THE CHARACTER OF A HEALTHY CHURCH 1 Timothy 2:8-15 by Andy Manning

THE CHARACTER OF A HEALTHY CHURCH 1 Timothy 2:8-15 by Andy Manning The title of this article is The Character of a Healthy Church. The reason this subject is important is because Christianity is a team sport. It s football rather than tennis. The team is called the church. All Christians are called to membership active commitment and participation in the church. As a church, we can either be a winning team or a losing team. We can be a healthy church that glorifies God, or an unhealthy church that embarrasses the Lord. What makes a church healthy? What makes a church a winning team? The good news is that we have a genius for a coach Jesus Christ. He has all the answers to what makes a winning team. All we have to is follow His directions. According to Coach Christ, there are several things that we need to do to be a healthy church. First, we need to understand what the church is our identity. I like this definition by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears in their book Doctrine. The local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. In obedience to Scripture they organize under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the Biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, and are unified by the Spirit, are disciplined for holiness, and scattered to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great commissions as missionaries to the world for God s glory and their joy. Second, to be a healthy church we need to understand our mission. We need to understand why we exist, or what it is we re trying to accomplish. If Christianity is a team sport, then how do we win? Our mission what is called the Great Commission. It should be the same for every church. In a nutshell it is to make disciples. Whatever else the church does, it must be sure that it does that first and foremost. Reach unbelievers, and grow believers. Every church words it 1

differently. Here s how we put it: We exist to help people far from God become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Third, along with understanding our identity and mission, we need to preach sound doctrine. We need to preach Biblical theology. Our understanding of Christ s words must be what He meant by His words. Paul instructed Pastor Titus in Titus 2:1, You must teach what is right and true. While all these things are true, there is a fourth thing necessary for a church to be healthy. Most books on church health focus on the first three identity, mission, or doctrine. Much has been written and said about getting clearer about the identity of the church, getting more effective at the mission of the church, and getting more accurate with the doctrine of the church. But not much has been said about this last thing. But it s very important. It s just as important. It s found in 1 Timothy 2:8-15. Remember that this is a letter written by the apostle Paul to a young church leader, Timothy, about how to build a healthy church. Timothy was leading the church in Ephesus at the time, which is in modern day Turkey. 8 In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy. 9 And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes. 10 For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do. 11 Women should learn quietly and submissively. 12 I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly. 13 For God made Adam first, and afterward he made Eve. 14 And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived, and sin was the result. 2

15 But women will be saved through childbearing, assuming they continue to live in faith, love, holiness, and modesty. 1 I want you to notice that in this passage Paul s focus is not on the church s identity, mission, or doctrine. His focus is on the church s character, or the way that the people in the church behave; their moral attitudes and behaviors. So the first thing we learn from this passage is that when it comes to building a healthy church, who we are is just as important as what we do. How we behave is just as important has what we believe. We can have the nicest building, the coolest music, the most engaging preaching, pure doctrine, a helpful website, and lots of people, but if we don t behave right, if we don t have Christlike character, then we re not a healthy church. As well, I want you to notice that Paul gives two commands to the men of the church, and then two commands to the women of the church. He says that in order to have a church that pleases God, the men should be holy and unified, and the women should be modest and submissive. Let s look at these one at a time. 1. The men of the church must be holy. Verse 8 says, In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God. Paul isn t commanding a certain prayer posture; his point isn t that men need to pray with their hands in the air. That was a common prayer posture in the Bible days, but that s not the point. The point is that men in the church need to be holy. It is not right for men to come to church and pray, and sing praise songs to the top of their lungs if their lives are full of unchecked sin. What is holiness? Holiness is conformity to the moral character of God. 2 The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines God like this: God is a spirit; infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, and 1 New Living Translation 2 Jerry Bridges 3

goodness, and truth. These are God s attributes; His character traits. The Bible describes God with many attributes, but the most common word used to describe God in the Bible is holy. It means that God is perfect in His morality; He is without sin. He is 100% pure. The Bible says in 1 John 1:5, This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. In the Bible light is often used to refer to God s holiness, and darkness refers to sin. God is light and has no darkness. And God calls us to be holy like Him. 1 Peter 1:15-16 says, 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, You must be holy because I am holy. For us to be a healthy church, the men must be pursuing holiness. Our goal must be the holiness of God. We won t reach it; but that must be our standard. One mistake we tend to make is that tend to compare our morality to the world; to those outside of the church. And as long as we re not as immoral as unbelievers, then we re satisfied with our level of holiness. Or we tend to compare ourselves to the Christians in our church. As long as we re about as holy as our fellow church members, then we re satisfied. But the world is not our standard. And neither are other church members. Our standard is the holiness of God. We need to compare ourselves to Jesus Christ. Jerry Bridges wrote one of the best books on holiness in existence. It s called The Pursuit of Holiness. He gives 3 principles for pursuing holiness that I think will be helpful. 1. We must take all sin seriously. There is no such thing as a little sin. All sin is offensive to God. God hates all sin, and so must we. 2. We have to realize that we cannot pursue this kind of holiness in our own self-effort. Holiness is being transformed by the indwelling Holy Spirit into the likeness of Christ. It s not about trying harder; it s about cooperating with the Holy Spirit. 4

