Translation
But she will be rescued
Go to footnote numberthrough bearing children, if they remain [constant] in faith and love and holiness with self-control.
Paraphrase
But man’s rescuer will be rescued from the power and penalty of sin by focusing on her role of bearing and raising children, if she lives a life characterized by faith, love, holiness and self-control.
Footnotes
1: "rescued"
The Greek word for salvation has much to do with being rescued or delivered from something, the word itself does not say what that something is. However, the way it is used in the New Testament makes clear that it refers to being rescued from the penalty of sin.
This word was likely to remind the Jews of Paul’s time of the fact that Eve was given to Adam as his “rescuer,” a support and encouragement who would sometimes get him out of the jams he was likely to get himself into.
RESCUED THROUGH BEARING CHILDREN? REALLY?
Many find this verse hard to understand or hard to accept. Hang in there with me and I hope you will see that it is not quite as bad as it appears on the surface. But I will not candy-coat this issue either, so some will still be offended, even if they get to the end of what I have to say.
Let’s take a look at it together.
Paul is saying that a woman (who is man’s support and rescuer) will be rescued in part by fulfilling her role of focusing on all the issues involved with bearing and raising children and caring for the home. Obviously, doing so does not take the place of saving faith, but it shows how important God thinks that role is.
Back then they knew that the task of training the next generation was a huge responsibility, and though husband and wife shared the responsibility, and though the father figure was ultimately held responsible by God, it was the mother that made most of it happen. What a great honor! What a great charge! Wives and mothers should not run from their role as described in the Bible, nor push it off onto others like a school system or a Sunday School teacher. (If you choose to place your children in a school, be it public or private, you should be highly involved in that education process, don’t expect the teachers to do all the work.) Mothers should see it as a blessing and a privilege that they have been granted the high and awesome responsibility of training the next generation, and they should see the presence of their husband in the picture as a positive thing, not a negative thing. The couple should work together at preparing the next generation. It is not just her, and it is not all him; they should be a team. When a woman understands her God-given role and seeks to fulfill it to the best of her ability, she is following God’s design, which pleases Him and makes living for Him in other ways much more plausible.
It was also true that women sometimes had to take roles of spiritual leadership in cases where there were no men who were saved. It still happens today.
God values men and women the same, but I believe He has designed us for different roles. Besides the obvious physical differences between us, there are other things that a mom is better at than a dad. We have different strengths and weaknesses.
A woman’s role is very important. I am convinced that the women mentioned in the Bible who seem to be exceptions to the rule were still functioning within their roles as we see those roles described in Scripture, and as they did so were having a powerful effect. The fact that they were influential and having a powerful impact does not necessitate a role reversal. We have been influenced to think that if a woman strictly follows the directives of Scripture, she will not be able to do much and will not have much influence. That assumption is 180 degrees from the truth.
Notice that Paul was not writing those congregations to give them advice about worship styles, about leadership structures, about evangelism programs, or any of the other things we seek today. In fact the only things Paul does tell them regarding the mechanics of leading a local gathering have to do with qualifications for the leaders, and the role of women. That shows us how important this issue is.
This verse teaches that women will be “rescued” from sin by following God’s pattern and design for life which includes many spiritual truths for both men and women, one of which is that we must follow the lines of authority God has established. These lines of authority require both men and women to submit to someone – men must submit to others with higher authority, and women should submit to their husbands.