Biblical Womanhood: Misconception #3

Misconception #3: the unequal

This particular misconception is touted around in our day by both non-believers and believers. They say that the woman is lower than the man, that she is not equal with him. They say that because of this, she must “submit” (like “the submitter”) to every man.

Think of these two situations: 1) A woman is offered some help carrying a heavy load of groceries by a young man at the grocery store. Chagrined at the imposition of helplessness, she refuses the man and reasons that she is a liberated woman who is able to carry her own things. 2) A woman in college does everything that all her male friends tell her to do, thinking that it is a woman’s job to follow men. Is there something that seems odd in these two situations? The Unequal Woman can be presented in two extremes: as someone who finds herself not needing men and someone who mistakenly sees all men as people to submit to.

Equality is a term that is thrown around and about these days. A lot of people are concerned about receiving equal treatment and not being mistreated by others. It is a topic that stirs up a lot of debate and controversy. Equality is defined by the dictionary as “the quality and state of being equal” and gender equality is a concern that people have been fighting for. As Christians, we are called to live with a biblical worldview while preaching the gospel so that men may be saved. How can we apply this in terms of gender, equality, masculinity and femininity? 

Genesis 1:27 says that during creation, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Ultimately, God defined who we were and He created both male and female equally. While we were created equally, man and woman were given different roles that were meant to glorify God. Yes, you read that right, our femininity was created to glorify God. He also commanded women to submit to their husbands, but this is not a command to submit to all men that they meet in their lifetime. Also, this doesn’t mean He provided men with a license to mistreat and abuse women, because He values both of them.

Submission is created by God, designed to reflect our utter dependence on our Lord Jesus Christ. Submission is created for men and women as part of a covenant promise made possible by Jesus. Somehow submission was given a negative image; it was misunderstood to be something degrading, abusive and wrong. It was also wrongly equated with silent acquiescence, being controlled, miserable fear, and a lack of intellectual process. 

The Bible says, “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything” This means that submission is commanded in order for men and women to glorify God through obedience of the Word. This also means that submission is an issue of the heart and is not dependent on our outward appearance and actions. 

So what does this means for us, single women? Well it means that with this season of single-hood, our submission is focused on our Lord Jesus Christ and he provides opportunities to serve our parents, our churches and people around us, making sure to preach the gospel whenever we can.

-- from the archives