Good morning. As you all know today is Mother’s Day. This holiday, like many of the others we celebrate, has an interesting background. Our modern celebration can trace its roots back to the efforts of a woman named Anna Jarvis who created the holiday in 1908 as a day to honor one’s mother. Woodrow Wilson made it an official United States holiday in 1914. But the holiday became so commercialized that Jarvis eventually ended up calling it a “Hallmark holiday” and opposing the holiday she helped to create.
Today, Mother’s Day remains one of the biggest sales days for flowers and greeting cards and traditionally has been the day when the most long distance phone calls were made, although I’m not totally sure that is still the case with all the other forms of communication available to us today.
It is my desire to honor all of you who fulfill the essential role of motherhood this morning, not by purchasing cards or flowers or some other physical gift, but by giving thanks to God for you and praying for you. So would all of you who are mothers please stand and allow us as a body to honor you.
[Prayer]
As I did some planning for my sermons this year towards the end of last year, I decided that this time between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day would be an appropriate time to do some topical teaching on the family. And even up until a few weeks ago, that was still my plan. But as I have been observing what is going on in our culture regarding the family and praying about exactly what God wanted me to communicate to us as a body, I have decided to deal with a topic that I believe is foundational not only for our families, but for every single area of our lives – recovering the Biblical pattern for manhood and womanhood.
There is so much evidence all around us that our culture has completely rejected a Biblical view of manhood and womanhood. Many of the issues that are such hot buttons in our culture can be traced directly to the fact that as a culture men and women have lost sight of their God-given design.
My decision to preach on this topic was really confirmed over the last couple of weeks. Many of you are probably aware of the current controversy in the Tucson Unified School District where the school board recently adopted a policy that prohibits discrimination based on “gender identity or expression.” As a result students, even elementary aged school children may now use whatever restroom is consistent with the gender they identify with. So if a kindergarten boy decides that he identifies more with being a girl he is now free to use the girl’s bathroom. Such a practice would have been unthinkable only a few years ago.
And obviously other issues like homosexual marriage that seem to dominate the news are ultimately about how we as a culture view the roles of men and women in society.
The fact that the culture in general no longer holds to a Biblical view of manhood and womanhood is not surprising, even though it is disturbing. But what bothers me even more is that it seems that the church has also lost sight of God’s design for men and women. So for the next five weeks, I want to take some time to remind all of us of the Biblical pattern for manhood and womanhood.
Why does this matter?
This issue affects every area of our lives:
• Our view of God and our relationship with Him
Since the Bible reveals that God has created man and woman in His image, how we understand the Biblical pattern for manhood and womanhood will impact our view of who God is and influence the kind of relationship we have with Him.
• Our homes and how they operate
This is the most obvious place where having the correct ideas about manhood and womanhood is essential. How we function as husbands and wives and as fathers and mothers depends in large part on how we view to Biblical roles of men and women. And certainly the whole topic of human sexuality is impacted greatly by how we view manhood and womanhood.
• The church and how it operates
The church has certainly not been immune to the influence of radical feminism that attempts to blur the distinction between men and women in every area of life, including church leadership.
• How men and women relate to each other in the community
How men and women relate to each other in the workplace, in dating and in the other interactions they have in the community is greatly impacted by the way they view their roles in society.
I am certain that some of you are really not going to like what I have to say this morning and over the next few weeks. Some of you are probably going to disagree with what I say. But I want to ask you to do both of us a favor and just listen carefully before you make up your mind on these issues – especially for the next two weeks. It is going to take at least that much time to fully unpack the basics and so I plead with you to keep an open mind at least until you hear all I have to say for the next two weeks.
Please, for all of our sakes, don’t just take my word for these matters. I urge you, as I would with any of my teaching, to carefully consider what I say and measure it against the truth of God’s Word and then decide what to believe.
God’s Pattern at Creation
We’re going to begin this morning by going all the way back to creation. It is there that we find a clear picture of God’s design for manhood and womanhood. That is why when Jesus and Paul address questions of how men and women should relate to each other, they go back to the creation accounts that describe God’s original design before it was corrupted by the fall of man.
So turn in your Bibles to Genesis 1 and follow along as I begin reading in verse 26.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
(Genesis 1:26-28 ESV)
The first thing I want us to see here is the distinction between the rest of God’s creation and the creation of man. Up until verse 24, God merely spoke and things came into being – light, heaven and earth, water and dry land, plants, the sun and moon, and animals. But when it comes to the creation of man, God takes a much more personal and direct role. We’re going to see that even more in a moment in chapter 2.
