I was listening to a sermon series from Brook Hills church, David Platt's church. The series started in Genesis talking about Biblical manhood and womanhood. What really stuck out to me over the course of the series was how God created Man(mankind) in His image. That sounds old, but I had never before thought of the nature of God and how we were formed in His image in terms of the doctrine of the Trinity.
If we think about the nature of God, three in one, Father, Spirit, and Son; we dont get a picture of that nature in man when we consider individuals. Man, is not three personages encapsulated in one person. Man did not have community within himself as God does. When we look to the account found in Genesis 2, God creates woman so that man will not be alone, providing man with community. Now when you consider a child and add that to the mix, we see a mirror image in man's community of the community God has with Himself. This is how God makes man in His image.
Something that I've always took for granted is the truth of God's Word telling us that all creation proclaims the glory of God. I'm a created thing. Most Christians are so wrapped up in themselves and how God made man in His image that we forget we are still part of His creation. Moreover, that everything about us brings glory to Him. The way we were created reveals the nature and character of God. We are God's analogy to describe Himself. Too often we get it wrong and try to fit God in a box to describe how we think we are. Anyway that's a tangent...
Back on track...If we take our understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity and transpose that into human relations we then come to a proper understanding of gender roles and family dynamics.
The Father's leadership is always purposeful, its not domineering. A man that exerts control for the sake of control or proving dominance does not honor God, nor does it conform to the model seen in scripture. The Father's leadership is also always beneficial for all parts of the God head. Each thing the Father does is for the purpose of glorifying Himself. In the same way, a father's purposeful initiative should always lead to benefit for the whole family.
So in the same way, whenever a mother or child responds to the purposeful initiative of the father, it should be with an attitude of unity. This unity comes from the trust and understanding that the father's initiative and desires are for the benefit of the entire family.
However, since the fall, and seemingly more apparent in recent times, fathers/men have violated this trust. They do not lead in a manner that benefits anyone but themselves, or in many cases they don't lead at all. They take no initiative and crave the incentives of leadership without taking on the responsibility demanded of this position of authority. They do not honor God nor do they reflect the nature of God as they were intended.
Likewise, whenever a mother or child acts in a way that subverts the authority of the father, sowing seeds of discord among the fellowship of the family they too do not honor God nor do they reflect the nature of God in their actions.
After the fall, this type of flawed and failed behavior went from atypical to the norm of how things went in the world. So when a family truly models this type of family dynamics based on the doctrine of the Trinity, it is truly amazing. It serves the purpose of primarily bring glory and attention to God Himself. Secondarily, it brings harmony and benefit to the family by providing the appropriate context for relationships and community within the family. This also serves to bring the family credit within the community at large and provides them with an outlet to proclaim and make known the Glory of God .
If we think about the nature of God, three in one, Father, Spirit, and Son; we dont get a picture of that nature in man when we consider individuals. Man, is not three personages encapsulated in one person. Man did not have community within himself as God does. When we look to the account found in Genesis 2, God creates woman so that man will not be alone, providing man with community. Now when you consider a child and add that to the mix, we see a mirror image in man's community of the community God has with Himself. This is how God makes man in His image.
Something that I've always took for granted is the truth of God's Word telling us that all creation proclaims the glory of God. I'm a created thing. Most Christians are so wrapped up in themselves and how God made man in His image that we forget we are still part of His creation. Moreover, that everything about us brings glory to Him. The way we were created reveals the nature and character of God. We are God's analogy to describe Himself. Too often we get it wrong and try to fit God in a box to describe how we think we are. Anyway that's a tangent...
Back on track...If we take our understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity and transpose that into human relations we then come to a proper understanding of gender roles and family dynamics.
Equal in Substance
In essence, all parts of God are equally God. No part is lesser or diminished than another. Each is person of the Trinity retains all aspects attributed to God: All Powerful, Omnicient, Omnipresent, Eternal. When we take this understanding and overlay it on the family: Father, Mother, and Child, we see that the same is true. In our essence we are equal. No sane person would argue that a child is less human than its mother or father. Each part of the family, the first and most basic unit of community, is equal in substance.Functionality in the Trinity
Now the second aspect of the Trinity we consider is the functionality of the Trinity. God the Father exercises authority over everything. The Holy Spirit and the Son act according to the Father's will. There is unity of purpose between each part of the Trinity. The key thing to pick up on in scriptures where we see the doctrine of the Trinity is that the Father is always the initiator. The other parts of the Godhead act in response to the initiative to the Father. Moreover, when they do act it never subverts or contradicts what the Father is doing. Family is God's Analogy
The family is meant to model the relationship we see between each personage of the Trinity. The father is supposed to take initiative. He leads by example setting the tone for what the rest of the family does. I said take initiative, not control or chare, but initiative. This is an important distinction to make when we overlay the Trinity over family dynamics, because when the family functions the way it was intended to, the leadership a father exerts over his family will model what is seen in scripture. The Father's leadership is always purposeful, its not domineering. A man that exerts control for the sake of control or proving dominance does not honor God, nor does it conform to the model seen in scripture. The Father's leadership is also always beneficial for all parts of the God head. Each thing the Father does is for the purpose of glorifying Himself. In the same way, a father's purposeful initiative should always lead to benefit for the whole family.
So in the same way, whenever a mother or child responds to the purposeful initiative of the father, it should be with an attitude of unity. This unity comes from the trust and understanding that the father's initiative and desires are for the benefit of the entire family.
However, since the fall, and seemingly more apparent in recent times, fathers/men have violated this trust. They do not lead in a manner that benefits anyone but themselves, or in many cases they don't lead at all. They take no initiative and crave the incentives of leadership without taking on the responsibility demanded of this position of authority. They do not honor God nor do they reflect the nature of God as they were intended.
Likewise, whenever a mother or child acts in a way that subverts the authority of the father, sowing seeds of discord among the fellowship of the family they too do not honor God nor do they reflect the nature of God in their actions.
After the fall, this type of flawed and failed behavior went from atypical to the norm of how things went in the world. So when a family truly models this type of family dynamics based on the doctrine of the Trinity, it is truly amazing. It serves the purpose of primarily bring glory and attention to God Himself. Secondarily, it brings harmony and benefit to the family by providing the appropriate context for relationships and community within the family. This also serves to bring the family credit within the community at large and provides them with an outlet to proclaim and make known the Glory of God .