Why should we care about Biblical Gender Roles

Why Should We Care About Biblical Gender Roles?

We’ve been going through a few different series so far. First we went through a few weeks on the importance of the bible. Now we’re going through a series on the church. This week we are going to take a little break since Richard is away and instead we will address something that is under attack in our culture. That is the importance of understanding biblical gender roles. I’ve titled my sermon “Why should we care about biblical gender roles?” because that really is the question. Why should we care? There are two major views regarding biblical gender roles and both believe that man and women were made with equal value and worth in the image of God. The difference is regarding the role that each has to play.

The first view is called egalitarian. The egalitarian view believes that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or a woman, our roles are interchangeable in the home and in the church. There are different views within egalitarians. Some believe that roles are interchangeable in the home but not the church, some believe that woman can be elders but not pastors, and so on. You might wonder how they theologically justify this. Egalitarians believe that culture shapes how we interpret and apply scripture. The problem with this is that it gives the authority to the culture instead of God’s word.

The other view is called complementarian. The difference with this view is that complementarians believe that God designed men and woman for different roles in the church and in the home. These different roles when working together compliment each other. That’s where the name complementarian comes from. So where is the theological basis for this one? Complimentarian’s, like many egalitarians see the clear teaching in scripture regarding gender roles however here the authority is given to scripture which means that culture is designed to follow God’s original design.

Unfortunately many churches and most Bible colleges are egalitarian. This is due to the cultural influence on the western church. Western culture strives for equality. People are all the same. Nobody can tell you what you can and can’t do because we are all equal. If a man wants to be a women that’s totally fine because in today’s culture all people are the same. Anyone who thinks otherwise is labelled an insensitive hater. The number of churches that hold to a complementarian view are few. I tried to find a statistic on this however it’s tough, because of the third category that churches hold to. This third category is no view at all! Many churches today won’t take a stance on gender roles either way because it is too controversial or they don’t think it matters. Let me tell you that everything taught in scripture matters and over this sermon we are going to talk about why!

So why do we care? Should we care? Why should we all prioritize learning about this topic? The counsel of biblical manhood and womanhood (which is a great website on this topic I’d recommend) gives 6 reasons why it is essential that we have a firm understanding of this topic. I am going to address the first three.

1. The authority of scripture is at stake. We live in a culture that is moving further and further away from biblical truth. Richard’s recent facebook post gave an excellent illustration of this. I encourage you all to log on to facebook and give it a read. You will see on there the influence that culture has on most modern christians. God’s word has taken a back seat to make way for the sensitivity of others. Although sensitivity is important it can never come at the compromise of biblical truth. Richard’s post was a silly satire illustration of how it is absolutely ridiculous for a man to claim he is a woman and participate in woman's sports. This can not come from a complementarian view because we are distinct, different, not interchangeable.. When men and women are the same in all things then why can’t a man participate in woman’s sports? They are stronger? That is a gender stereotype. How dare you be so insensitive. Woman are strong too! Ultimately where we find our truth dictates what we believe and what we stand on. It is about a heart level belief. If we dig deep down to the core of what we believe do we see God’s word as the ultimate truth and authority in our lives? If not then we have another God. Exodus 20:3 “you shall have no other God’s but me”. That God may be your own opinion, it might be the general consensus of culture, it could be whatever causes the least amount of tension amongst others. Everybody has a God and for most it’s culture. Flip to 2 John 1:9 “Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.”. What is this passage saying? If we are not submitting to God’s word and the teachings of Jesus Christ then that person does not have God at all. 2 Timothy 2:16-17 says “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” When we compromise on one area of scripture then we will compromise on others. Christians don’t compromise. Matthew 10:28 “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Compromising God’s word is a mark that you fear man more than you fear God. So what do we do? Put your faith in God’s word. Fear God and submit to His truth as the authority above all things. Be in His word daily. Learn as much as you can about God’s word and when you cross a clear teaching in scripture such as in Genesis 2 when God makes man and gives him direction then says “It is not good for man to be alone, I will make for Him a suitable helper fit for Him”. Then you continue to read and see that it was woman that was tempted and gave in first to the serpent. It was the woman who then encouraged the man to eat the fruit. Then it was the man that was held responsible because he was the leader. God didn’t even give Eve the instruction for how they were to care and subdue the world because He gave the instruction to the leader and expected him to deliver the message and lead. When you run in to a controversial passage like this what do you do? You believe it, study it, and stand by it! If you run in to a confusing teaching that seems to contradict with a clear teaching don’t throw out the clear teaching! Consider the passage that is tough to interpret in light of the rest of the Bible! Standing on God’s word will not come without a cost. Friends and family will struggle with this. It could cost you relationships. Facebook might yell at you. Would you rather stand with the world and be rejected by God or stand with God and be rejected by the world? (God’s not dead 2)

