Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Timothy 2:10

"but (which becometh women professing godliness) through good works." — 1 Timothy 2:10 (ASV)

But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. That is, it is not appropriate for women who profess to be followers of the Savior to seek to be distinguished by personal, external decorations. If they are Christians, they have seen the vanity of these things and have set their hearts on more substantial realities.

They are professed followers of Him who went about doing good, and the performance of good works especially suits them. They profess to have fixed their affections on God their Savior and to be living for heaven; and it is not fitting for them to seek ornaments that would indicate their hearts are supremely attached to worldly things.

There is great beauty in this instruction. Good works, or deeds of benevolence, eminently suit a Christian woman.

A woman's nature seems adapted to performing all deeds that demand kindness, tenderness, and gentleness of feeling—all that proceeds from pity, sympathy, and affection. And we instinctively feel that while acts of hardy enterprise and daring in a good cause peculiarly suit a Christian man, deeds of humble and unobtrusive sympathy and benevolence are exquisitely appropriate to a woman's character.

God seems to have formed her mind for just such things. In these, she occupies her appropriate sphere, rather than in seeking external adornment.