Lesson 6 of 6
In Progress

Bible in the World – 1 Timothy

Vice List Reference to Homosexual Behavior – 1 Timothy 1:9-10

First Timothy 1:9-10 includes a list of vices which “the law” (this may be a reference to Jewish law) can rein in. No scriptural material is cited, though most of the vices are related to the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20:1-17) with their prohibitions against murder, adultery, and false witness. 

This vice list is one of three places (the others are 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and Romans 1:26-27) in Paul’s letters where homosexual behavior is mentioned. Interpretive questions abound, which fall into two broad areas: (1) what the text meant to its first readers and (2) how those who read these letters as Christian scripture today understand it. There is no consensus among readers with respect to either area. In general, those who see this passage as relevant in continuing to prohibit homosexual behavior among Christians believe that the first century behavior noted here was more or less identical to what moderns mean by the term, “homosexual behavior.” Those who do not recognize this passage as offering a prohibition on Christians today (1) distinguish between exploitative behavior denoted by the word here and sexual expression between consenting adults, perhaps within the context of a promise, and/or (2) note that the 20th century concept of homosexual orientation was not part of the ancient worldview, and so the prohibition here cannot be carried over across the centuries without additional interpretation.

Women, Silence, and Childbearing – 1 Timothy 2:11-15

This letter contains the New Testament’s most extensive prohibition against women’s involvement in church leadership. According to the author, women “who profess reverence for God” are to learn in “silence with full submission,” and to have no authority over men. The text is clearly at odds with other parts of the New Testament, including all four gospels’ reports of women being charged with sharing the news of the resurrection of Jesus, as well as Paul’s own commendation of women leaders in the church (see Romans 16). Even so, the text from 1 Timothy has been cited to exclude women from preaching, teaching, and other forms of public Christian leadership in many parts of the church. 

The reference to childbearing in 1 Timothy 2:15 is probably related to the story in Genesis 2, in which the first humans are punished for disobedience. One of the punishments is increased pain in childbirth (see Genesis 2:16). Read in that context, the passage from 1 Timothy asserts that godly women will not suffer death through the medically dangerous process of childbirth, and not, as it has sometimes been interpreted, that bearing children is a means of salvation for women. 

Household Management as Indicator of Fitness for Church Leadership – 1 Timothy 3:4-5; 12

This letter offers checklists of behavior and character traits for those who would serve in the offices of bishop or deacon. Satisfactory household management is a requirement for each church office. This interest in adequate “command and control” of one’s household has its origin in political philosophy of the time. Philosophers saw the household as a microcosm of society: one who sought to lead in politics should first give evidence of being able to keep a household in order. 

Modern conversation about “family values” in the Bible likely has its genesis in 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and similar New Testament passages where the picture of the family is one of a married male head of household whose wife is modest and submissive and whose children are kept in line. The use of these passages in ordination and consecration rituals for bishops and deacons extends into the present day. Such usage reinforces hierarchy and patriarchy as values of church leadership. These scriptural passages sit comfortably with a view of the church as an institution modeled on the Greco-Roman household.

Advice to Slaves – 1 Timothy 6:1-2

The New Testament witness concerning slavery is almost entirely to see it as compatible with the Christian life. Some readers see exceptions to this rule in Paul’s letter to Philemon, in which Paul writes of Philemon receiving Onesimus back into his household, “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother” and in Galatians 3:28 which speaks of there being “no longer slave or free,” for “all of you are one in Christ Jesus. At two places, Christian masters are urged to be well-behaved toward their slaves (see Colossians 4:1; Ephesians 6:9), but nowhere does the New Testament reject slavery as an institution in which Christians may participate. 

The lack of a clear New Testament prohibition on slavery was used by church leaders against abolitionists in early American history. The pro-slavery argument was based on the absence of such a prohibition: if slavery were evil, wouldn’t God have forbidden it in the scriptures? This argument from silence had disastrous consequences. The text of 1 Timothy 6:1-2 as well as other texts like it (see Ephesians 6:5-9; Colossians 3:22-4:1; Titus 2:9-10; 1 Peter 2:18-21; 1 Corinthians 7:21-24) were used to urge passivity and obedience to the will of slave masters on enslaved individuals, to salve the consciences of slave masters at the arrogance and cruelty of one human being ever purporting to own another, and to refute calls by abolitionists to reject slavery as inhumane in any form. 

The Love of Money – 1 Timothy 6:10

People who know almost nothing else about the Christian Bible will sometimes attribute the news that “money is the root of all evil” to it. The maxim is a mistranslation of 1 Timothy 6:10. 1 Timothy 6:9 speaks of “those who want to be rich” in the context is Paul’s commendation of contentment with minimal worldly goods. The sentiment is something like that of Jesus in Luke’s Sermon on the Plain: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing” (Luke 12:22-23).

In the context of a passage on the value of contentment, Paul discusses the opposite, namely, wanting more, wanting “to be rich,” and he connects this craving with being “trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction” (6:9). “For the love of money,” he continues, is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains” (6:10). Rather than pursuing riches, Paul urges Timothy to pursue “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness” (6:11). 

Many interpreters point out that it is the love of money, and not money itself, that is the root of all kinds of evil. True, but this disclaimer often has the effect of dulling the point of the passage. Pursuing riches is not ethically neutral for Timothy or those who read this letter after him. It is dangerous. It puts at risk not only to one’s contentment, but also the fullness of life (righteousness, godliness, etc.) that is the inheritance of those in Christ. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34; Matthew 6:21). Paul’s words to Timothy are an observation, and a warning.