1 Timothy 2 is one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament, primarily because of the potential abusive applications of the second half of the chapter. Paul’s words have been used to silence the voice of women in the church despite the very clear Pauline teaching that in Christ there is neither male to female. Perhaps the situation is clouded by American political debate over feminism and the role of women in the church. Before getting to the controversial section, I want to set the context of the chapter.
Paul’s main point in 1 Timothy is that the church ought to conduct itself in a way that is honoring to God and attractive to outsiders. In order to honor God, Paul insists Timothy guard the truth of the Gospel and train others to keep that deposit of truth faithfully. In this section of the letter, Paul tells Timothy the local church must conduct meetings in such a ways as to gain the respect of outsiders. On the one hand, this means praying for authorities, but more problematic is Paul’s concern that the behavior of some members of the congregation run the risk of repelling the outsider, the Greek or Roman who needs the Gospel.
Paul says the Christian community should be seen by outsides as dignified and worthy of respect (v. 3-4). Paul wants his churches to be models of a dignified “quiet life.” What is a peaceful (ἤρεμος) and quiet (ἡσύχιος) life? This sounds like Paul is telling the reader to go live in a cabin in the woods. This might sound a little too Amish for most Christians! But these two words are often found in lists of Greco-Roman virtues. Socrates was a model of calm in the face of peril for the Greeks (Theon, Progymnasmata, 8; Rhet. Graec., II, 111, 27 f.). For the Greeks, rulers were to be calm and have a quiet demeanor (Xenoph. Ag., 11, 2. 6. 20; Isoc. Or., 2, 23; see TDNT 6:646).
In a Greek papyri dated to the sixth century A.D. (P Oxy I. 1298) a father repudiates a betrothal because he wishes his daughter would “lead a peaceful and quiet life” (εἰρηνικὸν καὶ ἡσύχιον βίον διάξαι, MM, 281). While this letter is dated well after the writing of 1 Timothy, a similar use of the word appears in PsSol 12:5: “May the Lord protect the quiet person who hates injustice; may the Lord guide the person who lives peacefully at home.” This is a Jewish text, probably reflecting the Pharisees, predating Paul by about 100 years. The writer parallels one who is quiet (ἡσύχιος) and lives peacefully (although the more common εἰρήνη is used).
Paul also describes this idea life as “godly and dignified in every way.” Both words would be idea virtues in the Greco-Roman world as well as the Christian or Jewish. The word “godly” is the common word εὐσέβεια, and was used by Diogenes Laertius (third century A.D.) for “the pious follow sacrificial custom and take care of temples” and was common used in the Aeneid to describe “pious” people (BDAG).
The word translated dignified (σεμνότης) is often translated with the Latin gravitas (a Latinism used in contemporary English for someone who has power). It is often associated with “denotes a man’s visible deportment.” When Josephus retells the story of Saul and the witch of Endor, she recognizes the king because he carries himself like a king; in retelling the story of Pharaoh’s first encounter with Joseph, Philo comments that the king was impressed with Joseph’s dignity (Philo, Jos. 257, cf. 165).
This command is not unusual in the Pauline letters. “Live a quiet life” is similar to Paul’s exhortation in 1 Thessalonica 4:1-12. In that context, there were individuals who were not working to provide for their own needs. The ultimate motivation for living in a quiet, dignified manner is that the outsiders will see this and “come to a knowledge of the truth.” As in 1 Thessalonians, Paul is concerned with the public reputation of Christians. Their lifestyle needs to be worthy of respect and attractive to outsiders. Christians were a strange superstition to the Greco-Roman world; as the church grew Christians came under increasing scrutiny for their practices and beliefs.
Since the quiet, dignified life was a virtue in the Greco-Roman world, any chaos or discord in the church would drive people away from the Gospel. With this “quiet dignified life” in mind, Paul then turns to a problem in the Ephesian churches which is disrupting that kind of life and potentially bringing shame on the church. This problem appears to center on some women in the Ephesian churches who are not living a “quiet dignified life.”
The quiet life has unfortunately become a hipster clothing line that a way to live out one’s Christian life. In fact, it is hard to look at the typical evangelical as presented by the media as loving a quiet life that earns the respect of outsiders. Is the ideal of a quiet life for individuals only, or does Paul see this as a model for the whole church to follow? How can the contemporary church live out this ideal of a quiet life so that it can earn the respect of outsiders and (perhaps) attract them to the Gospel?
