How does God Define a Woman?

Women were designed by God to be unique. Genesis 1:27 says

“So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

God himself created women to express one half of his image in the earth.

This is not about women completing their husbands. A woman is not created by God to complete a man. God the creator intentionally made women to reflect his image in the earth. The image of God in a woman is sacred because God made her.

But What About Gender Issues and God’s Image?

The issue of gender today is everywhere. We are watching a culture fall into such brokenness. Gender dysphoria, issues of gender, and issues of sexuality are real, and they’re painful. As Christians, we need to be able to approach these things in a redemptive way, the same way we have been redeemed: with mercy and kindness.

There are four basic ways God reveals his image in the earth:

1. Through gender: male and female.
2. Through marriage: a man and a woman.
3. Through procreation: having a child.
4. Through free will, which is perhaps the greatest reflection of the image of God: We were given free will, but the enemy of our soul wants to use that free will, not just against God, but against ourselves.

The image of God was created sacredly in men and women. But our culture has inspired men and women to use their own free will to mar the very image of God in them.

Half of the image of God is the physical characteristics that are different. Every physical characteristic that a woman has and that a man has are part of the image of God. A man and a woman together make the image of God.

Why Does It Matter?

God fully empowered his image in women from the beginning. In Genesis 1:26-28, it states,

“Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.’ So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.’”

God created woman in his image, along with man, and he empowered men and women to take dominion over the planet. But because of sin, the dominion that was designed to serve people was flipped to ruling over people and now, to even altering their sexes, the initial design of God.

Nowhere in God’s authority given to men and women, did he ever say, “I give you rule over people.” God gives free will. There’s tremendous power and freedom and tremendous danger.

This dominion that was designed in men and women to serve people has been flipped to now trying to rule over people. God designed us not to be ruled over or to rule over people and not to use our will against him and ourselves to alter his image in us.

When sin came into the earth, it shattered God’s design and God’s empowerment of women. Very often, culture is the instrument of doing this, but the plan was designed in hell to destroy the image of God in man.

The enemy of your soul has caused men and women to hate each other and fight each other, rather than understanding they’re fighting against the very image of God that they were created in.

What Does This Mean for Marriages?

When man fell into sin, God gave three specific words: One to Satan and his kingdom, one to the male, and one to the female. There are consequences to those sins. In Genesis 3:16, it says:

“Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.”

This was what the enemy sowed into man through sin. That is the definition of marriage misery. Every marriage has to fight that battle because the image of God has been marred in our relationship with each other.

The need to control has now superseded the need to serve. Males and females are pitted against each other. It created a destructive dominance that replaced sacrificial and empowering love in service.

What are Culturally-Distorted Definitions of “a Woman”?

The question of, “What is a woman?” has not been answered very well, even historically. There have been historical and religious distortions of the definition of women.

In Ancient Greek and Roman cultures, when a baby boy was born, there was a huge pronouncement and celebration of joy. But if they brought a girl to the father, he didn’t hold the girl. He simply said, “Feed the child lest she die.”

Women, except in rare cases, had absolutely no legal status and no rights. They were forbidden from owning property, receiving a family inheritance, even filing for a divorce. Women were not permitted to be in public except with the escort of a man. Like slaves, women were considered property.

Within Judaism, a woman was a slave to her husband just as a slave is to his master. Jewish boys were taught to pray: “God, I thank you that I was not born a woman. It is better to be born a dog than a woman. “Jewish sages wrote: “Do not teach your daughters the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, because the minds of most women are incapable of concentrating and learning. And because of their intellectual poverty, they turn the words of the Torah into the words of nonsense.”

But What About “Biblical” Submission?

Christianity did the very same thing to women, and it’s actually tyrannical. Men know one Bible scripture that they misquote and misuse: “Woman, you’re supposed to submit to me.” It’s not in the Bible.

Nowhere in the Bible does it tell a man to tell his wife to submit to him. Yet if we think of marriage in a Christian context, many women have been led to have the mindset. Many men say, “You have to submit to me.” But a wife doesn’t have to submit to stupid choices.

God put some safety designs in a woman when he put his image in her. Women are designed by God to innately reject these distortions and abuses. Women have been pushed to extremes through this type of abuse and distortion of the image of God.

Initially and historically, women embraced their femininity, which is not weakness. It is half of the image of God. But women were convinced that to actually embrace their femininity was weakness. It was taken advantage of and then it flipped to where now women have been told by culture to reject their femininity and to desire to be masculine in their design.

Remember this: men and women are very similar. But there are unique differences by design because we were to reflect the image of God together in the earth.

Jesus’ Plan for Women

Jesus provided full restoration to what God designed a woman to be. Miles Monroe makes this statement about women, and I’ve added to it, but he’s just remarkable. He said this:

“Women are multipliers. Anything you give a woman, she will multiply it. She is designed by God to multiply. He said if you give her a house, she will multiply it into a home. If you give her groceries, she’ll give you a meal. If you give her one sperm cell, she’ll give you a child.”

There’s a reason. He also says, “If you give her rejection, she will multiply sorrow back to you.” If you give her sacrificial love, she’ll give you heaven on earth or the other half of the image of God. Give her a fight, and she will give you a war.”

What has God defined women to be? God made women with a variety of all kinds of giftedness. Women are designed by God to be an answer to a world full of problems, not to be diminished. They are not the putty that’s holding up the other half of man that just needed some fixing.

God made women as his image in the earth to solve problems. Problems can be solved as well through a woman as they can through a man.

Don’t confuse the structure of a home with the empowerment of a woman who is the image of God. Proverbs 31:10-14 says. “Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is more precious than rubies.” God says women have immeasurable wealth and worth.

Verses 15 and 16 continue: “She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household and plan the day’s work for her servant girls. She goes to inspect a field and buys it; with her earnings she plants a vineyard.”

She does business. She looks at an opportunity and says, “I think I can buy that and turn a profit.” That’s who God said women are. Feminism didn’t give them this. Feminism in its worst form distorts this because it makes women the enemy of the other half of the image of God. We are never designed to fight his image but to uniquely come together.

Does the Bible say women are weaker than men? Yes, physically. We can look at men and women and see physical differences, but it has nothing to do with the strength of a woman. The scripture said she’s strong to do whatever her purpose is in life.

Verse 18 says, “She makes sure her dealings are profitable.” She works late into the night. Verse 21 says, “She has no fear of winter for her household, for everyone has warm clothes.” She’s not an anxiety-driven, weak person.

But what has the image of this world done to a woman? It’s made her so self-conscious about how she looks that she can be the most wonderful, beautiful woman, and all she can see are her flaws. But in verse 25, she’s “clothed with strength and dignity.”

Women are the second part of the image of God. When God made man, it said that he forcefully made him. But when it said when he made woman out of the rib, he skillfully formed her. Women are the intricacies of the heart of heaven. God wants to help women see how greatly valued they are and know the dignity and the worth that God ascribes to them.

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