#078 What Do Biblical Gender Roles Look Like? How Does The Bible Define Masculinity? FurtherEveryDay

After last week’s commentary on Feminism and Neo-Masculinity, we thought we should cover Biblical Gender Roles. With men accounting for 80% of suicides, it’s important to note that a significant portion of this comes from post divorce. (Men are 8 times as likely to commit suicide than their female counterparts.)

Much of this grief comes from the modern understanding of marriage. However, we should look deeper to understand the core of the issue. What is a man and what is a woman? And what do they have to do with each other?

What was God’s original design for marriage? Did God command man to be indecent to women? Did God allow women authority in marriage? What is man’s responsibility in marriage? What is the woman’s responsibility?

The world would have you believe that authority and submission are bad terms. What does the Bible say about authority in marriage? Ephesians 5 is the most often quoted verse on the topic so let’s dive into it.

Ephesians 5:22-23: “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.”

These verses are often quoted out of context. These verses are in a chapter within a book written to a church. The context matters. The idea that submission is somehow a negative word is negated by the same spirit being exemplified in Philippians 2:6-8:

“[6] Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: [7] But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: [8] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

How could Christ submit himself to God if submission is a negative thing. Perhaps submission has more to do with authority than it does with causing harm. If Christ was submitting to God the Father, but both are Co-Equal, then perhaps submission has more to do with assuming a role than it does with oppression.

Ephesians 5:24 continues: “Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

Does this sound like oppression?

“So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.”

If women submit, men are expected to be this kind of man.

“For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.”

This is why marriage itself is so critical.

Theologically: A man is a supposed to protect the woman who was made to complete the marriage.

Philosophically: Both genders have distinct differences and when we lose sight of what gives us purpose (God’s leading in our life), sexual deviancy, infertility, and suicide become common place.

Culturally: Couples are the bedrock of our society, without a strong family unit, what happens to the culture? It breaks down and decays.

Politically: Why would the government have an interest in preserving the God Ordained Gender Roles? Why would a government have an interest in destroying such roles?

Economics: How does the traditional view of marriage, masculinity, and femininity better preserve the family financially?

https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/mental-heath-of-men-and-boys/life-after-divorce-for-men-the-impact-on-mens-health/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/30/suicides-are-spiking-among-young-men/

https://jech.bmj.com/content/57/12/993

Laura's Story Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xRNrnh__SE

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