Lesson 1: In the beginning, God created
1. Read Genesis 1. This is one of the most important chapters of the Bible on men and women. What do we notice in this chapter? Consider:
a. What is repeated?
b. What is the sequence of creation?
c. What is the significance of God making man and woman last?
2. Read Genesis 2. This chapters focuses specifically on the creation of men and women? What is notable here? For example, what is similar or different about the way that Adam and Eve were created as opposed to the rest of the living things?
3. Read Genesis 3. How were male and female affected by the fall?
4. How does Genesis 1-3 influence or change the way you view men and women? Consider their identity, their function, their roles.
5. What are some ways that even Christians might ignore or reject Genesis 1-3?
6. What are some reasons that Christians might not live according to Genesis 1-3?
Lesson 2: Basics of men and women relationships
1. Share a humorous male – female story from the week.
2. How would you summarize what we learned last time about men and women from Genesis 1-3?
3. Skim Genesis 2:5-17 again. What word did God use for man’s role?
4. In that same section, what duties or tasks or functions did God give to Adam?
5. Read Genesis 2:18-23 again. What word did God use for woman’s role?
6. In that same section, what duties or tasks or functions did God give to the woman?
7. One easy way to summarize what we find in Genesis 2 might look something like this.
| Function | Task |
|
|---|---|---|
| Adam |
. | . |
| Eve | . | . |
8. Look up the following passages. What do they tell us about “helper”?
Exodus 18:4
Deuteronomy 33:7
Psalm 20:3
Psalm 121:2
Psalm 146:5
John 14:16
9. How do the words of Genesis 1:28-30 fit with the teaching in Genesis 2 (a vital question to bring these ideas together).
10. In the 1990s, David Gilmore wrote a book called Manhood in the Making: Cultural Concepts of Masculinity. In it he notes that “that gender differentiation is weaker in societies where resources are abundant, such as ours. And he concludes that, “The degree to which women contribute directly to the food quest in any given society seems to correlate [inversely] with the degree to which manhood is emphasized.” In our society where women are often outpacing men in careers, trying to expect sacrificial behavior out of men and only men might be a fruitless task. Gender seems likely to continue being weakly differentiated or even to fragment.”
In your own words, what is Gilmore saying?
How does a cultural insight like Gilmore’s fit with the ideas of Genesis 2?
Lesson 3: Both men and women are incredibly competent
1. What’s a proverb or truism or wise saying about men and women that you’ve heard?
“Men are from Mars, women are from Venus.”
“Men are like waffles, women are like spaghetti.”
“Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There's too much fraternizing with the enemy.” Henry Kissinger
2. To catch us up from last time, please read Genesis 1:27-28. When the Lord gave men and women the responsibility to steward creation, he also gave them the gift of his image. The rest of the Bible tells us that we lost that gift (even if some fragment of it is left behind) and our stewardship is corrupted. Still, reflect on the wonderful gift and responsibility the Lord gave us. What do they tell us about him and us?
3. Read Colossians 3:8-11. Despite the fact that God’s gift and responsibility are ruined in the fall, God is restoring those who believe in him. In this passage, what are some ways that God is restoring us? What are the results of his work?
4. Stephen Clark wrote one of the more well-known books on men and women called “Man and Woman in Christ”. As he opens, he tells a story. At one time, he was part of a group that sang together. There were supposed to be separate parts for men and women. Initially, they ignored those instructions and sang everything together. One day, they decided to try singing separately. Afterwards, the “consensus was that something worthwhile had been added to our ability to sing and worship the Lord. In fact, most people were enthusiastic about the new dimension of beauty and expression that had been added to our life together.”
“Men and women should live together in love and serve the Lord together. … As we learn how to perceive and draw upon the value of what is distinctive to men and to women, our life together becomes stronger and more beautiful.” (Kindle Locations 171-173)
5. The Bible is full of a lot of similar stories – stories of men and women who can do a lot and also drawn on their distinctive abilities: women like Sara, Rachel, Rebecca, Abigail, Esther, Naomi, Ruth, and Mary; men like David, Solomon, Elijah, Andrew, Peter, and Paul.
