It is fun to see the ways Jesus loved women, emphasizing their equality, all the while upholding the asymmetry between the genders. It makes me want to honor women likewise, as He did. Read Matthew12:46-50 closely: While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he …
A Lover or A Mother or What? Especially for a woman, what she does, and so who she is, can change radically from one phase of life to the next. A woman in different phases of life has different needs. Proverbs 31, the Old Testament chapter, describes the “virtuous wife” as a super-woman who seems to do so many different …
You might expect that the funny Greek word that means meekness, πραῢς, (pronounced something like pra-oose’), would appear a lot in the New Testament, since it sounds like such a Christian virtue. Not so. The word only appears four times in the New Testament, three of those times in the gospel of Matthew. (There is a related word, but that …
One of the most interesting conversations the book, enGendered, seems to spawn concerns the nature of things between the Members of the Triune God. Whereas this topic is often avoided for fear of speaking heresy, I suggest that there is too much in the Scriptures that encourage us to find the ground of our relationships in the Persons of God–even …
The human being is not a soul “in” a body. Because of the profound unity of body and soul in God’s design, our bodies are not something we “have” or “own” alongside ourselves. In a very real way, we are our bodies. Our bodies reveal the spiritual mystery of our souls.
Christ is the Paragon of Femininity
“Wait, what!?” you exclaim. “That doesn’t sound right. We know that Jesus Christ was incarnate as a man, not a woman, so how can He show us femininity?” Well, you are thinking about gender in isolation again, but the Bible teaches us differently…
In relationship to His Church, Jesus Christ demonstrates masculinity in its pure form. The apostle Paul calls forth the excellency of Christ becoming our husband in 2Corinthians 11:2-3, while Ephesians 5:22-33 explains it more fully, two examples among others. So if you want to see a real man, look at Christ in this relationship to His Church. Jesus took …
Everyone seems to agree that Jesus Christ’s most sublime, wonderful teaching is found in the Sermon on the Mount. But the part about not swearing oaths does not get much attention. According to Matthew 5, Jesus said, “Do not even swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.” Well, you might politely murmur, “Jesus is …
