“But she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with good sense.”
I wrote in my last blog post that those verses were the most difficult in 1 Timothy for me. I should have clarified that this one goes with it! This is one of those verses that is not only difficult for me to understand, it is just plain difficult! It is really a part of the whole passage of verses ten through fifteen, so I will summarize at the end. I have read several possible interpretations for this verse, which is why it is getting its own post.
First, let’s put this verse in the context of the wider passage so that the pronouns will make sense. “For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed. But she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with good sense.” It seems to me that the “she” is referring to Eve, and the “they” to Adam and Eve. But is Eve representative of women and Adam and Eve of the human race? As I read the commentaries, one thing became clear-the meaning here is unclear! There are two reasonable possibilities. I will explain each one.
The first, and I think this is a very reasonable and important one, is that Jesus, our Savior, was born of a woman. We see the first hint of this when God tells the serpent, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15). Paul puts it this way in Galatians 4:4-5. “When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
The second possibility, and it is also reasonable, is that Paul is saying that women will be preserved in maintaining their role in the family. Both Paul and Peter warned women to guard against external adornments, expensive apparel, but to instead be more concerned with inward beauty, and to concentrate on good works as is proper for those who profess belief in God. Did Paul have to warn them because of the false teachers he wrote about earlier? Were these women adopting the customs of the culture around them? John Barry writes in the Faithlife Study Bible, “These women may have been influenced by new cultural trends about women and the false teachers’ negative views on marriage… If these factors are in view, Paul’s reference to childbirth may represent a woman’s acceptance of what was considered her proper role within the household unit.”
Women are being fed a lie today. They are being told that a career is the way to be fulfilled. They are putting off marriage, putting off having children. According to recent data, in 2024, fewer U.S. adults are married compared to previous decades, and people are marrying later in life. And when women delay having children, they tend to have fewer children. Today, we are in a population decline, with the fertility rate at 1.6 births per woman, a decline that has been ongoing for several years. Women are told that having a career will bring them more satisfaction than having a family. But we are learning that this is not true. The Breakpoint podcast for June 25th had this to say. “The narrative that children are a matter of choice is often couched in promises of freedom and autonomy. But like the false narrative of overpopulation, this one has also proved to be flatly wrong. In the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey for 2022, almost 40% of married women with children described themselves as “very happy,” a number significantly higher than any other group of women.”
In summary, Christian women should not stress external beauty, according to world standards, but should exemplify a different way. They should be known for their good works. They should not overstep the boundaries in which God has placed them. Women are allowed to teach, just not have the position of authority over a man in the church. Lastly, while there is some confusion over the last part of the passage, we know that the family is God’s design. Andreas J. Köstenberger writes, “Paul’s teaching shouldn’t be misconstrued as confining a woman to the home; it aims at delineating women’s proper focus, not exclusive sphere of involvement. What’s more, if ‘childbearing’ is an idiom for a woman’s focus on her family and her home, v. 15 is more directly applicable to single women as well.”
I only briefly touched on this passage. There is so much more that can be said. I know it is a hot button issue now, especially with feminism and women’s rights. But as a Christian, I am called put my rights aside and put Christ first. And then I put others ahead of myself. My life should look different. My marriage should look different. We are called to love one another. Jesus said that the world would know us by our love for each other. This starts in our homes.
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 