What Are Biblical and Unbiblical Teachings of Gender Roles and Submission?

What are biblical versus unbiblical teachings of gender roles and submission? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity.

Well, happy Friday. I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Our phone lines are open right now, and we would love to hear from you.

For 25 minutes at this number, it's 833-THE-CORE, which translates into 1-833-843-2673. Now, you can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and you can always email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. And Adriel, first up today, we have an email from one of our listeners named Pam. Interesting situation. She says, My husband is a videographer that works with local churches, but oftentimes the church he works with is very far off in doctrine.

My husband and I differ on this a bit. He feels if we turn our backs on other churches, they aren't hearing the truth. But I'm afraid we're help spreading the false doctrine. I've studied Ephesians on this topic a lot, and I've come to the conclusion that CORE doctrines must be professed. They say they profess them, but they teach, preach, and live the quote, abundant life, charismatic apostolic teachings that I disagree with. What would you say about this issue?

This is a great question. I know a guy who for a while was doing media stuff, helping churches out with social media, with video, spreading their sermons and whatnot. And he really wrestled with this question because for some time he had supported and helped to platform the ministries of teachers that he didn't really agree with theologically, doctrinally, but it was a source of income and he built these relationships.

And over time as he started to grow more in his understanding of the word, of scripture, he felt convicted by this. Can I really keep platforming these teachers, these pastors who teach things that I believe are contrary now to the word of God? It sounds like that's the very thing that you are wrestling with.

Eventually what ended up happening is he just said, I can't do this. I can't in good conscience. I know it's a source of income.

I know it's part of my paycheck. But it's more important for me to find ministries, pastors that I believe are spreading the truth of the gospel, are interpreting the word of God correctly and platforming those voices. And frankly, many of them need help being platformed. And it's not a particular pastor or person that we're trying to platform.

It's the word. It's just faithful ministries that are proclaiming the gospel well. And so he just said, I'm going to pull back. I'm going to trust the Lord that God is going to provide for me when I say I can't continue to work together with you. And that's what this individual did. And the Lord really blessed this individual.

I think he did continue to provide, but it wasn't easy. And so I think you're faced with a question here about, can I in good conscience continue to help platform some of these pastors, some of these ministries that are leading people in a direction that's not good, not healthy spiritually? And I don't think that the answer is yes. Now, I don't want to minimize the cost associated with this, right?

Because this is, for your husband, a source of income. But the reality is you want to spread the truth. We want to spread the truth. We want to be very careful that we're not helping to spread things that are leading people astray.

And so I just pray that the Lord is with you in this and guides you as you seek to make the right decision. So I would tend to think in a situation like this, as a family, you're thinking of this as how my husband provides for our family as a videographer working with these local churches. I think you say, look, Lord, guide us, help us to trust you and help us to serve you with a clear conscience and not to put stuff out there that is contrary to your word or to help put stuff out there. And so maybe that looks like doing a little bit more legwork in pursuing other churches that you guys really buy into the vision and think that you could support their message. There are a lot of solid Bible teaching churches out there that have a hard time with media and social media and spreading the message in that way.

Maybe you could come alongside of some of those churches and say, hey, I would love for you to consider hiring me, bringing me on to help you get the word out because I want to see the true gospel being proclaimed. And I don't want to platform some of these other ministries that are really spreading nonsense. And so may God give you guys wisdom and he provide for all of your needs and bless you as you seek to honor him, even in this work that you're doing. That's some really good counsel, Adriel, and it's tough when you try to separate your work life from ministry. And sometimes the two sort of get conflated, right? Yeah, well, in a situation like this where this individual is working together with churches to provide video and I imagine video of the sermon and sort of putting it online, those kinds of things. Well, then, yeah, it's really hard to separate whether or not you're spreading something that's true or something that's dangerous for other people. And so we have to be wise and discerning and make the right choice.

Good word. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are open if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Maybe there's a passage of scripture that's always kind of stumped you, something from the Old Testament.

You know, what does that mean? Hey, we're open to taking your calls or maybe there's an area of your Christian life in which you are struggling right now or maybe experiencing some type of persecution for your Christian beliefs at work or at school. We'd love to hear from you as well. Here's our phone number and call us now in the next 20 minutes or so. That's 833-843-2673.

