letters to surfers

I read in a Christian paper "Jesus did not treat the sexes equally because he knew God designed the sexes to be unequal."    What you do you think?

Answer by Robert Brow   (www.brow.on.ca)


Equality is a concept that belongs to mathematics. You might be able to measure equal pay for equal work, but you cannot make a quarterback equal to any other member of the team. Which is why equality is never a New Testament concept. The nearest equivalent is "a fair balance" (2 Corinthians 8:13) and "treat your slaves justly and fairly" Colossians 4:1). What Paul talks about is mutual submission, and he illustrates this in the case of husbands and wives, children and parents, slaves and slave owners (Ephesians 5:21-6:9, and applies this to marriage in 1 Corinthians 7:1-16). It is true that Jesus’ first disciples were men, but they were also Jews, Galileans, black haired and probably wore beards. And of course women were baptized to become disciples on exactly the same basis as men (Acts 5:14, 8:3, 9:2, 36, 16:15).
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