoing cycle
of the teaching that women are to do to other women. Some
of the points that Paul makes here concerning the older women,
we have already looked at from Timothy, except that now she is
to be teaching the younger women. In addition to what we
have looked at there are also some new points that she is to
be teaching. First of all they are to love
their husbands and their children. Now we might think that
this means that they are to take the love that they have for
them and make it a deeper more enduring love. But the word
for love here is phileo, not agape. Phileo is the Greek
word for friendship type of love, more closely associated with
our English word like. You see in the first
century, in Crete, most women did not love their husbands, they
went from one man to the next. And they usually sold their
children when they reached about the age of nine.
They are also to be sensible, which
shows that they were to think before they acted. They were
to be pure in all aspects of their lives. The instruction
here to be workers at home has really been misapplied. This
is not a prohibition from women working outside the home, but
an encouragement for the wives to keep their home in order as
well. There are times today when it is necessary for both
parents to work outside the home to make ends meet, but far too
often it is done to meet the materialistic desires at the expense
of keeping the home.
The godly woman is also to be kind.
This word is a form of the Greek word agape. This
is the highest type of love that is self-sacrificing in nature.
It is a Love that is in action. Sometimes it is translated
good and is used as a modifier to the workers at home, in other
words good homemakers.
The final thing mentioned is that
the older women are to teach the younger women to be subject
to their own husband. Paul has already given this instruction
back in 1 Timothy, but here it is dealing with the order that
is to be in the Christian home.
All of these instructions are designed
for one purpose. That purpose is not to beat the woman
down and make her a slave, but to lift her up and to show her
the type of woman God wants her to be. Again to all the
women, Happy Mothers Day! I hope that you will apply
these teachings from the word of God into your life and submit
entirely to the will of God.
|