Alan Dunn

Few subjects are more passionately argued today than that of male/female roles. Confusion has us blindly groping through the devastation of our families, our churches, our culture, even our own physical health. Yet with stupefying arrogance, our enlightened age will not even admit that it no longer knows the difference between boys and girls.

A righteous view of gender identities and roles must be formed by the Bible. Please, read I Tim 2:11-15; I Cor 14:34-38; I Cor 11:1-16; I Pt 3:7.

1. Men and women share equal status in creation. “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Gen 1:27) Men and women have the same “being”: image- bearers of God.

2. Redeemed men and women share equal status in salvation. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28) Race, nationality, socioeconomic background, and gender are irrelevant to one’s legal standing in Christ. Salvation is offered to sinners. What is in view is morality, not sexuality.

3. Men and women are distinctly different as to their respective roles and functions. This is seen in the primary social unit of creation: the family; and the primary social unit of redemption: the church. The principles governing gender roles overlap both the home and the church.

The Bible does not teach that women are “inferior” to men. The inferiority argument is spurious. Both genders have equal being and status in creation and redemption. Yet they are to function differently to accomplish the purposes of God. This unity with diversity pictures the very being and acting of God. God the Son is not an inferior God than God the Father, yet He functions differently to accomplish the redemption of His people. He functions in submission to the will of the Father, but this subordination in function does not imply an inferiority of being.

Do you desire to be the man or woman God would have you be?

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