1 Timothy 2
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Good morning. My name is Mike. I'm one of the pastors here. I think I mentioned last week that I grew up in the Methodist church. It was a very typical Methodist church with both male and female pastors, and growing up, I didn't think anything of that. The men and the women both preached about the same skill level, and no one really talked about it. That's just how it was. I'm not trying to be mean to Methodists. I'm super thankful for my parents who raised me in church most of the time I was there I wasn't even a Christian anyways it wasn't until high school that I heard the gospel clearly at an FCA event in high school I was saved then and of course then I started reading the bible and eventually I got to first Timothy 2 and thought hmm this is different I couldn't recall ever hearing a sermon from 1 Timothy 2 at my church. But of course, if you're preaching topically, it's a lot easier to pick and
choose what passages you deal with. And so you can avoid passages that don't fit so easily with your theology. But if we believe that all of Scripture is God's Word, that all of it is profitable for teaching, then eventually you're going to run into passages like we have here today, 1 Timothy 2. So So go ahead and turn to your 1 Timothy chapter 2 in your Bible on page 991 in the Pew Bible there. As you turn there, we'll just do a short background recap.
In case you weren't here last week, we started looking at this letter, 1 Timothy. We did chapter 1. Today we're going to look at chapter 2. And in this letter, Paul is writing to his protege, Timothy, whom he left in Ephesus to help lead the church through this difficult time. The letter was written sometime around 62 A.D. And the reason that Paul wrote to Timothy is because the church is under heavy attack from false teachers. This letter is not meant to be a treatise, a theological treatise, where he's walking through every doctrine systematically.
It's not a church manual. Paul doesn't say everything that a church needs to know in this letter. This is an occasional letter that Paul wrote to Timothy so that he can deal with the situation that he is in right now in Ephesus. The occasion of this letter seems to be in fulfillment of what Paul warned about in Acts chapter 20. We read that last week, but just let me read it again very, very briefly. Paul warned the elders of the church in Ephesus, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to take care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away disciples after them. So that's the background and the context of this letter. About five to seven years after Paul spoke that to the Ephesian elders, he wrote this letter to Timothy, who is helping to lead the church. So let's read our passage today, chapter 2, in the letter of 1 Timothy. First of all then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God, and there's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, Who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I'm telling the truth, I'm not lying. A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control.
Not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
Yet, she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. Well, there's nothing controversial in there, so we should be able to breeze right through this. Here's the main idea of 1 Timothy chapter 2. Main idea, if you're taking notes. the gospel transforms how we relate to the world and to each other. The gospel transforms how we relate to the world and to each other. That breaks down nicely into two points. Point one, the gospel transforms how we relate to the world. And point two, the gospel transforms how we relate to each other in the church. So point one, the gospel transforms how we relate to the world. Let's start in chapter two, verse one. The then, the then, you see then, first of all, then. That then
ties what he's about to say to chapter one, right? So having said these things, now we're going to go on to this. And the instructions here are not being spoken into a void, like we talked about. Paul is commanding these things specifically because of what is happening in Ephesus. Now, don't get me wrong. What Paul says here does not, I'm not trying to say that it doesn't apply in all times. Of course it does. To the contrary, these things do apply, contrary to what many people have tried to say.
But what I'm trying to say is that this isn't everything that a church needs to know. So you can't just read this letter and then say there's nothing else that we need to know as a church. No, there's tons of other letters that Paul wrote. And he talked about what should be done in corporate church gatherings. And you need to know those things as a Christian. But today we're going to deal with what Paul instructs Timothy here in this letter. Look at verse 2. Pray for officials. Why? So that we can live quiet lives?
That seems selfish. There's probably more going on here. The false teachers have brought disunity into this church. And that disunity is leading to a bad witness to the surrounding people, those who are watching. We see this idea elsewhere in Paul's letters. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, Paul said this, But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more and to aspire to live quietly, mind your own affairs, work with your hands, as we instructed you. Why? So that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. So we pray for all people, public officials being an example of the kinds of people, all of them, that we should pray for. And we pray specifically for the public officials because their decisions will affect daily life, the environment that we live in. This is exactly why we make a habit of praying for our officials in our pastoral prayer every Sunday morning.
