Good morning and welcome to this Berean Break.  My name is George Sinkie and I especially want to welcome each of the Moms to today’s program and wish you a Happy Mother’s Day.  I am so glad that you are making this time together studying the word of God a part of this day.  I believe that says a lot about the type of woman that you are and that you desire to become in this world.  Let’s have a word of prayer,

Great God in heaven, We thank You for this day in our lives, And for the many blessings that You have given to us.  We thank You for our mothers, through whom we have life in this physical world.  We pray that You bless each of the moms today, Help them, as well as all of us, to do Your will.  Be with us now as we look into Your word, Help us to understand Your will, And apply it into our lives.  In Jesus’ Name, we pray !!  AMEN !!

     Today I want to consider some of God’s will for women, as revealed to us through the writings of Paul.  On today’s program we are only going to be looking at the instructions given in 1 Timothy and Titus.  Throughout the New Testament there are instructions given that apply to men and women alike.  But there are also some teachings that apply to just women and others that apply to just men.  First of all let’s look at 1 Timothy 2:9-10

   9 Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments;
   10 but rather by means of good works, as befits women making a claim to godliness.

     The word that Paul uses here to say “adorn,” comes from the root Greek word [dc: cosmos].  This is the word that we translate “world.”  It has to do with the cosmetic or outside appearance of something, in this case the Christian woman.  In referring to a person this word usually means, “orderly, well-behaved, regular, discreet, or quiet.”  This woman is to clothe herself in a certain way.  Her clothing is to be proper.  What makes clothing proper?  Paul goes on here to describe this clothing in two different ways.  First it is modest.  One of the most interesting descriptions of modest I have heard is, “with respect for others.”  The godly woman will consider how what she wears effects other people.  The second description is “discreetly.”  This has to do with having soberness or serious thought.  This term is used also in Acts 26:25

   25 But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I utter words of sober truth.”

This too shows that the woman will consider others when she selects the clothes that she wears.  In our world today sex is used to sell everything from shampoo to cars to breakfast cereal.  When a woman dresses in the ungodly manner of the world, she is not allowing Christ to be manifested in her life.
     Paul goes on and says, “not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments.”  Paul here is not condemning these things but has the same meaning as what Peter says in 1 Peter 3:3

   3 And let not your adornment be merely external — braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses;

Both Paul and Peter are using the style of writing that is called an ellipsis.  In the NASB, in 1 Peter 3:3, the word “merely” is in italics.  That means that it is not in the original Greek, but it is supplied to give the sense or meaning of the Greek.  Sometimes the translators did this, as in 1 Peter, and sometimes they did not, as in 1 Timothy 2:9.  There are other ellipsis used in the Bible.  Consider 1 Timothy 5:23, note that the word “exclusively” is in italics,

   23 No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

Paul is not forbidding Timothy from ever drinking water again, but simply not to drink only water.  Another place where Paul uses an ellipsis is in 1 Corinthians 1:17

   17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void.

Paul doesn’t mean that Christ did not want him to immerse people, because then Paul could never bring anyone into the kingdom of God.  But neither was Paul sent only to baptize.  Paul was to preach the gospel and those who hear the gospel needed to decide whether to believe it and be immersed so they could be saved or reject it and continue in their lost state.
     Getting back to the woman’s dress, it is not the external things that make a woman beautiful.  All the make-up, and jewelry, and fancy hairdos, and clothes in the world will not make an ugly woman beautiful.  It is what’s on the inside that makes a woman beautiful, from the Christian point of view.  A friend of mine was asked one time if he could love an ugly woman and his reply was, “No, not even if she looked like Elle McPherson, (a Super-model).”  You see the old saying “beauty is only skin deep” is a lie by Satan, because true beauty starts in the heart.  So ladies, braid your hair if you want to, wear gold and pearls if you want to, and put on a beautiful dress if you choose to,as long as they are modest and discreet, but never, ever, forget to be beautiful on the inside by submitting to the will of God.
     This is what Paul points out in verse 10.  The woman who is making a claim to godliness, needs to do good works.  The only way to determine what is a good work is to search the standard, which is the Bible, and see what God says about that work.

     Let’s continue on now looking at God’s instruction for women.  Look at what Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2:11-12

   11 Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.
   12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.

We have considered this verse in our program dealing with “Woman Pastors,” but it applies here as well.  This verse shows the relationship that God wants between men and women in teaching.  When dealing in a religious situation the man is to be the authority and the woman is to be submissive.  This is not an old-fashioned, out-dated concept, it is the will of God.  When considering the wives of those who are elders and deacons, Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3:11

   11 Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.

First of all here women are to be dignified, That means that they are to be worthy of respect or honor.  They become worthy of this because of the type of life that they have lived which as we see in the end of this verse is faithful in all things.
     Second they are to not be a malicious gossip.  Now we should not take that to mean that it is OK to be a gossip, just not a malicious gossip.  Gossips here comes from the same Greek word that is sometimes translated as “devil.”  Some English translations use the word slanderer.  The greatest accuser in the world is Satan and this is teaching that God’s woman is not to be like Satan.  One of the biggest mistakes that most people make concerning gossip, is that they think that gossip has to be a lie about someone.  This is not always the case.  If what is said tears down another person rather than builds them up then it is gossip.  The last thing mentioned here is that women should be temperate.  The root of this word indicates being free from the influence of intoxicants, it is used in conjunction with the idea of watchfulness.

     Now let’s move on a to Paul’s letter to Titus and see why the Christian woman is to have these qualities in her life.  Look at Titus 2:3-5

   3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good,
   4 that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,
   5 to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored.

This shows the ongoing cycle of the teaching that women are to do to other women.  Some of the points that Paul makes here concerning the older women, we have already looked at from Timothy, except that now she is to be teaching the younger women.  In addition to what we have looked at there are also some new points that she is to be teaching.  First of all they are to “love” their husbands and their children.  Now we might think that this means that they are to take the love that they have for them and make it a deeper more enduring love.  But the word for love here is phileo, not agape.  Phileo is the Greek word for friendship type of love, more closely associated with our English word “like.”  You see in the first century, in Crete, most women did not love their husbands, they went from one man to the next.  And they usually sold their children when they reached about the age of nine.
     They are also to be sensible, which shows that they were to think before they acted.  They were to be pure in all aspects of their lives.  The instruction here to be workers at home has really been misapplied.  This is not a prohibition from women working outside the home, but an encouragement for the wives to keep their home in order as well.  There are times today when it is necessary for both parents to work outside the home to make ends meet, but far too often it is done to meet the materialistic desires at the expense of keeping the home.
     The godly woman is also to be kind.  This word is a form of the Greek word agape.  This is the highest type of love that is self-sacrificing in nature.  It is a Love that is in action.  Sometimes it is translated good and is used as a modifier to the workers at home, in other words good homemakers.
     The final thing mentioned is that the older women are to teach the younger women to be subject to their own husband.  Paul has already given this instruction back in 1 Timothy, but here it is dealing with the order that is to be in the Christian home.

     All of these instructions are designed for one purpose.  That purpose is not to beat the woman down and make her a slave, but to lift her up and to show her the type of woman God wants her to be.  Again to all the women, Happy Mother’s Day!  I hope that you will apply these teachings from the word of God into your life and submit entirely to the will of God.