Using gender roles to define what a man or woman can do, is missing the point of why God created us in the first place. God never intended for women to solely remain at home, take care of the children, the husband, and the home (not that there is anything wrong with it, I have done both), or for the man to only toil the ground. God intended both Adam and Eve to reign TOGETHER over His creation (Gen 1:26-28), labour would be pain free, and there would be no need for toiling the ground as everything would be provided for them by God.
For those that take Genesis 3:16-19 literally, to define male and female gender roles:
If the woman’s role was only intended to be at home, cooking and raising children, without ever speaking in public or having a leadership role, then God would never have called Deborah (Judges 4:4), Isaiah’s wife (Isaiah 8:3), Noahdiah (Nehemiah 6:14), Miriam (Exodus 15:20), Huldah (II Kings 22:14-20), Anna (Luke 2:36-38), Four Daughters of Phillip (Acts 22:9), Junia (Romans 16:7) who was distinguished among the apostles, Priscilla (Romans 16:3)
Euodia & Syntyche (Phillipians 4:2-3), among others.
If the men’s role was only intended to toil the ground, then God would never have called Abel to be a shepherd (Genesis 4:2), Noah to be a builder (Genesis 6:12), David to be king (1 Samuel 16:12), Paul to be an apostle (Romans 1:1).
Assigning spiritual value to the traditions and opinions of cultures and religions that see women as an inferior creation or as a possession and object, or men as superior, and more valuable, is not ok. This was never intended by God, in the beginning or throughout history.
It is also not ok to try to limit women, who are in a different situation or who have received a different calling from God, with our personal opinions based on the traditions of culture and religion that see women as subhuman.
Next time someone tries to limit your calling or the gifts the Holy Spirit has given you, with gender role talk, remind them that you serve a God who is so loving, empowering, and merciful, and who has never been in the business of boxing people in or limiting their calling. On the contrary, He delights Himself in using humanity, including the weak and the powerless, for His purposes.
