For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Answer
The modern concept of feminism was not present during the time that the Bible was written, but that does not mean the Bible has nothing to say on the basic issues of feminism. Even when the Scriptures seem to be silent on something that affects us today, there are eternal principles that speak to the underlying issue.
First, we should define feminism, since the term can have different meanings for different people. Basically, feminism is a philosophy that advocates equal rights for women and men—socially, politically, economically, and in other ways. Early feminists fought for and won suffrage for women. Today’s feminism goes further than demanding equal treatment of men and women, however. Modern feminists fight for abortion on demand, language equality (insisting on saying “chairperson” instead of “chairman,” for example), and the blurring of gender lines. The more radical feminists actively seek to overthrow any vestige of male dominance in society, oppose the biblical roles of husbands and wives, and promote lesbianism. Radical feminists deny there is any difference between men and women, teaching that any perceived differences between the sexes are due solely to social conditioning.
Modern feminism is a counterfeit solution to the real issue of the inequality of women in a sinful society. Feminism arrogates to itself the right to demand respect and equality in every aspect of life. Feminism is based in arrogance, and it is the opposite of the call to the born-again believer to be a servant. The modern, militant feminists call women to rise up and rebel against the order that God has given to humankind. That brand of feminism seeks to impose humanistic values in direct opposition to the Word of God. Feminism was originally a positive movement, focused on giving women the basic rights God intends for every human being to have. Tragically, feminism now focuses on destroying distinctions in the roles of men and women.
What then should be a Christian’s view of feminism? A believing woman who is seeking to obey God and walk in peace and grace should remember that she has equal access to all spiritual blessings in Christ. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). A believing woman should not allow herself to be used as a pawn in the worldly agenda of the feminist movement. A believing man should uphold the nuclear family as the biblical model for society, promote true Christian values, and (if he’s married) honor and cherish his wife and take responsibility for protecting and providing for his family. Both men and women have a God-given privilege to fulfill the plan He has set for us. Rebellion against that plan and the arrogance that seeks to put self above God’s Word brings difficult consequences. We see those consequences in damaged relationships between husbands and wives, the destruction of the family, and the loss of respect for human life.
Many women today have bought into the lie that feminism will empower and free them. However, rallying for abortion, dispensing with God-given roles, and working to dismantle the family unit will bring neither power nor freedom. Protection of the innocent, obedience to God’s Word, and fortification of the family are much more empowering and freeing. “I will walk in freedom,” says the psalmist, “for I have devoted myself to your commandments” (Psalm 119:45).
There has always been inequality in the world. It is sad but true that artificial barriers have always divided humanity—barriers that have no basis in God’s Word. It is sin in the heart that causes inequality, sin that causes some men to treat women in demeaning or objectifying ways. And it is sin that seeks counterfeit solutions to counteract these inequalities. The only cure for discrimination and inequality is obedience to God. If men and women would humbly submit to God’s Word, then striving would cease, the genders would complement each other, and the harmony that God ordained would flourish.Return to:
Topical Bible Questions
It is a visible sign that becomes your first act of witness. In baptism, you telling the world what God has done for you.
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Romans 6:3-7 says, “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
“For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.”
Baptism symbolizes a death, burial and resurrection, which is why the early church baptized by immersion. The word “baptizo” means to immerse. It symbolized the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and it shows the death of the old sinner in the one being baptized.
We also know that baptism is a righteous thing to do. Jesus got baptized even though He was sinless. Matthew 3:13-15 says, “…John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him.”
Jesus even commanded Christians to go and baptize everyone. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
Jesus adds this about baptism in Mark 16:15-16, “…Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”
You will notice that the Bible ties baptism to salvation. However, it isn’t the act of baptism that saves you. Ephesians 2:8-9 is clear that our works don’t contribute to our salvation. We can’t earn salvation, even by being baptized.
However, you must ask yourself. If Jesus asks you to do something and you refuse to do it, what does that mean? It means you are willfully disobedient. Is a willfully disobedient person repentant? Absolutely not!
Baptism is not what saves you, Jesus does! But refusing baptism says something powerful about the state of your relationship with Jesus.
