Wenstrom Bible Ministries Marion, Iowa Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom wenstrom

1. Wenstrom Bible MinistriesMarion, IowaPastor-Teacher Bill Wenstromwww.wenstrom.org

2. Wednesday March 30, 20111 Timothy: 1 Timothy 2:10-The Women In The Ephesian Church Must Adorn Themselves With Good Deeds As Is Proper For Women Who Profess Reverence For GodLesson #45

3. Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 2:8.

4. The apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 2:10 expresses his desire that the women in the Christian community at Ephesus adorn themselves with good deeds as is proper for women who profess reverence for God.

5. 1 Timothy 2:8 Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.

6. 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 is proper for women making a claim to godliness. (NASU)

7. “But rather by means of good works” is composed of the conjunction alla (ἀλλά) (ah-lah), “but rather” and the preposition dia (διά) (thee-ah), “by means of” and the genitive neuter plural form of the noun ergon (ἒργον) (air-gone), “works” and the genitive neuter plural form of the adjective agathos (ἀγαθός) (ah-ga-thoce), “good.”

8. The strong adversative conjunction alla is a marker of an emphatic contrast meaning that it is introducing a statement that stands in direct contrast with the idea of the Christian women in Ephesus dressing themselves with extravagant hairstyles as well as gold or pearls or extravagantly expensive clothing.

9. Here in verse 10, he wants these women to be occupied with performing good works as is proper for women who profess reverence for God.

10. Therefore, Paul is emphatically contrasting the idea of the women in the Christian community at Ephesus being occupied with performing good works that are pleasing to the Lord rather than with their outward appearance.

11. It is emphatically contrasting the idea of these women performing good works with immodest attire and is emphasizing what the priority of these women should be.

12. The conjunction alla emphasizes with the Christian women in Ephesus what their number one priority should be, namely being occupied with obeying the Lord and pleasing Him, which has eternal ramifications, namely rewards.

13. The apostle Paul wants the Christian women in Ephesus to stand in direct contrast with the “new” or “emancipated” or “liberated” woman that was being manifested in the Empire especially in the East.

14. The noun ergon means “works” referring to actions performed by the Christian women in Ephesus while in fellowship with God and are produced by the Holy Spirit when they exercise faith in the Word of God, which results in obedience to the will of the Father, which is revealed by the Spirit in the Word of God.

15. The adjective agathos in 1 Timothy 2:10 is modifying the noun ergon, “works,” which as we noted refers to actions performed by the Christian women in Ephesus while in fellowship with God.

16. They are produced by the Holy Spirit when they exercise faith in the Word of God, which results in obedience to the will of the Father, which is revealed by the Spirit in the Word of God.

17. Agathos means “divine good of intrinsic quality and character” and describes these actions as good in the sense that they are divine in quality and character because they are in accordance with the Father’s will.

18. They are in accordance with the Father’s will because they are the result of these women being influenced by the Spirit.

19. The Christian is filled with or influenced by the Spirit when they bring their thoughts into obedience to the teaching of the Spirit, which is heard through the communication of the Word of God.

20. Therefore, these works that Paul wants these Christian women in Ephesus to perform are divine in quality and character because the teaching of the Spirit as recorded in the Word is the basis for these actions.

21. Agathos describes these works or actions as being intrinsically valuable, intrinsically good, inherently good in quality but with the idea of good which is also profitable, useful, benefiting others, benevolent because they are based upon and motivated by the teaching of the Spirit in the Word of God.

22. Therefore, Paul in 1 Timothy 2:10 wants these Christian women in Ephesus to be occupied with performing actions that benefit the body of Christ and the Father and the Son in that they promote faith in the gospel.

23. He implicitly wants them to be filled with or more accurately influenced by the Spirit which he commands the Ephesians to be in Ephesian 5:18.

24. Failure to be filled with the Spirit or influenced by means of the Spirit results in a failure to perform actions that are divine good in quality and character since they are the result of being influenced by means of the Spirit.