The next major biblical story after the fall into sin focuses on Abraham and Sarah beginning in Genesis 12. Both Abraham and Sarah are highly competent.
Abraham traveled hundred of miles and established a new home (12:6)
Abraham dealt with the Egyptian Pharoah (12:15)
Sarah was very beautiful (12:14)
Sarah is powerful over Haggar (16, also 21:8ff) - not necessarily good, but still powerful
Both Abraham and Sarah became role models for the Israelites because of their lives. See Isaiah 51:1-2.
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
and to the quarry from which you were hewn;
2 look to Abraham, your father,
and to Sarah, who gave you birth.
What were some of the abilities and gifts that Abraham and Sarah brought to their relationship?
6. During the story, Abraham and his wife have an odd dynamic at a few points
When they go down to Egypt, he affirms her beauty (“I know what a beautiful woman you are” (12:11)) and tells her to say she is his sister.
Sarah tells Abraham to sleep with her slave and Abraham agrees (16:1)
Abraham lets Sarah mistreat the slave she told him to sleep with (“Do with her whatever you think best”) (16:6)
In Gerar, Abraham said, “She is my sister” (20:2)
Abraham named his son “laughter” after his wife’s previous laughter at the message of childbearing (21:3)
Sarah told Abraham to get rid of Hagar and her son, and Abraham agreed (21:10)
What does this relationship dynamic reveal about them? Remember, generally speaking they seem to have a good relationship. For example, does it suggest that Sarah was perhaps domineering? Or that Abraham didn’t really respect Sarah? Or that Abraham thought too well of Sarah?
7. From Genesis 12-22, there are plainly some differences between Abraham and Sarah. And we don’t hear much of how they work together. Can we say that together, they carried out Genesis 1:27-28?
“28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
8. I think most of us recognize that there are essential differences between men and women, but this isn’t something we can talk about well. We throw around jokes, we make up little sayings, or even criticize each other.
One recent example of this difficulty is the scientist Carole Hooven from Harvard. After a long book on the hormone testosterone, she writes, “Let’s get rid of the tired idea that the sexes must be born with basically the same brains in order to have equal rights”.
She is criticized by people like the journalist Angela Saini who wrote, “There are few psychological differences between the sexes, and the differences seen are heavily shaped by culture, not biology.” (Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong, and the New Research That’s Rewriting the Story)
What do we miss in life when we can’t think well about men and women?
Lesson 4: Men and women in different contexts
1. Don’t shoot me, I didn’t make these.
2. In the first few lessons, we established the basic principles of the Bible from creation and checked them in the early narrative of Abraham and Sarah. Today we want to take a closer look at men and women in different contexts and see how those basic principles play out.
| Marriage | Business | Government, Society | Church | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mark 10:1-12, Ephesians 5:22-33, 1 Peter 3:1-7, Colossians 3:18-21 | Luke 8:1-3, Acts 16:11-15, Acts 18:2-3 | Acts 13:49-52, Acts 17:1-4, Acts 25:13-27 | Acts 18:24-28, 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, 1 Corinthians 14:26-40. Titus 2:1-8. | |
| Men | ||||
| Women | ||||
| Take aways |
3. There are a couple of major sections in the New Testament that deal with marriage: Mark 10:1-12, Ephesians 5:22-33 and 1 Peter 3:1-7 and Colossians 3:18-21. Read 1 Peter 3:1-7. What new information do we learn about men and women in these sections?
4. There aren’t many parts of Scripture that show men and women in the business context. A few: Luke 8:1-3, Acts 16:11-15, Acts 18:2-3.
“The Bible mentions women who worked in commercial trade (Prov. 31:16a, 24; Acts 16:14), in agriculture (Josh. 15:17-19; Ruth 2:8; Prov. 31:16b), as millers (Exod. 11:5; Matt. 24:41), as shepherds (Gen. 29:9; Exod. 2:16), as artisans, especially in textiles (Exod. 26:1 NIV; Tobit 2:11ff NRSV; Acts 18:3), as perfumers and cooks (1 Sam. 8:13), as midwives (Exod. 1:15ff), as nurses (Gen. 35:8; Exod. 2:7; 2 Sam. 4:4; 1 Kings 1:4), as domestic servants (Acts 12:13, etc), and as professional mourners (Jer. 9:17). Women could also be patrons (Acts 16:40; Rom. 16:1-2), leaders (Judg. ch 4-5; 2 Sam. 20:16) and ruling queens (1 Kings 10:1ff; Acts 8:27). One Bible woman even built towns (1 Chron. 7:24). Many women, and men, worked from home, yet the Bible nowhere criticises women who worked outside the home in the public sphere.
“Lynn Cohick (2009:232-238) cites evidence from New Testament times that shows that women were shopkeepers and vendors, jewellery makers, fullers and dyers, and at least one woman we know of was a blacksmith.[2] In the Greco-Roman world, the setting of the New Testament, women could work in just about every profession. A woman could not be a soldier or a Roman senator, however.” (https://margmowczko.com/new-testament-working-women/)
5. “On the political side, however, women’s influence seems more restricted to the privileged wives and daughters of nobles and powerful officials (see Acts 13:50; 17:4, 12; 24:24 [Drusilla]; 25:23; 26:30 [Bernice]).” (F. S. Spencer, “Women,” Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, Second Edition (Downers Grove, IL; Nottingham, England: IVP Academic; IVP, 2013), 1005)
This point is seen when we take a look at New Testament narratives related to the government. There are just a couple of places: Acts 13:49-52, Acts 17:1-4, Acts 25:13-27.
6. We tend to focus on the sections that deal with men and women in the Church the most. Acts 18:24-28, 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, 1 Corinthians 14:26-40. Titus 2:1-8.
7. What does the Bible teach us about men and women from all these contexts?
1. The Bible speaks very positively and encouragingly about the differences between men and women even in different contexts. We ought to praise and encourage the differences.
2. The task and helper relationship is one that ought to be
8. Some of these things are not really popular to point out, but consider for example Jordan Peterson that shot him into the mainstream back in 2018 (start at 11:15 – 14:30)
Jordan Peterson debate on the gender pay gap, campus protests and postmodernism
First, what is he saying?
To get more meaning out of what he is saying, we’d have to know more about his perspective on the world. But let’s take a shot at it anyway. What does he say that agrees with a biblical view of life, and what disagrees?
Lesson 5: The whole creation has been groaning
1. Per ChatGPT
2. We all can tell that something is wrong among men and women – men have their problems, women have their problems, and men and women together have their problems. It can be really hard to tell exactly what that is. For example, in August 2022, news reported:
“The pastor of a Texas church was placed on a leave of absence on Sunday, telling his congregation that he had messaged a woman who was not his wife in a way that was "unguarded and unwise."
Matt Chandler, the head pastor of Village Church in Dallas, stated that the messages were not sexual or romantic, but the church's elders decided Chandler "did not use language appropriate for a pastor, and he did not model a behavior that we expect from him," a church statement said. Chandler's leave of absence comes as the larger Southern Baptist community has struggled to deal with sexual misconduct allegations.
Chandler, 48, says the incident began when a woman approached him in the church's lobby to confront him about messages he'd sent to a friend of hers on Instagram.
While Chandler said the messages took place with full knowledge of both his and the woman's spouses, the church hired an outside law firm to audit Chandler's online activity.
Church leaders stated that Chandler had failed to meet the biblical standards of being above reproach following the investigation, but he has not been disqualified from leadership positions. (https://www.foxnews.com/us/popular-evangelical-pastor-abruptly-steps-down-citing-unwise-relationship)
3. In lesson 1, we studied Genesis 3 and what we call “the fall into sin”. We learned that “sin brings sorrow and suffering instead of satisfaction”. People “would experience misery and difficulty wringing a livelihood out of the soil.” (John C. Jeske, Genesis, 2nd ed., The People’s Bible (Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub. House, 2001), 54-55).
