Two Are Better Than One

SUPPLEMENT TO 1 TIMOTHY 2-3 “NOTE” - 2010-02-25

It is not sufficient to rest in but one verse or section on a subject. We must consider each verse of the entire Bible.

One man used the following illustration to press this truth home. If you take a drop of the ocean and analyze it, you will find in trace form, all the constituent elements of the ocean. In like manner, when you consider a verse of the Bible, it must reflect in trace form, all the constituent elements of Scripture!

Some may say - but that would mean I would have to understand the entire Bible before I could competently teach on any portion of it! Precisely! Competentlyis the word. God holds all teachers of His Word - to Masteras much as possible His entire Word! That is why the author of the book of James says - “Be not manyteachers, my brethren, knowingthat we shall receive greater condemnation” (James 3:1).

Thisis a most sober thought! So many glibly tell us what they believe the Bible says, and they have but a peripheral or surface understanding of it. One day each teacher and so-called teacher of the Word, will answer to the Lord before His Judgment Seat - His BEma. We may be saved - but as by fire. All wood, hay and stubble works down here will be consumed! Only our works of gold (for God); silver (for winning the lost); and precious jewels (for building up our fellow-saints into the image of Christ) - will survive that fiery judgment. Saved - but as by fire - with most of our works consumed!

I personally have copied out the entire NT by hand in Greek several times, and typed it up in English. I have outlined it sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, section by section and book by book a number of times. I read much of it on my knees, meditating over it in prayer. I have read the entire Bible through at least once a year in over a dozen different translations, including the originals. Is this to show how great I am? Absolutely not! It is to fulfill James 3:1, and ensure that as much as I can, I teach each verse of the Bible in context of the entire Bible. I believe all teachers of the Bible should try as God leads them - to masterthe entire Bible also, so that they can thinkit, speak it, doit and live it by the power of the indwelling Spirit, and that Jesus our Lord may then use us for His glory alone.

I have not arrived. I never will. Like Paul I say, “I am persuaded that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing!” Jesus in me is my onlygoodness. I am just amazed how many professing believers take God's word so lightly! To thinkit, speak it, doit and liveit seems to be the last thing they have in mind. Early in my Christian life God dropped a book into my life - “Let God saywhat Hewants to say, and the Bible meanwhat itwants to mean.” By His grace I have sought to be true to this book title. It does notalways make me popular! I made up a sermon outline for a seminary class in 1947. It's 6 points were taken from Colossians 3:18-4:1.

1. Wives, be subject to your:husbands, as is fitting in theLord.

2. :Husbands, loveyourwives and be not bitter against them.

3. :Children, obey the parents in all things.

4. :Fathers provoke notyour children.

5. :Bondmen, obey in all thingsthe lords according to theflesh.

6. :Lords, render to the bondmen what is just and equal.

When my seminary Principal looked over this 6 point outline he said, It's true to Scripture, but surelyyou wouldn't preach it?

In 1 Timothy 2-3, I brought out in my “NOTE” some observations on this text. I believe Paul spoke truth in 1 Corinthians 14:37 when he said that his teachings were nothis, but his 14 NT epistles were allcommandments of the Lord- not those of Paul! And Jesus said, “If you loveMe, you willkeep My commandments.”

Some think Paul was down on women. I don't believe it! Look what the Lord led him to write in Ephesians 5. Paul says - “Just as Jesus loved His church, and gave Himselffor it - sohusbands should love their wives!” No wife could mind following the headship of her husband, if hewalked in thistruth!

And Peter said “You, the husbands, mete out honor to the female vessel as weaker and dwelling with themaccording to knowledge, as beingjoint-heirsof thegrace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.” (1 Peter 3:7)

And Paul in Galatians 3:28 says, Thereis neither Jew nor Greek, thereis neither bond nor free, there is no male or female; for you are all one manin Christ Jesus.” And Jesus said that in heaven there is neither marriage or giving in marriage; for then we will all be like the angels! So male and female roles down here are different - but then it will be different still! Faithful women down here in their role, will be like Deborahs then, with men like Barak looking to them for leadership.

In the past I have mentioned Mary Slessor of Calabar (from Scotland originally) who functioned as a church-founding apostle without title, and did so under the headship of her church leaders. Sophie Muller of New Tribes Mission in South America functioned in exactly the same manner in 3 countries. It will be very difficult for any man down here to supersede them in reward up there.