Let’s focus first on verse 27, which to me is the key verse in developing our understanding of God’s design:
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
You’ll notice that the first two lines of that verse from what is known as a “chiasm”. Basically that just means that those two lines are a mirror image of each other and that literary device is used frequently in Scripture, particularly in the Old Testament to give emphasis. So here there is an emphasis on the fact that God created man in His own image. That is something that is not true for anything else that God created.
The third line reveals that in the process of creating man in His own image, God created both male and female.
So let’s just summarize what we’ve seen so far:
• God was personally and directly involved in the creation of man
• God created man in His own image
• God created both male and female
Therefore would you agree that both man and woman were created in God’s image? And since that is true, we can draw our first conclusion about Biblical manhood and womanhood:
God’s design:
Man and woman have equal worth…
You’re probably going to get tired of hearing this over the next five weeks, but this is so foundational, that you’re going to hear me repeat it over and over. In fact, this is so important, let’s say this out loud together…
This idea that God created man and woman with equal worth is confirmed in verse 28 where we see that God blessed both of them and gave both of them the command to be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the rest of His creation.
In this passage, we also see for the first time in the Bible an important aspect of God’s nature that has important implications for the Biblical roles of man and woman. In verse 26, we see that there is a plurality to the nature of God:
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness
This is the first time in Scripture where the triune nature of God, or what we usually refer to as the “Trinity”, is revealed. I’m going to come back to that concept in just a moment, but for now, just keep that in the back of your mind.
Now let’s go to Genesis chapter 2. A lot of people who read the Bible for the first time get confused when they get to chapter 2 because at first glance this looks like a completely different creation account. But what is happening here is that we are being given a different view of the very same account of creation that we read in Chapter 1. This is actually a very common feature of Hebrew literature, which tends to be more “circular” than “linear” or “chronological”.
Many of you will remember we saw that when we looked at the Old Testament prophecies of the Day of the Lord and the Book of Revelation.
In chapter 2, we are given some more detail of what occurred in the verses we just looked at in chapter 1 where God created man and woman in His own image.
After God formed all the plants and animals, He created Adam and placed him in the garden of Eden and instructed him to tend to the garden. At that time, God also gave to Adam the command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As we’re going to see, it is significant that that command is given to Adam and not Eve. In fact, Eve doesn’t even exist yet at that point. Let’s pick up the account in verse 18:
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
(Genesis 2:18-25 ESV)
Don’t you just love the way that God deals with Adam here? God understands that it is not good that he should be alone, but rather that just telling that to Adam, He takes him through a process that allows Adam to discover that for himself. God brings all the animals he has created to Adam and lets Adam interact with those animals and give them appropriate names based on what he observes.
But because none of these animals were made in God’s image, like Adam, he did not find a suitable companion.
So God puts Adam to sleep and creates Eve from his flesh. And then God wakes Adam and in effect says to him, “I have one more creature for you to name. What do you think of her?” And we find Adam’s reply in verse 23:
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
When Adam calls Eve “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” he is acknowledging that she has equal worth along with him before God. He confirms the principle we have already established:
God’s design:
Man and woman have equal worth…
But there is also a paradox here that begins to reveal another critical aspect of God’s design for manhood and womanhood. You’ll notice here that it is Adam, and not God, who gives the name “Woman” to Eve. This is not the first hint in Genesis that even though man and woman have equal worth before God, they also have different roles. Therefore, we can thus complete our theme statement for this morning like this:
God’s design:
Man and woman have equal worth…
but
different work
Let’s repeat that whole statement out loud together.
Next week I’m going to go into much more detail about the “different work” that God has designed for men and women and also how the fall of man in Genesis 3 perverted that design.
I will undoubtedly hint at those different roles this morning, but what I really want to do as we close our time this morning is to look at the evidence in the first two chapters of Genesis that confirm this idea of equal worth but different work.
Evidence that God ordained different work for man and woman
1. The nature of God
Remember when I told you to keep the idea of a Triune God in the back of your mind? Now is the time to retrieve that idea. I want you to think for about the one God who is manifest in the three persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Within that relationship, which of those three persons has more intrinsic worth than the others? And within that Trinity, which of the three persons is superior to the others?
I hope that your answer to those questions is that none of them either has more intrinsic worth or is superior to the others.
But at the same time would you agree that they all have different work? Would you agree that the way each person of the Godhead operates in our lives is different? What the Father does is different from what the Son does and what the Son does is different than what the Holy Spirit does.
So would it be fair to say:
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit have equal worth
but
different work
So if man and woman are made in God’s image, why should we be surprised that same is true for them?
