Day 29

Gospel Equality:

All Ages and Both Sexes

Roger and Eileen Himes

www.ThePracticalGospel.com

In the late 1990s, I visited a church in Memphis, Tennessee. In a city where you saw Black people everywhere, I was surprised I didn’t see ANY Black person in church. I was told Black people were no allowed in this church. I was shocked, not just surprised. Being from Colorado, I did not realize such segregation still existed.

This made me think about the church, and what I’d seen in church over the years. What I discovered was that ‘Churchianity’ is very biased and prejudicial in favor of some people over others. This does not apply to all churches, but in the body of Christ in general, women and young people are especially UNEQUAL. Church is largely a MAN’S world.

The church often reminds me of the fraternity model: you must be male to even join the fraternity. No one else is allowed. This is NOT the gospel. It is only true of Christianity that has become just another religion. I’ll repeat this: only the gospel makes Christianity unique to all other religions. If you take the gospel out of Christianity, you don’t really have Christianity. You only have another religion — like all other religions.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #57

If you are a young person, or a woman, you should know that, in the gospel, you have equality with everyone else in the body of Christ. I don’t care if someone has been a Christian for 50 years, or even pastor a church, — and you are female, and only 19. Seniority in the spiritual realm, at least according to God’s gospel, is not on a pedestal in God’s Kingdom.

If you are a youth, you should obey your parents, and yes, you should respect your elders, and treat them as fathers and mothers. If you’re a woman, the spiritual thing to do is still to submit to your husband, as well as to leadership in the church. But this is true of anyone.

As far as any type of ‘pecking order’ goes, the gospel creates total equality with regard to both youth and women. It’s not a matter of age, and it’s not a matter of sex. Age and sex have NO bearing in God’s gospel. Now lets examine why this is true.

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Paul tells Timothy not to let anyone despise him for his youth (I Tim 4:12). He was actually the pastor in Ephesus, the largest church outside of Jerusalem. He was getting flack from ‘the old men he know,’ because he was so young. Paul says not to tolerate this. Why? Because, as I stated, youth has no bearing in the gospel, just like man-appointed position has no bearing in the gospel.

I’m not talking about any ‘order of command’ that has been established in the church, in a marriage, in our state or nation, etc. A chain of command should be respected by ALL who are part of it. As long as you are part of it, view it as part of God’s government. Paul is pretty plain we must submit to secular or spiritual leadership that has been established, as long as doing so does not require us to denounce God’s King or Kingdom. ALL of us should be ‘under authority’ to established leaders. If we feel we cannot be under authority to established leaders, we should remove ourselves from being under their leadership.

What we are talking about here is equality in the gospel of God’s Kingdom. In the spiritual dimension, there is no pecking order, seniority, age, or sex delineation. Pastors and leaders sometimes try to say that ‘years of salvation’ are important. But Paul clearly says the knowledge of gospel truth is equally important (I Tim 2:4). Anyone can have gospel truth, whether they are 19 or 91! Why? It is because truth comes by REVELATION FROM GOD (Rom 1:16-17). It does not come by years of salvation, years of ministry, sex, or anything human.

As we’ll see the next day, knowledge of gospel truth has nothing to do with how many letters someone has behind their name. You can have a PhD five times over, and still a fool by God’s standards. Look at young Samuel under Eli. The student was submitted to his master, but he was by no means a ‘second-class citizen’ to his master.

Paul says to commit gospel truth to FAITHFUL men who shall be able to teach others also (II Tim 2:2). This is not a sexist statement. Someone’s education or position does not matter when it comes to the gospel. What matters is faithfulness: separation unto the gospel (Rom 1:1). All others, even if they have five PhDs, are ‘ever learning, but never able to come into a knowledge of the truth’ (II Tim 3:7).

If anything, in Paul’s mind, a ‘second class citizen’ is someone in the Kingdom of God, but not living by the gospel of the kingdom. They live by repenting of sin, or by keeping principles, or what not. Their focus is not the truth of God, — but true things they should do. The focus is self, not God. Their focus is behavior, not belief (John 6:29). The gospel must be believed to be seen as faith in someone’s life (Heb 4:2).

The test of gospel faith is always being tuned into God’s voice — ready, willing, and able to hear what God wants to reveal. “Today, if you WILL hear his voice, do not harden your heart” (Heb 3:7, 15, 4:7).

In Galatians 3:28 Paul says we are all equal — regardless of race, status, position, or sex. We are all one. He speaks of being ‘bond or free.’ This can also speak to young people, not emancipated, who are living in their parents’ home. Like the church, government, marriage or business, they must submit to the leadership of their parents, but they are totally equal with their parents in the eyes of God’s gospel. The requirement for equality is being in God’s Kingdom. Period.

Sometimes women have more problem with equality than young people do. At least young people grow up, and eventually get old and die. But women never change sexes. If their status in the church is because of their sex, it is never going to change. Remember, I am not talking about what I call ‘Churchianity,’ which is founded on ‘theology and religion,’ which is all about what MAN thinks and does. In this realm, you can face any number of different things, including cults.

