Stephen Charnock

Notwithstanding she shall be saved in child-bearing, if they continue in faith, and charity, and holiness, with sobriety (1 Timothy 2:15).

The fall of man was the fruit of the woman’s first doctrine, and therefore she is not suffered to teach anymore (1Ti 2:12). The woman was deceived by the serpent, and so drew her husband and whole posterity into ruin (1Ti 2:13-14)…And because, upon this declaration of the apostle, some might be dejected by the consideration of the deep hand the woman had in the first fall [and] in the punishment inflicted upon them for it, the apostle in the text brings in a “notwithstanding” for their comfort.

Notwithstanding [Eve’s] guilt in defection¹[and] her punishment in childbearing, she hath as good a right to salvation as the man. So, by way of anticipation, the apostle here answers an objection that might be made: whether the guilt contracted by the woman and the punishment inflicted might not hinder her eternal salvation. The apostle answers, “No.” Though [Eve] was first in the transgression and the pain of childbearing was the punishment of that first sin, yet the woman may arrive to everlasting salvation notwithstanding that pain, if she is adorned with those graces that are necessary for all Christians. Though the punishment remains, yet the believing woman is in the covenant of grace²[and] under the wings of the Mediator³ of that covenant, if she has faith (the condition of the covenant), which works by love and charity and is attended with holiness and renewal of the heart.

Observe: God hath gracious cordials⁴ to cheer up the hearts of believers in their distress, in the midst of those cases that are sufficient of themselves to cast them down. The apostle here alludes to that curse upon the woman: “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children” (Gen 3:16). The punishment is peculiar to the married woman, besides that punishment that was common to her with the man.

Thy sorrow and thy conception: Hendiadys,⁵ say some: “the sorrow of thy conception.” The word conception (Gen 3:14) signifies the whole time of the woman’s bearing in the womb. [It] includes not only those pains in the very time of labor, but also all those precursory indispositions,⁶ [such as] the weakness of the stomach,⁷ heaviness of the head, irregular longings, and those other symptoms that accompany conceptions. Though this pain seems to be natural from the constitution of the body, yet since some other creatures do bring forth with little or no pain,⁸ it would not have been so with the woman in innocence because all pain, which is a punishment of sin, had not been incident⁹ to a sinless and immortal body.

We will consider the words [individually]:

Saved: It may note either the salvation of the soul or the preservation of the woman in childbearing. The first, I suppose, is principally intended. For the apostle here would signify some special comfort to women under that curse.

But the preservation of women in childbearing was a common thing, testified by daily experience in the worst as well as in the best women. Christianity did not bring the professors of it into a worse estate in those things that immediately depended upon God…yet a temporal preservation may be included. For when an eternal salvation is promised, temporal salvation is also promised, according to the methods of God’s wisdom and goodness in the course of His providence. There [is] in all such promises a tacit reserve,¹⁰ viz.,¹¹ if God sees it good for us and the manner of their preservation also, wherein the preservation of a believer differs from that of an unregenerate person. Others are preserved by God, as a merciful Creator and Governor in a way of common providence for the keeping up of the world. But believers are preserved in the way of promise and covenant, in the exercise of faith and by the special love of God as a tender Father, and their God in covenant with them through Christ.

In childbearing: dia teknagonias,¹² “through childbearing.” The preposition through is often taken for in, as Romans 4:11: “that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be [dia] not circumcised”—“believing in uncircumcision,” where it notes the state wherein they shall be saved. So it notes here, not the cause of the salvation of the woman, but the state wherein she shall be saved. [It] amounts to this much: the punishment inflicted upon the woman for her first sin shall not be removed in this life; yet notwithstanding this, there is a certain way of salvation by faith, [even] though she passes through this punishment. For by “childbearing” is not meant a simple childbearing, but a childbearing in such a manner as God hath threatened [in Gen 3:16] with sorrow and grief.

If they continue: By they is not meant the children, as some imagine, because of the change of the singular to the plural. The sense then [would] run thus: she shall be saved, if the children remain in faith, etc. That would be absurd to think that the salvation of the mother should depend upon the faith and grace of the children, when it is sometimes seen that the children of a godly mother may prove as wicked as hell itself! But by they is meant the woman: the name woman is taken collectively for all women, and therefore the plural number is added. The apostle passes from the singular number to the plural, as he had done from the plural to the singular, verse 9: “In like manner let the women adorn themselves” in modesty, where he uses the plural. But verse 11 reassumes the other number again in his discourse. The graces that are here put as the conditions are faith, charity, sanctification, sobriety, where the apostle seems to oppose those to the first causes or ingredients of the defection: (1) Faith opposed to unbelief of the precept of God and the threatening annexed (Gen 2:16-17). (2) Charity opposed to disaffection to God; as though God were an enemy to their happiness and commanded a thing that did prejudice their happiness, whereupon must arise ill surmises¹³ of God and aversion¹⁴ from Him. (3) Sanctification. ¹⁵ In opposition to this filthiness and pollution brought upon the soul by that first defection, there must therefore be in them an aim and endeavor to attain that primitive integrity and purity they then lost. (4) Sobriety, temperance, because giving the reins to sense¹⁶ and obeying the longings thereof was the cause of the fall (Gen 3:6). She saw that it was pleasant to the eye. Original sin is called concupiscence¹⁷ and lusting; and to this is opposed sobriety.¹⁸

1. Faith: This is put first, because it is a fundamental grace. It is the employer of charity, for it works by it; the root of sanctification, for by faith the heart is purified. By faith is chiefly meant the grace of faith: (1) faith in the habit, (2) faith in the exercise.

