Paul is finished with his call to prayer, but isn’t yet finished instructing Timothy about worship. In this week’s passage, he moves on to other matters. Take a peek at the two verses we’ll be looking at in 1 Timothy 2:9-10:

Paul begins here a section of his letter that has stirred many discussions over the years. He instructs Timothy on the role of women in the church.

And yet, before he talks about how women should serve, he addresses how women should dress.

He draws a very clear distinction between two realities: the inner versus the outer, much like Peter discusses in 1 Peter 3:3-4.

He calls women to dress decently. This probably isn’t referring to revealing or suggestive clothing, although that application certainly fits to our culture today. He is more likely referring to the “dressing up in order to show off” attitude that is also common in many places in our society today. When he refers to the braided hair, gold and pearls, and expensive clothes, he is suggesting that such extravagance completely fails to recognize that the inner person is much more important than the outer. Such an external display would prove to be a distraction in worship.

Paul’s explanation of God’s desire for all men to be saved is directly tied to his call to prayer. And he will finish that thought in this week’s passage. But first, Paul seems to go into a bit of an explanation concerning his own calling. You can see it in 1 Timothy 2:7-8:

There seem to be two separate thoughts going on in these two verses. The NIV and other translations separate these two into different paragraphs. However, I think verse eight wraps up Paul’s thoughts on prayer quite nicely, before he moves on to other aspects of public worship in the following verses.

But before he finishes off that thought, he refers to his own calling as an emphasis of God’s desire for all to be saved. He uses three terms to describe himself.

• A herald: This is one who publicly proclaims a message.
• An apostle: One sent on a mission. In fact, he received this mission directly from Christ himself in Acts 9:1-19.
• A teacher: This term seems to emphasize instruction and exhortation, in contrast to the first term, referring more to evangelism.

As a result of these indicators of his authority, Paul declares his desire is similar to that of God’s; he wants us to pray for the salvation of all men. Verse eight concludes his thoughts here on prayer, though the next section is linked to public worship as well.

Paul concluded his sentence in last week’s passage stressing God’s desire for all men to be saved. He continues that thought in this week’s verses, with three facts to underscore the idea. Take a look at 1 Timothy 2:5-6:

Salvation is very closely connected to a knowledge of the truth, as we saw in the previous verses. Paul underscores this with three facts about God the Father and God the Son. Whether this is Paul’s original thought, or a portion of some early creed or formula is unclear. Paul’s phraseology here bears similarity to the idea of “mediator” as seen in the letter to the Hebrews. It’s quite possible that there are some common foundations for these ideas, especially if Paul was the author of both letters.

There is one God

The unity of God is a very common theme throughout Jewish history, and calls to mind the Shema, found in Deuteronomy 6:4. The idea here is that God is the only God, over all people.

Paul began chapter two by laying out some of the basics of worship, specifically pertaining to prayer. In this week’s passage, we see that thought continued as he explains just why God wants us to pray. You can see the passage at 1 Timothy 2:3-4:

Paul starts off by stating that this is good. Prayer is good. For all the reasons he laid out in verse 2, prayer is good. And it pleases God.

The phrase “God our Savior” isn’t used by Paul outside the pastoral letters. It’s much more reminiscent of several Old Testament writings, and carries some subtle flavors of Paul’s fluency in the Judaical, Old Testament theology of God.

The next phrase has been a source of controversy for several centuries, at least since the seventeenth century, between Calvinists and Armenians. It’s obvious that God wants all men to be saved, but what does that mean? Does God save all men, or just a select few? Or is that even the issue here?

I think we can get a clear sens of what Paul is trying to communicate by taking a closer look at the word “wants”. God wants all men to be saved. Paul does not state that God wills all men to be saved. The fact that God wishes all men to be saved doesn’t mean that all men will be saved. Man has a choice in the matter, whether or not to follow God. God’s desire in no way obligates him to do something contrary to his nature, by saving those who choose not to place their trust in Christ.

In chapter two, Paul begins with a brief exhortation on the necessity of prayer. His use of the word “then” or “therefore” relates this directly back to the previous discussion on false teachers. But his use of the phrase “first of all” conveys the primacy of prayer in a believers life.

He gives us a lot of information in these two verses. Take a look at 1 Timothy 2:1-2:

Prayer is an essential part of the Christian’s life. And Paul stresses that fact with his words to Timothy here. Prayer is to be his focus, and ours. For Timothy, this directive follows the discussion on false teachers. So Timothy knew right away who to be praying for, among others.

The principles found here also provide a sort of manual for worship for the early church. In fact, there are several striking similarities here that can be seen in the writing of other early church fathers, such as Clement and others, indicating that these ideas were very widely used.

First of all, Paul uses four different words for prayer. Three of these are very similar, and the differences are subtle. Paul may not have had in mind these differences; he may have used the repetition as a means of emphasis. Prayer is important!

Let’s take a brief look at Paul’s teaching on prayer.

Paul wraps up chapter one with a short phrase that doesn’t seem to be of much consequence. But as we unpack it, we see that there is a lot going on in this verse. It’s the final piece of the of his encouragement to Timothy in this chapter to stand strong. Take a look at it in 1 Timothy 1:20:

There are three phrases in this verse that bear a look.

The first phrase mentions two men who have shipwrecked their faith: Hymenaeus and Alexander. Who were these two men? There’s not a lot of information to go on, but the name Hymenaeus is mentioned again in 2 Timothy 2:17, where his error is mentioned: he apparently taught that the resurrection was already past. He probably spiritualized it, and related it to a person’s conversion, perhaps even denying a bodily resurrection. Whatever the case, it was serious.

Alexander is the other man mentioned. This is a pretty common name, listed again in Acts 19 and in 2 Timothy 4:14. It’s not clear if either of these other two mentions refer to the same man Paul is talking about in this passage.

What seems to be certain is that these two men were probably leaders in the area Timothy was working, perhaps even elders in the church. That makes their errors significant.