The gospel is GOD’S revelation. It is based on what GOD thinks.

Paul is often interpreted as writing ‘new rules.’ This is a lie of Satan. Paul was a legalist, but he was delivered from this on the Damascus Road. Yet, it is often taught women should submit… women can’t teach… women should remain quiet in church… women should… This is emphasized by MEN devoid of gospel revelation. All they know is man’s theology.

Paul was not writing rules, but gospel revelation. His focus was the finished work of Jesus, not further work for us to do!

Why are men so intimidated by women? I think it is because women are more spiritually in tune than men are. They live in gospel revelation much more easily and readily than men do. Men are more stuck in rules, procedures, and principles. We are more linear minded than creative. We can follow formulas, but we have problem relating. We see this way back in the Garden, where Eve’s desire was to RELATE her husband, but Adam’s desire was to RULE Eve (Gen 3:15-16). So it is today!

Women live more in gospel revelation, and in relationship!

Women are more ‘after God’s heart,’ which is the way Acts describes David: “A man after God’s own heart.” David was unique. Most women are this way. I try hard to be this way, although I’m sure I fail miserably much of the time. The fact is that ‘the weaker sex’ is often STRONGER! This is why men are spiritually intimidated by women.

I’m not going to try to prove this here, but if you truly understand the teachings of Paul he was a great defender and supporter of women. Yet, he is often seen as hostile to women. Don’t think for a minute that all women are right, and all men are wrong. Nothing could be ‘wronger.’ But there is a dynamic in women that we men lack, and it scares us. Thus, we want to RULE women rather than RELATE equally to them.

Because their focus is relationship, women often feed on the seed of the gospel more than men. This is because the gospel is relationship — with God, with ourselves, and with other people. If men are more about ruling than relationship, their focus is more the theology of man. Eileen and I co-authored a book on this subject, that looks at these things in detail: ‘Women… Called to be Fathers of the Gospel.’ It goes into a depth I can’t go into here.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #58

This will be a hard nut for many people to crack, especially men.

But now lets look at WHY we are equal with each other. This is something that can only be seen through gospel eyes. If you don’t see gospel truth yet, you will argue this until you are blue in the face.

The reason we are equal with each other is because God has made us equal with himself — spiritually speaking! If we are equal with God, spiritually speaking, how could we NOT be equal with each other here on earth? Equality is born ‘in the halls of heaven.’ We are told to pray, “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

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SEE IT: since Genesis 3, the greatest strife between men and men — and men and women — is non-gospel men bent on living by rules and principles that provide for ruling, not relationship — with both God or with people. Their eyes are blinded to the GOSPEL, and all they can see is their GOAL. They live in the results of the FALL, not in gospel FAITH.

Equality begins in relationship with Jesus, and the gospel of the cross. If it does not begin here, it never begins. Here, “All things become new.”

In John 17, Jesus says he gives the glory of God that is in him to us. He says his Father loves us as much as he does him. John tells us, “As Jesus is, so are WE in this world” (I John 4:17). The very same righteousness he had was imparted to us (II Cor 5:21). There are so many passages in the New Testament that talk about our unity, and our oneness with God. There are so many they become common-place, and we disregard them because of the ‘law of familiarity.’ As I mentioned, many verses, ONLY in the KJV, talk about God’s faith in us.

Because of Christ, we sit together with him in heavenly places, at least spiritually speaking (Eph 2:6). God’s entire kingdom is ours (Luke 12:32). He gives us his very own glory (John 17:22). In all this, he makes no difference between sex or age. Yet, due to natural, human ways of thinking, we differentiate against both sex and age.

Philippians 2:5-6 says: “Let this mind be in YOU that was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be EQUAL WITH GOD.” Every teaching I’ve heard on this glosses right over this, and goes on to talk about what WE must do to show that we have the mind of Christ: (1) disregard ourselves, and (2) be a servant.

This isn’t what this says, if you look closely. But only a gospel mind can see it. The theology of man will never see it. Paul says WE should think like Jesus thinks: it is not wrong to think that we are EQUAL with God! If you truly see it, it’ll blow your mind! Read it again!

The problem is that non-gospel minds have NO place for thoughts like this, as we have seen. Thoughts born in SELF have no room for God’s thoughts (Isa 55:8-9). What does Philippians 2:5-6 say? See it in this way, by reversing the clauses: “Jesus knew he was in the form and image of God, so he did not think it was wrong to consider himself equal with God. Now, you let this same mind be in you too.”

The Pharisees watered down God’s law, because they could not KEEP it all. Most Christians today water down God’s grace, because they cannot BELIEVE it all. Thus the gospel should transform our thinking. We are NOT equal with God in any human dimension or quality. But we ARE equal with God as he decrees it, in the halls of heaven. “As Jesus is, so are we in this world.” Faith sees it: “So let it be written, so let it be done.”