The cost of standing on God’s word is tough for most people. Here is my story from this past week: I engaged in the little facebook war that pastor Richard unintentionally started. It was really tough but I seen two truths that I needed to defend. The first truth was regarding the character of Richard. People were attacking him and as a brother in Christ I needed to step in and defend his honest character. The second truth I needed to defend was the gospel. The gospel was under attack with claims that by itself it is not enough. We need to get clever if we want to bring people to Christ. First we need to establish a relationship with people, then we need to love them. If we breathe the word “hell” too early then we will push them away from Christ and it will be all over. This means that culture has a higher authority than scripture, just like the egalitarian view, and as a Christian I couldn’t stand by and let people attack God’s word. The people on the other side of this conversation were both friends and family. Taking this stand was hard because it was creating a tension in the family and among friends. My hands got cold and I was shaking as I was writing. In the end, we need to stand up for the authority of scripture, no compromises!

2. The health of the home is at stake. I was in Greenwood Nova Scotia for a work trip a few years ago and I was talking to my instructor about what the bible says about gender roles and why it is important. My instructor was not Christian by any means. I didn’t know his story but I really wanted to talk about my faith. He was a little confused about why God would make men and women with different roles. I quoted C.S. Lewis in his book “Mere Christianity” Lewis says this “I don’t know why God made men and women with different roles. My best understanding that makes sense is that if there is no single person with the highest authority then when a married couple has a disagreement then the only logical thing to do is to go their separate ways.”. My instructor then told me that he had a divorce for that very reason. He and his wife just disagreed on things, there was nobody to lead so the only thing that made sense was to get a divorce. I don’t need to tell you how common that is in todays culture. This is a result of the egalitarian view. Egalitarian Christians will tell you that the leader in their marriage is Christ. That doesn’t work when there is more than one way to serve Christ. Let’s turn to Ephesians 5:22-33

22 Wives, be subject 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.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,

26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.

28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;

29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,

30 because we are members of His body.

31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she brespects her husband.

There is a lot here and we aren’t going to totally unpack it but what are the key points? “Husband is the head of his wife.” That seems pretty clear, word for word. “As Christ is also the head of the Church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.” What just happened? As we read through this we learn that marriage is designed to be a reflection of Jesus Christ and the Church! If we don’t understand how men and women are to relate to one another then we can not understand the relationship between Jesus Christ and the church! Have you ever tried to figure out what’s on your face without looking in the mirror? You go cross eyed and it just doesn’t work! So, husbands are the head! What about the wives? Verse 24 says “as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything!” Talk about controversial… But here we are with a clear teaching. Are we going to compromise for the sake of conformity and popularity? A true fear of the Lord would say “I wouldn’t dare!” There is more here that I’d encourage you to study on your own but there is one more thing that must be emphasized in this passage before we move on. Verse 28 “So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.” Authority gone wrong becomes oppression and dominance. Love guards from this. True men lead, they don’t control. So what do we do with a passage like Ephesians 5:22-33? If your married study it! It is the foundation of a Godly marriage. God created marriage, we can only expect it to work His way. You may also want to study 1 Peter 3:1-7 and Colossians 3:18-19. What about the unmarried? What should you do with a passage such as this? STUDY IT! This applies to how men and women in general relate to one another. Men, you should naturally step up to lead when you can. Women you should have a natural desire to help. It is only culture that claims that authority is directly proportional to worth. You don’t find that in God’s word. We are loved equally and equally made in the image of God and neither man nor woman is complete without the other.