We want good, godly leaders in office so that we can live quiet lives, if at all possible. Although the church can and does thrive even when there aren't godly leaders, there certainly weren't godly leaders in Paul's day. He was living in the Roman Empire. Even then, you still pray for public officials. Look at 2, 3. This is good, he says. This is good. What is good? What he was just talking about? Living quiet lives? I mean, it's true that it's good to live a quiet life, but I don't think that's what Paul is saying here. No, it makes more sense if you look back at verse 1. This is good. What? Praying for all people. Why? Because he says right here, because God desires that all people will be saved.
This also reinforces the fact that we don't just pray for all people merely so that we can live quiet lives. No, we pray for all people specifically to be saved. We want them to come to a knowledge of the truth. This is why we emphasize evangelistic prayers on Sunday evening. The gospel is for everyone, especially for our enemies. Amen. Someone once said, pray for your enemies. Oh yeah, that was Jesus. And that's exactly what he did.
Even while they were crucifying him, he prayed for them. Father, forgive them. We are to pray for everyone to be saved because that is what God, our Savior, remember God is the one who saves, that is what he desires. Evangelistic prayer is for all people. Look at verse 1, all people. And that evangelistic prayer is rooted in God's desire for, verse 4, all people to be saved.
There's an emphasis here on all people because the false teachers are restricting who can be saved. We'll talk about that a little bit later. But this idea that prayer is for all people and God's desire is for all people to be saved brings up a number of questions in people's minds. First of all, it seems that there's a cognitive aspect to the gospel, right? To learning the knowledge of the truth, that's part of salvation. You have to hear the gospel and know it to be saved.
Like, you have to know something in order to be saved. God can't just zap and then you're saved. This verse, along with others, is the backbone of why we do missions in evangelism, right? We have to take the gospel to those who haven't heard it yet. he's going to do that through means through you maybe through me we take the gospel to those who haven't heard it another question that this passage raises is the idea of god's will what does god's will mean are there two wills in god have you ever thought about this your will is your desire it's what you want to happen so if god wants something to happen like all people being saved, right here it says that, then why doesn't that happen, right?
We know that some people are not going to be saved, but God desires it. What's going on here? Well, we talk about this in theological terms as the two wills in God. There has to be two wills in God. Otherwise, God is desiring something that's not happening, And therefore, he's not able to make it happen. So we talk about this as his revealed will, or his will of command, the things that he reveals to us.
He says, I want this to happen like this. But there's also his secret will, or his will of decree. A good example of this is the Ten Commandments, right? God commands these things to Israel, and we expect that it's going to happen. No, no, of course it doesn't happen that way. The people rebel. They don't follow the commandments. People break his commands constantly. Think about the Lord's Prayer, right?
Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What are you praying for when you pray, your will be done? Do you think that you're praying for God's secret will, his will of decree, that is, the things that actually happen? No, we don't need to pray that because we know that God's will of decree is what is going to happen. God is in control of all things. We don't have to pray for his will to be done in that way. No, we're praying for his revealed will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
God commanded Adam and Eve to obey, but they rebelled against him, and the same is true of us. So what's the payoff here? Why am I talking about this? Well, just because Paul says that it's God's desire for all to be saved doesn't mean that that's what's going to happen. That's his revealed will, not his secret will. We don't have access to God's secret will, okay? No one does except God. So, that's why, look at 2, 5, that's why we offer the gospel freely and universally to all. We don't, like, try to hunt for the elect that God is going to save and only share the gospel with them. No, we offer the gospel to all. Why is there this emphasis on all people over and over again? Probably because the false teachers did not have a message for all. It's restricted in some way. It's not exactly clear who was being left out. Possibly they were the Judaizers who were requiring
circumcision to be saved. They didn't want the Gentiles to be part of this, and that's Paul's mission is to therefore go to the Gentiles. Maybe that's it. But the point is there's only one God. There's not a God for each nation, each culture. There's one way of salvation for everyone. Jesus is the way. He is the only mediator. What is a mediator? A mediator is a go-between, right? It's a bridge. Jesus is that go-between for us and God, and this leaves no room for other mediators, contrary to what the Roman Catholic Church teaches. Mary cannot hear your prayers. The other saints cannot hear your prayers. If you're praying to Mary, you're wasting your breath. Pray to Jesus. Pray to God. Look at 2.6. Why? Because Jesus gave his life as a ransom for
all people again. It just says all there, but he's talking about all people. If God desires all people to be saved, like we just read about, and Jesus died for all people, then why are we not universalists, right? Universalists believe that in the end, everyone will be saved automatically. If Jesus died for all, and we're not universalists, then why don't all people repent and believe? We know that some people don't repent and believe, right? So why is that if he died for all? Well, there's a few options here. Let's work through these options that we have. First of all, there's universalism. Everyone's going to be saved, no matter what, because God desires all people to be saved. Jesus died for all people, therefore everyone will be saved. That's option one.
