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There is one God and this God exists as three persons – Father, Son, and Spirit – that are absolutely equal in every way, sharing all attributes and qualities. Scripture is clear here. And yet there is a difference of role and function between them: We see this in Genesis where God, the Father, speaks. Jesus Christ is the Word of God, the agent of creation. And the Holy Spirit hovers above the water, bringing order out of chaos, but the Holy Spirit is not birthed out of the womb of Mary. There is a difference between the Father, Son, and Spirit. And they have particular functions that they accomplish, but they are, in a very real sense, in every real sense, one. There is one God.
The Equality of Echad
And so, it is possible for there to be difference, yet equality and oneness, even though there are more than one persons. What is true – and God’s image is true in the image of the man and the woman – that as God is one, the man and the woman in marriage are supposed to echad , one, Genesis says. They are to be one as God is one.
Now, when you get that picture of God, then you go through Genesis and you realize that the man and the woman were created in the image and likeness of God. Men and women are a shadow of God’s nature and existence. We are not little gods, but we reflect some of the attributes of God. We have the possibility of showing a little bit of what God is like. Within the Trinity, there is a difference. And between men and women, there is a difference. That difference does not mean that they are unequal. Our culture really struggles with it. They can’t understand how people could be different and still equal, but in God they are.
Men Want to be Men … And Women Do, Too
The Father, Son and Spirit are equal, but they are different, and they are one. In the same way, a man and a woman are different, though they are equal, and in marriage covenant, they become one. What we see, then, in Genesis is that God creates the male and female and that makes them equal. A woman does not need to be able to carry a fire hose up a ladder as well as a man to be equal to him. Likewise, a man does not need to give birth to children to be equal to a woman, praise be to God.
There is this myth that men and women must be exactly alike to be equal. But here’s the funny distinction: the men are not trying to be like the women, but the women are trying to be like the men and earn their approval. Ladies: God made you in his image and likeness. Your identity comes in God creating you and Christ redeeming you. You don’t have to prove anything.
Put Down US Weekly, Pick Up Proverbs
Here’s your assignment ladies – I want you to covenant with me to do this this week: Fast. Fast from television. Fast from radio. Fast from women’s magazines. Fast from romance novels. As much as you are able, fast from all of the false sermons that are being preached to you. And the false gospels that are being assailed at you. Fast from it for two weeks.
In that time, read Proverbs. Read Ruth. Read Esther. Read ’em again, and again, and again, and again, and again. And read ’em with a pen or a highlighter. Every time something strikes you, note it. And read Ruth. Read Esther. Read Proverbs, over, over, over, over, over again.
At the end of two weeks, watch a sitcom. Pick up a women’s magazine. And tell me if you do not see that this world is filled with the woman of folly who is loud, defiant, undisciplined, without knowledge.
You may disagree with a lot of what I have said. My questions would be this:
Do you disagree because you’ve been reading your Bible a lot?
Or do you disagree because you haven’t been reading your Bible a lot?
We’re going to go live our lives counter-culturally because the world in its wisdom does not know God. And I’m going to ask the ladies to covenant with me – Proverbs, Ruth, Esther – and undergo a renewing of the mind.
Read Pastor Mark’s prayer for the women after the jump:
Father God, thank you for a chance to get together and study your Word. Thank you, Lord God, that you have not left us void of wisdom and knowledge, that you have spoken to us. Lord God, I thank you for each woman that you have entrusted to this church. Lord God, I thank you that whatever sins they have committed or may have been committed against them, that you are fully capable of dealing with them. Forgiving them. Healing them. Renewing them. Cleansing them. Loving them. Adopting them. Restoring them, like you did with Rahab. Like you did with Ruth.Lord God, I thank you as well for all the women whom are single, that they have this great opportunity at this point in their life to really solidify their theology regarding gender, and marriage, and life, and womanhood, and that, Lord God, they have a time to really, carefully lay out wisdom for their future. Lord God, I pray for the married women, that they would bring help and not harm all the days of their life to their husband. I pray for the mothers, that they would love their children and raise them up in the fear and the admonition of you, Lord God.
And, Lord God, it’s my prayer that future generations that come out of this room would look differently. That they would have different kinds of values. Different kinds of beliefs. Different kinds of convictions guided by your Spirit and by your Word, and not by the shifting winds of a culture that does not know you, does not love you, has not discovered you, and is nothing but deception and lies.
Lord God, we love you and we thank you, and I pray for the women, Lord God, that as they read Proverbs, Ruth and Esther, that your Spirit would lead, teach, and guide them, and that would be a time of great encouragement to them all. Amen.
This post is excerpted from Pastor Mark’s sermon from early 2002, " Women and Femininity ," of the original Proverbs sermon series .
Coming up: “Bad Examples of a Woman from Proverbs,” and “The Wife of Noble Character.”
