Gender Straightening Episode Notes
I want to straighten out the purpose of maleness and femaleness as God has created and mandated for us on this earth.
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I reposted this picture that I came across from another page. The photo was of a man on a skateboard, wearing a dress posing with a woman in a pantsuit. The caption said, “Our genitalia does not define our masculinity or our femininity.”, I re-shared with the question of why does this not make sense in the Christian context. This page is run by somebody who claims to be a Christian with one of their goals being to breaking down Western cultural norms. A post like this has no business on a Christian page, and I believe it is very misleading.
Here are some verses:
Deuteronomy 22:5
“A woman shall not wear a man's garment nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.”
Genesis 1:27
“God created man in his own image in the image of God he created. Male and female, he created them.”
Leviticus 20:13
“If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood is upon them.”
As you will notice, these three scriptures come from the Old Testament. I want to start by prefacing that the Old Testament is just as important as the New Testament, and we should always look at the bible in its entirety. Just because these verses come from the OT does not invalidate their importance whatsoever.
I want to focus mainly on Deuteronomy 22:5 because this verse comes up a lot during this conversation. I also believe it is taken out of context quite often. I want to first highlight the importance of not causing confusion between genders. God is not a God of confusion or chaos. I think it is really important for Christians to implicate this truth in their lives and know that confusion and chaos is not God’s way. Deuteronomy 22:5 in context is not specifying particular clothes one must wear, but the point is to maintain and make obvious the separation in the appearance of men and women in regards to God’s desire for his people.
This applies to our specific culture as long as we are also operating under the authority of the Holy Spirit. For an example in our Western, North America, U.S culture it is not customary to see men in a garb that resembles what we would call a dress. In our culture men traditionally wear pants, and women traditionally wear skirts and dresses. Our culture over time has modernized and we see clothes manufacturers making pants, trousers, slacks, and shorts for women, however, they are still made to conform to a woman’s body. In Middle Eastern or African cultures it may be acceptable to wear cultural garb. It is not acceptable in most cultures for us to be naked, but in an undeveloped country or village, you might see that.
Those are just a few examples of what Deuteronomy 22:5 means, not just contextually, but in real-time, in the real world. God has created different people on earth who have different cultures, ethnicities, traditions, and languages and there is beauty in that.
Fluidity
From an article on John Piper’s ministry website, Desiring God, writer Greg Morris talks about how fluidity is Satan’s favorite word right now. I think this statement is profound because in our current culture it is very popular to break down gender norms or redefine them. This is infiltrating many minds and even has begun to creep into our churches. Here’s the truth, to deny our gender is to deny God. Psalm 139 tells us that God knitted us together in our mother's womb. He created us in his image with purposeful design and intention. We should desire to honor God with our bodies and that includes the way we dress.
The more we pursue God and the closer we get to Him, the closer we also are to understanding the beauty in how he created us. We are called to be set apart, and that means fixing our hearts on the spiritual matters of God and pursuing Him. This is a very counter-cultural message, but it’s fine because the truth that I’ve laid out here is not my opinion, but it is God’s. Our gender does define our sexuality and that is how God created it to be.
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