Mature Femininity

Genesis 2:18 (NKJV)
18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

In the last couple weeks we have learned that male and female together bear the image of God and that therefore God made males to be male and females to be female. This was his design, his intention, his plan. He saw that the man was alone and declared it wasn’t good. He decided to make a helper comparable to the man.

Because God designed you women as women what this means is that your fundamental calling in life is to honor and glorify Him. He is the Creator of all; further, He has sent Christ to redeem and rescue you, to restore you to the glory of your creational design. So what does this mean?

First, it means that because God is the Creator His Word governs and rules your life. Eve got you into trouble by questioning God’s Word and deciding for herself whether the Word of God or the word of the serpent were to be believed. She set herself up as judge. But none of us were designed to live this way – and it is the choice to live this way that has wrought calamity and destruction in the world – and which continues to do so. The so-called Battle of the Sexes has arisen precisely because men and women have refused to live in accordance with God’s Word and have instead lived according to our own.

Second, God’s word declares here that men and women were created to complement one another. God’s judgment that it is not good that man be alone reveals not only the complementariness that God designed for marriage but also for broader society. Whether the number of men and women would have been perfectly balanced in an unfallen world we are not told – but we are told that God designed man as male and female to glorify His Name and be for the benefit of all. Men as male and women as female were designed by God to complement one another, not compete with one another.

Third, God’s design for women, revealed here in the creation story, is that women were created, you were created, to help the men in your midst. God declares, “I will make him a helper suitable to him.” God created you to come alongside men and to serve, to assist. The exact way this will look will appear different in different situations but this is the basic calling – to be a pillar of strength and support and to enable the men in your life to be all that they can be. As John Piper has written, “At the heart of mature femininity is a freeing disposition to affirm, receive and nurture strength and leadership from worthy men in ways appropriate to a woman’s differing relationships.” So, ladies, how are you doing? Are you affirming, receiving and nurturing the strength and leadership of your husbands? Your fathers? Your elders? This is your calling.

And you men, are you being worthy men? “At the heart of mature femininity is a freeing disposition to affirm, receive and nurture strength and leadership from worthy men in ways appropriate to a woman’s differing relationships.” Are you stepping up to the plate and giving godly strength and leadership to the women in your life? This is our calling.

Reminded that rather than submit to God’s design for us as men and women, we frequently develop our own visions for what is good and right, let us confess our sins to the Lord. We will have a time of silent confession followed by a public confession. Let us kneel as we confess our sins together.