When God made man in His image, He made them male and female. There are similarities and there are differences. The greatest similiarity is that both male and female are in the image of God. This shows that the image is not a physical likeness, but rather a spiritual one. Of course there are physical similarities between male and female, but there are significant differences which make the distinction between male and female. These differences are sufficient enough for us to talk about members of the “opposite” sex. Male and female are “wired” differently, as one man said, Any man who says he understands women would lie about other things too, wouldn’t he?
Eleven people were hanging from a rope under a helicopter, ten men and one woman. The rope was not strong enough to carry them all so they decided that one would have to leave, other wise the rope would break and they would all fall. They weren’t able to decide who it would be till the woman gave a very touching speech. She said she would voluntarily let go of the rope because, as a woman, she was used to giving up everything for her husband and kids, or for men in general, and was used to always making sacrifices with little in return. As soon as she finished her speech, all the men clapped their hands.
These kinds of jokes, as long as we don’t take them or ourselves too seriously, simply illustrate the well-known differences between the genders. God has the same love for man and woman (1 Pet. 3:1ff), both being heirs to the grace of life, and also of the grace that is in Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:26). Some have mistakenly assumed that there are no differences – period! This is palpably false. The fact that God equally loves male and female doesn’t mean He has equipped them to perform the same service (1 Tim. 2:11-14). Some say this is cultural and has no application today, but the two reasons advanced here are not cultural: One is the order of creation, God having given the leadership role to man from creation. The second is in the process of sin entering the world, Eve took the leadership when she should have followed. So God reminds us of these salient truths when we assemble by saying that the daughters of Eve should learn, not teach; obey, not rule; follow, not lead. Male and female are complimentary to one another in the scheme of things. Martin Luther said that marriage was God’s way of explaining Himself:- two becoming one illustrating the unity of the Godhead. Different areas of responsibility and different strengths but the one purpose and goal. This means each gender is to be aware of the other and their differences. Each is to help and complement the other.
Some years ago there was a furore over a statement by an Islamic leader, but It found me more in favour with what he said rather than the response by a politician. Part of what the Islamic leader said was, women who are raped are to blame for their own plight…strapless, backless, sleeveless, nothing but Satanic skirts, slit skirts, translucent blouses, mini skirts, tight jeans….all this to tease man and appeal to his carnal nature. The politician regarded the comments as totally inappropriate, untrue and unhelpful. He said he regarded the comments as totally inappropriate, untrue and unhelpful. Australian women are free to dress in the Western style and nothing gives an excuse for them to be molested in any way. This is Australia: women are free to dress as they choose and they deserve to be safe on our streets and in our parks and they are entitled to respect. Was the sheik suggesting that women should be raped if they dress immodestly? If so, that’s wrong, but I doubt he was saying that. Was the politician in rising to defend Australian mores in the face of what he perceived to be an Islamic attack on Australian morality? If so he overstated his case. His statement, Australian women are free to dress as they choose and be entitled to respect, can be construed, on face value, to suggest that women are under no compulsion to address the question of how they appear, and that how they dress will have no bearing upon how they are perceived by others. (Would you want to walk through the shady section of town, hundred-dollar notes sticking conspicuously out of your pockets? True, you shouldn’t be robbed, but would you do it?) This particular politician has daughters and I doubt he would be wanting them to go in public dressed in any fashion. As I said, he overstated his case and refused to acknowledge that a lot of what the Sheik said was spot on. Modesty is not an Australian cultural strong point. Culture is often nothing more than the collective expression of our disobedience toward God. Rom. 12:1,2 says we are not to be squeezed into the fashion of the world.
A young Christian girl was shocked when I asked her why she went in public in bra and panties. She said she didn’t do such a thing, but she wore a bikini. I asked her the difference and she said the colour and the material! I told her men don’t notice the difference. I don’t think she understood at that point in time. The reason? – cultural conditioning. I once saw a cartoon of a mother and daughter at home when the doorbell rang. The mother was dressed in a full-length petticoat and said, Oh, I can’t answer the door like this!, to which the daughter dressed in shorts and halter-top said, It’s okay Mum, I’ll answer it , I’m dressed.
