Christianity values women

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her."- Ephesians 5:25

Having been involved in ministry to families for almost four decades, I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the most confusing and misunderstood biblical concepts is how God wants husbands and wives to relate to each other. In Christian circles, most men remember Paul’s directive to women that they are to be submissive. And women are quick to remember that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church–something most men grossly neglect. Amazing, isn’t it, that we always remember what the other is supposed to do, cataloging failures and shortcomings, while we forget what we ourselves are supposed to do!

The popular notion is that women are supposed to knuckle under to their husbands, who treat them as domestic inferiors. Women are to take it and smile, not upsetting the fragile egos of their men. Eve took the fruit, and women pay for her failure.

That may be the accepted script, but it isn’t the biblical one. In many cultures of the world, women are treated as inferiors and often reduced to the level of servants. Though it is legal in Papua New Guinea and illegal in India, in both countries bride-prices are paid to a woman’s family. This practice reduces women to the level of chattel–not much different from livestock. In China, as the result of amniocentesis by which the sex of the unborn child can be determined, more baby boys are born than baby girls. Obviously, many of the female babies are aborted.

Whereas many cultures and religions strive to repress women, Christianity has sought to elevate them. Women in the West are largely treated as equals, not as inferiors. This is an outgrowth of the influence of Christianity in law and culture.

Paul directs that men are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. Men must not treat women as property or repress them and keep them ignorant, allowing them only to learn to cook, clean, and sew or do menial labor. Both husbands and wives are to submit to each other while wives are to allow husbands to lead the family.

The farther we move from this biblical model and pattern the more out of kilter society is going to be.

It is high time we returned to the timeless principles found in God’s Word. Only then will the wars between the sexes come to a halt, and we will begin to find the happiness and harmony which God, the Creator and Architect of the family, designed for His children. - Resource Reading: 1 Corinthians 13