The Christian Home..Experiencing the Wisdom of God (Eph 5:15-18) Part 2

A worldly concept about gender roles in marriage has produced two wrong extremes in which the Christian home has been polluted and tainted by the world. One extreme is that of male dominance where the husband is viewed as the king in the home. He ignores the biblical commands to love his family as Christ loved the church, and wrongly uses the biblical teaching concerning the headship of the husband for his own selfish advantage! In reaction to the first, the other extreme, is that there should be no distinctions at all on the basis of gender. In this arrangement, the clear biblical commands for the wife to submit to her husband are ignored. The feminist movement is simply the bringing of a worldly concept into the Christian home and has wreaked havoc and confusion on Christian families. Where's the balance to be found? It's found in the wisdom of God. Error will always be found in extremes. The truth is found in rightly dividing God's Word. We must understand that gender roles were perverted and twisted in the Fall of Adam and Eve. In the Fall, Satan tempted Eve to eat from the forbidden tree. The Bible actually says that Eve was deceived but not Adam. Paul says, "but the woman being deceived.." (1 Tim 2:14). In the context of 1 Tim 2, Paul is making the argument that women are not allowed to be in positions over men in the church (v. 12). Paul is making the argument that the Fall happened because Adam willingly followed his wife instead of being the leader God had called him to be. Eve was deceived, but Adam followed even though he knew it was wrong. Satan's temptation disrupted God's original gender order! Having said that, let's examine the effects of the Fall on gender roles in marriage. In Genesis 3:16, God said, "Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you." When God spoke these words to the woman, what did He mean? The Hebrew word "desire" is the same word found in Genesis 4:7, where God is speaking to Cain. The word "desire" is used to describe "sin" trying to dominate Cain and provoke him to anger over God's acceptance of Abel's offering. The word "desire" means to control! Now we can understand the effect of sin on the distinct gender roles of the husband and wife (or man and woman). The wife would try to control the husband, and the husband would try to dominate the wife! This is not the wisdom of God for the home! Your move. Be encouraged!