Option two, if we believe that not all will be saved, then God must lack the ability or the power to save everyone. That's option two. Option three, God is able to save everyone, but he doesn't. Instead, he chose to give man the freedom to choose whether or not to accept Jesus and salvation is dependent on our choice. Option three. Option four, God is able to save everyone, but God doesn't have to save anyone. Instead, he chose to save some, and he does everything required to bring that about. The first two options there, universalism or a God who cannot do what he desires, a God who lacks the ability to carry out his will, those aren't really options for us. They go against God's word in so many places. And out of the other two options, many people opt for option three. They think that this somehow saves God's moral credibility.
It's unfair for God to choose to save some and not others, they insist. And so, God is fair, and therefore the choice is left to us. And so God is off the hook. What I want to point out, though, is that you're not really getting God off the hook here when you say that, which is why I phrased options three and four the way I did. Did you notice that? In both options, God is able to save everyone, but he doesn't. No, you see, the only way to get God off the hook is to say he doesn't have the power to save everyone. If you say that he has the power to save everyone, then either way you choose three or four, you're saying that he's not, he doesn't save everyone even though he has the power to do it. And so he's not off the hook. You get what the point is here. If you have questions about that, if that was confusing, come find me afterwards. I would submit that a better way to think through this whole idea of Jesus's death being for all, or that somehow it was insufficient to save all,
Jesus could have saved all. He could have. His death was sufficient to save all. But it's only effective for those who bow the knee in faith and repentance. And it's only those whom God chose for salvation before the foundation of the world that would repent and believe and be saved. Salvation is of the Lord. I am a sinner, right? You are a sinner. You may not be aware of that. You may not believe that, whether you know it or not. You are a sinner. You have rebelled against God.
We deserve to be punished for that rebellion. We deserve punishment in hell, but God sent his one son, his only son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life in obedience to God. He didn't end there, though. He gave his life as a ransom, as this verse says. As a payment for our sin. That's what a ransom is. It's like in the marketplace. You pay for something, and then you get that thing. Ransom.
Jesus died on the cross and took the punishment that we deserve for our sin. And three days later, he rose from the grave, defeating our enemies, sin, Satan, and death. and if you put your faith and your trust in that gospel and that good news, then God will give you everlasting life. That's the gospel. If you're a Christian, why did God choose to save you, right? That's the question you're left asking. The answer is because he loves you. Why does he love you?
Because he loves you. Why didn't he choose to save everyone? I don't know. God knows. He chose to save some, but not all. We're all sinners. We're all headlong running towards the cliff of death and hell. If God chooses to reach down and pluck some people out of that mass of humanity and save them, who are we to question God and to judge him? If you've been plucked out of hell by God, are you going to then turn around and complain to him for not saving everyone?
I don't know why he didn't save everyone. He didn't. Maybe this answer is not completely satisfying, but these are some things to think about as you wrestle with these ideas. Look at verse 7, chapter 2, verse 7. Paul wraps up his first paragraph here in chapter 2 by saying that his mission to the Gentiles is rooted in God's desire for all people to be saved. The gospel transforms how we relate to the world.
For some, you will be called to move to other places around the world where the gospel hasn't been shared yet. For others, for most of us, most likely, we'll be called to live quiet and godly lives, working, raising families, supporting the work of the church, supporting missions, and through all of that, Reflecting the gospel through our unity as the body of Christ. And we pray for all to come to a knowledge of the gospel of Christ.
