As we saw in Jesus, God in the flesh, He was a male! But during His ministry we saw Him acknowledging women with kindness and tenderness! Amongst many of His disciples there were women , as we see in the gospels and epistles!
A concept that my friend Linda made me think about early in my walk with Jesus back in the late 70s, was the masculine usage of believers, disciples, saints, kings, and priests in the Scriptures! Linda wanted to know why it seems there is reference to the male gender when the Word talks about the people of God!
Awhile later, the senior pastor did a teaching about this theme! It went something like this: basically the Bible doesn’t honor the male gender over the female gender; it doesn’t demean one over the other! It is only a generic way of referring itself to both men or women, like for example, when it says ‘brothers’ it is implied that it also means ‘sisters’. As an example in 1 John 4:21, it says : “And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” Here, of course, it implies that it can be a man or a woman!
Also where the Scriptures say that as believers we are priests and kings to Our God, it follows from the generic usage that it also includes women; in other words, priestesses and queens in the kingdom! “ And have made us kings and priests to Our God, and we shall reign on the earth’. Revelations 5:10.
Also in the Word usage of ‘saint’, as an example, in a salutation letter written by the apostle Paul, he calls the believers ‘saints!’ In Romans 1:7 it says: “To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: grace to you and peace to you and peace from God Our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”. So here again it is referring saints to both male and female!
We are to be of one mind whether male or female as we see in 1Peter 3:8! Believers throughout all generations have been both male and female, young and old! We are to be kind, tenderhearted, compassionate, courteous for one another!
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