IMPACT!
26 JULY 2020
ENJOY WORSHIPING OUR MIGHTY GOD!
Last week the Cyril Ramaphosa spoke about a “war against women and children” in his address to the country. According to some statistics: 1 in 3 women will be sexually attacked, 2 in 5 women are beaten by their partners, and 50% are sexually harassed in the workplace.
How do we think we as Christians should respond to this national crisis?
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The bible sets a very clear standard for how women should be treated. What do you think the following verses says about how men should treat women? And how can these verses help us today?
Galatians 3:28
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
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2 Corinthians 6:18
“I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
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The bible is very clear, everyone is equal and should be treated equally. Men are not above or more important than women. Also, we are all sons and daughters of God, part of his family. Women abuse is therefore abuse against one of God’s daughters. One of the passages in the bible often used to try and show women should be below men is found in Ephesians 5:21-33.
Ephesians 5:21-33
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing
[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
How does this passage make you feel?[b] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
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Now consider that the Apostle Paul spends only 3 verses explaining how wives should treat their husbands, and yet triple that amount (9 verses) on how husbands should treat their wives. Why do you think Paul felt the need to give more instruction to men than women?
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Paul writes that men should “love your wives, just as Christ loved the church”. Read these verses about how Christ loved his church and think about what this teaches us about how men should treat women.
John 13:14-15: Jesus washes his disciple’s feet.
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Matthew 20:27-28: Jesus came to serve.
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Matthew 8:1-4: Jesus healed the sick.
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Jesus came to serve, love, and heal those around us. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could all follow in his footsteps? Women abuse is a major issue that has to be addressed, but in a way that leads people to God not further away from God. What can you, whether you are male or female, do as a Christian to help overcome this issue of women abuse in our country?
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