John Calvin: Women Will Be Saved by Having Babies
By John
Calvin
“For Adam was formed first, then
Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and
became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in
faith, love and holiness with propriety.” (1 Timothy 2:13-15 NIV)
BUT WOMEN WILL BE SAVED:
The
weakness of the sex renders women more suspicious and timid, and the preceding
statement might greatly terrify and alarm the strongest minds. For these reasons
he modifies what he had said by adding a consolation…
Paul,
in order to comfort them and render their condition tolerable, informs them
that they continue to enjoy the hope of salvation, though they suffer a
temporal punishment.
It is
proper to observe that the good effect of this consolation is twofold.
First, by the hope of salvation held out to them, they are prevented from
falling into despair through alarm at the mention of their guilt.
Secondly, they become accustomed to endure calmly and patiently the
necessity of servitude, so as to submit willingly to their husbands, when they
are informed that this kind of obedience is both profitable to themselves and
acceptable to God.
If
this passage be tortured, as Papists are wont to do, to support the righteousness
of works, the answer is easy. The Apostle does not argue here about the cause
of salvation, and therefore we cannot and must not infer from these words what
works deserve; but they only shew in what way God conducts us to salvation, to
which he has appointed us through his grace.
THROUGH CHILDBEARING:
To
censorious men it might appear absurd, for an Apostle of Christ not only to
exhort women to give attention to the birth of offspring, but to press this
work as religious and holy to such an extent as to represent it in the light of
the means of procuring salvation…
Whatever
hypocrites or wise men of the world may think of it, when a woman, considering
to what she has been called, submits to the condition which God has assigned to
her, and does not refuse to endure the pains, or rather the fearful anguish, of
parturition, or anxiety about her offspring, or anything else that belongs to
her duty, God values this obedience more highly than if, in some other manner,
she made a great display of heroic virtues, while she refused to obey the
calling of God.
To
this must be added, that no consolation could be more appropriate or more
efficacious than to shew that the very means (so to speak) of procuring
salvation are found in the punishment itself.
Source: Calvins’s Commentary, Vol.
21, p. 71. Published originally by the Lutheran theologian Charles D. Provan in
his book “The Bible and Birth Control” by Zimmer Printing in Monongahela,
Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in 1989.
Portuguese
version of this article: João Calvino: As mulheres serão salvas tendo bebês
Source: Last Days Watchman
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