John Calvin Commentary 1 Timothy 2:15

"but she shall be saved through her child-bearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety." — 1 Timothy 2:15 (ASV)

But she shall be saved. The weakness of their sex renders women more suspicious and timid, and the preceding statement might greatly terrify and alarm even the strongest minds. For these reasons, he modifies what he had said by adding a consolation; for the Spirit of God does not accuse or reproach us in order to triumph over us when we are covered with shame, but, when we have been cast down, immediately raises us up.

It might have the effect (as I have already said) of striking terror into the minds of women when they were informed that the destruction of the whole human race was attributed to them. For what will this condemnation be? Especially when their subjection, as a testimony of the wrath of God, is constantly placed before their eyes.

Accordingly, 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:

1. By the hope of salvation held out to them, they are prevented from falling into despair through alarm at the mention of their guilt.
2. 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 is twisted, as Papists typically 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 show in what way God conducts us to salvation, to which he has appointed us through his grace.

Through child-bearing. 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 as the means of procuring salvation.

Indeed, we even see with what reproaches the conjugal bed has been slandered by hypocrites, who wished to be thought more holy than all other men. But there is no difficulty in replying to these sneers of the ungodly:

1. Here the Apostle does not speak merely about having children, but about enduring all the distresses, which are manifold and severe, both in birth and in the rearing of children.
2. 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 childbirth, 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 show that the very means (so to speak) of procuring salvation are found in the punishment itself.

If they continue in faith. Because the old translation used the expression “the birth of children,” it has been commonly thought that this clause refers to the children. But the term used by Paul to denote “child-bearing” is a single word, τεκνογονία, and therefore it must refer to the women. As for the verb being plural and the noun singular, this involves no difficulty, for an indefinite noun, at least when it denotes a multitude, has the force of a collective noun and therefore easily admits a change from the singular to the plural number.

Besides, that he might not represent all the virtue of women as included in the duties of marriage, he immediately afterwards adds greater virtues, in which it is proper that godly women should excel, that they may differ from irreligious women. Even “child-bearing” is obedience acceptable to God only insofar as it proceeds from faith and love. To these two he adds sanctification, which includes all the purity of life that becomes Christian women. Lastly follows sobriety, which he formerly mentioned while he was speaking about dress; but now he extends it more widely to the other parts of life.