Gender Issues

by Stephen Bastin

I believe the Bible is the Word of God.  I believe the Bible based on the evidence, both internal and external.  The internal evidence consists of statements to the effect that the words came from God.  I believe the Bible based on the prophecies that can be verified in today’s world as having been fulfilled.  I believe the Bible based on its consistent accuracy on the subjects with which it deals.

The external evidence consists primarily of archeological discoveries.  Those discoveries have vindicated the Bible in many cases where the Bible was thought to have been in error.  While there are yet many things in the Bible that remain unconfirmed by outside sources, those that have been confirmed provide striking evidence for the hand of God in the writing of the scriptures.

I also believe that the Bible we possess today is substantially the Bible as it was originally written by the hands of those men whom God chose.  Based on manuscript evidence I believe that there are no substantial issues relating to the accuracy of what we now possess if it could be compared with the original writings.  This is a view held by men who are scholars and are highly competent in the fields of study that deal with the ancient manuscripts and other evidence.

Believing the Bible to be the Word of God, I believe it speaks accurately as it defines the roles of men and women in the home and in the church.  I also believe that those roles have often been grossly distorted by church leaders and others with an agenda.  I believe that the roles that the Bible sets forth for men and women, when properly understood, provide for a satisfying life for both men and women.  Those same roles, when misunderstood, have been a cause of great contention, disorder and strife in our times.

Before considering the particular scriptures that deal with the roles of men and women, I believe it is important that some other Bible principles be clearly understood first.  There are attitudes, sometimes widely held among those who claim to be Christians, that are contrary to the mind of Christ.  They are attitudes that are destructive and will lead one into eternal condemnation unless changed.

First of all there is the attitude of arrogance.  This is opposed to the attitude of humility and consideration of others that is upheld by scripture.  Concerning this, Paul wrote in a letter to the Philippians, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not look out for your own personal interests, but even for the interests of others.  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Those who lead in the home and in the church must do so from a motive of interest in others, not self.  Their leadership is to follow the pattern of Jesus who died on the cross to secure his place as leader of his people.  The theme of self-sacrifice, humility and emptying oneself run consistently through all that the Bible says about leaders.

Another passage of interest is found in a conversation between Jesus and the 12 whom he had chosen as apostles.  Two came to Jesus seeking positions of power in his coming kingdom.  Jesus denied his right to confer such positions and when the others became indignant (perhaps because they also coveted such positions) Jesus called them all together and gave them the following instructions.  “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.  It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Please note again the emphasis upon leaders dying for those under their care.  Jesus speaks of the ways of the world and simply says, “You will not act like that.”  (Paraphrased)

Yet the most common pattern seen in churches and homes is “great” ones demanding allegiance to their ideas and to their commands.  This is wrong.  I do not know how to say it more plainly.  The common pattern is not God’s pattern!

Please note also that greatness in the realm of God is based on service.  Slaves are better than masters.  Servants are better than lords.  Personal sacrifice is praised.  Personal aggrandizement is condemned.

Occupying particular positions in the home and in the church are not for the purpose of bringing glory to the possessor of the position.  The positions are for the purpose of being a servant to others.  Glory has been given to people based on their position.  But that is not God’s plan.  That is the world’s plan.

Giving out titles so that some can be esteemed and elevated above others is not God’s plan.  Jesus said as he considered the ways of the scribes and Pharisees, “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men.  But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers.  Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.  Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is Christ.  But the greatest among you shall be your servant.  Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.”

Jesus forbids his disciples from using religious titles.  Several are named specifically, but the principle extends to others that have been invented since Jesus’ spoke out against titles.  Rabbi, Father and Leader are specifically mentioned by Jesus.  Others that have come into common use since then include (but are not restricted to) Reverend, Monsignor, Pastor, Brother, His Eminence and Bishop.  Some of these words are Biblical and may be used in the Bible sense, but not as titles.  When used as titles of distinction they are wrong.

