Genesis 3:16 remains a focus verse to those that think Christians do not honor women or consider women equal to men.
“It seems this verse is not a prescription of what God wants; rather, it is a description of the way sin changed everything. This mutual struggle for control is not normative to the will of God. It is a consequence of disobeying God. Some use the verse to support permanent roles for the respective genders, resulting in the established subordination of women generally, and wives specifically. Instead of using this as the basis for establishing God’s design for the male-female relationship, wouldn’t it be more logical to look to verses prior to the entry of sin that distorted everything? Paraphrased From Premium Commentary. Power & Purpose: God Unveils the Universe (Genesis 1-11)—Lesson Six. Copyright © 2017 BAPTISTWAY PRESS®. A ministry of the Baptist General Convention of Texas
Go to Menu and select “Is Genesis Relevant Today” for the entire blog the above is excerpted from.
“When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew………..They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.” Acts 1:13-14.
Luke defies the customs of his day by including women and NOT regulating them to lower status. Luke does the same continually in his Gospel by pointing out women who served well and gave generously. We all know the story of Jesus and the woman at the well and if you dig just a little you learn Jesus ignored potential ostricization in order to be inclusive and have this dialogue in a most public place.
I understand and recognize, over years, decades and centuries, that men and sometimes entire denominations distorted and abused God’s words and Jesus’ teachings for selfish gain. There are more episodes than can be counted of the lowering of women’s status for men’s selfish desires, however, blaming Christians for this is as nonsensical as saying all sailors are womanizers. God created man and woman, both in His image. He did make them different from one another and there are many differences apart from the obvious physical ones.
I grow weary of a world that wants to blend the two sexes that God made perfectly. It is man’s sin nature that distorted God’s original plan and design and not because someone is a Christ follower. A Christian that holds closely to Jesus’ teachings and follows the subsequent teachings of His disciples will honor, respect and hold the fairer (not weaker) sex in the highest esteem in all that they do.
What Do We Really Want? 
Thanks so much for the post, Steve. I don’t know if you have ever thought of it this way, but I would suggest that man + woman being made in the image of God necessitates a hierarchy in their relationship—as well as their equality. The doctrine of the Trinity teaches both equality and hierarchy co-exist in the Godhead with no contradiction, the Son equal in divinity but also in complete submission to the Father, always delighting to do His Father’s will, etc.
And then of course the apostle Paul explicitly teaches the wife’s subjection to her husband is supported from the pre-Fall creation story of Genesis 2 (1 Corinthians 11). The doctrine is supported everywhere in Scripture besides, and in no way necessarily diminishes a woman’s value or importance—any more than a child’s submission to his parents diminishes his (“of such is the kingdom of God”).
As you note, though, much abuse has been committed by men trying to use this teaching as their support (out of balance with the rest of Scripture, which is the bane of Christianity). Unfortunately, we can make equal mistakes on the opposite end of the spectrum with just as much damage done, as our current culture wars demonstrate so well.
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Thanks for the comments. I am very familiar with Paul’s letters to the Ephesians, the hierarchy comparisons, not so much. I’ll give that some thought.
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