1 Timothy 2:15

but she shall be saved through her childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety.

All kinds of fanciful interpretations of this verse have been advocated; but, in all probability, "child-bearing" is a synecdoche for "the entire status of women in their relationship to God and men." Dummelow was correct in seeing the meaning thus: "The woman shall be saved by keeping simply and faithfully to her allotted sphere as wife and mother."[26] There is no reference to the birth of Christ, nor to any promise of salvation based solely upon the biological function of child-bearing.

ON THE DECEIVABLENESS OF WOMEN

It is a gross mistake to view the natural capacity of women for being deceived as in any manner whatever a reflection upon womankind. It is positively her most adorable characteristic. Fully half the marriages on earth would never have been contracted, except for this utterly feminine and absolutely delightful quality of being easily deceived.

There is no use for anyone to deny this, because women see it clearly enough in their sisters, if not in themselves; and every woman who has ever tried to dissuade a love-struck daughter from marrying "the son of Ahab" is painfully and tragically aware of it. But the human race would be bankrupt without such a trait in women, an absence that would take all the romance out of life!

But are there not historical examples of strong-willed, powerful women, impossible to deceive, who now and again have held the rod of empire or the affairs of state with great ability? Yes indeed! But exceptions do not make the rule. Wherever such leadership exists in women, it is still a masculine trait; and wherever the opposite of it appears in men, it remains a feminine trait. Nature produces a two-headed calf now and then, but that is not the rule.

And, are there NEVER any occasions where women should, through circumstances, take the lead! Indeed there are. In 1918, before this writer became a Christian, he attended a country church made up, in the forced absence of all the men, entirely of women; and Miss Anna Lou Estes Black, the local school teacher, presided at the Lord's table, led the singing, dismissed the congregation and brought the Sunday lesson, usually by reading from the Bible.

The glory of women is to achieve their ends without being charged with leadership and authority; and those precious angels called women who are willing to trade their natural, God-given status for one of authority and leadership are inevitably short-changed in the transaction. Apostolic wisdom is behind the admonition of this chapter, and it should be earnestly heeded by all.