Male and female, both have a part to play. But we as woman often underplay the role we have to play in the church of God. Both men and woman are part of the “priesthood of believers” (1 Peter 2:9) and recognize that they have equal in value before God, but that their roles are not interchangeable. Men and women are not clones of each other, they have different abilities and each needs to recognise their distinct role in nurturing the family of God.
Men and women complement each other in the church. Though we are different, it is precisely in our differences from men that we are positioned to minister to women in particular, not in our similarities.
Women most effectively minister to women, because women are unique.
Consider the following:
- Only women understand women. Women understand not only what is said, but also what is felt. She will say; “I know exactly how you feel!” and mean it. We speak the same heart language.
- Women miss you when you are not there because women value bonding and being together.
- Women share common life experiences and identify with the emotions of other women from their own life experiences. This is because not only are they followers of Christ, but they are women first, then they have other roles to play like wife, mother, daughter, sister, worker etc. Part of our worth is that God made us to be women. As women we have value and a unique role to play in the Body of Christ.
But women also have unique abilities that men do not share:
- A woman has a unique influence over another woman that no man can hope to duplicate, because of common life experiences. God is so gracious in that our times of deep need, He always sends another woman just when you need her most, that friend that comes into that season of your life, when you most needed her.
- A woman can most effectively comfort another woman, with the unique comfort she herself has received from the Lord. E.g. A woman who has experienced cancer in her own life, best comforts a woman who has cancer. A woman who has battled to conceive is the best person to share this burden with.
- A woman who is in the same role, can best relate to another woman. All preschool mothers speak the same language, so do single women, divorced women and only another menopausal woman knows what a hot flush is all about.
- Women can work well together towards common goals, Paul praised Timothy’s mother Lois and grandmother Eunice, for the unique way in which these women consistently worked together to raise Timothy.
Bearing this in mind, it is encouraging to note that Paul had a specific instruction to women in Titus 2:3-5.
Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
If you liked this post, also read:
Leave A Comment