Reflections on 1 Timothy 2:8-10

" I desire then that in every place the men should pray lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pears or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness-with good works."

Another one of Paul's hard passages. We'll get to the hard part soon. It's so easy to just dismiss this one as cultural, but I'm convinced that we can't simply push this one aside. Why? Because of the verses that come just before this passage: "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time..." (5-6). The way we conduct ourselves, our relationships with other people, I am convinced have a significant impact on the spreading of the gospel. Not only that, but we need the gospel in how we conduct ourselves and in how we relate to other people. The reality of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest picture of love that the world has ever known, but most of the world doesn't know it.

So our prayers from verse 1 and all that is involved in that are pleasing in the sight of God who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (4). Therefore or As a result of these things, men should pray (8)

Likewise, women should adorn themselves. What does adorning ourselves have to do with prayer? Well, I think Paul expects us to pray as well. But he's focused on our manner of doing so. Men are to pray without anger and quarreling. In this manner of conduct, they show their trust in God. Women adorn themselves in respectable or suitably attractive apparel, with modesty and self-control (9).

Modesty. People have been talking about it for 2,000 years. In my research on the church fathers these days, I'm constantly coming across things written by the church fathers on modesty and women's clothing. Nothing much has changed. It's still an issue because men still have a problem with lust, and women still strongly desire attraction and approval from the opposite sex. What Paul has to say here is still important today.

We are to adorn ourselves as women modestly, but also with self-control. This word here means basically a soundness of mind, a command over the passions and desires, ability to act sensibly, to use sound and good judgment.

All of these things come from a woman who has her heart set on God. He is her desire. She trusts in him. Therefore, she is not moved by the need to seek out a false kind of approval from men by the way she dresses, and she doesn't freak out when she's not getting what she wants. She is content with her place in life: she's a woman who is content with her God who will provide for all her needs. That's the kind of woman I want to be and still so often fall short of.