Sin Knows No Gender

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 4, 1994.

Sermon transcript

This morning our scripture reading begins in Psalm 45, and I am reading here from verse 9. We should give our undivided attention to the reading of God’s holy word. Psalm 45, verse 9. “‘King’s daughters were among thy honorable women. Upon thy right hand did stand the Queen in gold of Ophir.

Hearken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear. Forgive us, O thine own people, and thy father’s So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy lord, and worship thou him. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift. Even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favor. The king’s daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is of rock gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework The virgins, her companions, that follow her, shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought. They shall enter into the king’s palace.

Instead of thy father shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever.” I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.

And like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. Yet the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man. but to be in silence, for Adam was first formed, then used, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.”

We have come this morning to a detailed exposition of 1 Timothy 2, verses 9-15, in our extensive series of messages entitled, a series that has brought us to the more finely tuned topic of 1 Timothy, namely, Who Shall Teach? Now, please understand, it is not my purpose this morning to rehash old messages. It is not my purpose to go over my critique of the modern feminist movement as it has had increasing profound impact upon the Church of our time, nor is my purpose this morning specifically to deal with the narrow question of women’s ordination into the standing offices of the Church. I have dealt with those matters before in sermons earlier this year. In fact, I preached two sermons on those subjects on April 24th, and if you are interested, In hearing what I had to say on those matters, I encourage you to speak to Danny Olinger, and he will be happy to supply you with tape that contains those messages.

But this morning, as I said, we are beginning a detailed exposition of 1 Timothy 2, the latter verses that pertain specifically to women in the Church. I trust to get beyond much of the cultural clutter that is abroad today, and hopefully all of the supercharged, inflammatory rhetoric that has hindered responsible treatment of these verses.

To begin with, we must account for Paul’s opening word in that ninth verse. We must account For the opening word in that ninth verse, it is a conjunction. The King James Version renders that conjunction in the rather elaborate and extensive clause, in like manner also. In like manner also.

The New American Standard has compressed things a bit with its translation. and offers up but one word, likewise, likewise, I want women to adorn themselves, etc. But the New International Version, if you have that in front of you, is totally inadequate in its translation. It offers up its rendering with the simple word, also.

I also want women thereby completely missing the force of Paul’s meaning. The NIV translation leaves us with the idea that Paul intends nothing more here than a mere sequence, a mere listing of items, a listing of considerations, first this, then that. Now, obviously, verse 8, where Paul spoke directly to the men of the Church, is linked with verse 9, where he is speaking directly to the women. But the NIV translation supplies us simply with the sense that Paul, having said something to the men, now has something to say to the women. You will note, however, As both the King James and the New American Standard bring out, Paul’s meaning here is not mere sequence, first this, then that, first the men and then also the women. Rather, Paul’s meaning is comparison, not sequence but comparison, as with the men, so also or likewise with the women.

Now, this conjunction used here is used elsewhere in scripture. I bring it up by way of illustration. This word is used in Luke chapter 22, verse 20. It is used also in 1 Corinthians 11, 25. Both texts deal with the Lord’s Supper. And the conjunction used in both of these texts draws attention to the similar way the similar manner in which Jesus presented the bread and then the wine to his disciples. You remember how it goes? In the same way, in what manner Jesus took the cup after they had eaten, thus calling attention to the humility and the thankfulness, yes, the disposition of Christ with which he offered both the bread and the wine.

At issue then is comparison, similarity, not merely sequence. Paul’s interest here in 1 Timothy 2 verse 9 is not this and then that, rather it is this is like that. As it was with the men, so also with the women. Now, in our consideration of 1 Timothy 2, 9 and following, this point is of great importance.