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Interesting. Would Greeks, Jews, and Christians have agreed on what it means to be quiet and dignified? Since Paul is concerned with the impression the churches give off to outsiders, I would think there was a large degree of agreement. Yet Paul also speaks of Greco-Roman culture, at least in its idolatry, as overwhelmingly bad. He characterizes the world as evil and foolish—undignified and arrogant. I’m interested in better understanding what aspects of Greek culture Paul quibbled with and what aspects he thought were on the right track.
Yes, I think most educated and cultured people would agree on quiet and dignified. I just read a biography of Cicero, it was interesting to read some of his rhetoric condemning opponents for being undignified. Although the Roman world did have exceptions, of course. The worship of Dionysus comes to mind. And what counted as shameful would be different, a Roman man would see no shame in visiting the prostitutes or even having sex with a male slave. Jews would have none of that for the most part!
I wonder if Paul (and most Jews) had assumptions that all pagans were more or less indulging in pagan revelry all the time (sexual sins, etc.)
1 Timothy chapter 2’s opening verses encourage believers to “live peaceful and quiet lives.” Paul makes a similar statement in Romans 12:18 where he urges the Romans to “live at peace with everyone.” By living at peace with others we will create a good name for ourselves in the community. This respect will hopefully translate into a positive response to the gospel. Although we should not only base our actions on what others will think of us, we should consider how unbelievers would view Christians if they knew you. Some people may only know a couple of Christians. They base their perception of Christianity on those few that they know. On this individual level, we must be worthy of respect so that when the opportunity comes to share the gospel, the unbeliever may be receptive to it. Paul says that this respect comes by pursuing “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:11). Ultimately, we are seeking God’s approval, not man’s (1 Thess 2:4).
I think the call to live a “quiet life” is the same as being called to be different in the world around you. I usually think “living a quiet life” means living a humble life. Being humble and not seeking the attractions of this world. Our world is prideful and we are always looking for ways to raise ourselves up the social ladder or to be noticed, praised, accepted. To live quietly is not seeking those things from the world but finding those things through Christ. I think the whole church is called to be humble and there are different ways to demonstrate humility. The way the church conducts itself and the individual gifts people bring can be attractive to outsiders. Through humility and love, the church can attract outsiders because people are attracted to things that are different. Someone doing something “weird” on the streets? juggling or jumping on a pogo stick? People are going to stop and watch because it’s different from their everyday. Living the “quiet life” Paul talks about is a way for the church to stand out in the middle of a busy society. Showing love when it is normal to show anger, showing forgiveness when it is normal to chase vengeance. This I believe is what will show the difference between the world and the one who follows Christ.
Outreach can sometimes be a tricky thing. You may want to make Christianity look attractive to those in your culture, but you can definitely not compromise Christian morals. The issue then is that, inevitably, large parts of unbelieving culture that Christians live in will not mesh with Christianity. The first thing that comes to mind for me is the pagan feasts in the temple of Aphrodite in Corinth. Therefore, instead of attempting to somehow incorporate or mirror some of these more extreme aspects of their culture, Paul is saying that these Christians should make themselves attractive to unbelievers by leading peaceful and dignified lives. If they are respectable members of society and above reproach, than it is likely that outsiders would see this strange “Christian cult” in a more positive light. Furthermore, another vital part of this outreach is prayer as Paul outlines in verses 1-2. In these verses, Paul tells the importance of praying for all men, including those in authority over us. In fact, this final point could have been a little harder for early believers as the Roman authority during this time was not always that nice to early Christianity. But regardless, this is important for Paul as this is what he was appointed to do (v. 7).
As Christians one of our greatest strengths but also a hindrance is how opinionated we can be. These opinions we have causes us to be louder than normal. We wish for people to be saved and sometimes the way we go about it can be twisted. All of us as a body should know that our job is to preach the gospel to the Lord’s wandering children. Before we leave this earth our main goal should be to bring as many people to the glory of God as possible. Where we fall short is when we condemn people and cast stones at them. The church as a whole has become the modern day pharisees. Every act we do has to be posted on social media. When we disagree with someone it is to the pit of fire they go. Then, we want to act all high and mighty. There is nothing quiet about the modern day church. And the attention we are receiving is nothing but negative lately. As the body of Christ we should move differently than we have been doing. Instead of going on mission trips why not venture out into the community. Why condemn someone gay or struggling with addiction when we can love them and teach them unconditionally. And before condemning someone why not get to know them and understand their past that got them where they are now. Our genuine acts of service should be doing majority of the talking for us. This is a way the modern church can live a quiet life. Less talking and more doing, less condemning and more compassion, less judgement and more understanding. God’s people are in need of His love and His teachings. So, that also means less of us and more of Him.
