Question:  Dear Greg,

            Are Christians commanded to have children?  My wife brought up 1 Timothy 2:15, where it says that women will be saved through childbearing.  She’s concerned about her salvation and if we are wrong for not having children.

            I know that we are saved by his grace and his grace alone, but we would like to have a better understanding of the subject of having children.  We don’t want to bring a child into this world knowing we might not be fully prepared to do so.

            Thanks so much for your time and knowledge!

            God bless,

            LC

Answer:  Dear LC,

            Whatever 1 Timothy 2:15 may mean, it does not mean that women are spiritually saved through childbearing.  The act of having a child/children does not impart salvation.  Such a teaching is, as you suggest, antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ, which says that nothing we do will save us.  That includes having a child, or even lots of children (some might take the reasoning you are suggesting to mean that having huge families means that our salvation is a slam-dunk—to use an athletic term).

            God does not command that married couples have children.  That is our choice.  Some couples are unable to have children, of course.  They are not less spiritual because they are physically incapable, nor must they adopt to make themselves more pleasing to God.  Children are God’s gift, but they are our decision—a decision that a couple makes based upon many specific and personal factors.

            What this passage means could be a long answer, but I’m going to give you a short version.  The context is about women.  The statement about Adam and Eve takes us back to the creation.  The statement about being saved through childbearing—in order to be consistent with all that the Bible tells us about salvation—has to somehow mean the birth of Jesus.

            If we believe that this passage suggests that Christian women have an easier time giving birth than non-Christian women do, statistics would not bear this out.  Ease in childbirth is not based in belief and faith.

            The larger passage may be seen as Christian behavior for women, so the “being saved” may speak to motherhood—that women often find their maximum significance and fulfillment in life by being mothers, grandmothers, etc.  But at the end of the day, this is a puzzling passage and not easily understood.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht