Bible – The Gender Issue
We need to address a very serious issue in today’s church. Regardless of what the liberals, intellectuals, emergent and other people say, gender is relevant in the bible. The bible refers to God and the Holy Spirit as a male and thus we too should refer to them as being male. In the same way, there are places in the bible where masculine gender is used and therefore that is exactly the way we should refer to such scripture. There are responsibilities in the church, which are always referred to as being performed by a male; and thus, we too will always consider these to be a male occupied position. In spite of the growing support for a genderless bible, the idea of rewriting the bible in a gender-neutral language is totally wrong.
Yet, I am of the opinion there is not a spiritual gender, which parallels physical gender; thus both physical gender and spiritual gender must be taken into consideration, especially for those who have been Born Again: as sons of God. It would appear we have a paradox!
I am fully convinced our gender paradox is part of Satan’s overall plan to corrupt the Holy Bible. At the same time, I must admit that I am fully convinced scriptural teachings can apply to both male and female; even if they are addressed to males. I also believe the expectations, of New Testament authors, often apply to both female and male; even if their statements are male oriented. For example, in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he writes: “… To the saints who are in Ephesus … In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ …” (Ephesians 1:1-14) Paul addressed this letter to the men in Ephesus. Does this mean the letter does not apply to females? I think not! Are we to believe that God, who Paul refers to in the masculine gender, has no intention of adopting women? Of course not! For example, in the book of Romans we find a parallel teaching about God adopting sons through Jesus. Paul told the Romans: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29) Think about this for a moment. Paul is talking about an event in which ‘those he foreknew’ are spiritually conformed to the image of Jesus and thus they are referred to in the masculine gender: brothers. Now, I propose that Paul extends or extrapolates this conforming event to include women, even if he fails to include a reference to women in his letter. I would note, however, that just because I assume Paul intends for us to include women in his statement it does not give us the authority to rewrite what Paul has said. More importantly, we must not let our desire to include women in Paul’s statement, or our desire to take Paul’s statement literally, cause us to become a disputable person who is influenced by forces of evil in heavenly places.
Instead of immediately fussing over a gender specific writing style, I would like to propose we first take into consideration the implications of being Born Again. I would put forth that, in the process of being born-from-above, physical gender loses almost all of its relevance. Jesus said: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6) I think we all can agree that our initial physical birth produces physical gender. Now, bear with me on this, I would like to propose the possibility that spiritual rebirth is physically genderless but spiritually referenced as masculine. In other words, when we are born again, both men and women are born into the heavenly gender of Jesus, which is the heavenly gender of God, the Holy Spirit and all the angels. Scripture always refers to this heavenly gender as masculine and that why those who are Born Again are said to be conformed into sons of God. So you see, we are arguing over a gender issue that has got nothing to do with physical gender … we are fussing in the physical realm over an issue that lies in the spiritual realm; and none of us can even start to understand things in the spiritual realm.
Before you let your emotions over this issue influence your thinking, remember Paul said: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; …” (2 Corinthians 5:11-21) It is my humble opinion that Paul is telling us our initial physical birth has lost its relevance in light of our new spiritual rebirth. Is this not the same thing that Jesus taught when He said: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:39) If we have been Born Again our new spiritual self, which has replaced our old spiritual self, will dominate our physical being, which makes our physical gender somewhat less relevant. I am not advocating we totally ignore the relevance of physical gender. I am simply saying that we need to take into consideration the possibility that scriptural use of gender specific terms needs to be viewed from a spiritual perspective as well as a physical perspective. When we read the bible with the mind of our old person, gender can be an issue; but, if we read the bible in the spirit of our new person, gender is not such a big issue.
