Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Timothy 1-4.

In his letter to Timothy Paul urges us to pray and intercede for all people, especially for kings and those in positions of authority.  In addition, we should thank God for these people, even those we think are doing a bad job and/or persecuting Christians.  Doing so pleases God, who desires that everyone come to know the Truth and be saved.  The Truth which God wants everyone to know is that He is One and that Christ is the only mediator which anyone needs between God and man.  We should all pray without acting or dressing provocatively.  We should not seek to draw attention to ourselves, but rather should act so as to bring glory to God.  We should not allow anger to control our actions, nor should we dress to inspire lust.  When we do either of these things we are trying to make ourselves the center of attention.

Paul transitions from speaking about prayer and keeping the focus on God to writing about the qualifications for leadership in the Church.  He begins that transition by saying that a woman should learn in quietness and submission.  Followed by saying that he does not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man.  However, the translators’ notes suggest that “woman” could be translated as “wife” and that the “man” she should not teach or have authority over is her husband.  Such an interpretation would put this passage into the same context as what Paul wrote in Ephesians 5 where he told wives to submit to their husbands and husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church.  Christ loved the Church so much that He sacrificed Himself for it.  Similarly, a husband should sacrifice himself for his wife.

Starting from there, where Paul says that a wife should not be put into authority over her husband, he goes on to lay out the qualifications for leadership in the Church.  Paul tells us that a Church leader should be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, and hospitable.  He goes on to write that women leaders in the Church should be temperate and worthy of respect.  Really, all Paul says here is that those chosen for leadership positions in the Church should embody those characteristics which we should all strive to exhibit.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.