3. The health of the church is at stake. Look around you. In our own community we can see so many different structures for church. Age segregated programs that separate families, women pastors, non-christians leading Sunday school. We see big churches, small churches, different preaching styles, tongues spoken publicly with no interpreter. Some methods are biblical, some are not. Gospel Life Church has spent a considerable amount of time taking a step back from culture and reading what scripture has to say about church. If we take our opinions out and just look at what scripture says, what does it say? We have built our doctrinal statement around what we’ve learned because we don’t want to compromise God’s Word. The church is the bride of Christ. We’d best be serious about doing it God’s way. So what does gender roles have to do with the church? 1 Timothy 3 has our answer.

1 It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.

2 aAn overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.

4 He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity

5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),

6 and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.

7 And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

It’s important to understand that the word overseer in greek is “episkope” which means “a position of watching over”. The Dictionary of Biblical Languages by James Swanson defines it as any office of church leadership. Ok, so verse 2 says that an overseer must be above reproach and the husband of one wife. How can you be a woman husband of one wife? Clearly positions of leadership in the church are designed for men! Why? Firstly, because God’s word says so and we don’t compromise on that. Second, it doesn’t reflect God’s design for the home. Thats why verse 4 and 5 says that he must manage his household well because if he can’t manage his home well how can he take care of the church of God? Let’s put this together. The order of the church, reflects the order of the home, which is a reflection of Jesus Christ and the church body, which reflects God the father as head over the trinity. It works as long as you don’t impose cultures opinion on it. So next time someone comes to you and says “What if a women is a better leader than a man? And the man is better at helping and caring for the family?” This can certainly be true but thinking about where we find authority and the fear of God you can simply say “That’s not what the bible says!”

There is so much to be said about gender roles. My purpose today was to explain why we should care about it. Rather than to teach extensively on what the different roles are and how they play out. If we genuinely love God and want to be obedient to His word. If we want to be faithful Children of God who fear God more than we fear man. If we want to trust our marriage to God and respect the order of the church then we will study this topic and make the necessary changes in our lives. Sarah and I went through a 13 week study on this that I created using scripture alone. We studied the verses, read in context. Found outside resources, brought it all together and reworded the text to in our own words to ensure we understood. In response to what we learned, we both made major changes to conform our lives to what the Bible teaches. I started taking leadership seriously, I’m continuing to learn how to lead in a Christ-like way. It’s not easy! Sarah is learning to submit in a way that is helpful, and I don’t think that’s easy for any woman. Sarah also quit her job to prioritize the home, we prioritized having a child. I put my house up for sale because I can’t afford the house on my own and we bought a smaller house. I also lost a lot of friends who didn’t like seeing big changes that didn’t align with cultural priorities.

I want to encourage you all to study the Bible on this topic and make any changes necessary to conform to God’s Word. This is what Christians are supposed to do in every area of life. If you want a copy of that study that Sarah and I developed please let me know and I’ll get it to you. Another valuable resource that you can put on your reading list is “Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood” By John Piper and Wayne Grudem. It’s a thick book dense with scripture specifically written as a response to feminism. You will never find an egalitarian book with so much scripture, it would just be too hard.. Ultimately, your best resource to study and learn God’s plan for male and female roles is the Holy Bible. John Piper says this as he addresses the topic of gender roles, “If your not willing to stand against the tide on this issue then your almost certain to compromise on something closer to the gospel”. What is the core truth that this church is all about? We are all made in God’s image by His perfect standard. Each one of us has sinned against this Holy God and thus we do not deserve fellowship with Him. When we sinned we become eternally separated from Him. It is only due to the love of God that His son Jesus Christ was born, lived a perfect life and died on the cross for a penalty that He didn’t deserve. He did that for us, so that we could be reunited with God for eternity. This offer is extended to all however to receive it we must surrender our heart and put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, repenting of our sins. This is the gospel. To respond to Jesus Christ with a heart of faith and surrender shows itself in obedience to His word. When it comes to things like gender roles we would surrender our opinion and submit to God’s plan.

Pray