Apologies to our sisters

In my wanderings around the blogosphere, I have run into a number of men offering many a mea culpa for what they perceive as the mistreatment of women in the church for millennia. The general crux is that women have been repressed by men, not allowed to fully use their talents, not been able to have a voice, etc. etc. and that because of this general misogyny, we need to apologize to our sisters.

Do I think Christian men should apologize for the treatment of women?

Absolutely.

As men we need to apologize for failing in our responsibility to lovingly lead in our families and in the local assembly as we have been commanded to do.

We need to apologize for letting our own apathy and laziness lead to our wives taking on responsibilities at church and at home above and beyond what should be asked of them because they are willing and we are lazy. They have been forced to step into the breach where men have failed to lead and been placed in those situations because of our disobedience.

We need to apologize to our sons for the poor example they have observed of their mothers or other mothers bringing children to church by themselves while the dad stayed home. We need to apologize to our daughters for telling them one thing about womanhood in the Scriptures and then showing them something different in our actions.

We should apologize for letting our sisters buy into the world’s view that women must act like men, have every role of a man, be indistinguishable from men to be equal by not demonstrating godly male headship in the home and the Body of Christ. We are equal in God’s sight, and there are plenty of women who are very capable of doing many things that are prohibited in Scripture. It is not a judgment on women regarding their abilities to perform certain functions, it is a calling. There was nothing inherently “wrong” or “inferior” with the other 11 tribes of Israel, they just weren’t called by God to officiate in the tabernacle.

We need to apologize for parroting back the world’s view of the relationship of men and women, apologizing for the Word of God and embracing out of embarrassment and fear the perverse view of the relationship between the genders that stands in opposition to what was designed and revealed by God in His Word.

My wife is stronger than any of these women who insist on a false view of equality by taking for themselves what God has prohibited because her strength is a Biblical strength, a quiet and gentle and meek strength that does not demand "Look at me!". That desire for what is forbidden seems like a familiar theme, perhaps one involving a fruit that was desirable even though it was forbidden. When you read the Word, what sort of qualities are desirable for women? Let’s look at the admonition of Peter:

Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external--the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear-- but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. (1Pe 3:1-6)

We see the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. How deeply we have failed in not conveying this to our wives! That we should apologize for, that we should be ashamed of.

But, we should not apologize for the Word of God. We should not apologize that God made us different and called us to different service, not inferior and superior but different. We should not apologize for the Word of God and portray it as an antiquated record of a less enlightened time. We owe our sisters many apologies, but all of them for following the Bible less than we should have, not more than we should.