Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

by Jeff Fry

Galatians 3:1-28

(esp. vv. 27-28)

I.       Intro

A.   Emerson University follows disturbing trend by making restrooms gender-neutral to accommodate "transgender" students - by Jeff Robinson, September 5, 2007

B.   Summary: To accommodate the Boston school’s “transgendered” student population, Emerson has changed the formerly gender-specific signs on 21 of its restrooms and in one of its two dorms, opening them to both men and women.

C.    Officials at Emerson College believe they are bringing "more equal opportunities" to their students at the outset of the new school year by making all their bathrooms gender-neutral.

D.    

E.   To accommodate the Boston school’s "transgendered" student population, Emerson has changed the formerly gender-specific signs on 21 of its restrooms and in one of its two dorms, opening them to both men and women. Emerson is not the first to make the bizarre shift; Tufts University and the University of Vermont both moved to unisex restrooms over the past four years.

F.     

G.  David Haden, associate dean of housing and resident life at Emerson, told the Boston Globe that the adoption of a gender-neutral approach to restrooms enables students to further express themselves.

H.   "I am all in favor of supporting students and their expressions," said Haden. "Having gender-neutral bathrooms doesn't take anything away from anyone; it just gives students more options."

I.        School officials at Emerson caved in to pressure from two student groups , the Emerson Alliance for Gays, Lesbians and Everyone, and the Student Government Association, both of which demanded that restrooms be made "gender-blind" so that transgendered students would not be made to feel uncomfortable by "being made to choose a gender at the bathroom door."

J.    The Boston Globe quotes one student as saying she felt "sorry for students who did not know where to go." Rik Haber, a 2007 Emerson graduate who identifies himself neither as male nor female, but as existing in the ultra bizarre category of "gender-***," said he had felt unsafe in Emerson’s facilities because he had "seen people subjected to gender-policing" and "odd looks." ("The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood" web site, http://www.cbmw.org/Blog/Posts/Emerson-University-follows-disturbing-trend-by-making-restrooms-gender-neutral-to-accommodate-transgender-students)

K.   There is a direct path between a departure from biblical truth to confusion over gender and finally to concrete examples such as gender-neutral bathrooms

L.    And it that's not enough consider that Iowa, a state in the central part of America just okay'd same sex marriage - the first state in the heartland area of America to allow these marriages.  The only other state to allow it in America is Massachusetts. 

M.   So, this mini-series isn't just some pie in the sky idea that we don't deal with on a daily basis in our lives.  It is a real issue for the culture of the day and it has its influence on you as a woman or a man and on children being brought up in a world which where the gender lines are beginning to be blurred more and more.

II.    Men and women are equal and complementary

A.   State

1.     Background of Galatians

a)    it is important to note some background first on Galatians.  Galatians was written in order to address the issue of certain Judaizers (Jewish Christians) who had influenced Christian believers in Galatia.  Specifically the Judaizers were demanding that the Christians adhere to certain bits of OT law in order to be saved (e.g. ceremonial practices).

b)    In other words salvation by faith in Christ plus something else is what the Judaizers were proposing while Paul was preaching the new covenant gospel which was faith in Christ alone. 

c)     So, out with the old way of gaining God's approval and in with the new way was Paul's message.  Remember this as this is important.

2.     Cultural norms for women in OT and NT times.

a)    Another important issue to understand is how women were treated before and up to the time of Jesus.

b)    Jewish culture was basically patriarchial  while Greaco-roman culture was decidedly patriarchial.  .  Consider the following:

(1)  Greco-Roman Society Attitudes:

(a)    Three reasons for gratitude, to be repeated by Greek men: “ . . . that I was born a human being and not a beast, next a man and not a woman, thirdly, a Greek and not a barbarian.”¹

(b)   Epictetus, a first-century AD philosopher, asserted that "Woman's world is one thing; men's another."² He also spoke of women with such adjectives as "worthless," "weeping," and "silly."³

(c)    The noble Roman philosopher Seneca (4 BC-65 AD) classified women as innately inferior to men.⁴

(d)   Charles Carlston sums up the Greco-Roman world’s view of women: “ . . . on balance . . . the picture drawn is a grim one. Women . . . are basically ineducable and empty-headed; vengeful, dangerous, and responsible for men’s sins;  … "

(2)  Jewish Society Attitudes:

(a)           Philo, a famous philosopher, held that the proper relationship of a wife to her husband was to “serve as a slave,” and that the only purpose of marriage was procreation.⁶

(b)    Josephus, a historian, reflects the Jewish consensus when he says, "A woman is inferior to her husband in all things. Let her, therefore, be obedient to him . . . "⁷

(c)    Jewish rabbis prayed, "Blessed be He that He did not make me a Gentile; blessed be He that He did not make me a boor (slave); blessed be He that He did not make me a woman."⁸

(d)   Bible scholar Richard Longenecker summarizes the role of women in synagogue life: “In the synagogues . . . women were separated from the men by a screen and allowed to take no part in the service, except, at most, on one occasion yearly, to read one of the lessons (Tos Megilla 4:11; Bab Megilla 23a).”⁹

3.     In this broader context, Paul says the following in Galatians 3:28 " There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

a)    In the verses leading up to this revolutionary verse about men and women is the thought that the old covenant, the Mosaic law,  has been done away with and the new covenant in Christ is here.

b)    And Paul is saying that because of this new covenant we have a new way of looking at men and women, Jew and Gentile, etc - they are one in Christ Jesus.

(1)  How are they one?

(a)    Firstly, the blessings of salvation are equally poured out on both men and women without prejudice.  That we know for sure and it at least is saying this.

(b)   But it is also talking about a broader oneness probably.  Where there was a barrier between Jew and gentile in the old covenant, there is now no barrier in the new covenant.  they are equal in the eyes of God because both are "in Christ".

(c)    And in personhood men and women are equal in the sight of God too, yet retain their distinctness at the same time.  They don't become androgynous, men are masculine and women are feminine and all that comes along with that at the same time that they are equal in personhood.  This is radical for that time period!

4.     Now I'd like us to note how radical a thought this was for Paul's day.

a)    considering the attitudes in society of the Jews and the Greeks toward women, this statement must have been unbelievable

b)    To bring women up to the level of a man was unthinkable

c)     They say that the present day images and paintings of Joseph walking by the side of the donkey while pregnant Mary rides on the donkey would have never happened back then!  So much for chivalry!

d)    Paul is saying "chauvisnism meet chivalry and then please stand aside!".

e)     Paul must have appeared as a radical, revolutionary pioneering women's self-worth second only to Jesus

B.   Illustrate

C.   Apply

1.     So, let this set the foundation for the next two weeks in our mini-series where we will deal one week with the role of men and one week with the role of women. 

2.     Be clear that we will never be saying that women in their person are ever inferior to men.  Or we are never saying that men are inferior to women.  While we will assert that they have been made for different roles in home and church, we will never say that one is given more worth by God than the other.

3.     The Bible is not an enemy of women.  It is a great asset and friend.  It Biblical times it pulled up women to an equal level with men while yet maintaining distinctions which we will get into in the next two weeks.

4.     Not many pastors like to preach on this topic because it can be so divisive and divide a church as it is a topic where emotions run high.  So why am I doing it?

a)    I have a great conviction that this message of the roles of men and women given to us by God is important and makes a difference in our lives.

(1)  It has practical implications for

(a)    marriage

(b)   dating

(c)    roles of men and women in the church

(d)   how men treat women in everyday life

(e)   how women treat men in everyday life

(f)     how we see ourselves - our roles

b)    I have a great conviction that through our culture this we are losing the Biblical perspective on men and women's roles and the gender lines are blurring as mentioned earlier.

c)     I have a great conviction that it is a step of faith we must take in order to grow - ie. we must not be afraid to look at God's word and take it for what it is worth even if it says something we don't like or don't want to hear or don't understand or is countercultural. 

(1)  You may come away from this series saying something like this:  okay God I don't understand why your Word is saying this, but I do acknowledge that there is something here - ie. that there are biblical roles for men and women in the church, the home, and in greater society for instance.  I don't even necessarily like what I'm hearing let alone understand why, but I trust You because I know you to be a loving, caring God who wants the best for me.  So, I decide that I will trust you and your Word and will live out the gender role you have for me trusting in You that it is best for me.  I will seek to allow the opposite sex to fulfill their gender role and act is a way that encourages that role.  I will get out of the boat!!!!

III.  Conclusion

A.   Gary and Tony in the sitcom Men Behaving Badly were created as a joke, but they became heroes and role-models for a generation growing up in the 1990s. They are characterized by beer-swilling vulgarity and a total disrespect for women.

1.     But when men take their biblical gender role seriously to be spiritual leaders, protectors, and initiators to love women sacrificially in the home and elsewhere then we become a beacon of light in a dark world showing the way it should be.

B.   Women - feminism is pounding away at you to be in a lot of ways very unlike the role God has laid out in His word.  What will be your response ?  Will you cave in?

1.     Elisabeth Elliot says, "For years I have watched with growing dismay , even anguish , what has been happening in our society, in our educational system, in our churches , in our homes, and on the deepest level of our personality, as a result of the movement called feminism, a movement that gives a great deal of consideration to something called personhood, but very little to womanhood and hardly a nod to femininity." (Elisabeth Elliot, author and speaker, CBMW web site home page).

For questions, comments or further information contact:

Rev Jeff Fry
Darwin Park Community Church