"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord."
Ephesians 5:22
"So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."
Genesis 1:27
People typically study the Bible through the eyes of their own individual prejudices, i.e., they tend to read "into" the Scriptures rather than "out of" them as the Holy Spirit meant when He directed His servants to write them. Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding in the entire Bible concerns gender equality or lack thereof.
Throughout world history, women have had the greatest struggle imaginable just to regain what God intended for them to have in the very beginning. When you consider that women in America were not deemed good enough to vote until 1920, you can begin to appreciate the struggle. (Being married to an ordained minister who has earned two doctoral degrees and observing her journey has given me an intimate perspective of this struggle.)
Most people can find verses to support their position. What must be kept in mind, however, is that God from the very beginning created man and woman as equal. He ordained both man and woman to walk with Him and be as one. Men and women are designed to fulfill different roles but God created them equal.
The next blog will explore the dangers of not understanding this. "Should a Christian woman stay with an abusive husband?" "Do many ordained ministers encourage women to stay in an abusive relationship?" "Should the average minister be counseling couples who are involved in violence?"
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