Keep in mind, if you are unable to get baptized, like the thief on the cross, God understands your circumstances. However, if you are able to be baptized and won’t or choose not to, that action is willful sin which disqualifies you from salvation.
Fritz Chery
We are to have the same type of love that Jesus Christ had for us, which is agape love. A person with agape love never says, “what’s in it for me” or “this person doesn’t deserve it.” Agape love is not friend, sexual, or brotherly love. Agape love is sacrificial love. It shows action.
When we are always worried about self, we will never have this type of love. We are to humble ourselves before the Lord and put others before ourselves.
God’s agape love is in believers. Do all things with the love of God, expecting nothing in return.
“Agape is something of the understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is an overflowing love; it’s what theologians would call the love of God working in the lives of men. And when you rise to love on this level, you begin to love men, not because they are likeable, but because God loves them.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Agape love is selfless love…the love God wants us to have isn’t just an emotion but a conscious act of the will – a deliberate decision on our part to put others ahead of ourselves. This is the kind of love God has for us.” – Billy Graham
“It is possible to be at the top of Christian service, respected and admired, and not have that indispensable ingredient by which God has chosen to work in His world today – the absolute sacrificial agape love of the Eternal God.” David Jeremiah
“What is this love that endures decades, passes on sleep, and resists death to give one kiss? Call it agape love, a love that bears a semblance of God’s.” Max Lucado
“God loves you for no reason.”
We see a perfect picture of God’s love in the cross of Jesus Christ. We are not good enough. God desires perfection and we all fall short. We are wicked before a holy judge. God would be loving in sending us to Hell because we are evil. God crushed His perfect Son for undeserving people. Those who are saved are regenerated and they are made saints to God. The blood of Jesus is enough. Repent and trust in Christ. Jesus is the only way.
1. 1 John 4:8-10 The person who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, because God is love. God has shown us his love by sending his only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the payment for our sins.
2. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
3. Romans 5:5 Now this hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
4. John 17:26 I made your name known to them, and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have for me may be in them and I myself may be in them.
5. 2 Timothy 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but one of power, love, and self-discipline.
6. Revelation 1:5 and from Jesus Christ. He is the faithful witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead, and the ruler of all the kings of the world. All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us.
7. Romans 5:8-9 But God demonstrates his love for us by the fact that the Messiah died for us while we were still sinners. Now that we have been justified by his blood, how much more will we be saved from wrath through him!
8. John 10:17-18 “The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”
9. John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
10. Romans 5:10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
11. 1 John 3:16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.
12. Ephesians 5:1-2 Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. And walk in love, as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.
13. John 13:34-35 I give you a new commandment—to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.
14. Galatians 5:14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
15. John 14:21 The person who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I, too, will love him and reveal myself to him.
16. John 14:23-24 Jesus answered him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. Then my Father will love him, and we will go to him and make our home within him. The one who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The words that you’re hearing me say are not mine, but come from the Father who sent me.
17. Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus told him, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment.
Reminders
18. Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.
19. Romans 8:37-39 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
20. Philippians 2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
21. Ephesians 5:25-29 Husbands, love your wives as the Messiah loved the church and gave himself for it, so that he might make it holy by cleansing it, washing it with water and the word, and might present the church to himself in all its glory, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind, but holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife loves himself. For no one has ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, as the Messiah does the church.
22. Colossians 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
23. Luke 10:30-34 After careful consideration, Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of bandits. They stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. By chance, a priest was traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he went by on the other side. Similarly, a descendant of Levi came to that place. When he saw the man, he also went by on the other side. But as he was traveling along, a Samaritan came across the man. When the Samaritan saw him, he was moved with compassion. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”
24. Romans 9:1-4 I am telling the truth because I belong to the Messiah I am not lying, and my conscience confirms it by means of the Holy Spirit. I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were condemned and cut off from the Messiah for the sake of my brothers, my own people, who are Israelis. To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship, and the promises.
25. Exodus 32:32 But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, erase my name from the record you have written!
I am a Christian, saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. In 2013, I founded BibleReasons.com, driven by a deep passion to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. My heart’s desire is not only that we come to know Him but that we cultivate an intimate relationship with Him through prayer.