Pre-Fall
What was the state of gender relations and slavery before the fall?
I. Preliminary Comments
A. The Bible does not present the world as a place in which God
intended people to be owned by other people or abused
because of their sex.
B. As we approach the Bible's presentation of humanity as it
relates to slavery and sexism, we must distinguish between
the way the world was when God created it and the way it
became after humans sinned and God leveled judgements and
curses on both the transgressors and the world they
inhabited.
Concerning Sexism
C. Those who reject the possibility of ontological equality and
functional subordination are unwilling to grapple with the
profound simplicity of the biblical evidence.
1. Genesis 1:27
2. Genesis 2:15, 18
D. The Biblical evidence indicates that within the ontological equality
between the man and the woman, they are given different roles.
I. Evidences of Functional subordination
A. God commanded man not to eat from the tree of knowledge
of good and evil prior to making the woman.
B. The descriptions given of the formation of man (Gen. 2:7) and
woman (2:22)
C. God brought the woman to the man and he named her (2:23).
C. God created the world very good (Gen. 1:31), and he, not popular culture,
defines goodness.
D. The world might not call ontological equality with functional
subordination good, but that remains the picture given to us by the Bible
III. Concerning Slavery
A. There is not even a whisper of slavery in Genesis 1-2
B. God gives no authorization for one human to own another as property,
and there is no indication that anything of the kind was ever his
intention.
C. Because all humans are made in God's image God's glory is not advanced
by the unrighteous abuse of one gender by another, nor is his glory
shown when one human enslaves another.
Post-Fall
I. Preliminary Comments
A. God did not intend humans to practice sexism or slavery.
B. When Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed the serpent, and he made the
roles of the man and woman more difficult (Gen. 3:16-19).
II. Sin and Sexism
A. Sexism enters the world when God tells the woman that her desire will be
for her husband, but he will rule over her (Gen. 3:16).
1. This is similar to the language used in Genesis 4:7
2. Both passages seem to mean that "desire" means "control
over."
B. This means that human sin is responsible for sexism (both hyperfeminist
and male chauvinism). The conflict between the genders is a punishment,
a curse, a judgement that makes it difficult for humans to experience
God's original, good intention.
C. Renewal of edenic harmony (Eph. 5:22-33)
1. Men must sacrifice themselves for their wives
2. Women must submit themselves to their husbands
D. Sexism will be overcome by those who live out the gospel as they relate
to members of the opposite sex, whether in marriage or in the family of
the faith (Eph. 5:22-33; 1 Tim. 4:1-2).
E. The Bible does not teach that gender will be obliterated but redeemed
and made new.
III. Sin and Slavery
A. The first mention of slavery is found in Genesis 9:25 in the context of the
curse against Ham in response to his sin.
B. Like the curse on gender relations that resulted in sexism (Genesis 3:16),
slavery first appears in the Bible after a curse is spoken in response to sin
(9:25).
C. In Genesis 12:1-3 God makes promises to Abraham that answer the
curses of Gen. 3:14-19 point by point.
Redemption
I. In the Old Testament
A. Concerning Sexism
1. Statements on women in the Pentateuch are there to protect
the vulnerable in a context where women required men to
protect and provide for them.
2. The commands and statues themselves do not restore an
edenic way of life, but they are meant to limit human evil until
God accomplishes redemption
B. Concerning Slavery
1. Statements on slaves in the Pentateuch are given to limit the
evil of a wicked human practice.
2. Even there, indentured servants were set free to go on
sabbatical years if desired (Ex. 21:1-6).
3. Slavery in ancient Israel is very different from what has been
practiced in the modern west.
II. In the New Testament
A. Concerning Sexism
1. Male and female roles are part of God's good creation (so we
are dealing with a good thing gone wrong).
2. 1 Corinthians 11:3-9, 1 Timothy 2:9-15.
3. In the above passages and in places like Ephesians 5, God
reveals that ultimately these roles, properly fulfillment, are a
projection of the Gospel.
4. The relationship between male and female, husband and wife,
are to reflect the relationship between Christ and the church.
B. Concerning Slavery
1. The gospel, not social justice, is the primary focus of the NT.
2. Slaves who become believers are to find their identity in
Christ.
3. If such people can get their freedom, they should do so (1 Cor.
7:21-23)
4. Since slavery was no part of God's good created order, Paul's
instructions to Philemon provide an example of how
relationships within the family of God can overcome evil with
good (Philemon 16).
Take Away
The Bible has instructions for male and females, masters and slaves, but the Bible
does not condone slavery and sexism.
The Bible has a vision of male and female relations that are harmonious and
beautiful, appropriate and fitting, and it teaches neither androgynous egalitarianism
nor chauvinistic sexism.
God did not create humans to be slaves but to serve him freely.