That's 833-THE-CORE. We also want to offer you an excellent resource that we think will help you answer some of the tough questions you may be asked about your Christian faith. Yes, this is a great resource. It's called Tough Questions Answered.

It's not very long. It's a short booklet, a physical booklet that we'll send to you for a donation of any amount, a gift of any amount. And the reason we love this booklet is because it digs into some of the difficult questions that people are asking today about faith, about the Bible. Questions like, doesn't science make religion unnecessary? Or why is Christianity so exclusive? You know, you Christians say that Jesus is the way, the only way.

Well, how is that fair, right? Questions that your neighbors will ask, questions that friends and family will ask, important questions that we need to have the answers to. So get ahold again of this resource, Tough Questions Answered, for a gift of any amount, over at COREChristianity.com. It really is a fantastic resource, and as Adriel said, it covers lots of great topics, science and faith, sexuality, different religions, and more. You can get Tough Questions Answered by going to our website, COREChristianity.com forward slash offers.

Again, COREChristianity.com forward slash offers, and look for Tough Questions Answered. Well, we do receive voicemails here at the CORE. You can call us 24 hours a day. In fact, you can call us over the weekend if you have a question that comes to mind and you think, oh, I want to make sure I ask that. You can call us up, leave your voicemail. We do our best to review those voicemails each day. Here's the number, 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

Here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Bianca. My question is, like, if the wife isn't in the mood to have relations with her husband, is that a bad thing if he wants to, but she doesn't want to? I'm just asking because it's not that I don't love my husband. I just really don't be in the mood. And on top of it, I am pregnant too, so I feel like those hormones are playing a big effect on it. But it's causing a lot of disagreements and arguments and me being accused of wanting or lusting after someone else. And it's not that at all.

So if you could help me with that or give me advice on how I should come about it or how I should respond to it, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Bianca, what a practical question. May the Lord bless you, your marriage and this baby that you have on the way. Congratulations with that. So my mind goes first to what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7.

I want to just read this and then I want to think about it for a moment. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 1, Now concerning the matters about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman. But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.

Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer, but then come together again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. Now this area is an area that many couples have a difficult time with in terms of thinking through, you know, how can we serve each other, how can this be something that's good and a blessing and not a quote unquote chore in our marriage, if you will.

I've heard it talked about in those terms. And I think one thing, and this is what the Apostle Paul is getting at there in 1 Corinthians, sometimes it is going to be the case that we're just serving each other in marriage in this way. We're not always going to have those feelings, that motivation. And that's okay.

That's not a bad thing. That doesn't mean that the intimacy in marriages is in an unhealthy place or anything like that. No, this is a way that we can serve each other. But your husband also needs to serve you, especially in this season.

And in fact, this is what the Apostle Paul said about the way in which we as husbands are to love and care for our wives, laying down our lives for their good, considering their needs as more significant than our own. I mean, this is just a part of what the Christian life ought to look like. And it sounds to me like in this situation, there's a little bit of frustration.

You'd mentioned him accusing you of maybe being interested in other people. So there's some lashing out there. I can sense the frustration. But I would just say you don't need to feel bad or like you're doing something wrong because you feel these ways or there's something wrong with you because you feel these ways. There needs to be grace. There needs to be understanding. And there needs to be a willingness for him and for you as well, that mutual being willing to serve each other.

And right now in this situation with hormones and pregnancy, I think your husband needs to be patient with you and gracious toward you. And especially checking that attitude, that sort of lashing out and accusing you of things. I mean, that's wrong. That's sinful. And so you want to get to a place where the two of you, as Paul was talking about there in 1 Corinthians 7, are lovingly serving each other with understanding and care, especially in this situation where you're pregnant and the baby is coming.

There just needs to be a lot of that. And so may the Lord bless you guys, fill you with grace and understanding. And may the Lord bless your husband as well, giving him that same grace and understanding towards you during this season that he might serve you and care for your needs at this time. And so, Lord bless you, Bianca. Thank you for reaching out.