3. God has given us certain responsibilities in the pursuit of holiness. While the Holy Spirit is the one who produces holiness, we need to do our part. It s like farming. Ultimately God is the one who causes the crop to grow, but the farmer can control the weeds and bugs, and apply water and fertilizer. Our primary responsibility involves abiding in Christ. In John 15:5 Jesus said that as we stay connected to Him, He will make us more like Him. Our part is to stay intimately connected. He does the rest. This is called abiding in Christ. Stay close to Him through church attendance, Home Group, a daily quiet time, prayer, fasting, Bible reading, etc. One of the most tempting mistakes to make in the pursuit of holiness is to assume that you can grow and maintain holiness without abiding in Christ. Perhaps because you are so busy you don t want to take the time for church attendance, fellowship with other believers, prayer, Bible study, etc. You assume that you can grow in holiness without those things; just by trying harder. But that s impossible. Christ produces the fruit. Your part is to abide. Without abiding, you can do nothing. Let me give you two questions you can ask yourself about pursuing holiness. Is there any unchecked sin in your life? Are you prioritizing abiding in Christ so that He can grow you in holiness? 2. The men of the church must be unified. Let s read all of verse 8. In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy. Apparently the men in the church weren t getting along. They were fighting, quarreling, arguing. But that s a problem if we want to be a healthy church. Think about a football team. 5

If the members of the team hate each other and are always fighting one another, they won t be a winning team. What s the opposite of anger and controversy? Unity. For the church to be healthy, the men must pursue unity. What is unity? Unity is getting along and sticking together so we can get things done for the kingdom of God. Here are a few principles about unity that we need to keep in mind. First, we re better together. That s the reason God calls us to be in a church. Second, if we can t get along and stick together, then we can t get things done for God. God has called us to make disciples in Acadiana and around the world. But if we are fighting each other, and if we split up, we won t be able to accomplish anything. Third, maintaining unity is not easy. Unity is a very fragile thing. Unity is as fragile as people s feelings. Unity is not our natural tendency. We re like a car. If you take your hand off the wheel, and your eyes off the road, you will naturally drift off the road. That s why they say you shouldn t take your eyes off the road for more than two seconds. In the same way, our natural tendency is to drift from unity; to argue and fight and divide. That s our sinful nature. We are a family, and in a family, we re going to disagree; and we re going to offend each other. And our natural tendency when we disagree is to argue, and then if we don t get our way, to leave. Our natural tendency when we get offended is not to forgive, it s not to be patient, it s not to confront someone and seek reconciliation; it is to leave. Unity is not natural. It s not always easy. Fourth, because unity is both essential but difficult, we need to guard it carefully. The Bible says in Ephesians 4:2-3. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. Fifth, the key to unity is peace; tolerating offenses and differences for the sake of unity. Peace means when people offend me, I m not going to fight or leave. 6

I m going to forgive. I m going to be patient. When I don t get my way I m not going to fight or leave. I m going to agree to disagree. I m not going to demand my way. When people offend me or disagree with me, I m not going to make war, I m going to keep the peace. 3. The women of the church must be modest in their appearance. So far we ve looked at Paul s two commands for the men. Now let s talk about the women. Let s read verse 9. And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes. The women in Ephesus were dressing in a way that drew attention to themselves. Now it s okay for a Christian woman to dress attractively. But the problem was that the women were dressing a way that distracted others. They were making two mistakes. They were causing the men to lust by their hairstyles and jewelry. And they were causing the other women to be jealous by wearing expensive clothes. Virtually every Bible scholar agrees that Paul is not giving women rules against braiding your hear or wearing gold or pearls; those were just the common styles in Paul s day. You can avoid braided hair, gold and pearls and still find millions of ways to be immodest. Instead, Paul s point is to be modest, decent and appropriate with your clothing and makeup and jewelry. Don t dress in a way that would cause your Christian brothers to lust; remember that they are pursuing holiness. And don t dress in a way that would cause the women in the church to be jealous. Now Paul is specifically talking about how you dress in church gatherings, but this applies everywhere. Christian women need to dress modestly. And then look at verse 10. For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do. In other words, as a Christian woman, your primary focus should not be on outer beauty, but developing your inner beauty. Becoming like Christ in your character. As a 7

