Is Male Headship a Lost Cause?
00:00:00.000 | [Intro music]
00:00:04.000 | From a soon-to-be pastor in the UK, "Greetings Pastor John, I'm about to graduate from seminary
00:00:09.200 | and start a job as an associate pastor in four months. I am a complementarian. However,
00:00:15.360 | from observing local churches in my country, it is discouraging as it appears more and more of
00:00:20.000 | them are submitting to egalitarianism simply out of social norms and expectations of church
00:00:25.280 | leadership from a secular point of view. With the legalization of gay marriage rights, this move
00:00:32.000 | seems even more harmless now to a lot of churches in the West. With that in mind, what do you view
00:00:37.440 | the future of male headship in the home and church? Is it now a lost cause, a losing cause,
00:00:44.720 | or do you think it will endure?
00:00:47.520 | Complementarianism will endure. It is not a lost cause. The reason I think it will endure
00:00:59.040 | and is not a lost cause may not be exactly what you think. Let me give you three reasons it will
00:01:05.920 | endure that are not the reason I'm going to give. In other words, I think there are a lot of reasons
00:01:10.720 | why it won't, but these three are the ones you probably thought I would give, so I'm going to
00:01:16.800 | give them and then give the one I really want to give. Reason number one why it will endure. It
00:01:22.800 | will endure because it is true to God's Word. When Paul says in Ephesians 5, 22 to 25, that
00:01:31.040 | wives take their cues in submission from the church's relation to Christ and husbands take
00:01:37.120 | their cues in love from Christ as the head of the church, and then he quotes the Old Testament
00:01:44.640 | foundational text from Genesis 2, 24, "A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast
00:01:49.520 | to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh," and then in verse 32 he gives the explanation.
00:01:54.800 | This mystery is profound, and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
00:01:59.520 | When all of that happens, he's teaching that manhood and womanhood in marriage are a parable
00:02:07.520 | of the covenant love of Christ and the church. This complementarian role of man and woman in
00:02:16.800 | marriage is deep, historical, biblical, beautiful, satisfying, and in harmony with our true nature.
00:02:25.280 | Therefore, it will not go away. It is too profound, too integral with both nature and grace,
00:02:33.040 | both creation and salvation. That's reason number one, that it won't fade away. Number two,
00:02:39.520 | it will endure. Complementarianism will endure because this deep embeddedness
00:02:46.800 | of the meaning of manhood and womanhood in creation and redemption carries over explicitly
00:02:55.120 | into the way God has ordered his never-dying church for her greatest flourishing. 1 Timothy 2,
00:03:03.760 | 12, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over man." That's Paul's
00:03:08.400 | way of ordering the church. This call for the authoritative leaders and teachers of the church
00:03:16.480 | to be spiritual Christ-like men is not random or arbitrary or merely competency-based or cultural
00:03:25.520 | it is rooted in the created nature of manhood and womanhood. Paul argues from creation here in 1
00:03:33.600 | Timothy 2 as well as in Ephesians 5. He does not argue from culture. And this complementarian
00:03:41.440 | vision for the church is seamlessly part of the fabric of complementarianism in the home.
00:03:50.960 | Complementarianism is not a fringe on the fabric of home and church. It is part of the single
00:04:01.120 | fabric that binds the two together. That's number two. Thirdly, the one that I didn't want to give
00:04:09.120 | but am giving, complementarianism will endure because God is good and God is sovereign.
00:04:17.920 | He loves his church and the people that make it up. He cares for us. I love that sentence from
00:04:25.280 | 1 Peter 5, 7. He cares for his church. He cares for us. And he designed complementary relationships
00:04:34.560 | between men and women for our joy. If God stops loving us, then complementarianism will cease.
00:04:46.080 | But as long as God is good and strong and loving, you will see to it that there is a remnant who
00:04:54.640 | embraces his design for men and women. Now those three reasons why complementarianism will endure
00:05:02.000 | and is not a lost cause are not the main reason I want to focus on here. The reason I want to focus
00:05:11.040 | on here is that when we look at the future long term, we know there are terrible times coming for
00:05:20.640 | Christians. There always have been terrible times for Christians somewhere in the world,
00:05:26.240 | but there's good reason to think from the Bible that near the end there will be unusually terrible
00:05:35.120 | opposition. What will become of complementarianism in the hardest of times when it is most difficult
00:05:45.120 | to be a Christian, let alone be a complementarian? And here's a description of the sort of thing
00:05:51.200 | I think we can expect. This is Matthew 24, 9 to 13. "They will deliver you up to tribulation
00:05:57.680 | and put you to death. You will be hated by all nations for my name's sake, and then
00:06:05.520 | many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another, and many false prophets will
00:06:12.960 | arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness is increased, the love of many will grow cold.
00:06:22.640 | But," this is verse 13 of Matthew 24, "but the one who endures to the end will be saved."
00:06:29.680 | Now here's what's remarkable about those words. The love of many will grow cold.
00:06:36.240 | Many will fall away. Some will be put to death. But in all that opposition, all that falling away,
00:06:45.680 | all that coldness of heart, some will endure to the end and be saved. And who are they?
00:06:53.520 | Well, they are not the ones who grew cold. They're the ones who did not grow cold.
00:07:02.560 | Christians with cold hearts don't make martyrs. Those who endure to the end remain red hot with
00:07:11.040 | trust and love for God. That's why they're willing to die rather than compromise. That is why they
00:07:17.440 | would suffer rather than stop believing. We read about them in Revelation 12, 11,
00:07:24.720 | "And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony,
00:07:32.160 | for they love not their lives even unto death." Which implies that these amazing Christians
00:07:40.000 | who are willing to give their lives rather than compromise their faith will be the kind of
00:07:46.480 | Christians who do not surrender the truth of complementarianism under cultural pressure.
00:07:53.280 | I'm not saying that only complementarians have the courage to be martyrs. Let's get that
00:08:01.920 | distortion out of the way. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that those martyrs are the kind of
00:08:09.200 | people who are not blown around like leaves in the wind of changing culture. And therefore,
00:08:17.200 | those in that number who see complementarianism as biblical and beautiful and true will be the
00:08:26.240 | kind of people who hold fast that truth to the death. So the reason, among all the other reasons
00:08:33.760 | that I mentioned and could mention, that I believe complementarianism will endure,
00:08:38.720 | is not a passing fancy, is not going to go away, is that no matter how great opposition to
00:08:47.520 | Christianity becomes, there will always be a remnant of complementarians willing to die for
00:08:52.880 | the truth, and they will be the kind of people who will give their lives rather than conform
00:08:57.920 | to a non-biblical culture. Yeah, sobering. Thank you, Pastor John.
00:09:02.400 | We have a lot of resources online about complementarity and male headship in marriage
00:09:07.840 | and in the church, and you can find those 24/7 online at DesiringGod.org.
00:09:12.080 | And we appreciate you listening to the podcast. As always, you can find our audio feeds, you can
00:09:17.840 | browse and search all of our past episodes, and you can send us questions of your own
00:09:21.920 | all online at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. Well, Proverbs 31 seems to tell us that we should give
00:09:32.000 | alcohol to those who are bitter. So does the Bible commend alcohol to help medicate the depressed?
00:09:39.040 | That's the next question on the docket for Friday.
00:09:43.200 | I'm your host Tony Reinke, and we will see you then.
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