We share that gospel with our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends. The gospel transforms how we relate to the world. This is good, but that's not all. Point two, the gospel also transforms how we relate to one another in the church. So look at verse eight. Paul resumes his thought from verse 1. He says the way we conduct ourselves in public worship and prayer is related to our evangelism.
Once again, this is aimed squarely at the false teachers. We talked about it earlier, but the teaching of the false teachers is causing factions in the church, divisions, confusion. They're creating havoc and taking down the unity of the church. The translation of this verse in the ESV is a bit misleading here. It might have left you confused after you read it. I know it did for me, so I looked at it more closely.
Is Paul saying that when you pray, you have to lift your hands vertically? That's what it seems like it's saying when you read this in the ESV. But I think what Paul is actually saying here is that when you pray, do so without anger or quarreling, lifting holy hands as opposed to defiled hands, defiled by anger or quarreling, that is. So it's like this, prayer hands emoji, not raised fist emoji when you pray, right?
We talked about this last week, but it's worth saying again, does your theology lead you to worship God more, or does it bring about constant bickering, arguing, quarreling over words, and distracting from the gospel? I don't think Paul is saying that when you pray, you have to lift your hands, although it's totally appropriate to do that if you want to. The emphasis is that on when you come together to pray, do so in unity, not in quarreling like the false teachers are doing. Well, what about the fact that Paul says men should pray? Couple that with the later command that women should be silent. Is Paul saying that women should not pray in the gathering? Again, no, I think that misses the point. If you look at 1 Corinthians 11, another passage where Paul is instructing a church about corporate worship, Paul says that when women pray, they should have their heads covered.
So in that instance, Paul does not ban women from praying in the gathering. He assumes that they are praying, and he instructs them what to do when they are praying. Further, if the command for women to be silent means that they can't pray, what about singing? Are they not supposed to sing in the gathering either? I don't think that's what Paul is saying here. Some people have said that the prayer in the morning service is, it has a teaching element, and therefore women shouldn't do that in the gathering.
I would submit to you that a prayer is a prayer. Teaching and preaching are teaching and preaching. That's something different. I think when you put these texts together, it fits with what we're trying to do in our gatherings. Preaching and teaching is reserved for men. prayer is open to women, which is why we allow women to pray on Sunday morning and Sunday evening. But we don't allow them to preach or teach. Hopefully that clears it up. In verse 8 here, the point is that when you gather, you should gather for worship of God, not with anger and quarreling and division. And it's immediately tied to the previous verses about the watching world.
The world is watching. They're watching us. What do they see? Do they see the same thing that they see in the world? Strife? Anger? Quarreling? Division? Or do they see something different? Just this week we had a technician from the HVAC company that we use working on the building, and he was here on Thursday morning, and he remarked to me how amazing it was that there were so many women here on Thursday morning to study the Word together. It brought them to come in here and pray. A church that is filled with all kinds of different people that are unified around the gospel of Jesus Christ is a powerful testimony to the watching world. Look at 2.9 and following.
This instruction to women seems to come out of nowhere. What is the connection to what Paul has been talking about? Is there any connection at all? Why does he focus on modesty, women needing to remain silent? Why does he talk about Eve being deceived? I think the answer is in the context of this letter and what is happening in Ephesus. Listen to 2 Timothy 3, 6 through 7, which Paul wrote a little bit later. This is 2 Timothy chapter 3, 6 and 7. For among the false teachers are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth.
You see, some of the women in the church are being led astray by these false teachers. Then there's the section in 1 Timothy chapter 5 where Paul says that some of the widows are self-indulgent. They're already dead. They're going after Satan. Some of them are idlers and gossips. Their lives are not reflecting the gospel. And the advice that Paul gives to them later in chapter 5, is very similar to what he says here in chapter 2. They should marry, they should have children, take care of their homes. Given that context of what's happening in Ephesus, I think what Paul says here about modesty, not teaching or having authority, illustration about Eve being deceived, the final instruction on childbearing, all of it makes a little bit more sense. But we're going to walk through this verse by verse because there are a number of questions that come up here.