2. The naming of the human race
If you look carefully at Genesis 1 again, you will note an interesting phenomena, especially in verses 26 and 27. When the Bible refers to all mankind, it uses the Hebrew word “adam”, which literally means man:
Let us make man [Hebrew “adam”] in our image…
So God created man [Hebrew “adam”]…
Had God wanted to, he could have used other Hebrew words which refer to all mankind, both male and female. So it is significant that the Bible uses the word “man” here to indicate something important about male headship in the relationship between men and women. Granted, were this the only evidence we had of different roles for men and women, it would be difficult to make that case, but when we combine it with the rest of the evidence we have it certainly adds weight to that conclusion.
Unfortunately a number of contemporary English Bible translations have chosen to translate the Hebrew word “adam” in those verses as “mankind” or “human beings” or “people” in order to be “gender-neutral”. But at best that practice really obscures and at worst contradicts an important aspect of God’s design for manhood and womanhood.
3. The order of creation
I won’t spend much time here since we’ve already seen how Adam was not only created prior to Eve, but he was also given tasks by God and commands by God prior to Eve’s creation that we have no evidence that God ever gave directly to Eve. So the implication is that part of Adam’s responsibility as the head was to pass those things on to Eve.
4. The naming of woman
Again, we’ve already covered this in some detail, so I won’t belabor the point. But God gives Adam the responsibility of naming woman. Again that indicates a position of headship in their relationship.
5. The woman is created as man’s helper, not vice versa
This fact clearly confirms that the work, or the roles, of men and women are distinct and unique. As we’ll see more clearly next week, neither role is superior to the other or has more value than the other – they are just different.
Next week, as we take a look at the fall of man in Genesis 3, we’ll see some more evidence that God has ordained different roles for men and women. We’ll also see how the fall of man perverted those roles and talk about how we can be part of restoring God’s design for manhood and womanhood.
Before I offer a few closing comments, let’s review today’s foundational principle one last time:
God’s design:
Man and woman have equal worth…
but
different work
Unfortunately a lot of people, even some Christians, look at this pattern and make some horribly inaccurate conclusions. Many would claim that this is an outdated model that denigrates women and exalts men. But as we’ve seen this morning, nothing could be further from the truth.
God’s design for manhood and womanhood is a gift from God that is intended to bring deep satisfaction and fulfillment in the relationships between men and women. It is not a design that is onerous or oppressive or one which promotes pride or self-exaltation.
So when we reject that pattern or fail to live according to it, we should not be surprised that there are some serious consequences.
Last Sunday, a columnist in the Arizona Daily Star wrote these words about the gender identity non-discrimination policy in the Tucson Unified School District that I mentioned earlier:
This really should not be that hard.
A relative handful of people are born into bodies of a sex that their mind says they do not belong to. We may call some of these people transgender, while others are “gender-nonconforming” — people who simply don’t fit traditional gender molds.
Whatever the label, these people tend to have a tough time, especially as kids, because they don’t fit into the gender categories that we’re used to, and people — sometimes even parents — don’t accept that. As a result they often struggle, and have a high suicide rate.
The better person inside each of us should look at such a person, such a child, and say, “How can I help make your life easier?”
I was intrigued by his comment about the high suicide rate among these “gender non-conforming students” so I did some more research this week. It turns out that there are a number of studies that indicate that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth have one of the highest rates of suicide attempts. Most of these studies tend to blame those high rates on discrimination, bullying and physical abuse. While those things may be factors, I would suggest that any time we stray from God’s principles, life is going to be less fulfilling. And that seems to be especially true when it comes to God’s design for Biblical manhood and womanhood. And that, I would suggest to you, is the real underlying reason for the high suicide rate.
Instead of asking these children, like the columnist suggested, “How can I help make your life easier”, the most loving thing we can do for these kids is to speak the truth in love and lead them to recover a Biblical view of manhood and womanhood. Because that is the only way they are going to lead lives that are satisfying and fulfilling.
Obviously, this situation reflects a gross and complete rejection of God’s plan for manhood and womanhood. But I think it illustrates for us the danger of continuing as a culture to continue the rapidly increasing slide away from God’s design for all. I think we often feel helpless to do anything to halt that slide. But I would suggest that all of us can do something about it – not by trying to change our culture from the outside by writing letters to the editor or trying to pass new laws or attempting to elect new politicians – but rather by changing ourselves from the inside out by committing to live our own personal lives in a manner that is consistent with God’s design for manhood and womanhood and then doing everything in our power to pass those principles on to our children and grandchildren.
