Okay, okay. At the outset of this series I mentioned that I intended to address a few salient points vis-à-vis Bruce Ware’s Male and Female Complentarity and the Image of God. Well, you know how Yours Truly gets wound up some times. But here’s the bottom line:
I am not – repeat, not – arguing for intentional disrespect, contempt, or rank antagonism between the genders. I am NOT – repeat, NOT - arguing against male leadership in the church or anywhere else, nor am I advocating disrespect or disdain toward male leadership. I am advocating:
- A more biblically balanced, shoulder-to-shoulder, hand-in-hand, mutual approach both in the home, in the church, in the agora and in all of life rather than a top-down, male-dominated hierarchy. (Can you appreciate the difference?)
- For “respect and honor” to be evenly distributed between both genders, in whatever role, responsibility or venue God may lead them.
In The Basics of Biblical Equality: Belief and Practice, Rebecca Merrill Groothuis sums this up beautifully:
Biblical equality does not mean that men and women are identical or undifferentiated. God has created and designed men and women to complement and benefit one another, and there do seem to be average differences in behavior (both learned and intrinsic) between women and men.
Biblical equality does mean that gender, in and of itself, neither privileges nor curtails a believer’s gifting or calling to any ministry in the church or home; that all believers in Christ stand on equal ground before God; and that spiritual authority, as biblically defined, is as much a female believer’s privilege and responsibility as it is a male believer’s. All believers stand on the same biblical terms of faith and service, in accordance with the ways in which each one is gifted and called.
Amen? What do you think?
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There’s more, so don’t touch that dial.
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Filed under: Just Between Us | Tagged: Bruce Ware, male and female complementarity