The way Paul seems to view what it means to live a quiet life i believe refers to individuals as well as the church. If you are outside of the church, setting a bad example in your own time, people who know you are a Christian may lose respect for Christianity as a whole. Thos is even more so as a church. If churches aren’t behaving “quietly” and more respectfully, then they may be seen as hypocritical, causing people to reject the idea of taking any part in the church or following Christ. I know quite a few people who think of Christians as hypocrites because the hand full that they know do not walk the walk or they have only visited churches that do not walk the walk of walk of a follower of Jesus, leading them to believe that ALL Christians are hypocrites and ALL churches are corrupt. I’m sure this is what Paul was trying to get across, but after reading this post my first impression was that Paul wasn’t taking into account that we are all sinners and we do not want to appear as though we are perfect. If we did, then we WOULD be hypocrites because we sin every single day and if we forced ourselves to look polished and tidy for people outside of the church just so they will come in and join us, then this is not for the right intention! But I am aware that this is not the point Paul is trying to make. I think as a body of believers today, living quietly could mean that we live our lives striving to be reflections of Jesus. This does not mean that we shouldn’t be honest with people and the world about our sins. We need non-believers to know that we don’t believe we are perfect and that we fall all the time! But this is where God’s grace and mercy are to be revealed to them. This is where we show them by the way we live that our God is so merciful and He loves us so much that He sent His one and only Son to die for us.
1 Timothy 2:2-4, “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 the knowledge of the truth.” I believe that God wants us to live a good life according to His will. We should be following Jesus and seeking after Him. “Paul’s main point in 1 Timothy is that the church ought to conduct itself in a way that is honoring to God and attractive to outsiders,” (Long, 2019). As a believer in Christ, we should honor God with our actions and behaviors. We are to be an example of Christ because He died for our sins and we a called to live in holiness. The church can attract unbelievers to the gospel by living quietly and differently. Instead of speaking words we can show them with our actions. We can humbly serve and reveal that our actions speak louder then words. God will show Himself in us, so that unbelievers will come to Christ. The church can serve quietly, meaning helping others without making a big deal about it. We can show others Jesus when we are living our basic lives. Also, knowing when we should take a stand against evil, and how to take the stand. When we stand up for what we believe in kindly but truthfully we reveal the grace of God within us.
It is interesting to see how different people interpret this meaning of living “the quiet life” like Paul is writing about. When I see this, I do not think it is Paul simply saying that the people of the church should be secluded from everyone else, or not try to spread the faith with others. I think of it more as like telling us to be slow to speak, and think about the things that we are going to say- rather than just saying whatever comes to our mind, even if it is not wise. For example the Bible says, “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger”(James 1:19). I think this correlated well with maybe what Paul was also kind of saying. It is better to be slow to speak and be “quiet”, rather than acting on our impulse. Another verse correlating with this is Proverbs 17:38, “Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent”. I think if other people see people of the church being obnoxious and acting on impulse, and not letting them talk- then it creates more division, rather then helping bring people to the church.
This lifestyle of that Paul is talking about with living a quiet life Is the opposite of the false teachers of the time. Living a “quiet life”, Paul says through the Pastoral Epistles, is to live in a way that reflects well the gospel message. As stated in the blog, “The ultimate motivation for living in a quiet, dignified manner is that the outsiders will see this and “come to a knowledge of the truth” (Long). The church should not have to make a “big deal” of gospel message, people should see it being lived out in there every day life. “Paul urges prayer for all people (vv. 1-2) because God desires all people to be saved” (ESVSB, p. 1612). Paul makes it clear that God desires all races, male/female and economic classes to trust in Christ. “God desires for ALL people to be saved; and Christ Jesus died as a ransom for ALL people” (Longenecker, p. 276).
Fast forward to today, this message says the same. We are to pray for all people, even those who may have done us wrong in the past and desire them to find the truth. This does not mean that everyone will be saved (4:1; 5:24; 6:10), but that does not mean you can try. After all, we are called to be a light to those who have yet to find it and sadly some will still go back to the darkness. As I go to Florida this week for soccer, I am not only representing Grace, but above all Christ. In all I do, it should honor Christ in my actions and words because you never know who is watching/listening.