Titles suggest some are better, more holy, more righteous, etc than others.  The exalting of which Jesus speaks is the exalting that will be done by God.  Arrogating a title to oneself and requiring its use by others is condemned.

When positions are stripped of the power and glory, as the scriptures do in speaking of roles in the home and church, there is little reason left to seek those positions unless one truly wants to be a servant.  When seen in a Biblical light, leadership is to serve.  There are no ways to glory except through sacrifice.

In the home, the wife is to submit to her husband as to the Lord and the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church and died for the church.  It is no more the husband’s job to make his wife submit than it is the children’s job to make their fathers bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  (See Eph 5:22, 25 and 6:4.

In looking carefully at these passages it will be seen that in a properly functioning family, no one gets their way except when it is in the best interests of all.  Both husband and wife are concerned with how they may please the other. The husband loves his wife as he loves his own body and the wife willingly submits to her husband.  But more commonly the focus has not been on the husband’s role to love his wife, but on the wife’s role to submit with a common misunderstanding that it is the husband’s duty to make his wife submit.  It is not!

Similarly in the church, men have usurped positions that it was never God’s intention that they occupy.  Holding church office with powers to decide all sorts of things for the people, men have usurped the position

of Jesus and gloried in their position and prestige.  They ought to have been shunned and looked upon as the reprobates that they are.  Those positions of power were not created by God, but by men.

Hear what scripture says to those who should lead in the church, “Shepherd the flock of God among you exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.”  (1 Pet 5:2-3)

In the Bible, shepherds were men who knew their sheep.  Their entire lives were built around providing for those sheep.  Whether it was food or drink or protection from enemies, the shepherd always acted in the best interest of his sheep.  It was a hireling, not a shepherd who would desert the sheep because of self interest.  Nor did the sheep give glory and honor to the shepherd.

Jesus chose the idea of a shepherd for the role model of those who would be leaders in the church.  Such men are called shepherds, pastors, elders, bishops or overseers in the Bible.  Such words are not titles, but job descriptions.  Those who occupied such positions in the New Testament church were “the husbands of one wife.”  (See 1 Tim 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9.)  They were men.

Sheep often made the life of the shepherd difficult.  Sometimes they wandered off.  They had to be found and carried back to the flock.  Sometimes they were injured.  Their care fell to the shepherd.  He performed a thankless task.  In the same way God’s true shepherds care for the people of God.  They know that their reward is in heaven.

When it comes to the matter of preaching and public teaching in the church, the Bible says, “A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.  But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.  (1 Tim 2:11-12)  The passage goes on to base this practice on the creative order of Genesis 1 to 3.  It was not culture, but creation that determined the roles for men and women in the New Testament.

Jesus, himself, chose 12 men to be his apostles.  He did not chose any women for that role.  He could have.  There were many women among his followers.  At his death on the cross it was the women who were there to attend to his needs.  It was the women who discovered the empty tomb on resurrection morning.  It was to Mary Magdalene that Jesus first showed himself upon his resurrection.  It was the men who did not believe.

If it had been God’s plan for women to be leaders in the church, it would have been a very simple matter for Jesus to have chosen a woman as an apostle.  He did not.  Some would protest that Jesus would have had to go against the conventions and practices of his time to appoint a woman.  That is probably true.  But Jesus had no qualms about going against all sorts of conventions and practices when it was a matter of God’s will versus men’s traditions.  Jesus was not controlled by tradition, but by the will of God.   See for example his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not my will but yours be done.”  He was not following cultural patterns in choosing 12 men, but the will of God.  He spent the night before the selection of the 12 in prayer to God.  Certainly God would have made the matter clear if it had been His choice for a woman to be an apostle.

Following the ways of the world, Christians have often equated positions in the church with spiritual greatness.  The two are not equal.  Roles are simply roles.  Different men and different women have different roles in the church.  All are equally important.

To lust for a particular role, whether man or woman, is wrong.  What every Christian ought to seek is a role in which they can be a servant to others.  Like Jesus, we need to be ready to give our lives for others, not ask others to give their lives for us.