Is Christian Hedonism Only for Complementarians?

00:00:00.000 | Welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast. Tim, a podcast listener, writes in to ask this,

00:00:04.720 | "Pastor John, I always thought a complementarian view was the right view. But after seeing

00:00:09.600 | different churches go against this view, I ask, is there a biblical right or wrong view?"

00:00:14.320 | And then he says, "1 Timothy 2, 11-15, 1 Corinthians 14, 34-36, and 1 Corinthians 11, 2-16.

00:00:23.120 | More specifically, is God pleased with both a complementarian view and egalitarian view as long

00:00:28.560 | as we see Christ as our deepest joy and highest treasure? What advice do you have for people who

00:00:33.600 | have trouble answering this? In other words, is Christian hedonism only for complementarians?"

00:00:39.520 | Several things come to my mind to say when I hear that cluster of questions. And the first is

00:00:46.640 | that I'm sure many of our listeners don't know precisely what these two terms,

00:00:55.520 | complementarianism and egalitarianism, refer to. They're probably blurry. If they've heard of them

00:01:00.880 | at all, they've heard different things. So I don't like fuzziness. I don't like ambiguity. I don't

00:01:09.840 | want to talk about something that people don't know what he's talking about. So let's spend some

00:01:15.120 | time with definitions. Here's what I mean by complementarianism and egalitarianism.

00:01:20.400 | Complementarianism is a way of thinking and living that flows from the conviction that God

00:01:28.080 | created human beings as male and female, equal in worth, both in the image of God,

00:01:34.320 | both heirs of the grace of life, both fully capable of direct allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ,

00:01:43.040 | and both fully redeemed from sin in Jesus, both destined for eternal joy and eternal

00:01:49.840 | significance as children of the creator of the universe, and that male and female are designed

00:01:57.840 | by God and appointed in his word for some distinct and complementary roles in life,

00:02:06.720 | owing to the fact that they are male and female. That's where the word complementarian comes from.

00:02:12.560 | God intends for the differences between men and women to find expression in complementary

00:02:20.960 | relationships as taught in scripture. For example, Ephesians 5.22, "Wives, submit to your own

00:02:28.080 | husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of

00:02:34.480 | the church, his body, and is himself its savior." Now, as the church submits to Christ, so wives

00:02:41.280 | should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the

00:02:46.160 | church and gave himself for her. So complementarians read that, and we believe that God has designed

00:02:52.400 | husbands by virtue of being husbands, not wives, to be the head of the marriage and the home,

00:02:59.760 | and that this headship means at least bear the responsibility of a kind of leadership or

00:03:07.200 | initiative and bear a special sense of responsibility for protection and provision.

00:03:13.040 | And wives, with their God-given strength and wisdom, come alongside their husbands and support

00:03:21.040 | that leadership. That's what submission means. And help their husbands carry it through. That's

00:03:26.000 | what help meet in the Genesis context means. Come alongside their husbands and help carry through

00:03:32.000 | their leadership as part of the overall dynamic of the family. So complementarians believe that

00:03:38.000 | this way of relating is not rooted in competencies, their presence or their absence. You've got

00:03:46.880 | competencies or you don't. Irrelevant. But in the God-designed realities of manhood and womanhood.

00:03:56.960 | And complementarians believe that this God-given pattern glorifies Christ and his covenant-keeping

00:04:07.120 | relationship to his church, his bride, and that it leads to the greatest and longest joy.

00:04:13.520 | And complementarians believe that similarly in the church, God has designed for the men to be

00:04:22.240 | the overseers or elders or pastors with the responsibility of teaching and governing

00:04:27.280 | the local body of Christ as Christ led his disciples with servant-hearted initiative

00:04:33.680 | and vision and courage, which means as Christ-like examples to the flock.

00:04:38.720 | One of the main passages there that we look at is 1 Timothy 2, 11 to 14, "Let a woman learn

00:04:45.600 | quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man

00:04:52.160 | rather she is to remain quiet for Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived,

00:04:58.080 | but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor." In other words, the two functions

00:05:04.560 | Paul assigns to elders as distinct from other kinds of leaders in the church,

00:05:08.560 | namely authority and teaching, he appoints to men. Authority governing and authoritative teaching in

00:05:17.920 | the church, and he roots this leadership in the order of creation and in the dynamics of the fall.

00:05:25.920 | Satan sidelined the man and drew the woman into the role of spokesman in the moment of crisis.