2. Charity: The first sin was an enmity against God, therefore there is now necessary a love to God. The first sin was virtually an enmity to all the posterity of man, which were to come out of his loins; therefore, love to mankind is necessary; and faith always infers love to God and man.

3. Sanctification is here added because, by that, both the truth of faith and love appears to ourselves and others; and justification by faith is thereby ratified (Jam 2:24). By sanctification is not here meant a particular holiness or chastity due to the marriage bed, as some of the papists assert, but a universal sanctity of heart and lif

4. Sobriety: This is a natural means for preservation. Intemperance makes bodily [diseases] more dangerous in their assaults. True faith is accompanied with temperance and sobriety in the use of lawful comforts…e.

Observations: (1) The punishment of the woman: “in childbearing.” (2) The comfort of the woman: “she shall be saved.” (3) The condition of the salvation: “if they continue,” wherein is implied an exhortation to continue in faith, etc.

Doctrine: Many observations might be raised. (1) The pain in childbearing is a punishment inflicted upon the woman for the first sin. (2) The continuance of this punishment after redemption by Christ doth not hinder the salvation of the woman, if there be the gospel-conditions requisite. (3) The exercise of faith, with other Christian graces, is a peculiar means for the preservation of believers under God’s afflicting hand.

I shall sum them up into this one:¹⁹ The continuance of the punishment inflicted upon the woman for the first sin doth not prejudice her eternal salvation, nor her preservation in childbearing, where there are the conditions of faith and other graces…This very Scripture is a letter of comfort, written only to women in the state of childbearing.²⁰ Claim it as your right by faith! What comfort is here to appeal from the threatening to the promise, from God as a judge to God as a father, from God angry to God pacified in Christ!…You can never be under the curse if you have faith, as long as God is sensible of His own credit in the promise. In the material part of the punishment, there is no difference between a believer and an unbeliever. Jacob [was] pinched with famine as well as the Canaanite; but Jacob [was] in covenant and [had] a God in heaven and a Joseph in Egypt to preserve him. God directs every pain in all by His providence, in believers by a particular love; every gripe in all the [remedies] He gives us. He orders even His contendings with His creature in such a measure as the spirit may not fail before Him (Isa 57:16).
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1. defection – falling away from faith, i.e., eating the forbidden fruit (Gen 3:6).
2. Covenant of Grace – the outworking in time of God’s eternal purpose of redemption in Christ, in which God promises life eternal to His elect, on the ground of Christ’s merits, by faith in Him.
3. Mediator – a go-between; “It pleased God in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus His only begotten Son, according to the Covenant made between them both, to be the Mediator between God and Man; the Prophet, Priest and King; Head and Savior of His Church, the heir of all things, and judge of the world: Unto whom He did from all Eternity give a people to be His seed, and to be by Him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.” (1689 London Baptist Confession 8.1)
4. cordials – foods or medicines that comfort, gladden, or cheer the heart.
5. hendiadys – a figure of speech in which two words, joined by and, express a single idea; for example “nice and warm,” instead of a noun and a modifier, “nicely warm.”
6. precursory indispositions – the bodily conditions and ailments that precede giving birth.
7. weakness of the stomach – nausea.
8. Aristotle (384-322 BC), The History of Animals, I.vii.c.ix.
9. incident – likely to happen.
10. tacit reserve – unspoken exception.
11. viz. – abbreviation for Latin videlicet: that is; namely.
12. Διὰ τεκνογονίας
13. ill surmises – evil suspicions.
14. aversion – turning away morally.
15. See FGB 215, Sanctification, available from CHAPEL LIBRARY.
16. giving the reins to sense – giving up self-control to be guided by one’s emotions.
17. concupiscence – eager desire for the things of the world.
18. sobriety – moderation; self-control.
19. For detailed studies of this passage, see Richard Adams, “How May Child-Bearing Women Be Most Encouraged and Supported against, in, and under the Hazard of Their Travail?” in Puritan Sermons, Volume III, xi (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981); Thomas Schreiner, “An Interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:9-15” in Andreas J. Kostenberger and Thomas R. Schreiner, eds., Women in the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academics, 2005), 85-120.
20. Referring to childbearing is also appropriate because it represents the fulfillment of the woman’s domestic role as a mother in distinction from the man…To select childbearing is another indication that the argument is transcultural, for childbearing is not limited to a particular culture but is a permanent and ongoing difference between men and women. The fact that God has ordained that women and only women bear children indicates that the differences in roles between men and women are in the created order…One indication that women are in the proper role is if they do not reject bearing children as evil but bear children in accord with their proper role…Paul is not asserting in 1 Timothy 2:15 that women merit salvation by bearing children and doing good works. He has already clarified that salvation is by God’s mercy and grace…I think it is fair to understand the virtues described here as evidence that the salvation already received is genuine. Any good works of the Christian, of course, are not the ultimate basis of salvation, for the ultimate basis of salvation is the righteousness of Christ granted to us.
(Thomas Schreiner, Women in the Church, 118-119)

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From “A Discourse for the Comfort of Child-Bearing Women” in The Complete Works of Stephen Charnock, Volume 5

Stephen Charnock (1628-1680): English Puritan Presbyterian pastor, theologian, and author; born in St. Katherine Cree, London, England.

Courtesy of Chapel Library