In my last blog I wrote about the unity of being in all humans, male or female (see my blog dated October 13). My thesis was that man and woman, by virtue of being created in the image of God are more similar than different. Both sexes ontologically are created by God to love, discover joy, and place value in connection. We were all made for such spiritual truths and values.
But in Genesis 2:18 we read, “I will make him a helper comparable to him.” The word for comparable denotes complementarity. Man was going to need a helper different from himself to tend and keep the garden. The next verses (19-20) have Adam giving names to the animals and not finding this complement from them. Then Eve shows up and he is overwhelmed with joy.
In a time in our culture where the androgenous nature of humankind is presented at every turn, let’s take a moment to observe both from a sociological and spiritual perspective the differences of the sexes as they complement each other.
Men and Stuff
Much to the chagrin of the woke crowd, it is a sociological and scientific fact that men tend to be more about things. Men are more logical, analytical, and rational. Being a man, I can tell you that nine times of ten, when men gather around my fire pit and talk, we focus on stuff, things, and objects that we can dissect and analyze. Men fill the fields of engineering, mechanics, doctors, and rocket science.
We talk about our jobs, how to fix something, hunting, fishing, and cars. We don’t sit around and discuss “Oh, let’s talk like men tonight and never mention people in our discussion.” Ridiculous even to say. No, naturally we talk about things and stuff. And if you can fly a drone into any campsite with a group of men gathered, it would be exactly the same. That’s the way God wired most men.
Women and Relationships
Women are wired more deeply for personal relationships. They are more intuitive, creative, and integrative in their outlook. If you walk in most coffee shops, you will find women looking at each across a table, eye to eye, talking about boyfriends, husbands, and the grandchildren. God made women to be lovers and peacemakers. Women fill the fields of interior design, nursing, and counselling. That’s the way God wired most women.
Complementary Truths
But God gave woman to man and man to woman to complement the other. Liz complements me. Her intuitive and relational nature buffers my visionary builder ways. I need her and she needs me. “Complementary” is defined as “something that completes or makes perfect; either of two parts or things needed to complete the whole; counterparts.” (Kassian, Mary (September 4, 2012) Complementarism for Dummies. Available at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/complementarianism-for-dummies/
Men and women are equal in every way though different. We are different expressions of the image of God—counterparts reflecting His glory. Having two sexes expands one’s view of the other. Both sexes fully bear the image of God equally, but each does it in one’s own unique way.
Mary Kassian explains,
“Feminist theorists maintain that male-female role differences create an over-under hierarchy in which men, who are like the privileged, elite, French landowners (bourgeois) of the 18th century, keep women—who are like the lower, underprivileged class of workers (proletariat)—subservient. Complementarians, however, do not believe that men, as a group, rank higher than women. Men are not superior to women. Women are not the “second sex.” Men have a responsibility to exercise headship in their homes and church family, and Christ revolutionized the definition of what that means. Authority is not the right to rule—it’s the responsibility to serve. We rejected the term “hierarchicalism” because people associate it with an inherent, self-proclaimed right to rule.” (ibid)
Essentially, a perspective to the words in Genesis 2:18, “I will make him a helper comparable to him” is a complementarian perspective of the image of God. It shows us that man and woman reflect synergistic truths about Jesus. Jesus is embedded in both sexes, expressing the beauty of both, and reflecting His glory through unity.
Pastor Steve