Bianca, thanks so much. We'd also love to send you a great resource we have on this topic if you will call us back. It's our core guide that's called Seven Things You Need to Know About Marriage and Sex, actually written by Adriel himself. You can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash guides and look for seven things you need to know about marriage and sex. Very helpful to any married couples who are listening or people that are maybe even considering marriage. Well, we have another question, another voicemail question that's somewhat related to this, Adriel.

This one came in from Cornecia. I separated for the purposes of coming against my faith because when we got together, I wasn't really in understanding of what it truly meant to be a Christian. I knew that we were unequally yoked, but I didn't quite understand how significant and impactful that could be towards my calling for God. So the question that I have is, am I supposed to wait for him to divorce me? Two, am I obligated to make sure that we are intimate because we are still married? He has not wanted to get a divorce, but the separation is my own doing.

So please help me with those two questions. Cornecia, this sounds like a complex situation, but if I could summarize, it sounds to me like you're saying that the two of you are separated, that you've initiated the separation, and that in part you've initiated the separation because you feel called by God to be a Christian and there's been tension in your relationship and your marriage because your husband is not a believer. Of course, you knew he wasn't a believer going into this, that you were unequally yoked, but you didn't know how significant of an issue that would be and that now he doesn't want a divorce, but you guys are separated. So there's the question about intimacy. Am I still obligated to be intimate with him even though we're separated?

So a couple of things. I just was in 1 Corinthians 7 already. Later in that text, listen to what the Apostle Paul says in verse 10. To the married I give this charge, not I but the Lord.

The wife should not separate from her husband, but if she does she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. Here, Paul I believe is talking about two believers who are married. And the husband should not divorce his wife. To the rest I say, I not the Lord.

This is verse 12. That if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean. But as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, in other words if the husband abandons the marriage, if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so.

In such cases the brother or sister is not bound or enslaved. God has called you to peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife. In other words, in a situation where a believer is married to a non-believer, Paul says, if the non-believer is willing to be married and wants to be married, we should pursue peace there. We should say, okay, we are married. You are married right now to this individual even though this individual is not a Christian. Paul is saying, how do you know whether or not God might use you to be an influence on your spouse, to lead this person to Christ? And so ordinarily, when people ask me, should I leave this person, they're not a Christian, I just go here and say, well, this is what the apostle Paul said. There are instances where the unbelieving spouse abandons the marriage and in that case there's nothing that you can do. You're not bound there, Paul said.

I think you want to take the words of the apostle there into consideration as you think about your own actions and the choices that you've made here specifically. Now, going to the question of intimacy, as I said, this is complex. Usually when a couple is separated, I would say, no, there's obviously something in the marriage that has created this rift. There isn't that relational intimacy there. There's a problem that needs to be addressed and you're working towards reconciliation and being intimate together, being a married couple, operating in a healthy marriage, but that's going to take some work. So I would say as far as that's concerned, I don't know what the issues are.

I mean, you mentioned that you're a believer, he's not a believer. If that's all it is, then I would think about what is it going to take? What is it going to look like?

What could it look like? He wants to be in the marriage still. What would it be like to reconcile, to pursue this and to seek to honor the Lord in this relationship?

And whatever the issues are that are creating the rift, working through those things. And of course, this is why marriage questions on the broadcast are difficult because I don't know all the details here. I don't know if there are other reasons as to why you pursued a separation. Sometimes in cases of abuse or things like that, I would even encourage separations.

So you need to create distance, you need to get into a safe space, but I don't know what's going on here. And so I think my encouragement to you is read 1 Corinthians 7 prayerfully saying, Lord, guide me, give me wisdom and help me to follow your word to obey you and let the scriptures speak to you there and address you in this particular situation. Thank you, Cornetia, for giving us a call.

God give you wisdom. Thanks for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, you can always email us.

Here's our email address. It's questions at corechristianity.com. That's questions at corechristianity.com.

Let's go back to the phones. Shelly is on the line from Missouri. Shelly, what's your question for Adriel? Hi Adriel, Pastor Adriel. My question is, I love studying the Bible and I'm learning a lot more when I hear the pastor on your station and just my pastor in general. They give the historical background, like for an example, what it means to be a Samaritan woman and when Jesus is at the well with her.

