Jesus Gave Value and Dignity to Women
Anyone with any common sense can see that in general, women are weaker than men. We are called the “weaker vessel” by the One who created us. “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered” (1 Peter 3:7).
In the Bible, it was the men who went off to war. Man’s consequence for the Fall was to be the provider for his family. God created men stronger than women for a good reason but bad men can turn it into evil. “The disparity of the sexes was the cause of the degradation of woman among the heathen; Christianity makes it the ground of tender consideration. Christian love should abound in knowledge (Philippians 1:9); it should throw its softening light upon all the relations of life” (Pulpit Commentary). When Jesus walked this earth, He gave value and dignity to women.
What does “weaker vessel” include when written about women? “By this it is not necessarily meant that she is of feebler capacity, or inferior mental endowments, but that she is more tender and delicate; more subject to infirmities and weaknesses; less capable of enduring fatigue and toil; less adapted to the rough and stormy scenes of life… She may have mental endowments equal to his own; she may have moral qualities in every way superior to his; but the God of nature has made her with a more delicate frame, a more fragile structure, and with a body subject to many infirmities to which the more hardy frame of man is a stranger” (Barnes Notes on the Bible).
In God’s economy, men are to be the protectors over women. Husbands are to be the providers. Women are to bear and raise children while being keepers at home. He created man and woman for specific roles and they are good roles. No, they aren’t the same but they are important for healthy families and healthy nations.
As believers in Jesus Christ, we understand and appreciate the beautiful differences between the sexes. We value the strength and protection good men provide. We value the ability we have to bear and raise our children to walk in truth. We love the role of keeper at home that the Lord has given to us. Since we are the weaker vessel, it suits our physical makeup rather than having to go out and fight wars, criminals, and fires, work all day long away from the home, and/or do things that men can do much more easily because of their physical strength and endurance. All of these are good things, women!
God in His perfect goodness designed us for a specific role and purpose. We don’t want to be men nor do what they do. We want to be women and do what God has called us to do. Yes, we have more infirmities. We get hurt more easily. We don’t have the endurance that men have but these are all fine. We can’t watch the news and not allow it to affect us like most men can. God made us more emotional and sensitive in order to mother. This is good! We don’t want to be like men. We want to be women. We don’t mind being feminine, the softer sex, and the weaker vessel. No, we are happy and content in it because God, who created us, knows best!
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
Genesis 2:18
18 thoughts on “Jesus Gave Value and Dignity to Women”
Women need to be seen by all as inherently valuable in their traditional role, not devalued and dehumanized unless they act like men!!! It enrages me how people are so judgmental of women who choose home and family, instead of careers! The Feminist movement implies that “equality’ really means being up to the superior male standard, or else you’re enslaved and dis empowered. Motherhood is a burden not a joy. Saving yourself for marriage is slavery, not a milestone and an honor once wed. Devoting yourself to one man is being a chattel slave, not a devoted wife. Honoring the authority of your father is the patriarchy, not being a dutiful daughter. Women who are in radical feminism are very bitter, hate men and are unhappy, feeling their place is of no worth. Well, that’s a bunch of hooey! Women are equal to men in their worth as human beings, and their own unique role! Equal does not mean identical! A woman is weak where a man is strong but a man is weak where a woman shows her strength. They compliment each other. We need to view women as worth any man, in her role as a woman, NOT a pseudo-male! The sexism of the feminist movement is disgusting!
Brute physical strength and endurance are by far not the same thing. God has different uses for both. A godly woman endures SO MUCH in this life in the form of pain and toil AND, in Christ, she does it with Joy! That is a SUPERHUMAN power that shows God using the weak to shame the strong, or in other words, what our culture would have you think is strength. Love is “the greatest of these”. Men have to be explicitly told by God to love their wives. Women love by nature of their very beings. It is part of how they are made in God’s image.
