Sword & Trowel 2020: Issue 1
BIBLICAL ROLES OF MEN AND WOMEN
‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3.28).
O
UR starting point is Paul’s letter to the Galatians 3.28, where the apostle writes,
in Christ ‘there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.’ In a few moments we will be turn- ing to the roles of men and women in the book of Genesis, but we take Galatians 3.28 as telling us that nei- ther male nor female is superior to the other in the sight of God. All are heirs together of salvation, equal in standing before God, equal in spir- itual value, equal in inheritance. Does this mean that the ancient distinctions between men and wom- en which appear first in the book of Genesis, that men are to have head- ship in marriage and in the church, are now abolished? Certainly not, because they are repeated in the New Testament, but it means that within the rules of headship we nev- er forget that our spiritual value and standing before God is equal. When we see the instruction that man is to be head, and the woman is to follow him in that, we do not deduce from that that men are superior to women. We ever keep in mind Galatians 3.28. It is all too easy for people to make
– by the Editor –
hasty assumptions and draw wrong conclusions. Turning to Genesis 1.27 we read, ‘So God created man in his own im- age, in the image of God created he him; male and female.’ Here is a great distinction between men and women, but each is created in the image of God, reflecting in some measure their Creator, endowed with spiritu- ality, given a soul, given the power of reason and various other special characteristics lifting them high above all other creatures. Then we read in Genesis 2.18, ‘And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.’ The word ‘help’ is obviously important to us. What is meant by a help? We may be surprised to know that the Hebrew term comes from the idea of sur- rounding something. So God is going to make for the man a surrounder, or an aid, as it is often translated. One very interesting translation of the He- brew word is – an enabler. Adam will have an enabler, a protector even, a guide, an aid. All these ideas may crowd into the term, making this a high calling. There is the man, but he needs one to complement him and to assist him. Right from the beginning there is
an order, and Scripture continues to advance that order. The man is
Biblical Roles of Men and Women page 7
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