Counsels on Self-Identity

Counsel #2 — Feminine Roles

Picture: Counsel #2 — Feminine Roles CI 67.1

Though Scripture appointed the father as head or priest of the household at the inception of sin (a role of service and sacrifice as Christ is sacrificially head of the church [Ephesians 5:25]), most other traditional gender roles today are social constructs and not biblically based. God treasures you whether or not your approach to life is stereotypically feminine. The ideas that women are inferior and they should “know their role/place” are not supported by our loving God and His Word.^[65] CI 67.2

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body…So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies.” Ephesians 5:22, 23, 28 CI 67.3

“It was by [Eve’s] solicitation that Adam sinned, and she was now placed in subjection to her husband. Had the principles enjoined in the law of God been cherished by the fallen race, this sentence, though growing out of the results of sin, would have proved a blessing to them; but man’s abuse of the supremacy thus given him has too often rendered the lot of woman very bitter and made her life a burden.” Ellen White in Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 58, 59 CI 67.4

Reflect: In your marriage, how do you ”submit to one another out of reverence for Christ?” Ephesians 5:21 CI 67.5