Godliness and Gender: Relating Appropriately to All (1 Timothy 2:9-12) -- By: James M. Hamilton, Jr.

Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 15:1 (Spring 2010)
Article: Godliness and Gender: Relating Appropriately to All (1 Timothy 2:9-12)
Author: James M. Hamilton, Jr.


Godliness and Gender:
Relating Appropriately to All
(1 Timothy 2:9-12)1

James M. Hamilton, Jr.

Associate Professor of Biblical Theology
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Louisville, Kentucky

Let’s pray together: Father, your Word is truth, and we pray now that you would sanctify us by your word. Lord, we pray that you would give us contrite hearts that are humble and that tremble before what you have spoken because, Lord, we fear you. We ask that you would do this; we pray that you would give us attentive hearts. We pray that your word would speak and that we would understand. And we ask this in Jesus name and by the power of the Spirit. Amen.

Introduction

There is a discrepancy between C. S. Lewis’s book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the movie based on the book. The discrepancy appears when Father Christmas presents gifts to the children. He gives Peter a sword and shield. To Susan, he gives a bow and arrows and a horn. He then tells her, “You must use the bow only in great need, for I do not mean you to fight in the battle.” Next, he gives Lucy a bottle and a dagger and says, “The dagger is to defend yourself at great need. For you also are not to be in the battle.” Lucy responds, “Why sir? I think—I don’t know—but I think I could be brave enough.” To which Father Christmas replies, “That is not the point. But battles are ugly when women fight.” During the battle at the end, Peter and Edmund—not Susan and Lucy—are the ones waging war against Aslan’s enemies.

For some reason, the movie version edited the comments of Father Christmas. World Magazine got the scoop from the film’s director, Andrew Adamson:

Father Christmas gives weapons to the children but tells the girls, “I do not intend you to use them, for battles are ugly when women fight.” Mr. Adamson, considering the line sexist, told Mr. Gresham, “C. S. Lewis may have had these dated ideals but at the same time there’s no way I could put that in the film.” The two compromised, Mr. Adamson said, with Father Christmas on-screen saying, “I hope you don’t have to use them because battles are ugly and fierce.”2

It is remarkable that things have changed so much since the publication of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in 1950.

If we are to be faithful to God and live godly lives, we must understand what God intends us to be as men and women. The main point of this message is that godliness is, as defined by Paul in this first letter to Timothy, relating appropriately to all people given their stati...

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