1 Timothy "Gendered Sins & Sanctification" (1 Tim 2:8-10)

1 Timothy: The Blueprints for Life Together as God's Family “Gendered Sins and Sanctification" (1 Timothy 2:8-9) Sunday, June 26, 2022 Men and women are different. Men and women are biologically, relationally, emotionally, motivationally different. Men and women have different chromosomes, different hormones, different behaviors and desires. All this use to be common sense only a few years ago but now, here in Seattle, it's insensitive, "hurtful" and some would say it's borderline hate speech. Yet God didn't create us as people in general but as men and women specifically. If you are a man, it’s good to be a man and it feels good to act like a man, to be strong, to provide and protect. (It's powerful!) If you are a woman, it’s good to be a woman and it feels good to act like a woman, to be helpful, to be beautiful and nurturing. (It’s wonderful) We cannot transcend nature, we’re creatures made by a creator God. Cicero said “Custom will never conquer Nature; for it is always invincible” and Horace wrote “Drive nature out with a pitchfork, yet nature hurries back, And will burst through our foolish contempt and triumphant over us” Men and Women are DIFFERENT and also have different struggles. Men are over-represented alcohol and drug-abuse. Women are over-represented in depression and anxiety. Because man and woman are different and because we have different struggles, this means that our spiritual growth, growing to be more like Jesus, it isn’t a gender-natural undertaking. The Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, gives Gender-specific instructions or if you like, sex-specific commands (Gender is a recently coined term that might be better described as temperament or behavior. Sex is a biological reality.) So Paul is giving specific commands, some for men and some for women. God made men strong and this strength can be twisted into anger. We need to move from angry-debate to passionate-devotion. God made women beautiful and this strength can be twisted into vanity. We need to move from self-focus to God-focused life. Questions for Discussion and Further Study Men Must Move From Anger and Contention to To Prayer and Devotion (1 Tim 2:8) Why does Paul highlight the men of the Church in Ephesus as having hard time praying? Why do men typically have a harder time praying? How does holding onto anger and bitterness interfere with prayer? How can we encourage men to grow from being quarrelsome to being prayerful? Women Must Move From Provocative and Flamboyant to Respectful and Modest (1 Tim 9-10) Why would Paul highlight the women of the Church in Ephesus as having immodest and disrespect attire? Why is it important for women to focus on bringing attention to God instead of themselves at Church? How does shifting the focus from external beauty to the beauty of good works change our priorities? How can we encourage women to grow from being immodest to being modesty, respectful and know for good works?