The fashion designers don’t sit down to design and write at the top of the page, Matt. 5:27,28 or 1 Tim. 2:9 (Passages which proscribe modest dress). As Mary Quant, the ‘designer’ of the mini-skirt said, The mini is for the woman who doesn’t want to wait till nightfall to seduce a man into bed. Theodore Rick, a fashion ‘expert’ said, A dress is successful when it awakens in the man who looks at a woman the wish to take it off. That can be said of a lot of fashion – it’s purposefully designed to titilate and tease – it’s meant to advertise flesh, certainly not character. Today, words like ‘daring’, ‘naughty’, ‘slightly wicked’ are the words used today to describe the dress of femininity. There is a word in the Bible – ‘lasciviousness’ which means, inclined to lustfulness, arousing or exciting sexual desire. . With male and female it’s a two-way street – men must exercise self-control and women should dress modestly. In a book called Bodily Communication, it raises the issue of clothing:
It is widely believed that clothes have a sexual role, both in concealing the sexual organs, and in drawing attention to them…….for women at least, sexual attractiveness is one of the most important aspects of appearance – both in their own eyes and in that of others. Many women signal their attractiveness, but are clearly not sexually available. Why do they do this? Perhaps to produce favourable but not sexual responses from men, perhaps to sustain their self-image. I think we could add more to this – like a statement by an astute woman who observed that being scantily clad was a mark of weakness and fear – fear they cannot allure except by the physical, which is feeble at best and won’t hold for long.
Ladies, help your men out, not only by dressing modestly yourself, but also by being aware that they are wired differently from the female of the species. That includes the TV and videos you watch. The “boiling the frog” syndrome applies here. Standards get lower and lower – boundaries are pushed to get ratings and they become the norm. Many TV shows are just pornography – you may call it soft porn, but it’s porn. Shows like Big Brother – no plot, no lines (what a lazy way to fill up a time slot) – just voyeurism and pornography. “But these are real people in real situations!” Really? I don’t know why they call it reality television as there’s nothing real about it. Shows like “Dancing With The Stars” – ladies, you may be all wrapped up in the ‘artistry’ of it all – I don’t know – but ask yourself why the women are dressed in next to nothing making all manner of sensuous moves! That’s not for you, it’s for the men! If your husband won’t change channels, change the channel yourself! Commandeer the remote that night! Help him out if he’s that weak! “Lasciviousness” also means “the unchaste handling of males and females” and that’s what Dancing With The Stars is all about.
Doesn’t the Bible talk about sex? Yes – both the pure kind God created and intended for man’s blessing, and also its perversion. For example, it tells us that David committed adultery with Bathsheba, but it doesn’t turn us into voyeurs and pornographers in telling us. It’s reality literature – tells us what happened as a result of David’s sin. It also explains the contribution of the woman in the events that unfolded – Bathsheeba was not discreet in her bathing.
Jesus talked about a man lusting after a woman – through the eyes – women are moreso aroused through mood and the ears – hearing sweet nothings. There is a book called The Bare Facts Video Guide. It lists the movies and actors and actresses that appeared nude or partly nude in them. It lists 115 men compared to more than 400 women. The figures highlight a basic difference in male and female. The art of seduction by men – by nudity or words? Women can seduce by sight, but men rarely so. It’s more often by mood and words – that’s why cheap trashy racy romantic novels like Mills and Boone are more appealing to women.
Pornography has different faces. What is happening in increasing regularity, is divorce that has its inception in internet chatrooms. Some chatroom flirtations remain anonymous electronic liaisions, but many also lead to an actual physical rendezvous. Our technology necessitates the invention of terms, and a fairly new one is VIRTUAL ADULTERY. It is where people engage in an intimate tete-a-tete over the internet. Many think this is a harmless past-time, most probably because it is relatively autonomous when compared with, say, an entanglement with a co-worker. It is not – such secret emotional entanglements are a recipe for disaster. It is a fact that adultery most often begins with emotional bonds, not physical ones. Also, such virtual flirtation betrays the trust and erodes the closeness necessary to maintain a healthy marriage. The moment a person begins to transfer to a third party the attention that properly belongs to his or her marriage partner, then you have the beginning of virtual adultery. This is one area where women are represented as much as men, unlike the more visual forms of pornography. If a particular woman has difficulty in understanding the appeal of visual pornography, it is not the case with this: what woman doesn’t understand the appeal of attention and praise and understanding? We need to work at developing healthy relationship skills with our spouses such as communication, affirmation and affection, understanding that closeness in marriage involves both physical and emotional dimensions.
The wise man had some words just as applicable in this techno world of ours as they were in his. Read Prov. 6:25-29.