00:05:34.720 | He reversed the roles that God had intended. So in summary, complementarians see God's design

00:05:42.320 | for our good in the complementary roles for men and women for leadership and submission in the home

00:05:48.880 | and a similar structure in the church. There's more to say, but that's the summary. Here's my

00:05:55.600 | definition of how I understand egalitarianism. Egalitarians, on the other hand, believe that

00:06:02.960 | in Christ, those kinds of sex-based role distinctions are done away with, and that

00:06:11.120 | the relationship between a husband and a wife should not assume that the husband's manhood

00:06:17.520 | implies any unique leadership role or that a woman's womanhood implies any unique

00:06:26.880 | role of submission. Similarly, in the church, manhood and womanhood should not, male and female,

00:06:34.480 | should not be a decisive part of the criteria by which leadership roles are assigned. And key

00:06:43.520 | passages for them would be Galatians 3.28. There's neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither

00:06:49.600 | slave nor free. There's neither male nor female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. Or Ephesians

00:06:58.640 | 5.21, an emphasis on the mutuality, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ and so on.

00:07:07.680 | So with those two definitions in my mind now, I'm in a position as a complementarian to answer the,

00:07:15.440 | what, I think I saw three questions that were asked. Number one, is there a biblical right

00:07:23.040 | or wrong view? Answer, yes, there is. Of course, things in real life are never quite as tidy

00:07:31.440 | as they are on paper, and many couples and churches probably get some things more or less

00:07:37.760 | right and some things more or less wrong in the application of complementarianism

00:07:41.840 | or egalitarianism. I'm sure my life has not been a perfect example of the biblical pattern,

00:07:49.600 | either at home or at church. But there is a view that is true and right, and it's not good to

00:07:56.720 | relativize this whole thing by saying there's not. Number two, is God pleased with both a

00:08:02.960 | complementarian view and egalitarian view as long as we see Christ as our deepest joy and highest

00:08:10.560 | treasure? No, God is never pleased with a shortfall in one part of his word just because we excel

00:08:20.400 | in another part. This is important for all of us to realize, all of us, because all of us do fall

00:08:28.800 | short in some parts of God's instruction while succeeding at other parts, and those successes

00:08:37.360 | never justify the failures. Let me give just an example from the scriptures of what I mean.

00:08:42.960 | Paul wrote to the Corinthians, and he began in chapter one with lavish praise. He said,

00:08:50.240 | verse four, "I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that's been

00:08:56.480 | given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you are enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge,

00:09:03.520 | even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you." Wow, I would like to be such a

00:09:09.920 | beneficiary of that kind of praise. And in chapter 11, verse 17, he says, "But in the following

00:09:18.240 | instructions I do not commend you because when you come together it is not for the better but for the

00:09:25.440 | worse." So if we're walking out of step with God's word in one area of our lives and in step with

00:09:35.840 | God's word in another area of our lives, we should never content ourselves thinking that God is so

00:09:44.320 | pleased with our obedience that he will also be pleased with our disobedience. Question number

00:09:51.600 | three, last one I think, "Is Christian hedonism only for complementarians?" No. Of course a person

00:10:01.920 | who disagrees with me about complementarianism may agree with me about Christian hedonism.

00:10:10.080 | He won't flesh it out in all the same details of relational dynamics that I do, but the fundamental

00:10:19.440 | truths can be joyfully embraced. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

00:10:29.280 | Therefore, let us always pursue satisfaction in him and take as many people with us as we can,

00:10:36.640 | even if it costs us our lives. That's my summary of Christian hedonism. In fact,

00:10:43.440 | I would say one final thing. Every time any of us embraces any aspect of biblical truth,

00:10:53.520 | it can have a salutary refining effect on the rest of what we believe. That is, it will sooner

00:11:03.360 | or later exert an influence toward truth in every area of our thinking and our living. That's the

00:11:13.280 | nature of the coherence of truth. At least that's the effect I hope it has on me. I hope that every

00:11:23.600 | refined or clarified or new truth that I embrace has the effect of correcting other areas of my

00:11:33.520 | life because of how truth is of a seamless fabric. So I would happily commend Christian hedonism

00:11:41.280 | to everyone, no matter what view of manhood and womanhood they hold.

00:11:46.000 | >>Amen. Thank you, Pastor John. That is balanced and humbling for complementarians

00:11:50.640 | and egalitarians alike. None of us is above repentance. Well, thank you for listening.

00:11:56.640 | For more details about this podcast or to catch up on past episodes we've released or to subscribe

00:12:00.720 | to the audio feed or even send us a question of your own, if you have a question, go to our

00:12:04.240 | online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. Pastor John and I return on Friday to hear from

00:12:11.200 | a listener who wants to know when is the proper time for me to confront the sin patterns in my

00:12:15.680 | unbelieving friends. Wow. I'm your host Tony Rehnke. We'll see you on Friday.

00:12:21.600 | [END]

00:12:22.640 | you

00:12:22.720 | [END]

Is Christian Hedonism Only for Complementarians?

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