Roles Inside the Church

Title: Roles Inside The Church
Text: 1Timothy 2Introduction
Chapter 1 of 1 Timothy ended in charging Timothy to hold on to fulfill the calling he was called to and hold on to the faith. After mentioning about the two men, Alexander and Hymenaus who were given to Satan, and who were probably leaders of the church, Paul continues to exhort Timothy to pray and intercede for all the leaders especially to those who were in the authorities. Note here that Paul mentioned four things; supplication, prayers, intercession, and giving thanks. In addition, such is very similar to what we know as the ACTS or CATS

Who are the people we need pray?
1. For all men (v.1) – The lost in general, we have to pray not only for the elect.
2. Kings (v.2) – Nations in their time were ruled by kings. In our days, Prime Ministers and Presidents rule most countries while kings and queens have now become symbols of the nations.
3. All those who are in the authority (v.2) – We have to pray not only the highest official of the land, but also everybody who are in authority.

Why Do We Need To Pray Them?
1. That we may live peaceful and quite lives (v.2)
Here we see the reasons why do we have to pray for the people mentioned above. By experience, whenever I see a certain place dominated by non-Christians, the community becomes a hostile to the Christian community. A usual picture is that, the lost people ridicules the believers, persecute them, and sometimes even deprives the believers from their legal rights.
By experience, whenever I see a country ruled by a very ungodly leader maybe a president or a king, most of the time, instability of the nation occurs. If the leader of the nation does not fear God, the country suffers. This is true even in Biblical times. Israel suffers a lot whenever they have an ungodly king.
Having the leader as an example, if the countries’ leader is corrupt, naturally, his subordinates are corrupt. In addition, if we will not pray for them, then it will be more difficult for our country to survive.
Note that these people play a great role in our country and they were the majority. If we will not learn how to pray for them, then the more that, our future is uncertain.

2. That we may live in all godliness and holiness (v.2)
Learning to pray for other people allows us to examine ourselves continuously and checks our motives. It allows us to see who we are giving us the opportunity to check if we are still in line with God or not.
Aside from this, it keeps us away from trouble giving us the opportunity to live peacefully with other people, which eventually results to godliness and holiness.

3. That we may live a life pleasing to the Lord (v.3)
Living in godliness and holiness also results to living a life pleasing to the Lord. Since God wants us to live a life worthy of calling. Now again, Paul affirms here our calling, our calling is to go to the world and teach the good news.
In verse 4 Paul says,”4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” Here again we see the ultimate plan of God, to bring all men to his feet, to the knowledge of the truth. And this things will never be possible without prayer.

Propriety in Worship
Men As Leaders
1. Lift up “holy” hands in prayer (v.8)It must be understood that God intends for men to be leaders of the family, which is also true inside the church. God intends that men be the leaders of the church. This is the role that men are to fulfill. Sad to say, that many men even during Paul’s time are no longer involve in the activities of the church.
Of course, many factors are affecting this situation. Men are most of the time, looking for something to eat. They are working hard so that their families will be able to eat and women were left in their houses. But non-the-less, God intended men to be leaders.
Lifting up holy hands does not necessarily imply concerning the physical posture of hands during worship time. Note the word “holy”. The Greek word used means “unpolluted” or “unstained by evil”. Hands symbolizes the activities of life, thus “holy hands” means a holy life.
And this is how we should pray, lifting our “holy lives” to God. It’s not just praying, it’s all about applying our new life in God.
One of the main reasons why sometimes leadership were given to women, it’s because men refused to do what he is supposed to do. This is why sometimes, our roles as men were given to women.

2. “Without” anger or disputes (v.8)This phrase is just an affirmation of what just Paul said, lifting holy hands. Many men cannot lift their holy hands, because their hearts are full of anger and disputes with other people. Instead of promoting love, they promote rudeness and selfishness.
As men, we have to admit that this is our weakness. This is a common problem in us. Many of us are hot-tempered and stubborn which causes to a more serious problem. No one is perfect, but at least we have to do our best to recognize this in ourselves and that let us pray that we will be able to overcome this problem inside us.

Women As Back Ups
1. Dressing modestly, decency, and propriety (v.9)Even during the time of Paul, they already have a dress code. Though their dress, in our eyes seems to be almost the same as that of women, they know which is for women and which is for men, and even which is appropriate and which are not.
Unfortunately, some women in Paul’s time does not dress appropriately when they come to worship God. And this is the same in our days. Many women dress as if they are going to a party, while some are too casual. We know what Sunday dress looks like.
Sometimes we dress to impress people of our new dress even if it is inappropriate. And thus, we have to learn how to dress appropriately.

2. Having good deeds which is appropriate to those who profess to that she worship God (v.10)Note here that Paul also gave an emphasis that the way we dress should match up our spiritual lives. Even Paul is convinced that the way we dress is just an echo of our inner being. This is not absolute, but generally speaking, and normally speaking.
This is why if we are a fan of EMO, we used to get up like EMO. Some are fan of their favorite actor that’s why they used to dress the same like those people who far fan of Erap or FPJ.
In Discovery channel they have featured people who loves “vampires”, so they dress like one. One loves leopard so much, so he dress, he cut his hair and tattooed his whole body like a leopard.
In other words, generally speaking, the way we look like is a reflection of who we really are.

3. Completely submissive (v.11)
Paul is probably referring to a real situation were some of the women desire so much to be public teachers of the law. Now we have to understand that during the time of Paul such office as public teacher of the law, deacon, or an elder are very important position and are highly respected positions, and are reserved only for men.
Paul prohibits women to practice any authority over men especially inside the church context. However, it must be noted that Paul allows women to teach in a more appropriate circumstances like in Titus 2:3-4. Women are also not exempted from learning (v.12).
Women are to submit which means, “to line up under”, meaning, to be a learner in a church setting context.
In addition to this, God designed the women to be a “suitable helper” (Gen.2:18). And this is the role that we have to fill in.
Unlike the world today, the world teaches us that if you are a woman and you are staying inside the house as a “housewife”, it is as good as you are deprived of something. But the Bible teaches us that we have different roles to fulfill.
This is why we have to be very careful in dealing with this issue especially that “women power” is getting stronger and stronger. It is very funny because humanitarian advocates teach a different thing especially to the issue of sexes.
Some of them even teach that “third sex” should be respected and should be given equal rights. The Bible teaches on the other hand, that there is no such thing as third sex. Of course, we have to respect people no matter who they are. But the Bible is the one who teaches the “homosexuality” is immorality and such is a detestable in the eyes of the Lord.

Conclusion
Everybody’s Role: Pray for everybody
Men’s Role: Lifting up holy lives
Women’s Role: Act as subordinates.