1 Timothy 2:8-15
Discipleship Questions
1. Read 1 Timothy 2:8
Paul wants men to pray with “holy hands, without anger or quarrelling.” Why do you think he connects prayer, holiness, and our relationships with other people so closely?
Is there any anger, resentment, unresolved conflict or damaged relationship(s) in your life that sits uncomfortably alongside your prayers to God? What would obedience look like this week?
2. Read 1 Timothy 2:9–10
Paul contrasts outward appearance with being “adorned” by good works. What do these verses tell us about what God considers genuinely beautiful and impressive?
What are you most tempted to want other people to notice, admire or think well of you for? How might you deliberately invest more in the kind of character and good works that God values?
3. Look again at verses 8–10
Although Paul gives different instructions to men and women, there is a common concern underneath them: our outward lives should match our inward profession of faith.
Where is the greatest danger of a gap developing between the Christian others see and the person you actually are—perhaps at home, online, at work, with money, sexually, or in the way you respond under pressure?
4. Read 1 Timothy 2:11
Paul says, “Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.” Whatever our sex, being a Christian means having the posture of a learner before God and his Word.
How teachable are you really? When Scripture confronts something you already believe, want or prefer, is your instinct to submit to it, wrestle honestly with it, or look for a way around it? Can you think of a recent example?
5. Read 1 Timothy 2:11–14
Paul grounds the ordering of teaching and authority in God’s creation, rather than simply in the culture of Ephesus.
Why is it important that we allow God’s Word to shape our view of what is good, rather than asking Scripture to endorse the values of the culture around us? Are there particular areas where you personally find that tension hardest?
6. Think particularly about verses 13–14
Eve’s failure involved listening to a different voice rather than trusting what God had said.
What voices are most capable of competing with God’s Word in your life—your own instincts, friends, culture, social media, fear of other people, personal experience, something else?
How can you become better at recognising when another voice is beginning to carry more weight than God’s?
7. Read 1 Timothy 2:15 and then reread the whole passage
Paul finishes with faith, love, holiness and self-control—a persevering life that demonstrates the reality of faith.
If someone could not hear anything you said you believed, but could simply watch your life for the next seven days, what evidence would they see that you belong to Christ?
And, after studying this passage, what is one specific area in which you want the truth you have learned to become truth lived this week?
Catch up on sermons from 1 Timothy here: