Follow Your Head: A Theology of Woman from the New Testament (Part 1 of 2)
This first part of two in this series is adapted from Sunday School lessons I wrote several years ago for women and teen girls. The goal was to form a “theology of woman” by looking chronologically at all of the major portions of Scripture regarding women and womanhood. What does the Bible say are the roles, duties, challenges, and opportunities that we have as women?
Introduction
“There were two lines of husbands in heaven, one for the dominant husbands and one for the passive, submissive husbands. The submissive husband line extended almost out of sight. There was one man in the dominant husband line. He was small, timid, appeared anything but a dominant husband. When the angel inquired as to why he was in this line, he said, ‘My wife told me to stand here’.”1
We laugh at this story because we see how far it falls short of the true heavenly ideal. As we examine a number of passages, we will see that God’s design for the roles of men and women is male headship and female submission.
The Role of Men: Headship
“For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior” (Ephesians 5:23 ESV).
An Example of Headship
Christ Himself is shown as an example of headship. He is Head over the man (1 Corinthians 11:3), over the Church (Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 1:18), and over all authority (Colossians 2:10). In a similar way to Christ’s authority over his Church, so also does the husband have authority over his wife.
The Theology of Headship
“But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God” (1 Corinthians 11:3 ESV).
The relationship between men and women is a reflection of the relationship among the members of the Trinity in two ways:
- Equality in person
All three members of the Trinity are equal in being. They are each fully God. Similarly, both men and women are of the same spiritual value in the eyes of God, as Peter points out in 1 Peter 3:7:
“Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered” (emphasis added).
- Difference in roles
The roles of the members of the Trinity differ from one to the other. The Father is over the Son and Spirit. The Son is under the Father and over the Spirit. The Spirit serves both the Father and Son. Likewise, though equal in worth in the eyes of God, the roles of men and women are different—men lead and women follow.
Next week, we will conclude with “The Role of Women: Submission”
—
Holly Huffstutler serves with her husband David, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Rockford, IL. She blogs with him here where this post first appeared. Holly is a homemaker, raising and schooling her four children.
Image by Rosy / Bad Homburg / Germany from Pixabay
- 10,000 Sermon Illustrations: Logos electronic edition. [↩]