Happy Mother’s Day. I want to start by saying how grateful I am for my mom encouraging my walk with Christ, and I’m constantly grateful for how my wife Monica teaches our kids about Jesus. Today, in scripture, we see two examples of women who did the same thing. We’ve been in this series, Women in the Kingdom, and we’ve been looking at lots of women, wives, and mothers throughout the Bible. Today we’re going to look at a grandmother and a mother that Paul speaks really highly of. They are the grandmother, Lois, and mother, Eunice, of Timothy, Paul’s disciple. They love the Lord, and their deepest desire is that Timothy would love Jesus too. By God’s grace, he does, and this is how Paul talks of them.

2 Timothy 1:5 (NIV)

I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

This verse, if we look at it closely, tells us a little bit about why Timothy caught the faith from his mother and grandmother. And that’s what we hope for our children—that they would catch our faith in God too. My big idea is: A caught faith is a genuine, alive, and taught faith.

A caught faith is a genuine faith.

Paul, addressing Timothy, says, “I am reminded of your sincere faith.” But it didn’t come from Timothy; it came from his Lois and Eunice. The Greek word for “sincere” means “un-disguised.” I think I was about 13-14 when I watched The Phantom of the Opera for the first time. It’s all about the music and the mask. Who is the phantom who plays such amazing music but wears a mask? What is he covering? Why hide? He hides his face because he hides his scars. Eventually, he reveals his true face. Why do we hide? Is it our brokenness? We don’t want our kids to see who we really are? They see it, whether we want them to or not.

Lois and Eunice took got real with Timothy. They didn’t put on a show for him. They let Timothy see their genuine, messy, imperfect, real faith in God. They took off their masks. They let him see their scars—that they weren’t perfect, but Jesus loves them anyway. What I so appreciate about my mom’s faith, my mother-in-law’s faith, and my wife’s faith, is that each of their faith is genuine, and each of them is willing to be real with their kids.

A caught faith is not perfect faith. A caught faith is not an “I have it all together” faith. A caught faith is genuine, un-masked, un-hypocritical, willing to be real kind of faith. I see that in our church too. It makes me thankful for the moms and grandmothers in our church community.

A caught faith is a genuine and alive faith.

“I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice…” The word for “lived” is better translated as “dwelt.” A dwelling is a house or place where people live. Monica and I purchased our house eight years ago, and this week we’re about to put it on the market to sell it. And as I think about our house, we have a lot of memories there. We’ve eaten a lot of meals, had game nights with friends, broken glasses, finished the basement, and had firepits in our backyard. We’ve had two kids here. There’s been a lot of living in our home. Our home is our dwelling place.

What Paul is saying is that faith made its home in Lois and Eunice’s lives. It took up residence. It made a bunch of memories, on good days and bad days. Faith was present. Faith in God has been there through it all, living life with them. Sometimes when we think of an “alive faith,” we think of “being on fire for God.” Like going out and being a missionary or preaching on the curb. Those things matter. Those things are good. But that’s not how the Bible defines a living faith. Living faith is one that goes through life every day and seeks to know God, love him, and follow the Holy Spirit wherever he leads. That’s an alive faith. That’s a faith that dwells in us every day.

I want us to take a closer look at Eunice’s life. Eunice, Timothy’s mom, was Jewish, but

Today, we’re jumping back into our three sermons looking at complementarianism, egalitarianism, and a hybrid view of women in ministry (complementarian in the home, egalitarian in the church). Last week, we looked at complementarianism, which generally believes God only calls men to preach and serve as elders, starting with 1 Timothy 2:8-3:7. Today, we’re looking at egalitarianism, which believes that God calls both men and women to preach, serve as elders, and serve in ordained pastoral ministry. Next week we’re doing a Mother’s Day message then we’ll finish with the hybrid view.

Egalitarianism – Full Inclusion of Women in Teaching & Leadership

Egalitarians believe that God not only made women and men equally, but they have equal roles within the church and family, and each can do what the other does. Egalitarians do not believe that gender doesn’t matter; we certainly function differently, but that God does not mandate gender roles. Egalitarians generally go back to Genesis one and look at Adam and Eve co-ruling in the garden, and then they interpret the rest of the scripture in light of that, interpreting male-centered hierarchy and patriarchy as a result of the fall.

Today we’re going back to 1 Timothy 2:8-15, and I’ll be mentioning Galatians 3:28. But since I’ll be referencing 1 Timothy 2, I need to read it again.

1 Timothy 2:8-15 (NIV)

Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing. 9 I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, 10 but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

When Egalitarians approach 1 Timothy 2:8-15, they often take a contextual approach, trying hard to understand the culture that might have led Paul to make his prohibition. Here is their basic understanding, recognizing that just like the complementarian perspective, there are a lot of variations on this.

A. Paul is responding to false teachers who elevated women in inappropriate ways. (1 Tim 2:8-10, 13-14)

When Paul wrote 1 Timothy, he was writing to Ephesus (1 Tim 1:3). Some egalitarians argue that if you look at the historical background of Ephesus, you find there was a cult of Artemis there. For example, when Paul preached in Ephesus, the silver-smiths sparked a riot because Paul was ruining their idol-selling business; and they all changed, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19:34) That cult elevated women. Artemis was the goddess of fertility and childbirth, even helping her own mother give birth to her twin brother Apollo right after she was born, or so the legend goes. They propose that cult elevated women in improper ways, and Paul is correcting them. Within Paul’s letter, it’s clear there are false teachers at Ephesus.

1 Timothy 1:3 (NIV)

As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer.

1 Timothy 6:3–4 (NIV)

If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions

They think this is why Paul mentions Adam coming before Eve, to correct the Artemis cult that women are superior or that women came first. Another perspective is that throughout the Roman culture, there was a class of women called “new Roman women” who were drawing attentio