I’d start with Tit. 2:4, where older women are tasked with teaching younger women to be “husband-lovers” & “children-lovers.” The love which a Christian woman has received through Christ should overflow primarily towards her husband & children.
This isn’t just a cultural norm, it’s rooted in our created nature, as Paul notes in 1 Tim. 2:13, the man was made before the woman. However, Eve was deceived before Adam was.
This might lead women to be fearful that only God’s wrath awaits them. Paul assures women that salvation is still offered to them. As they hope for this salvation, that hope is exemplified in their obedience through bearing & rearing their children (1 Tim. 2:15).
Paul’s phrase here is troubling to modern minds, “she shall be saved in childbearing.” But the nub is this, a woman not only receives the Gospel in faith, but is restored to true womanhood by receiving the Gospel.
She no longer despises being in subjection to her own husband, but sees the glory of bearing & rearing children. It’s no coincidence that hatred of children has come along with the West’s rejection of Christianity, particularly among women.
Calvin comments on this passage: “God values this obedience (of childbearing) more highly than if, in some other manner, she made a great display of heroic virtues, while she refused to obey the calling of God.”
In other words, though Eve sinned––& thus pain was joined with childbearing––faithful women don’t eschew the pain, they endure it in faith. Trusting that by their faith, they shall be used of God to fill this world with generations of faithful saints.
Grace restores nature. Women fell by Eve’s sin, into the pain of childbearing & rearing. Christian women believe that God is remaking the world in Christ, and their faith leads to good works. Primarily this looks like having & holding babies.
So, women nurturing their children, being “home-focused”, submitting to their own husbands (not men in general––that’s another topic entirely) are all acts of faith. This can be abused by churlish men, but women like Abigail (Cf. 1 Sam. 25) show how to endure such men.
Nevertheless, we do no service to Christian women by persuading them that loving their husbands & children are optional parts of their Christian duty. Rather, this is the central duty of what it means for a woman to be obedient to her faith in Christ.
Paul makes a similar point, but directed towards men, when he says, “But if any provide not for his own, & specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, & is worse than an infidel (1 Tim. 5:8).”
Again, all this to say, we’re saved by grace alone. And that grace restores us to our true creational glory. Men are made true men. Women true women. Only unbelievers will despise these truths.
Originally tweeted by Ben Zornes (@benzornes) on August 12, 2021.
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