But I don't know, and so with that being said, I would like to find information out on my own. In other words, where do you all go or what do you guys study or read from that is worthy to read from is where my main concern is for that information. Excellent question because we want to know the historical background of the Bible in order to fully grasp what the scriptures are saying to us or at least have some of the coloring there that helps us better understand the text of scripture. I'll give you a couple of books. One, this one's a little bit more outdated, but there's a book called Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus by Joachim Jeremiahs.

That's a good book. Like I said, it's a little bit older, but it's got some helpful information. Speaking of Jesus's day, Jerusalem, the scene there, I think that's a helpful book. Another book that's not as outdated but is also another really helpful book for some of this background information is Backgrounds of Early Christianity by Everett Ferguson. It's actually a book that I had to read through while I was in seminary, but it's really accessible. It's not one of those books that you have to be a scholar or a theologian to be able to read and understand. Again, that's Backgrounds of Early Christianity by Everett Ferguson. I would recommend both of those books. I think if you're going to just pick one, I would say go with Everett Ferguson's book, Backgrounds of Early Christianity. And then if you're talking about other, you know, the Bible is such a big book, we're thinking about the Old Testament as well, well then there are other sort of background books that you could look at. Oftentimes if you get a commentary on a particular book of the Bible, in the introduction of the commentary, whether it's in 1 Kings or Nehemiah or whatever it is, you'll get some good background information. I think that's what a lot of pastors go to.

God bless you. Good counsel. Thanks for that, Adriel. All of us need to understand the context of the Bible, because if we don't, sometimes we are liable to take things out of context and misinterpret them and maybe even give inaccurate information to someone.

So that's the best way to do it is to really understand what we are reading and why the individuals that said those things said them. So great counsel. Let's go back to the phones. Alison is on the line from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Alison, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi Pastor Adriel.

Thank you for all that you do in helping people in the faith answer their questions. I had a question about God's view towards like an unbelieving sinner who isn't repentant. Does he love them or hate them, or does he love and hate them at the same time? Because in Psalm 5-5, he says that God hates those who practice iniquity. So does he hate them while still loving them, or does he just hate them, but I can't believe he would just hate them and not love them.

Yeah, excellent question. Sometimes you hear people say things like, well, love the sinner, hate the sin, and they draw that distinction there, and then you get to a text like Psalm 5-5, The boastful shall not stand before your eyes, you hate all evildoers. Not just evildoing, but evildoers. Now of course we know that the Gospel is the good news of how God so loved the world, the world full of sinners, that he sent his son to die for them. I think of what Paul said in Romans 5, that God demonstrates his love for us while we were yet sinners. In other words, it's not that God loved us because we were good and pure and had repented already or something like that, but it was in the midst of our rebellion, shaking our fists at God, that he sent his son into the world so that we might have life. And so we have to say fundamentally that there is this hope, this Gospel hope that we have that God is for sinners and their salvation, and yet you come across a text like this that makes it clear that God hates sin, and there's this reality that even the sinner is the object of God's judgment and wrath. Now the way some theologians have talked about this, I think of some of the greatest minds that have ever approached Scripture, have been to think about a sense in which God loves and hates the sinner simultaneously. There was a medieval theologian, Thomas Aquinas, who basically said as much, the idea that God loves the sinner insofar as they have existence, they're made in the image of God, called to life and light, but insofar as they've fallen away from that existence due to sin, and they're rebelling against God, there is this enmity, this wrath that looms, hangs over us as sinners apart from Christ, and so I think that's one way that people have tried to distinguish there, but I think we don't want to minimize any text of Scripture. You have passages of Scripture that do talk about God's judgment on sinners, the wrath of God being on sinners. John, in John chapter 3, says as much, that same text where he says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life, and there he's talking specifically about the world of sinners, those who have rejected the truth of the Gospel. In that same context, he also makes it clear that there is the judgment and wrath of God that looms over those who don't trust in the Lord. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And this is the judgment, he goes on to say, that light has come into the world, and people love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it might be clearly seen that his works have been done and carried out in God.

And so I think it's helpful to have some of those distinctions, and may God bless you as you continue to study. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar. Or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.