Sun. July 12, 2009 (J. Evan Kreider)

Evan Kreider dealt with the difficult texts found in 1 Timothy 2. Noting that the authorship of the Timothy letters is uncertain, Evan pointed out that content is often more important than authorship. Emperor worship in the 2nd century was strong and Christians were told to pray for but not to their political leaders. The writer silences women; they were second-class citizens - a position that would have found support from Romans and Greeks of that day. No one knows how much damage this passage has caused the Christian community over the centuries. Many churches ignore the order for women to remain silent just as we ignore Biblical injunctions about slavery. We need to view this passage as directed at a specific situation and, unfortunately, we don’t know what that situation was. Many churches follow Paul’s endorsement of Phoebe as a deaconess (Romans 16) and encourage women to use their God–given gifts to serve others. Evan expressed appreciation for women who have taught and influenced him. In viewing the totality of Scripture and how culture influences the church, we need to follow Paul’s direction in Galatians: in Christ we are all one; there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female [HN] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, July 12th, 2009 using your browser's preferred media player.