Hi Rebekah, Men endure so much in this life in the form of pain and toil as well. They are the ones fighting the wars, fires, and criminals. They are the ones doing the dirty, difficult work that the majority of women don’t want to do nor can they do.
Women do not love by nature! God commands older women to teach young women to LOVE their husbands and children. He would not have commanded this if women naturally love. Do you know that a huge majority of divorces are initiated by women these days? This isn’t loving their husbands and children as they are commanded to do so.
No, women are no better in nature or closer to the image of God than men. We both have strengths and weaknesses but we must be willing to acknowledge them so that we can appreciate the strengths in the opposite sex and for the way God created them, not try to minimize the strengths and maximize the weaknesses in order to put men down in any way and elevate women as so many in our culture are doing these days.
Yes, God created man and woman for their specific and special purposes to fulfill. They are both needed and valuable to the family and nation when they are following in the paths that the Lord has created for them to walk on. However, they can both, men and women, be extremely detrimental and harmful when they are disobeying God’s clear commands to them.
Wonderful post! To quote Elisabeth Elliot here is most appropriate. She said, “We are called to be women. The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman. For I have accepted God’s idea of me…” Oh yes, let me be a woman. Thanks again, Lori.
Amen, Holly! What a beautiful quote by Elisabeth. I love being a woman!
As has already been detailed at this site, women can be every bit as vicious as men, especially with the power of the state behind them. It’s nothing new. Recall what happened to John the Baptist.
That was definitely a sordid event retold in the Bible. Yes, both men and women can be as equally evil and equally good. This elevation of women is disgusting to me. It does nobody any good to elevate one gender over another.
He created man and woman for specific roles and they are good roles. No, they aren’t the same but they are important for healthy families and healthy nations.
The word greek word from which the term “love” is translated, in the instructions given by Paul at Titus 2:4, is not the same as that which is used for instructions to husbands at Eph 5:25, 28.
Again, different, but still good.
Lori, this is a great post, thank you for sharing. Elias, I won’t address most of your post because most of it doesn’t make sense.
However, at one point you say:
““Men have to be explicitly told by God to love their wives. Women love by nature of their very beings. It is part of how they are made in God’s image.”
Every bit of that quote is vanity and presumption.””
How is it vanity and presumption when the command is straight from scripture? Ephesians 5:25. I would be interested to hear Lori’s husbands thoughts on your comment.
If vanity is the great downfall of women, pride is the great downfall of man. Your post is filled with self righteous pride. I can only presume you do not have much experience relating to women, in order to have these assumptions.
In any case, Lori think this post was great! I appreciate that you share what is true about women’s roles but do not neglect to share God’s truth that He loves women and values them. There are many examples of this in scripture.
I believe Elias was saying that “women love by nature of their beings” is vanity and presumption since it’s absolutely NOT true! Women do not love by their nature. This is why God commands all throughout the Bible that we are to love Him and love others. If it were our nature, He would not have had to command it so many times, explain what love is in 1 Cor. 13, and command older women to teach young women to love their husbands and children. No, I don’t necessarily agree with every part of every comment that I allow on my blog but Elias had some good points.
I believe we need to be careful not to read too much of our own experiences into the scriptures but rather let them speak for themselves. It seems that Barnes captured the differences between men and women in the quote given above:
“By this it is not necessarily meant that she is of feebler capacity, or inferior mental endowments, but that she is more tender and delicate; more subject to infirmities and weaknesses; less capable of enduring fatigue and toil; less adapted to the rough and stormy scenes of life… She may have mental endowments equal to his own; she may have moral qualities in every way superior to his; but the God of nature has made her with a more delicate frame, a more fragile structure, and with a body subject to many infirmities to which the more hardy frame of man is a stranger.”
Women have proven to have equal intellectual capacity of men although our brains are structured differently it seems to process thoughts and ideas. As far as weaker morally, I find no basis in the Bible nor in life experiences to believe this would be true. Christian women have often been the moral backbone of the family while the men struggle with drinking and sexual desires.