In fact, more importance than you might imagine, especially because of the more modern interpretations of these verses, be they from a traditional point of view or from a more radical point of view. For you see, these modern interpretations tend to approach this text in terms of contrast. not comparison. Instead of picking up on Paul’s point and emphasis through the conjunction, and seeing here a comparison as you move from 8 to 9, these modern approaches are concerned to say something about male and female uniqueness, as if that was all that was in the text. And I might say, pressing the matter to extremes, these interpretations have tended, in too many cases, to approach the text in terms of male or female empowerment, thus emphasizing the differences between the sexes. The issue, then, we are told, is either retaining power or gaining power. But it is that these modern interpretations tend to concentrate upon contrasts, the dissimilarities between the sexes. Now, not that the text doesn’t go on to speak specifically about dissimilarities. It does. Not that the text doesn’t have, undergirding it, the assumptions with regard to the dissimilarities between the sexes.

However, as Paul begins his comments here, very interestingly, his concern is something which men and women share, or in which they are engaged with regard to common activity, or attitude, or disposition. What, then, is the line of similarity? What is the precise nature of the comparison being drawn upon here by Paul as he speaks to men and women in verses 8 and 9 of 1 Timothy 2? Well, you may want to remember what we have already said concerning Paul’s interest in verse 8, where he speaks to the men.

Now listen to me. Try to get this right. Paul’s concern in verse 8 is not to carve out a special, exclusive province for men, as if prayer was a unique concern and obligation of males. Now, I’ve said that to you before, I say it to you again. That is not Paul’s interest here. He is not concerned to carve out a special, unique province for men which is exclusively their concern and interest, namely prayer. No, Paul’s concern is that men might pray out of hearts that know the humble obligation of prayer. Will you please underline humble?

In view is submission. Why, it’s a discovery. I’m talking about men here. In view is submission. Paul’s interest is that men might pray out of hearts that know the humble, yes, submissive obligation for prayer and to prayer, and that men might pursue that righteous duty without anger and dissension. But you see what this does. Paul reaches right into the 1990s with this comment.

Because you see, by submitting in prayer in this way, by being submissive, by demonstrating such humility, men explode, no, they literally destroy their own stereotypical self-images. Men don’t need to pray, in fact. As I said before, real men don’t pray. Why? Because they’re self-sufficient. Everybody knows that.

It is out of this base, this common activity of prayer then, which Paul sets before the Ephesian males. that provides a base and even a reservoir out of which good leadership may rise for the Church.” But Paul goes on, “…in like manner also the women, likewise the women.” In other words, Paul is now going to look to the women in the Church along similar lines as he looks to the men in this age. And he brings up, of all things, women’s apparel, women’s But note now, he is bringing up this matter of apparel for the same reason that he brought up prayer to men in verse 8.

This is going to get very difficult, isn’t it? The argument is along the same line. Surely it’s not, you see, that men are thereby permitted to dress immodestly and indiscreetly. That is not the implication of the text, as if you see apparel for the exclusive province of females alone. That’s not the issue.

It will be through apparel, through dress, that Paul communicates to these women specifically on the matter of their attitudes and dispositions. So the fact that Paul raises the issue of dress here, in connection with the women, does not make it any more an exclusive female domain, any more than speaking about men in prayer in verse 8 makes prayer a specific or exclusive male domain. Paul’s purpose, then, in verse 9, as he begins to address the woman, is to strike at the point at which, in her piety, in her pursuits of her religion, the woman is most vulnerable. When he’s talking about dress, he’s going right to the heart. ministry to these Christian women at Ephesus, where Timothy is presently serving, than is to force these women to face themselves. It is to force them to lay a blow against their own stereotypical self-image. for just as men locate their power in their independence and in their self-sufficiency, thus for them no need for prayer. So women locate their power, Paul is saying, in their appearance upon which they can expend great amounts of time, money, and energy.

Now, please understand, Paul here is not becoming an advocate for potato sex. In fact, it’s very interesting that he doesn’t go on to list what the appropriate apparel is. You see, Paul is not a ligament. But he is addressing these women very directly and forthrightly. Women! He is, as if he were saying, away from the world’s expectations. Be done with those expectations. Away from the suggestions of the flesh.