Christian woman, you don t need to dress seductively, or wear sexually suggestive clothing to be attractive. The Bible says that goodness, a life of good deeds, is very attractive. A Christlike attitude makes you very attractive. The bottom line for the women in the church is this. Do you want people to be attracted to you or to God? Do you want people to focus on how beautiful you are, or on how great God is? Do you want to distract people from God, or help people focus on God? The words of David Platt are powerful. May God raise up women across our churches who refuse to get up any day, especially on Sunday, and think, What can I wear today that will make me look good to the people around me? Instead, may our sisters in Christ ask, How can I dress, and what can I do today that will draw the most attention to the glory of my God? Women in the church should not distract others but instead live to attract others to God. 3 4. The women of the church must be submissive. Let s read verses 11-12. 11 Women should learn quietly and submissively. 12 I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly. Remember that Paul is referring to the context of the church, and especially church gatherings. Paul says there are two things that a woman is forbidden to do in the church: teach or exercise authority over men. Paul doesn t mean that women can t teach at all in church. Titus 2:3-5, for example, says that the older women in the church should teach the younger women. And the Bible doesn t say that women can t speak in church. 1 Corinthians 11 talks about women participating in church. In the early church women were very active. So what does Paul mean? Paul isn t saying that a woman can t teach in the church or can t lead anything. In verse 12 he s talking about the official role of an elder or pastor. 1 Timothy 3:4-5 says that 3 David Platt, Christ-Centered Exposition: 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus, pp. 39-40. 8

an elder s role is to manage or lead the church. The elders have authority over the church. And in 1 Timothy 5:17 Paul wrote, Elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching. An elder or pastor s role in the church is that of teaching and leading. So Paul is saying that women can t be pastors or elders. They can lead, but they need to lead under the authority of the pastors of the church. They can teach, but they need to teach under the authority of the pastors of the church. They can t lead or teach as pastors. That role is reserved for godly men. This may sound hateful toward women, but if God is good, and this is God s will, then this is good. This doesn t mean that women are inferior. It just means that women and men have different roles. The Bible teaches what is called complementarianism, first in the home, and then in the church. Men and women are equal, but they are different, and these differences complement each other. The Bible teaches that while men and women are fully equal in personhood, dignity, and value, they are different in their roles. Men are called to take the lead in the home and in the church, and women are called to support them in their leadership. Ephesians 5:22-24 says, 22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. Wives are to submit to their husbands in the home. And then here in 1 Timothy it says that women are to submit to the pastors in the church. What does it mean to submit? It s not the same thing as obedience, like a child obeying parents, or a soldier obeying a superior. To submit is to voluntarily line up under the authority of another. It is to willingly follow the lead of another. It is allowing your husband and your pastor to lead, rather than trying to control things through nagging, manipulation, or deception. 4 4 http://carm.org/apologetics/womens-issues/what-does-it-mean-wife-submit-her-husband 9

Now why is this? Why are men to be the leaders in the church? Paul gives two reasons. The order of creation, and the deception of Eve. He said in verse 13, For God made Adam first, and afterward he made Eve. In other words, God decided from the very beginning that men would take the lead in the home and in the church. And then look at verse 14. And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived, and sin was the result. This is not saying that the Fall was completely Eve s fault. In fact, elsewhere in Scripture Paul clearly lays the blame on Adam. What this is saying is that one of the causes of the Fall, the first sin, was a loss of male headship. Satan didn t go to Adam, the leader of the family. He went to Eve; and then Eve led her husband, and Adam followed. The idea is that God has created godly men to be spiritual leaders and women to support their leadership. And the home and the church function best when we follow this pattern. This is why Satan didn t go through Adam. He went to Eve first. So apparently some women in the church were getting very vocal in the church meetings and they were trying to take charge, but Paul corrected that by telling the women to quiet down and take a supportive role behind the pastors of the church. And then Paul finishes with verse 15. But women will be saved through childbearing, assuming they continue to live in faith, love, holiness and modesty. What does he mean Women will be saved through childbearing? We know for sure that he doesn t mean women need to have children in order to go to heaven. The Bible is clear that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus, regardless of gender. 5 As well, in 1 Corinthians 7 he encouraged some women to stay single and avoid marriage. He wouldn t advise that if childbearing was necessary for salvation. Look at the context. Paul was just referring to the Fall. When Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, her curse was pain in childbearing. But, as painful as childbearing is, the good news is that women all over the world will be saved 5 See Ephesians 2:8; Galatians 3:28. 10

through childbearing, because one day a Savior would be born who would die for the sins of the world. Another way of putting it is that women will be saved by the birth of the child. Paul didn t want to end on a negative note. Eve sinned and all women were cursed with pain in childbearing, but the good news is that through childbearing Mary giving birth to Jesus all women will be saved. So what s the bottom line? As Christians we are called to be a part of the church. There are no Christian loners. And the key to being a healthy church is not merely what we do, but our character as individuals. A healthy church requires the men to be holy and unified, and the women to be modest and submissive. 11