After The Fall in the Garden of Eden, God Spoke to the Serpent. Then he spoke to the woman.

Genesis 3:16

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
  with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
  and he will rule over you.”

Complementarian View – This scripture is confirmation of the belief of a pre-fallen order. Based on the fact that Adam was created first, the invention of male rule was already created. This scripture demonstrates the corruption of that thinking. When interpreted literally, The Fall turned loving servant leadership into harsh dominance and a mutual partnership where wives will want to challenge their husbands leadership.

Core view – God created order which establishes man as leader.

Egalitarian View – Male dominance is not part of God’s design. God created man and woman in his image as equal partners in equal union to govern together in all spheres. The scripture demonstrates consequences of a broken world. When the scripture is interpreted in its true Hebrew meaning, it is a prophecy that predicts a power struggle between man and woman.

Core view – God created male and female in his image equal to each other.

Ephesians 5:22-23

²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.

²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Complementarian View – With the root of Genesis verses already interpreted as God’s order in alignment with the thinking that God created Adam first, the supporting scripture actually begins in verse 21 with the establishment of humility. Therefore, verses 22 and 23 establish non-reversible roles in the marriage relationship. Since the Church never fully submits to Christ, this proves that a marriage relationship is not symmetrical.  Therefore, the husband retains authority that the wife does not have. Further, the word head or Kephale is interpreted as head meaning chief, boss, or more commonly leader. Since Christ had full authority over the church, therefore man has a God-given role of leadership and decision making authority.

Core view – God established a permanent loving hierarchy in marriage.

Egalitarian View – Kephale in its true Greek meaning means source or origin. The head of a river is a good visual aid here. The interpretation of the text is in love, nurture and care. Rather than this text speaking to the husband to be the leader, the text instructs the husband to nurturer in which he is called to provide an environment for his wife to thrive.

Core view – Christ’s redemption obliterates the hierarchy introduced from the fall.

1 Timothy 2:11-13

¹¹ A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. ¹² I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. ¹³ For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

Complementarian view – This is the strongest text that is used for the argument that God created order and man was created first. The text gives a command that when interpreted literally, obviously instructs the woman to submit. She should not teach or assume authority over man and she must remain silent.

Core view – Adam was first, women are to submit to man’s God-given authority.

Egalitarian view – Paul is speaking to a specific situation in Ephesus. False teachers is the crisis that Paul is addressing in his letter. Paul wasn’t silencing all women for all time. Rather, Paul was addressing that uneducated, deceived women of Ephesus should not be teaching heresy in the church. Paul is making the statement that he does not permit these women or any woman to teach false doctrine or usurp a man. Paul is addressing this in his letter to Timothy in hopes that his letter will be used to disrupt the false teachers. Paul is saying “Let the women learn in a respectful environment. I am not permitting these women to give false doctrine. In comparison to Eve, they are not well informed and therefore lack grounding and are susceptible to deception. They should learn first.”

Core view – Pauls is addressing false teachers in Ephesus. Some of those false teachers who were causing the problem were specific women of the church in Ephesus. ALL false teachers should remain silent and learn.

Well now, did you GET that?

I am not a theologian, nor am I a Biblical scholar. I am just a man who loves Jesus. Loving Jesus means loving others. For me, it is a natural flow to treat women equally. Especially my wife. For me, when I read the Bible, I always read it through the lens of Jesus. And as I read, I always ask the question, “What Would Jesus do.” and “Does my thinking align with Jesus?”

For those who need text backing, I invite you to check out Philip Payne. The man who set out to disprove the Egalitarian view and now he are one. https://pbpayne.com

For those who are looking for sound scriptural TEACHING from a woman, I invite you to check out Marg Mowczko. https://margmowczko.com

These two resources certainly complement each other. If neither of these resources work for you, I offer my hope that you find truth in your journey with Jesus.

I am obviously biased here. I can not deny it. I hold the Egalitarian view. I stand for Jesus. I stand for women. For me, it has always made sense once I found Jesus. Previous to me finding Jesus for real, I knew the right answer but I did not practice it. If you asked me if all men and women are equal, my answer would have been a resounding “yes!” However, in application I did not practice it. For me this meant, I did not actually believe I had authority over women, but I used any application of do as I say, not as I do, to self serve myself. While I have been working with this scripture to better understand it for many years now, I have never gone through this scripture in this way before. Honestly, as I was writing this, all I could think of was how the Complementation view holds such a lower level immature first grade mentality. I was truly thinking, “This is so FIRST GRADE!”

My next thought as I write, is how sad the Complementarian view is. I am truly saddened by what has been taught to people. Hierarchy is exactly the problem we see in the Old Testament over and over again. Love and nurturing each other in mutual partnership is exactly what Jesus demonstrated. In the New Testament, Paul is speaking to the exact problem the Complementarian faces. False Teachings. While the Complentarian will want to argue with me/us. I just CAN NOT AND WILL NOT ever entertain their position. IT DOES NOT REPRESENT LOVE AND IT IS NOT OF JESUS.

God created woman and man (lady’s first) equally in His image. Christ’s redemption is our saving grace. We are all called to learn first before we teach to ensure we are not BEARING FALSE WITNESS. Most of ALL – We are called to be more like Jesus!

Do You GET It?

I have made some stickers that send you on a FUN and educational journey that you can find in the FUN SHOP.