Conform yourselves to God’s expectations and the demands of the Spirit, and more particularly, and somewhat parathetically at this point, conform yourself. to the dictates of that administration that has been inaugurated in Jesus Christ. Submission here makes you a woman of great usefulness to the Church and to the King. In fact, your inability to submit at this most basic level of Christian devotion to mitigates true usefulness to the Church and Christ’s Kingdom. Just as the inability of a man to submit himself at the basic level of prayer mitigates his genuine usefulness to Christ and her prophets.

It is clear then, is it not, that Paul is pressing for the cultivation of the inner of the soul, the cultivation that comes to expression in lives, male and female lives, of holiness. Of holiness. Sin, after all, knows no gender. Sin, after all, knows no gender. But notice, as we consider what comes to expression in these lives, these male and female lives, in each case, what comes to expression positively supplies what we ordinarily according to our sinful nature, think to be lost. Although the man of God seems to the world to be unmanly in his subservience to God in prayer, here, specifically in prayer, the true man takes shape, discovering a strength in God and from God the world does not know or understand. And like men are also the women who belong to the world. They discover their real beauty. Abandoning, then, whatever suggestion there is of braveness. Let’s not be naive about this. Abandoning whatever suggestion there is of braveness. forsaking the flaunting of one’s body, bangles, and beads.

The woman of God adorns herself with modesty and good works, and this out of her love for her Savior and her commitment to his kingdom. But consider the depth of this matter in light of the history of salvation. We will recall from our reading this morning, Psalm 45, the bride of the king, the daughter of the king, is described as beautiful and the object of the king’s desire. Time is spent describing her in her beauty. Her clothing is interwoven with gold. She is lavishly dressed in expensive embroidery.

The figurative sense of this Old Testament language now gives way to the reality of which it spoke in Jesus Christ, His Church, and the Kingdom. The adornment of women bound to Christ has to do with the inner woman that finds external expression in modest dress and a life devoted to the doing of good. But we can go further than that. in terms of the positive implications of what Paul is suggesting here in this ninth verse and following. We can go further.

In light of the new and heavenly administration of Jesus Christ, whatever finally you want to talk about, attached to the Old Testament administration, that is laid aside and abrogated in light of deeper and more eternal things. In light of the new and heavenly administration of Jesus Christ, even the finally of a priest’s attire disappears. with all its gems and costly garments, together with all the embroidery and costly appurtenances of the temple that is all laid aside. If the temple and the Old Testament priesthood, with their outward glory and beauty, are displaced by the New Testament, how much more a woman’s outward glory? You dare not jump upon these externals. nor gives their lives to them. But the pride that such outward show and glory, the new and eternal administration of Jesus Christ, boasts a beauty that far out distances the old.

Women, belonging as you do to this new order, born again into the kingdom of heaven, living to the glory of God and the honor of Jesus Christ in all modesty and in self-sacrificing godliness, you are more beautiful than the temple in Jerusalem and the priesthood in all of Israel.” You are more beautiful than any earthly queen, be she even the queen of Jerusalem, let alone the queen of Sheba.” Paul, a man with new eyes, sees such beauty. and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, beckons every woman in the Church of Jesus Christ, who loves the Savior, to adorn herself for the appreciative eye of her Lord. Women of great church, will you not do the same? Will you not adorn yourself for the appreciative eye of your Lord?

O God, we are thanking you for godly women. We rejoice in the women of this congregation. And Father, if there is weakness, we know where there is strength. And if there is sin, we know where there is forgiveness. So, O God, As we draw close to you, may our eyes be clear and our hearts pure, as we are concerned, yes, with a submissive soul, truly for the women, but also for the men. And, O God, help us that we might give holy lives, all of us, men and women, to the honor and glory of our Savior. For bear with us, O Father, and help us with our understandings. Strengthen us, O Father, for your purposes.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.