Our churches have debated it. Our school refuses to take a stance on it. Why then be so out-spoken about gender roles? We (the Gender Matters Club) are passionate about this issue, because we want the Gospel to define every area of our lives—including gender.
Most people are only aware of gender roles in the New Testament, leading to many accusations of these roles (“cultural regulations” they say) as being restrictive on our freedom in Christ. A fuller teaching, however, and a correct understanding of the redeeming work of Christ, will reveal God’s beautiful design in gender roles.
When Moses writes, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gn 1:27), he accomplishes two things. First, he establishes the equality of men and women. Since each are made in God’s image, both enjoy the benefits of knowing and enjoying God forever. Second, he not only clarifies that we glorify God as a race of “man,” he implies something very distinct in our being created “male and female.” This distinction is manifest in different roles.
God created Adam first (2:7), put him in the Garden (2:8), and gave him his primary roles: “to work and to keep it” (2:15). As God called mankind to “have dominion over . . . all the earth” (1:26), he gave man these roles of leadership and responsibility, duties summarized in provision and protection. Because God saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone, he created “a helper fit for him” (2:18): Eve. She was to come alongside Adam, to support and encourage him, as they together obeyed God’s command: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (1:28).
Gender roles are assigned to men and women in creation, in a world without sin. Therefore, when God looked upon these assigned roles on the sixth day, he declared them “very good” (1:31). When Paul wrote Ephesians 5 with the Genesis account on his mind, he calls the husband the “head” in part because he is to provide for and protect his wife as a servant leader. He calls the wife to “submit” in part because she is to help and encourage him, affirming his leadership.
Adam and Eve, however, did not fulfill their roles. As Satan tempted Eve, Adam stood passively by her side (3:6) and did not protect the Garden from sin. Eve also, rather than affirming Adam’s role to “keep” the garden (2:15-16), usurped his headship and took the fruit.
Subsequently, the curse twists these very roles, as God addresses Eve, “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (3:16). This verse is illuminated by God’s address to Cain just before he killed Abel: “Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it” (4:7). Just as sin desired to control Cain like a puppet, so too, joyful submission in women is now supplanted by coercion and manipulation. In the same way, as Cain was to rule over sin, so too, loving headship in men has given way either to passivity or to unloving authoritarianism.
Even though gender roles are twisted in Genesis 3, and the whole world becomes enslaved to sin, the Messianic hope dawns as God addresses Satan concerning an offspring of the woman: “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (3:15). This hope grows (12:1-3; 22:18; Jer 4:2; Gal 3:16) and becomes manifest in the God-man Jesus Christ (Acts 3:26). Through his atoning sacrifice, he not only pardons all who come to him in faith, he also ushers forth his sons and daughters to once again regain loving headship and joyful submission in marriage. This is evidenced by Paul each time he addresses gender roles (1 Cor 11, 14; Eph 5; 1 Tm 1), when he also references the creation account (1 Cor 11:8-9; 14:34; Eph 5:31; 1 Tm 2:13-15).
Fellow students, let us glorify God as men and women, freed by Christ to live in the Genesis 2 world. Take your gender seriously and submit to the authority of Scripture on this issue.
1.16.2010
Gender Matters For Singles
Gender matters.
Moses agreed. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gn 1:27). Mankind alone bears the image of God, and he made us distinctly male and female. Don’t you think this matters?
Paul also thought gender matters; Peter agreed. Have you ever noticed though that they only write to husbands and wives? Thus, many are left wondering how much gender matters for single people. It is true, gender roles are addressed to husbands and wives because the teaching comes to fruition in marriage, but what about those who are single like Paul? Does gender still matter?
Yes.
All men should grow to maturity as fathers; all women should grow to maturity as mothers. Whether you ever get married and start your own family, this is your calling because you belong to the family of God in a local church.
The family unit each of us grew up in is simply a microcosm of the Church. Paul calls the church the “household of God” (1 Tm 3:15), and he uses the family as a training ground qualification for elders: “[F]or if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?” (3:5).
In fact, the family structure is modeled after this truer spiritual reality. Notice how Paul addresses Timothy (“my true child in the faith,” 1 Tm 1:2) and Titus (“my true son in our common faith,” Titus 1:4). A family relation in blood can be superficial if there is no family relation in the Spirit. What joy is ours then when these ones we care for the most are also a part of the “household of God” (Eph 2:19)!
Paul never had any biological children, but he fathered many spiritual children. Along with Timothy and Titus, Paul mentions another: “my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment” (Phl 10). Paul was a mature man of God, and he fathered several individuals and entire church families.
Paul, as a single man, thought that gender matters, and he met numerous needs within the church family; are we able to see those same needs? Timothy had no father figure as he was raised by his mother and grandmother (cf. 2 Tm 1:5), and there are many children and young adults like Timothy in our churches. We need more people like Paul: older men to teach younger men and older women to teach younger women (cf. Titus 2:2-5).
Paul, who wrote extensively on gender roles, heeded his own teaching, though he himself was single. Everyone is commanded to be a mature believer: for men it means being fatherly, for women it means being motherly. The family of God is huge, and so are the needs, which should be nurtured by mature men and women—married and single alike.
Moses agreed. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gn 1:27). Mankind alone bears the image of God, and he made us distinctly male and female. Don’t you think this matters?
Paul also thought gender matters; Peter agreed. Have you ever noticed though that they only write to husbands and wives? Thus, many are left wondering how much gender matters for single people. It is true, gender roles are addressed to husbands and wives because the teaching comes to fruition in marriage, but what about those who are single like Paul? Does gender still matter?
Yes.
All men should grow to maturity as fathers; all women should grow to maturity as mothers. Whether you ever get married and start your own family, this is your calling because you belong to the family of God in a local church.
The family unit each of us grew up in is simply a microcosm of the Church. Paul calls the church the “household of God” (1 Tm 3:15), and he uses the family as a training ground qualification for elders: “[F]or if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?” (3:5).
In fact, the family structure is modeled after this truer spiritual reality. Notice how Paul addresses Timothy (“my true child in the faith,” 1 Tm 1:2) and Titus (“my true son in our common faith,” Titus 1:4). A family relation in blood can be superficial if there is no family relation in the Spirit. What joy is ours then when these ones we care for the most are also a part of the “household of God” (Eph 2:19)!
Paul never had any biological children, but he fathered many spiritual children. Along with Timothy and Titus, Paul mentions another: “my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment” (Phl 10). Paul was a mature man of God, and he fathered several individuals and entire church families.
Paul, as a single man, thought that gender matters, and he met numerous needs within the church family; are we able to see those same needs? Timothy had no father figure as he was raised by his mother and grandmother (cf. 2 Tm 1:5), and there are many children and young adults like Timothy in our churches. We need more people like Paul: older men to teach younger men and older women to teach younger women (cf. Titus 2:2-5).
Paul, who wrote extensively on gender roles, heeded his own teaching, though he himself was single. Everyone is commanded to be a mature believer: for men it means being fatherly, for women it means being motherly. The family of God is huge, and so are the needs, which should be nurtured by mature men and women—married and single alike.
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