"Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control."
Context, context, and context and more context. What is Paul saying, or better yet what is the Holy Spirit saying? - The primary, or at least one of the means of her sanctification, that is the women, and as a dual parallel her role within the body of Christ, is childbearing. Notice that Paul doesn't "just" say 'saved through childbearing' but adds in "continue in faith, and love, and holiness, with self-control.
" so you know he is talking about 'sanctification' without which there will be no salvation for any soul. Notice the similar language Paul uses to describe the church in Ephesians 5:25:
"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish."
Here the feminine pronoun "her" resembles the church that is being sanctified by Christ. Hebrews 12:14 says "Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." And again in Hebrews 10:14 "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified"- reminding us of the "already" but "not yet" of our salvation, which is happening to us by a "sanctification" that has already taken place, yet is still being worked out (Phillipians 2:12). Hebrews 2:11 "For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source," shows the we are both sanctified and being sanctified. Without holiness, and thereby sanctification, no one will be saved, so that sanctification is a necessary means to salvation.
"Okay, lets say you proved that the context is about sanctification, but what about female role and ministry in the church?"
Read the following verse, Paul talks about overseers! He has been talking about church offices and functions the whole time! How do you know that he is saying that sanctification comes through childbearing, because this is what Paul is saying in 1 Timothy 2:15, about her being saved. So God uses our ministry, both men and women, in the Church, to sanctify us. So this verse certainly does not mean that every women needs to have children, or she will not be saved. Rather, the verse is about a women's primary ministry within the body of Christ, and it further reveals that the this ministry is the primary instrument of sanctification God is going to use for the women, being that she is uniquely qualified (physically) to bear children. It is not all encompassing as that would suggest Paul her thinks that women can somehow "earn" their salvation, but salvation is meant in the progressive sense. (Some ideas presented here were adapted from the ESV Study Bible)
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