Gender Roles

It All Points Back

The time has come. We are going to continue this study of anthropology by looking into what our created roles as men and women are. If this blog was more popular, this may be the last post ever written due to how much God’s Word disagrees with how our culture views gender and the roles they were created for. Yet, it cannot be disputed, all throughout God’s Word, we see God use men and women for specific roles and duties. We can see this from the very beginning in Genesis 1:27 “27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” God created male and female to be an image of Himself and every role He has ordained for us stems from His character. Richard Mayhue says it best when he notes, “The foundational section for the creation and purpose of gender is found in Genesis 1-2. Other passages supplement the truths there.” The roles of gender as seen throughout God’s word are seen in the Church, marriage, and everyday life. To see how God has ordained us to live in these instances, we are going to look through scripture and see how we are designed to live in these 3 examples. Wayne Grudem beautifully says, “If human beings are to reflect the character of God, then we would expect some similar differences in roles among human beings, even with respect to the most basic of all differences among human beings, the difference between male and female.”

Bigotry or Holiness?

First and foremost, I believe it is vital to understand that just because we have specific roles in our lives, doesn’t mean that God favors one gender over another. God is holy and has called us to be holy as well. This means we are to be ‘set apart’ for His glory. However God wants to set us apart from the rest of the world is completely up to Him. Galatians 3:28 tells us “28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” There is no bias or favoritism in our Lord towards His people, just holiness. With that being said, let’s look at the most basic difference we see in men and women. From the very beginning, God created Adam first to work and lead what God had created, and then our Lord created Eve to be a helper and nurturer to Adam. This is seen in Genesis 2:18 “18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”” It is in a man’s very nature to work and lead and in a woman’s very nature to help and nurture. This concept is seen not just in everyday life, but from the aspect of marriage as well. Ephesians 5:22-24 puts this in great light. “22 Wives, subject yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.”

Right away we can see why this passage is so contradictory to our society. The Feminist movement would be up in arms if these were laws passed by Congress today, and yet, this is exactly how God wants all Christ followers to function in their marriage. I again want to remind you, if you are personally having trouble thinking that God isn’t showing any favoritism or bias here, remember Galatians 3:28. These rules are not made because women can’t lead and men can’t help, they’re made because this is how a godly, christ-centered marriage separates itself from the average, every day, ordinary marriage we see in the world. If you couldn’t guess, the roles that men and women play in everyday life and marriage, are also pretty similar in the church. 2 Timothy 2:11-13 says, “11 A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. 12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. 13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.” Again, people would be losing their minds if this was a rule for every public event we went to, and yet, this is how God wants His house to operate. This is not because women can’t teach, this is not because women never have anything important to say, and this certainly isn’t because only men ever say wise things. We don’t find any of those reasons here. As a matter of fact, what reason do we see listed? It’s because Adam was made before Eve. Just as Dr. Mayhue said earlier, all gender roles we see in scripture point back to God creating Adam and Eve in Genesis 1-2.

We Are Set Apart

Why does God want men to lead and women to help in everyday life? Why does God want men to be the head of their household and women to be submissive? Why does God want men to teach in church and women to serve and remain quiet? Because He is holy, and we should be too. I know this may be a lot for someone who has never heard of these gender roles or for someone who has just swept these commandments under the rug as ‘cultural rules’ that only applied back when the Bible was written, but think about these for a moment. What would a society of people look like in this world where all the men were leaders and worked for their households, and all the women were submissive to men’s leadership and helped them out in any way possible? Do you think we would stand out from the rest of the world? 100% As we strive to be obedient to the Word of God, may we always remember that the reason we follow God’s order for gender is to honor and glorify Him by living our lives as holy as we can. We don’t serve a God who is bigoted, we serve a God who is holy, and when we are on board with a holy God and seek to be set apart from the rest of the world as He is, we can be a living example for Christ, wherever we go.

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Sources

[1] “Access Your Bible from Anywhere.” BibleGateway.Com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 150 Versions and 50 Languages., www.biblegateway.com/. Accessed 2023.

[2] Grudem, W. (1994). Systematic Theology : An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA79455700

[3] MacArthur, John & Mayhue, Richard. A Systemic Summary of Bible Truth: Biblical Doctrine. Wheaton, Crossway, 2017