25. “Good works” refers to actions performed by the believer after their conversion while in fellowship with God and are produced by the Holy Spirit when they are obedient to the will of the Father, which is revealed by the Spirit in the Word of God.

26. They are divine good, which is the production of Christ-like character in the believer who is obedient to the Holy Spirit who reveals the Father’s will through the Word of God.

27. Fruit bearing is the production of good works or divine good, which is Christ-like character.

28. The production of good works is the result of the believer being obedient to the Word of God.

29. This in turn enables the Holy Spirit to reproduce the character of Christ in the believer which will be rewarded at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the Church (John 15:1-8; Rom. 1:13; 6:22; Gal. 5:22; Eph. 5:9; Phil. 1:11; 4:17; Heb. 12:11; James 3:17-18).

30. These good works have eternal value and are indestructible and will be rewarded at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church that will be conducted immediately after the rapture (resurrection) of the church, which is imminent.

31. The quality of the believer's works will be tested at the Bema Seat Evaluation to see if they have any eternal value, whether worthless or divine good (1 Cor. 3:11-14; 2 Corinthians 5:9-10).

32. The Word of God is the means by which we produce good works.

33. 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (NASU)

34. Throughout the New Testament and especially in the Pastoral Epistles, believers are exhorted to perform good works through the ministry of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 5:16; Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 1:9-12; 1 Timothy 6:17-19; Titus 2:7-15; 3:1, 8, 14; Hebrews 10:23-25; 13:20-21; 1 Peter 2:12).

35. In 1 Timothy 2:10, the genitive form of ergon is the object of the preposition dia, which functions as a marker of means indicating that “good works” or “actions that aredivine good of intrinsic quality and character” are the instrument by which the Christian women in Ephesus were to clothe themselves.

36. The apostle Paul uses ergon in the genitive case rather than in the dative case to denote means since the former is closer to a causal idea than the latter.

37. He wishes to emphasize actions that are divine good of intrinsic quality and character are not only “the means by which” the Christian women in Ephesus were to adorn themselves but also they are the basis for living and not being occupied with their outward beauty.

38. 1 Timothy 2:10 but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. (NASU)

39. “As is proper for women making a claim to godliness” is composed of the nominative neuter singular form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) (oce), “as” and the third person singular present active indicative form of the verb prepo (πρέπω) (prep-owe), “is proper”

40. and the dative feminine plural form of the noun gune (γυνή) (yee-nee), “for women” and the dative feminine plural present middle participle form of the verb epangellomai (ἐπαγγέλλομαι) (ep-ahn-yellow-meh), “making aclaim to” and the accusative feminine singular form of the noun theosebeia (θεοσέβεια) (thay-owe-sev-ee-ah), “godliness.”

41. In 1 Timothy 2:10, the verb prepo is used of the good works that the Christian women in Ephesus were to adorn themselves with and means “to be appropriate, to be fitting, to be proper.”

42. It indicates that good works are “fitting” or “appropriate” for a Christian woman who professes to reverence God.

43. The present tense of the verb is a “gnomic” used of a general timeless fact indicating an eternal spiritual truth or spiritual axiom.

44. This indicates that adorning oneself by means of good works is “as an eternal spiritual truth” proper for Christian women who profess reverence for God.

45. As in 1 Timothy 2:9, the noun gune in 1 Timothy 2:10 means, “woman” or “female” as opposed or in contrast to men or a male and refers to the Christian women in Ephesus without reference to their marital status.

46. The verb epangellomai is used by Paul and means “to profess” in the sense of what one asserts about oneself and is used of the Christian women in Ephesus who “profess” to have reverence for God.

47. The noun theosebeia means “reverence for God” and refers to conduct that reverences God and speaks of worshipping God.

48. Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “reverence”: “A feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration.”

49. Therefore, paraphrasing this definition and applying it to our passage here in 1 Timothy 2:10, we can say that performing good works is proper for Christian women professing reverence for God in the sense of possessing an attitude of deep respect and awe for Him.