![\"Using](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mmoutreach.org\/wim\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/using-authority.jpg?resize=252%2C350\")
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Paul\u2019s use of \u201cI am not allowing\u201d in 1 Timothy 2:12 has caused a lot of speculation regarding his reasons for disallowing certain activities. In this post we are going to look at this phrase very carefully.<\/p>\n
The first thing that we can note is that Paul is not appealing to an existing law. \u00a0Paul does not say \u201cGod\u2019s law is not allowing\u201d as if God had already set up a law that restrained women from using their spiritual gifts. \u00a0Paul also does not say \u201cGod does not allow you to let a woman\u2026 \u201d as if Timothy is under a law that he may have been disobeying. \u00a0What Paul clearly says is \u201cI am not allowing\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
What is even more curious is that there is no other verse in the entire Scripture like this one. \u00a0Nowhere does a man of God state that he doesn\u2019t allow something. God\u2019s prohibitions are never put in the personal will of the man of God. They are always by God\u2019s authority. So why did Paul use his own authority in 1 Timothy 2:12?\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 1 Timothy Paul tells Timothy \u2018you do it\u2019 a number of times. \u00a0In chapter 1 verse 3 Paul tells Timothy to instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. \u00a0In chapter 5 verse 11 Paul commands Timothy to refuse to put younger widows on the widows list lest they later desire to marry and in chapter 5 verse 19 Paul commands Timothy not to receive an accusation against an elder except for the required two or three witnesses. \u00a0In chapter 5 verse 20 Timothy is commanded to rebuke an elder who continues to sin and in chapter 6 verse 17 Paul commands Timothy to instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited.<\/p>\n
So why doesn\u2019t Paul continue his pattern of commanding Timothy to \u201cdo\u201d things and instead Paul lifts up his own authority in 1 Timothy 2:12 saying \u201cI am not allowing\u201d? \u00a0May I suggest that Paul is giving his own apostolic authority to Timothy to act in a very sensitive situation.<\/p>\n
Timothy was a young man who in his youthfulness would have had a difficult time going past another man\u2019s wife in order to stop her from teaching. In that culture a man\u2019s home and family was his own responsibility alone. If you were going to deal with a man\u2019s wife, you needed to go through the husband. But if the man of verse 12 was another \u201cAdam\u201d character who was saying and doing nothing about his wife\u2019s deception, who could interfere? Paul could.<\/p>\n
In the church Paul had the apostolic authority to go around the husband to stop the deception and false teaching of the wife. \u00a0By Paul saying \u201cI am not allowing\u201d Paul is giving his authority to Timothy to act on his behalf in one of the most uncomfortable tasks that Timothy had to accomplish. It was one thing to command the false teachers to cease and desist and to publicly rebuke elders who will not stop sinning, but how does this single young man rebuke another man\u2019s wife? Paul takes the heat off of Timothy by making this one task a little easier by providing Timothy with the use of Paul\u2019s authority. Paul is not allowing\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 Paul\u2019s use of \u201cI am not allowing\u201d in 1 Timothy 2:12 has caused a lot of speculation regarding his reasons for disallowing certain activities. In this post we are going to look at this phrase very carefully. The first thing that we can note is that Paul is not appealing to an existing law. \u00a0Paul does not say \u201cGod\u2019s law is not allowing\u201d as if God had already set up a law that restrained women from using their spiritual…<\/p>\n