Why does Paul address modesty, the need for modesty with women in the corporate gathering? We're not 100% sure, honestly. Possibly there were specific cultural things going on here. Maybe the type of dress that Paul talks about here is signified something specific like prostitution or they were flaunting their wealth? I don't think, the most obvious answer here is that Paul was saying something like this, right? He's talking to women, especially single women. He's saying this, if you're trying to attract a man, you don't want to do it with your outward appearance, but you want to do it with your inward character instead. This is something that is not cultural. It speaks to all people in all times. And Peter says something very similar in his first letter.
Obviously, they're not saying that you should intentionally try to look ugly. That's not what he's talking about. He's just telling you wisely, I think, that you would be better off attracting a man with your character. Because why? Your good looks will fade away. But your character, your inner being will only grow more beautiful, Lord willing, as you go through the Christian life. So is this a prohibition of all jewelry, all makeup, braiding hair? No, I don't think it is, actually. You certainly shouldn't dress like a prostitute, but some of these things here are cultural. What is appropriate in one culture may not be appropriate in another culture.
Although it's not a prohibition on these things, I do think it gives us a minute to stop and think. about how we dress? Why do we dress the way that we dress? Why do we put on the things that we put on? This applies to men and women, right? Do you spend more time thinking and worrying about your physical appearance than you do about your inward character? Which did you spend more time on in preparation for worship this morning? Your physical body or your heart and your mind?
How much money do you spend on your clothing and your apparel? How much is it in relation to how much you're able to support the church or missions? I'm not trying to be legalistic here, right? There's no number. These are just things to think about as you try to apply what Paul is saying here. Gauge your own heart. Let's move on to verses 11 and 12. women are not to teach or have authority in the context of church, right? That's what Paul's talking about here. Some people say that the words here, men and women, could be translated as husband and wife, which is true. So maybe Paul is just saying that a wife should not teach or have authority over her husband, but that doesn't fit the context here. The context is the local church, corporate worship. He's talking about men and women in the church. Teaching and exercising authority in the church is what elders should do. Brandon's going to talk about that next week,
which is reserved for men. Women are prohibited from doing these things or holding the office of elder, both the office and the function. This idea has been held consistent through church history, throughout church history for at least 1900 years or so until the last hundred years where this idea started to change. In chapter three, it is very, very clear that Paul reserves the office of men, or reserves the office of elder for men. Brandon is going to hit that next week. Many people might see this as misogynistic, as against women, or somehow demeaning of women by not allowing them to hold this office of elder?
So let's go through a few reasons why that's not. First of all, no, that's not the goal. The goal is not to be demeaning to women. Our goal is to be faithful to God's word and to God himself and what he commands us. Second, we do not believe that the way God has ordered things is somehow based on the fact that women are stupid or inferior to men. Women are not inferior to men. They're equal in worth and value. Third, many want to focus on the fact that women are prohibited from this one thing and they ignore all the various opportunities that women do have. There's teaching and counseling and discipling other women. We have a women's counselor, Sierra, on staff. Thank you, Sierra. If you're a woman and you want to disciple other women, then you should. No one's stopping you. If you're a woman and you've been a Christian for like more than three years, you've probably been a Christian for longer than a lot of the people in here. You have something to offer to many women in our church. There are so
many opportunities to use your gifts and the wisdom that God has given you, and we want you to exercise those gifts here at Third Avenue. Are you looking for those opportunities? There's teaching children. We have numerous opportunities for ladies in the church to teach children. Sunday school, gospel Project, VBS, many other things that our children's ministry coordinator, Erin Robertson, helps to coordinate. So talk to her if you're interested in those opportunities. If you're a woman and you believe that you have the gift of teaching, we have so many opportunities for you to exercise your gift. We also allow women to be deacons. Brandon can deal with that next week.
All right, so the point is, if you're a woman, it's true that you should not aspire to the office of elder. That is not a role that God has assigned for you. But there are so many other ways that you can exercise your gifts, and we want you to do that. Look at verse 13. Paul grounds this command in the order of creation. Man was created first, and then the woman. Many have tried to say that Paul's teaching here is based on the culture of his time.