Under the Old Covenant, only males entered in through circumcision. But under the New Covenant, both male and female enter into the Kingdom privileges through baptism. What a difference this is over against Islam, and the terrible role it places women under. Jesus in Christianity is the only One who has lifted women so highly in this life. True, there are many women through the influence of the Women's Lib movement, who have sought to break all barriers, even those Jesus has set in this life. That- Mary Slessor and Sophie Muller would notdo!

See how gracious Jesus was with the woman of Samaria in John 4. He read her off - she had had 5 husbands, and the man she was presently with was not her husband. But Jesus received her through repentance, and as an evangelist, she immediately brought her whole village to Him! And it was to a woman Jesus first appeared following His resurrection. And look how He looked after His human mother, even when He was dying for our sins on the Cross!

And, in Jesus' genealogy, he had Ruth the Moabitess and Rahab the harlot in His Judean family tree!

In the case of Kathryn Kuhlman, God sought 3-4 men to do the job He had in mind. None responded, so He tabbed a woman. She said, “No one will ever know the price I have paid to fulfill this ministry!” Mrs. Maria Woodworth-Etter walked a parallel path.

I have from a dozen to a score of women - who have mentored me. The first was my mother. She recognized my strengths and weaknesses from the very beginning, and spent much time with me in my school studies to improve my reading, and general understanding. She made sure I had an understanding of the Bible, and encouraged me for 4 years, 52 weeks a year, to find the answers to 4 Bible quiz questions a week. Through this I had a mastery of the NT, and much of the OT in the natural. Then when I was 20, God revealed Himself to me, and all this came alive! Yes, she was my first great mentor.

Then there was Mrs. Mary Bertha Allquist, a Messianic Jewess, who had memorized the entire Bible. I had been her paper boy in 1938 for 3 years, and when God revealed Himself to me in 1944, she had the gifting to answer all my questions right from the Bible.

Amy Carmichael, Pandita Ramabai from the Mukti mission of Poona, India; and Lillian Trasher, the Nile mother with 1000 orphans - all had this vision to reach orphans through George Muller. These 3 through their writings had a profound influence on my life. Billy Graham was so influenced by Amy Carmichael, that he made a special pilgrimage to Dohnavur, India, to honor this great woman of God!

Mother Basilea Shlink of Darmstadt, Germany; Isabel Kuhn; Mrs. Howard Taylor - through their writings, strongly influenced me as mentors. They being dead, for me - yet lived!

But perhaps the woman who has counted more in my life than any other, is my wife Marie. God on June 30^th, 1948 challenged me, that if He linked me with one where together the two of us would count more in His Kingdom than either of us would alone, would I do it? I had just offered myself to Him in the gift of singleness as a missionary to an African Muslim country. I told Him there was only one girl like that, and that was Marie Gaudet. But she was Catholic, with a life-style far more in the swing than mine, so I was safe. Think of the shock I received when a few days later I received an 8 page letter from her informing me that she had been reading the Bible 8 hours and 12 hours a day without stopping. I'm sure my heart stopped. I thought, “Where is this going to end?” In December of that year she gave herself fully to the Lord, and claimed the Peter Package of Acts 2:38, and received. She too accepted God's challenge for her to marry me. We were married December 27^thof that year, and had our first date on our honeymoon!

Since then she has been my chief intercessor, in all types of times. Then in 2008 she presented me with a laptop designed to produce the Interlinear NT - that is well on the way to completion. So if you appreciate how this Interlinear will serve as the chief of 7 component parts to produce “Spiritual Star Wars” for these last days - then you may thank me for my work of love, but chieflythank Marie for her prayers of faith and insight as to what I needed for this production. So we bothhave in large measure a part in this.

Moses' older sister Miriam led all the women of Israel in prophetic dance and song to honor God in His great deliverance of Israel from Egypt.

The Gospel of Luke gives many a touching picture of God's high esteem for women.

I received 3 emails in the light of my NOTEon the Interlinear section of 1 Timothy 2 & 3. The above is my indirect answer to them. They will know who they are. But I trust it will be an encouragement to both men and women, to see how a brief analysis of these 2 chapters in the light of the entire Scriptures, gives a kindly light for “time” to all women, but especiallyfor all eternity. J.A.W.

PS. Ivan Panin is the brother who came up with the drop of the ocean analogy. J.