What should be our assumptions and responses when we read these passages?
1. 1 Timothy 2. God teaches all of us but only calls some of us to be teachers. This is a good and fruitful calling. As we teach, some of us stray from what God taught us. Wayward teachers need correction. Those who receive it may be put back into service. Those who do not should not teach. Some of those who had been serving in this way, both men (verse 2:8) and women (2:11-12), needed correction. Those men and women who received correction well could aspire to resuming a ministry of oversight and teaching (3:1). The Greek text reads: If anyone aspires to service he or she desires a good thing.
2. Ephesians 5. God calls us to a beneficial relationship of unity. Those who are joined to God are also joined to one another in Christ. Christ loved us and gave himself for us even to the point of sacrifice (5:25). This was the key idea to understanding the beneficial relationship of unity between Christ and the church (5:32).
3. 1 Corinthians 11 and 14. A good way to expose falsehood is to repeat it publicly and then correct it. Paul did that a number of times in First Corinthians. To help us recognize what Paul was doing, the words quoted should be set off with quotation marks. Those words should be recognized as false doctrine and should not be implemented at home or in the church. 1 Corinthians 11:4-6 and 14:34-35 should be in quotes.
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