“For all three protagonists the verdicts simply correspond to the conditions of life lived in the real world in that culture and in others: the hard labour of the agriculturalist, the pains of childbearing, the inevitable pains and frustrations inseparable from man and woman living together,” (Joseph Blenkinsopp, Creation, Un-Creation, Re-Creation: A Discursive Commentary on Genesis 1–11 (London; New York: t&t clark, 2011), 77)
“The origin of sin is the focus of events here. … That death, according to Paul, is not simply physical but also spiritual, since those who live according to the world’s ways and seek to satisfy their inborn desires are dead in their sins (Eph. 2:1–3) (Andrew E. Steinmann, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary, ed. David G. Firth, vol. 1 of The Tyndale Commentary Series (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 2019), 68)
Turn to Genesis 3. What words or phrases there stick out to you as a description of sin?
4. When people read Genesis 3 and the fall into sin, they often refer us to Romans 8. The apostle Paul probably said it better than anyone else. Let's read Romans 8:18-27. What words did Paul use to describe what happened to all of creation when Adam and Eve sinned?
5. The Bible tells us that sin has affected men and women in so many ways. What does it tell us in the following passages?
Genesis 16:1-6
Genesis 19:1-8
Genesis 30:1-16
Genesis 34:1-4
Genesis 38
Genesis 39
2 Samuel 11:1-5
2 Samuel 13:1-22
1 Kings 21:1-14
Matthew 19:1-12
6. Based on these verses and the previous passages we read, how would you summarize what “sin” is for men and women?
7. One last heavy question. The Bible tells us that sin has deeply affected men, women, and our relationships, but it mostly focuses us on behavior. It doesn’t try to specify our convictions or beliefs.
For that we look to other writers, who have tried to help us see what sin means for our convictions and beliefs.
For example, Lisa Swartz suggests “gendered stories” display the effects of sin. “American evangelical stories buttress constructions of meaning, identity, and power that center men.” (Lisa Swartz, Stained Glass Ceilings, pg 15)
Others criticize patriarchy. John Locke criticized the patriarchy in the 1600s and people keep on with it. “There is no evidence that women are any less capable of the jobs and social positions that men predominantly hold. When women are given the opportunity to hold “male” roles, they show themselves to be equally proficient. Researchers recently calculated that it was bias against women, not under-representation, that accounts for the gender distribution seen in the Nobel prizes, for instance. Women are not less intelligent, less logical or less able than men. The roots of patriarchy, in other words, cannot be found in our biology.” (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/02/smashing-the-patriarchy-why-theres-nothing-natural-about-male-supremacy)
Some criticize complementarianism, the view that “men and women are created of equal value in the image of God, but have differing, complementary roles in the home and the church.” The “future of complementarianism looks grim, because it was developed as a response to a specific set of cultural circumstances in the late 1980s that no longer exist” (https://aaronrenn.substack.com/p/newsletter-30-complementarianism)
The apostle Paul might be the one biblical author who didn’t just describe what sin did to the behaviors of men and women, but even to our ideology. “Paul argues in Romans 1:24-25 that people who surrender their bodies to sex as if it were a supernatural, cosmic, divine power do not gain superhuman activity but actually pollute themselves. … He therefore argues that sexual impurity in all its manifestations involves idolatry and apostasy from the living God. It is an aspect of our rebellion against God and a denial of our creaturely status. It is false worship, for it seeks from another body what no body can give. It makes an idol of the ideal human body and puts it in God’s place.” (John Kleinig, Wonderfully Made, pg 155)
Which description of the beliefs or convictions connects with you?
8. It is hard to explore all the ways sin hurts and ruins the lives of men and women. It’s heavy, and so real.
God stuck this one sentence into his description of men, women and sin. He said,
“And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
The apostle Paul goes so far as to say, “26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Friends, this is good news. If you can, take a moment and share why.