A Biblical Discussion on Gender

We’re tackling a subject today that our granddads never really dealt with, our dads most likely didn’t deal with it, but it seems to be in our face and in the faces of our children on a daily basis – and that is the issue of gender.  Are there two genders?  Is gender just a social construct? Can I change my gender if I feel like I’m not really the gender that I was born as?  These are questions that no one was even asking just a few decades ago.  

We look to God and his Word in all that we do. So what does God’s Word have to say about gender?  2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. – His Word is useful.  It corrects us when we’re wrong, and there are a lot of people who are wrong on this issue of gender. 

In the beginning, God created them male and female.  This was before the fall and God said it was very good. The differences between male and female should be celebrated, not diminished.

Genesis 1:27-28 So God created mankind in his own image,  in the image of God he created them;  male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” 

• God’s design, his perfect design, was two genders; male and female.  This was his original, perfect plan.  Both are created in the image of God.  Both have immeasurable worth and value.  They are of equal worth and dignity, but they are not the same.  They complement one another.  Eve is described as Adam’s help mate.  The differences between male and female are good.  They are for our benefit.  They should be celebrated, not diminished.  
• God’s command to be fruitful and multiply could only be carried out because of the two distinct genders and their roles in procreation. 

Genesis 1:31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!

• When God looked over the creation earlier in the creation story, it was good at the end of each day.  It wasn’t until God created humankind that it was very good! The differences between male and female are part of what made it very good! 
• I’m so thankful women aren’t exactly like men.  I can guarantee you my kids are thankful.  Their mom brings strengths to our family as a result of her femininity that I don’t have. And my wife is kind of a tomboy. That’s probably a politically incorrect term nowadays.   She rides motorcycles. She’d rather wear pants than a dress.  She likes shooting guns.  But she still brings a nurturing, a compassion, and an empathy that I lack.  I know some of that is more personality related than gender, but not all of it.  Studies show that, on average, women are more nurturing than men.  Women are more compassionate than men.  They typically have more empathy.  

Genesis 6:17-21 Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die. 18 But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat—you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 19 Bring a pair of every kind of animal—a male and a female—into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood. 20 Pairs of every kind of bird, and every kind of animal, and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, will come to you to be kept alive. 

• The flood was sort of the great reset and once again, we see the importance of male and female – Noah and his sons and their wives, male and female from each kind of animal.  
• The reality is if you put 50 biological men or 50 biological women on an island, regardless of what they identify as, that whole population will die out in one generation. There is no way to create offspring without the two, distinct genders being present.  

Our gender is determined at conception.  God has a plan and purpose for our life before we take our first breath.  When we trust our feelings over what God has declared to be true, we are essentially declaring that we know better than the perfect, holy God who created us. 

Psalm 139:13-16 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.15You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book.Every moment was laid out  before a single day had passed.

• This is one of the most powerful passages in scripture to me.  God has made me wonderfully complex.  His workmanship is marvelous.  If you’re struggling with gender identity, you need to know that God has created you wonderfully complex.  He saw you before you were born.  He has a purpose and a plan for your life.  
• Any attempt to alter how God created you is rebelling against his plan and usurping his authority.  It is saying, “I know better than God does.  He got it wrong!” That has to be one of the most arrogant, prideful stances we can take.  Think of what that would look like if we did that in other areas of our life.  God, I know you said don’t steal, but I’m pretty sure I feel like I deserve this thing and I can’t afford to buy it.  God I know you said marriage was a lifelong commitment, but I don’t feel like my spouse loves me and I know you want me to be happy so I’m going to bail on my marriage.  

Jeremiah 17:9 The human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked, who really knows how bad it is? 

• We live in a culture that says, “Follow your heart. Do what makes you happy.”  The Bible says our heart is the last thing we should be following.  It is desperately wicked.  It leads us astray all of the time.  Your heart says you don’t feel warm and fuzzy for your spouse any more so it’s time to move on.  Your heart wants to sleep with your boyfriend or girlfriend before you’re married.  Your heart wants instant gratification.  We have to trust in the truth of God’s Word over our own thoughts, feelings, and opinions – very definition of sin.  

God not only has plans and purposes for us individually, he has distinctive roles for men and women in the church and in the home.  We see different roles listed in both the OT and NT.  Priests were men only.  If a person would have identified as a male, would they have been qualified to be a priest?  In the NT, there are different instructions to men and women.  

Deuteronomy 22:5 A woman must not put on men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing. Anyone who does this is detestable in the sight of the LORD your God.

This prohibition of altering gender is not limited to surgery or hormone blockers.  Men are not to dress as women, women are not to dress as men.  That doesn’t mean women can’t wear pants – It’s common in our culture for women to wear pants.  Pants aren’t considered “men’s clothing” in our culture.  Wouldn’t forbid a man to wear a kilt in a culture where men commonly wear kilts.  It’s not women’s clothing in that culture. 

Romans 1:24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.

Love rejoices in the truth.  Truth matters, and this is a topic that calls us to speak truth.  We need to speak it gracefully and with compassion, but we also need to speak it unashamedly.  God calls us to protect the weak and vulnerable. 

1 Corinthians 13:6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.

• This comes from the famous “love” passage you’ve probably heard recited at a wedding ceremony.  The “it” in verse 6 is love.  Love rejoices in the truth.  When we truly love someone, we want them to know truth. We want to speak truth.  

James 1:27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

• Why is this so important?  In that culture, orphans and widows were the most vulnerable.  We have a calling to protect the weak and vulnerable.  Our children are being attacked by an agenda that is trying to destroy Biblical teaching.  I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say this is an organized attack straight from the pit of hell.  Our battles aren’t against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces, principalities, and evils of this dark world.  
• What’s the harm? First, the harm is it’s rebellion against God.  That never ends well.  There are always consequences for sin.  The Bible tells us the wages of sin are death.  There is also physical harm.  Children who are making decisions about their bodies that are often irreversible at an age when they can’t legally drive, they can’t vote, they can’t smoke or drink alcohol and yet we’re allowing them to make these decisions.  
• Don’t be apathetic.  Don’t be slothful like we talked about on the last episode of the podcast.  Engage with your children on this issue.  They’re hearing about it non-stop from culture, social media, their peers.  Speak truth into their lives.  There are resources at pursueGod.org to help you.