1 Timothy 2:15

Perhaps the best explanation of this difficult verse is this. God promised women a life of fulfillment as mothers in the home, provided they walk with the Lord, rather than as teachers and leaders in the church.

"The meaning of sozo [to save] in this passage is once again something like ’spiritual health,’ a full and meaningful life. This fits the context quite well. Paul has just excluded women from positions of teaching authority in the church (1 Timothy 2:9-14). What then is their primary destiny? They will find life through fulfilling their role as a mother IF they continue in faith, love, and holiness with propriety. A salvation which comes only to mothers who persist in faithful service is not the faith alone salvation taught elsewhere." [Note: Dillow, p. 126. Cf. Bailey, p. 357.]

I believe this interpretation has fewer problems than the others. It balances Paul’s argument in this section (1 Timothy 2:8-15) and stays on the subject rather than switching to a discussion of a subject farther removed from the context. Some of these possible subjects are how women experience eternal salvation, or how they experience physical deliverance when giving birth, or how they experience spiritual deliverance from moral corruption. Some interpreters have even suggested that Paul was alluding to the saving effect of Jesus Christ’s birth. [Note: E.g., Knight, pp. 146-48.] Paul also may have wanted his female readers, who seem to have been under the influence of feministic teaching, to value the privilege of bearing and rearing children. [Note: Towner, The Letters . . ., p. 235; Winter, pp. 109-12.]

One significant problem with the view I prefer is this. If this is the true interpretation, can a woman who does not bear children find fulfillment in life? I believe Paul would have responded that certainly a single woman or a married woman who is not a mother can find fulfillment as a woman of God. However usually women find their greatest fulfillment as mothers. Perhaps we underestimate home influence and overestimate pulpit influence (cf. 2 Timothy 1:5). An old saying goes, "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." I believe Paul was again assuming a typical situation (cf. 1 Timothy 2:11-12): most women bear children. Even though a woman may not be able to bear physical children she may have spiritual children and so find great fulfillment (cf. 1 Timothy 1:2; 1 Timothy 5:10-11; 1 Timothy 5:14). Of course every human being-male or female, married or single-finds his or her greatest fulfillment in life through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. [Note: See Douglas J. Moo, "1 Timothy 2:11-15: Meaning and Significance," Trinity Journal 1NS:1 (Spring 1980):62-83; and Jack Buckley, "Paul, Women, and the Church: How fifteen modern interpreters understand five key passages," Eternity, December 1980, pp. 30-35.]

"Paul employed the term ’childbirth’ as a synecdoche for that part of the woman’s work that describes the whole." [Note: Lea, p. 102.]

A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole or the whole stands for a part.

Paul balanced what women should not do with what they can do. In popular presentations of what the Bible teaches about women’s ministries this balance is frequently absent. After the presentation is over, women often leave feeling that they can do either anything or nothing depending on the presentation. One must be careful to maintain balance in the exposition of this subject, as Paul did.

To summarize, I believe Paul exhorted the males in the "household of God" (i.e., the local church, 1 Timothy 3:15) to function as mediators between Jesus Christ, humankind’s mediator with God, and His people. They should do this by praying, teaching, and leading the church. The women should concentrate on facilitating godliness in the church family as well as in their homes by learning, by cultivating good works, and by living godly lives. This is the hierarchical view of the passage. The egalitarian view is that there is nothing in this passage that limits the role of women in the church. [Note: See Alan Padgett, "Wealthy Women at Ephesus," Interpretation 41:1 (January 1987):19-31, for this view. Ronald W. Pierce, "Evangelicals and Gender Roles in the 1990s: 1 Timothy 2:8-15: A Test Case," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 36:3 (September 1993):343-55, gave reasons he changed from the hierarchical to the egalitarian view.]

Women who try to minister in traditionally male roles face difficulty because of psychological factors involving themselves and those to whom they seek to minister. [Note: See Andrew D. Lester, "Some Observations on the Psychological Effects of Women in Ministry," Review and Expositor 83:1 (Winter 1986):63-70.]