Moment of Meditation: Saved through Childbearing (1 Timothy 2:15)

But women will be saved through childbearing.
(1 Timothy 2:15)

Saved Through Childbearing

Now we've come to one of St. Paul most misunderstandable sound bites. Women will be saved by childbearing? Does that mean that a mother with ten or more children is more holy than a woman with only a couple? What does that mean for the woman unable to have children? Does that mean that Nadya Suleman is one of the most holy women in America because she has fourteen children? What about Michelle Duggar and her nineteen?

No. Paul's nowhere near saying anything like that. Duggar, Suleman and any others who have enough kids to form their own football team aren't any holier in God's sight than a woman who has tried for years to have children and for whatever reason hasn't been able to conceive. Think about women like Sarah and Elizabeth. They were both "well advanced in years" (Luke 1:18). They were given very prominent places in God's plan of salvation by the single child they delivered in their old age.

St. Paul is talking about the one childbirth that means more than any of the rest. The birth of Jesus Christ by the Virgin Mary. This childbirth would bring salvation not only to Mary but to all people because Jesus was born to shed His blood for the forgiveness of everyone's sin. This is the saving childbirth. Not just for women, but for all people. Amen.