1 Timothy 2:14 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

1 Timothy 2:14

Comments

Then we get a second reason why Paul does not allow a woman to teach. ‘And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.’ When Satan tempted our first parents, he suggested to Eve that God didn't mean what he said, that they should not be limited by God’s restriction, and that they were being deprived of a tremendous benefit. Adam didn't fall for that, but Eve did. Of course, Adam committed what you may think is a greater sin. He wasn't deceived, but he went along with it anyway and failed to exercise any leadership. He fell, knowing full well that the devil was misleading them. So his sin was even worse in a way. Nevertheless, historically, Eve sinned first and she was taken in by the devil. ‘Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children’ (Genesis 3:16). There is going to be sorrow in conception and childbirth. And then we read, ‘and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.’ In the Garden of Eden, by the very order of their creation, Adam was to be the leader and Eve the follower. But after the fall this arrangement, as a punishment, was greatly strengthened. Your reliance will be on your husband, and he will rule, govern, and teach you, says the Lord. So it is not only in the creation law, but it is in the judgment after the fall where God increases this leadership of the man over the woman. The man was given his punishment also: ‘Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.’ Those punishments had a purpose: to remind the human race of the fall. Mankind is now alienated from God and under condemnation and needs salvation. We read here that Eve was deceived. That doesn't mean to say that she was gullible or foolish. Our first parents were highly intelligent; there is no question about that. Eve would have completely seen through what the tempter the enemy was saying. She was deceived not because she was gullible, but because she really thought that if she had the knowledge of good and evil, she would have a real advantage. She believed she was being deprived of something; God was holding something back. God was not after all a good God. And while she could see quite well the subtlety of the devil, she chose to believe him. She chose to go along with it because she wanted something for herself.

Application

This is how sin works. When we sin it's not because we are innocently deceived in the sense we do not know we are being tempted. The deception takes place at a different level. We are deceived into thinking that sin offers us some real advantage, that obedience to God is not necessary, and that God is depriving us of something advantageous. We think we can go against God's order and get away with it. Eve was deceived in that sense. She thought she could get away with breaching the order of God, and she wilfully believed the lie, while fully knowing it was a lie. In a sense, as the old commentators like to put it, Eve designed a husband to her liking. She was given Adam, but in that moment she chose to redesign him. She didn't like him as he was; she wanted a husband who knew both good and evil, who was bigger and more important and more significant. How could you be more important and more significant than Adam, who was given such authority over the creation of God, who had such wisdom and insight and knowledge? She wanted something for herself, and she wanted it for the pair of them. She chose that he would become a fallen creature. It has been said that in Adam you are seeing the original weak husband. Eve did the leading, and he did the following. She determined the thing, and he went along with it. He was fully responsible no doubt; he was fully persuaded also. In the Garden of Eden you see the divine order turned completely upside down, and Eve designs a new life for both of them. What does this say about the strengths and weaknesses of men and women as God has designed them? He has made the woman to be strong in some areas, and not so strong in others. Essentially and generally speaking, the woman is made to follow, and the man is made to lead. He is made to initiate and she is made to fulfil and complete and see things through. He is made to invent, and she is made to perfect. There is a distribution of capacities and roles and abilities.

One of the great tragedies with the fall of the human race was that God's order was breached. People want to breach God's order today. They become foolish, and they will not accept God's order, and there are some women who will not accept it. They misunderstand it and they think it is an affront to their dignity. They want to rule and to govern, and so they object to this. Don't forget that in the Garden of Eden the fall came about, among other things, because God's order was breached. Eve led Adam, even though she was designed to follow. She led. She was designed to confer with her husband and to follow, but she didn't.

Questions

Does it mean that Eve was less discerning? Some people say this. ‘There it is,’ they say, ‘a woman cannot be a teacher, because she hasn’t been given discernment. She fell first.’ No, it doesn't suggest that. If Eve fell because she lacked discernment, then the fall is God's fault, because he made her with a susceptibility, with an imperfection, with a weakness, and she couldn't help it. That is an entirely wrong understanding of what happened. No, Eve wasn't less discerning than Adam. She was responsible, and she believed the devil's lie, and she disobeyed, and she wanted the fruit; it was her fault. But the point is that she fell first, so she got one punishment; Adam fell next, and he got another punishment.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

1 Timothy 2:14 Commentary and Bible Study