Be careful not to read much more than the apostle Paul intended when he writes, “and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” (1 Tim. 2:14). Many have taken this to say that woman is “more easily deceived than man” and I suggest that if the apostle intended this he certainly did not make it clear. He is giving an order of things which matches God’s instructions of the garden, “and your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen. 3:16). Man was placed as head over the wife and one can suppose perhaps reasons for this that come from our natures, but the Bible, as far as I can see, does not give us any specifics as to why except that Eve at the apple first being deceived.
We can look to experience and history to understand that woman was made for being the loving heart of the family and man the protector and provider. We can see Bible verses admonishing women to accept their role in the family, love their husbands, love their children and be keepers at home. But as far vanity and pride, they are but two sides of the same coin of sin.
To be joint heirs with Jesus should tell us that our Christian sisters and wives are not inferior to a man in any way that God deems important, and it is impossible to keep a list of which sex is superior to the other as they both have their strengths being built for the roles they have been assigned. It is when woman leaves her natural and God given role wanting to lead men and to teach men, wanting to see herself as morally superior to men who struggle with fleshly things, all the while not seeing the great sins of her negative emotions that may control her and her tongue that lashes out with hurtful words, such sins are the equal to man’s, but she often does not see it that way.
As for weaker vessel, the woman is obviously weaker in body and strength, and most lack the stamina to do the great building, inventing and creating that men have done over the centuries. Will that change now with modern feminism? Perhaps a little, but as it does these women often violate the greatest reasons for their existence in motherhood, choosing instead a path that will yield far less value in life and eternity, yet believing that their pride and position is of great value just to discover at the throne of God it is nothing but wood, hay and stubble done under their own power for their own glory. Don’t get me wrong, many men will discover the same if they are not focused on their primary responsibility of helping to create the next generation of the family of God by birth, nurture and evangelism.
Many are deceived by the attractions of the world yet God calls a remnant who desire Him and His ways. We are to be set apart, and as such we take on His mindset when it comes to life and spiritual life. Christian men and women should be marching hand in hand together, “and in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Phil 2:3). God created two genders to compliment each other not to fight about who is superior or not. Let us champion the qualities of each sex and not try to blend them together into one as we can be so different. Yet let us recognize that the day is coming some when our bodily differences will be no more and we will all united as one in Christ Jesus.
“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3: 27-28). Let us live out God’s ways and admonitions while here on earth in these earthly vessels with an eye towards eternity where we truly will be one. But here on earth we live in a fallen world where God requires husband to lead and wife to submit. We can guess as to all the reasons why God says it is to be this way, but all we know is that Man was created first and Woman ate the apple first. Just man being made first and woman as his helper should be enough to understand God’s order of things while here on earth.
I wish everyone could read this. You and Ken explain things and make it so easy to understand. Thank you both for all you go through to teach us.
You are such a blessing.
Linda
You’re welcome, Linda, and thank you!
To her credit, many pastors are putting the “men know how to respect and women know how to love” sham because of the love and respect book.
Ken,
So being gossipers and busy bodies is moral backbone? I have yet to meet a women in the church who isn’t one or both or guilty of not loving their husbands and definitely not teaching younger women to be chaste, meek and humble.
Talk about reading into scripture your own experiences.
thank you for the helpful explanation Ken. I agree with you that all fall short of God’s glory and are in sin, women and men alike. Our sins manifest themselves differently. However I appreciate this post overall because the point is not that women don’t sin; we obviously do. The point is that God values women (and men) even though we ALL sin.
I’m not even strong enough to say publicly (on social media or in real life) what I believe about certain things (like this) for fear of backlash by friends and family. I can clearly see women are “weaker” in the way the Bible meant, not the twisted way many women take it to mean. Our feelings get hurt more, our bodies can’t take as much weight, etc.