The point I am trying to make is that when we are Born Again we are born of the spirit; thus, human gender takes a back seat. From a spiritual perspective, there is no biblical position that establishes one gender as superior to the other. This notion of a gender competition only exists in the culture of the lost and in the minds of immature Christians. Flesh may fall under the influence of physical gender but the spirit does not. Jesus told the Pharisees that resurrected people will be like angels: “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” (Mark 12:25) Human logic would lead us to believe that if we are resurrected like angles then we are resurrected as males, because angels are always referred to in scripture as being male. But, Paul told the Galatians: “ … now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:15-29) Think about what Paul has just said! If we have been baptized in Christ we are all sons of God. It is obvious that we have not all been physically transformed into males; thus, Paul must mean that we are all spiritually male. So I ask you: what is more important: your physical gender or your spiritual gender? Let me remind you that we have been instructed to live and think as spiritual being and that we can only worship God in spirit (Romans 8:4-11; 2 Corinthians 5:1-10; Galatians 5:16) How can it be any more plain? When we are Born Again, the flesh becomes of little important and we are all spiritual sons of God; ergo, there is no gender competition among true Christians.
There may be no gender competition but this does not mean we can totally ignore the role physical gender plays in our daily lives, although we would profit much if we could. Paul said: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” (1 Timothy 2:12) Paul also told Timothy that the elder and the deacon positions in the church were to be filled by men. In fact, Paul went so far as to say such men had to be qualified and they must have only one wife. Certainly, Paul fully understood his own words when he said: there is neither male nor female in Christ. Yet, here he is being very gender specific in establishing requirements for church leadership.
What a paradox: in the eyes of God we are neither male nor female, but Paul gave gender specific instructions to Timothy. I would propose that Paul was faced with a dilemma, which still exists today. We may be perfect in our spiritual rebirth but we live in an imperfect world. It is the evil spiritual powers in heavenly places that stain our spiritual perfection with the imperfection of issues over physical gender. God created us with codependent physical differences, which should not be an issue. Satan, however, has exercised his influence over us by generating serious mental, emotional, and psychological differences between male and female. Look at it this way. There are two types of vehicles: fuel efficient cars and 4-wheel drive trucks. Both operate in the same general fashion but both have their own unique purpose. When the two are operated as codependent means of transportation you have the optimum situation. It is only when the vehicles are operated in competition with one another that little is accomplished and great harm can be done. Our gender dilemma exists because Satan that makes the driver of a car wish they were driving a truck and vice versa.
In a perfect spiritual sense, we should be capable of rising above this gender issues; but, we cannot. It is the evil of this current world that makes it impossible for us to function with the spiritual perfection intended by God. This is especially true for those who are not Born Again or who are spiritually immature. I think that is why Paul found it extremely difficult to have a woman lead men in a male dominant culture. Everyone in the church was not Born Again, and among the Born Again there were many immature Christians. The gender paradox exists because we cannot rise above our physical limitations and live as spiritual beings.
If we were to function as true spiritual beings in everything we do, physical gender would be meaningless. But, we cannot. Therefore, Paul’s advice to Timothy is still valid when it comes to a gender specific requirement for church leadership. In my opinion, to try and rewrite the bible to change Paul’s teaching is a grievous sin. It is also, my opinion that to ignore Paul’s advice is unwise. Please understand, I did not say a fellowship is evil if they ignore Paul’s advice. I firmly believe an individual or a fellowship stands before Christ and Christ only. In the area of disputable matters, I am firmly convinced that our exercising the love of Christ will bring us together and not separate us. I simply believe we need to stand up and proclaim our conviction in a spirit of love. When it is in the realm of disputable matters we need to allow the other person to exercise their conviction … it is between them and God. The evil I would confront in this article is found in those who attempt to circumvent the gender paradox by rewriting the bible … and in those who would use such a bible.
The paradox exists: gender does not exist for those who are Born Again Christians; but, God does intend for us to take physical gender into consideration when it comes to the leadership of the church. Those who disagree with this statement have every right to do so; assuming their disagreement remains an issue of interpretation or application. To disagree over the bible application of gender is one thing, but to be so bold as to rewrite the bible in a gender-neutral language is quite another. Churches that adopt a bible written in a gender-neutral language have rebelled against the God who inspired the writing of the original documents. We are true Christians and we believe the original documents of the New Testament contain the complete, final, and accurate revelation of God’s Will for mankind. It is only when these documents have been ‘literally’ translated by a team of scholars that an accurate interpretation of scripture can be obtained. Therefore, even those who choose to ignore Paul’s advice regarding gender would never agree with the writing of a genderless bible.