The aspect of living out a quiet life was really appealing to me at first because I am introverted and the idea of Paul advocating for a quiet life was an immediate eye catcher even just looking at the title of the blog posts for this week. However, I was disappointed to find out that this was not really Paul’s intention for a quiet life. Paul says that, “for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” Paul’s quiet life does not mean that we are to live out our lives as a sort of Christian hermit that does not interact with the rest of the world – that would be counterproductive to Paul’s other teachings in his letters. Rather, Paul intended the quiet life to be dignified in a way that reflects positively on the Christian faith. Phil Long says in his blog post that, “the quiet, dignified life was a virtue in the Greco-Roman world, any chaos or discord in the church would drive people away from the Gospel. With this “quiet dignified life” in mind, Paul then turns to a problem in the Ephesian churches which is disrupting that kind of life and potentially bringing shame on the church. This problem appears to center on some women in the Ephesian churches who are not living a “quiet dignified life.”
This idea from Paul as a quiet life is one that is very well throughout in my opinion. Paul is here trying to talk about leading by example. What Paul means here by a quiet life is that living to please God is so important, and actually living it out instead of just talking is more important. By living a quiet life it means that you can live a godly life by example so that others will see and know that you are a Christ follower. As we go on in life it is important that we remember that our actions speak louder than our words. It reminds me of that saying, don’t tell me what you’re going to do, show me what you’re going to do. For me in my life it is very important that I live this out, and lead by example.
I’m having trouble deciding which post to put this on, so I’ll put it here, and reference the other post occasionally. As you said, the main point in 1 Timothy is how the church should “conduct itself in a way that is honoring to God and attractive to outsiders.” It is God’s desire—and to an extension, Paul’s—that “…all people to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” (1 Tim. 2:4). Therefore, the church should act in an appropriate way that is aligned with 1 Timothy’s main point. Paul’s description of the peaceful life, dignified and godly, describe a life that is honoring God and attractive to outsiders, “Both words would be idea virtues in the Greco-Roman world as well as the Christian or Jewish.” There was a problem in the church Timothy was at, namely, false teachers preying on young, widowed women. They were disrupting the peaceful life Paul wanted them to live. Potentially, these women could have been trying to perform duties that the Roman culture would have frowned upon, “Paul says women should learn, but they ought to do so with the same sort of dignified grace he encouraged in the first seven verses of the passage,” (Long, “Learn in Quiet and Submission”). Paul’s command in 1 Tim. 2:8-15 was a specific situational command to that church because people weren’t living the peaceful, attractive life that promoted God. In this situation it just so happened to be women. I think that the ideal peaceful life is for the whole church community. As it was already stated early, “God desires for all people to be saved; and Christ Jesus dies as a ransom for all people,” (Longenecker, 276). Since we are ambassadors of God’s kingdom, we should attract outsiders into His kingdom.
living the quiet live seems to be a foriegn idea for some because many people seem to think that they have to make sure that every one can see just how good their life, many people have the idea that they need to share with the world how much money they have. The sad thing is that this idea has caused people to lie about their wealth and steal from others to get the money they desire. The Bible tells us that we are supposed to live quiet and not flaunt what we have. The Bible teaches that we should live humbly, that Christians should live in a way that does not call attention to themselves but to live a life that points to God. One of the reasons behind this could be because God knows that having stuff just to have can prevent the person from living a good life. Look at the rich young ruler from the Bible, his stuff meant more to him then God, that could as be a reason, have a lot of stuff can cause us to lose sight on what truly matters. The thing is have stuff is not the problem, having money is not a problem but its how it is treated. A Christian should never use their wealth as a way to harm others but as a way to bring healing to others. Rich Christian live this out by giving more to the church, they could use their influence and wealth to help those in need.
Paul’s main point about the church and how they need to conduct themselves in a way that honors God and attracts others is interesting because Paul is telling the people of the church that they should be producing meetings that attract others. This is because Paul knows that by honoring God and attracting others, the church can and will grow exponentially and make the church open its doors to more people. Having a large number of people going to the same church grows the community and can bring more people to realize that God is their one true Lord. Paul also says he wants the churches to lead a quiet and peaceful life. The reason a quiet and peaceful life is so important is because when you live in this way it helps people realize that there is more to life than their selfish needs. Most people believe that their lives are the most important and they do things for their own needs, but when you start to live a quiet and peaceful life, you start doing things for other people instead of only doing things for yourself. This is the way that we should be living and that is why Paul told Timothy that this is the way to live.