First I want to establish from another book of the Bible what Gods perfect plan was for man and woman from Ephesians chapter 5.
Verses 22-24 say, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing." Women are to set an example of the churches obedience to Christ.
Verses 25-27 say, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Men are to love their wives as Christ loves the church, willing to die for her, to keep her pure, and protect her as something set aside for a special purpose.
Verses 28-29 say, "So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:" It is foolish for a man to hurt his wife because they are one flesh and it would be the same as hurting himself.
This was Gods perfect plan for marriage, verse 33, "Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband."
1 Timothy 2 is dealing with a different issue all together. The issue of what man did to God perfect plan. If you read the story in Genesis 3 of the fall of man, it clears up a lot of the confusion about 1 Timothy 2:9-15. The key verse to look at is verse 14. Verse 13 states the first reason for the wife's submission, the order God created. Then verse 14 says this, "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression."
I think most people read this wrong. It does not mean that, because the woman was deceived she was the only one in transgression. That wouldn't make much sense because they were both cursed and banished from the garden. What this verse means is that Eve was deceived into the transgression while Adam was not deceived. He knew full well the serpent was lying and he did absolutely nothing to warn his wife whom he was supposed to protect. If you read the curses in Genesis, you will see it is clear whose back God placed most of the responsibility of sin on.
First Eve's curse, Genesis 3:16, "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." This was definitely a curse. Especially when you consider how much more dangerous childbirth probably was in those days. The last part is very much still going on today. It was even one of the arguments in the other thread. Maybe the woman could do it better. God says here that she is going to desire to lead but instead she is going to have to watch her husband muck it up. You see the word used here is not the loving role of leadership God set up but the word rule. That's a difficult curse as well, but since this will undoubtedly cause strife between men and women for generations to come it is more a shared curse if you ask me.
But now let's look at Adams curse. Genesis 3:17-19, "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" Wow, not only does he curse Adam for two extra verses but the tone even seems much more stern. You can almost hear His voice growing louder with each verse. It as as if he is telling Adam (man) that because he just sat by and let his wife be deceived, from now until the end of this age, he will be held partially responsible for all her failings.
Now do you want to switch places with him ladies?
Saturday, March 10, 2007
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