It was the patriarchy, similar to what we were talking about earlier when it comes to how people dress, right? In terms of dress, there are things that are cultural. They change from culture to culture. But Paul doesn't appeal to the culture on this command. He's basing it on the order of creation. So the command still holds today. The track record of churches who have tried in one way or another to get around this teaching and allow women to hold the office of elder is not good. Why do I say that? Well, we can learn from church history. It's not like it's not like the Word of God, but it is something we can learn from. Churches who make that move have gone on to make a lot of other bad moves. Why? Because the hermeneutic, the way that you understand scripture that you use to get to women can be an elder, it does violent damage to the word of God. And it will allow you to pick and choose what you want to believe in God's word.
That's not how we should approach God's word. It's not a menu that we get to choose. I like this, I don't like that. No, this is the very word of God, and it should not be handled lightly. look at verse 14. The second reason for the prohibition is due to Eve being deceived in the garden by Satan. We mentioned this earlier, but this is likely connected to the fact that the false teachers were finding support and leading women astray in the church. They were being deceived by the false teachers, just like Eve was deceived by the serpent. Finally, there's verse 15. This is a notoriously hard verse to understand. If you're struggling with this passage, you are in good company. The apostle Peter once said, and count the patience of the Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all of his
letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand. Amen. Which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. Peter found some of Paul's writings hard to understand, but you know what? He considered them scripture, and we should too. This is a good moment to stop and explain that in places like this where we run into a hard passage, something hard to understand, we can use easier to understand passages to help us interpret harder or more difficult ones.
That's not cheating, right? It's a normal way of doing interpretation in the Bible. Doing it the other way around would be foolish. If you believe that the Bible is the word of God and that it doesn't have contradictions, that it all fits together, then we should absolutely allow our interpretation of easier passages to enlighten us and help us understand more difficult ones. And in this case, we have hundreds of other passages that clearly show that salvation is not by works. Childbearing being one of those things.
It's not by childbearing. Not least of which, in this very chapter, in this letter, where Paul just got through saying that Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and man. And that he gave his life as a ransom for our salvation. So I don't think Paul is somehow contradicting himself within the same chapter. Paul believes in justification by faith alone, through Christ alone. So then what is he saying? Some people read it like this.
Yet she, this woman that Paul has been talking about, the representative woman for all women, this woman will be saved, assuming she's already a Christian, because Paul clarifies that she must continue in faith, love, and holiness, and self-control, right? You can't continue doing something that you haven't already started. So Paul is talking here to Christian women, and essentially he's saying that the normal way of things is that women will marry, they will bear children, they will manage their households, just like he instructs them later in this letter.
So essentially Paul is just calling on them to live as Christians, being fruitful in childbirth. Maybe that's what he means. Another option, though, is to read it like this, yet she, that is Eve, right? He was just talking about Eve. She will be saved through childbearing, i.e. this is a reference back to Genesis 3.15, which I think is a fair reference for Paul to make, since he was just talking about Eve being deceived by the serpent. The prophecy of Genesis 3.15 was that one will come from Eve, who will crush the head of the serpent, thereby making a way of salvation and overturning the curses in the garden.
And Christian women, and men for that matter, who persevere in faith and love until the end will be saved. I lean towards that interpretation. I think that's what Paul is saying here. Either way, though, we shouldn't somehow think that Paul is changing his mind on the gospel. There's one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all. The gospel of Jesus changes how we relate to one another.
We are members of his body, the one body. We belong to Jesus Christ, who is our head. If we believe the gospel and are united to him, then we will also seek to live in a way that is in accordance with his word. that kind of living will stick out in the world. We're not going to be commended for what we're talking about here. And that's okay. We're not supposed to be conformed to the image of this world.
We're supposed to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, our Savior. And as we represent Christ to the watching world, may our way of living together as a local church bring glory to his name, not ours. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, which is clear to us. We pray that you would help us to understand it and obey it.
Lord, we thank you for sending your one and only son to be the ransom, be the payment for our sin. There's nothing that we could do to save ourselves. And as we're about to celebrate the Lord's Supper together, we remember Jesus Christ's offer to us that if we believe in him, we too will have everlasting life. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.