The Blind Beggar
By: Josephus Laurentius Dyckmans
Today I will share with you yet another Bible passage indicating that men, not women, are the image of God our Father. It comes from within the following New Testament passage:
Matthew 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
In Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus indicates that our judgement is somewhat dependent on how we have treated men, who act as His surrogates, His stand-ins, His alternates. Even “the least of these”, His brethren, are all still representative of Him. They are living representations, likenesses of Him. Actions done towards these likenesses, or images, of God are accounted as actions done towards God Himself.
So, how do we know That Jesus Christ was only talking about men? Well, by the words God chose to use, of course. Jesus calls His likenesses, “brethren” ἀδελφῶν (adelphōn) in verse 40. Jesus did not say, brothers and sisters. And in verse 45 when Jesus only says, “to one of the least of these” ἑνὶ τούτων τῶν ἐλαχίστων and does not say add “brethren”, every single word of that phrase is in its masculine form. Feel free to double check it for yourself: https://biblehub.com/interlinear/matthew/25.htm
So, the Bible never tells us anywhere that women are made in the image of God, and quite scrupulously avoids doing so, in places where it would have been far easier to just say, all people are in the image of God, if that was the truth.
Now, does that mean that we are free to bedevil women, and are welcome to recreationally use them for our punching bags? No! They are God’s creatures also, and as such, we should not be cruel to them but show appreciation for them maintaining their proper place and love them by doing what is in their eternal best interest. Just because God intentionally chose never to claim that He is also represented by womankind doesn’t mean women are to be treated poorly or that we can’t also be rewarded for showing appropriate kindness towards any of God’s other creatures.
But, be especially good to men, because each man is a likeness of God.
1 Corinthians 11:7 For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man.
Here is an article that describes the standard view of women:
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/manhood-and-womanhood-conflict-and-confusion-after-the-fall
Any interest in walking through it to show the ways he and you talk about equality?
You’re right that the link takes you to the standard Complementarian church view that is currently taught in conservative/evangelical churches. Even though it was from 34 years ago, some of the moral compromises were probably ahead of their time then since John Piper went to Fuller Theological Seminary in California which is generally an Egalitarian seminary. However, it seems to reflect the current state of most conservative churches. The liberal churches are now so morally polluted that at this point that I don’t even consider them to be “Christian” groups, because their version of Jesus is just a woke caricature, quite opposite of the real Jesus.
To properly refute all that John Piper wrote there would require a rehash of all that I’ve published at this site. Which at some point I may try to summarize, but I won’t get that done today. So, I’ll just make a few brief comments:
Piper starts off with assigning the image of God. And that is really where any Christian theology regarding people must begin, because it establishes the basis of reasoning for our overriding views on people. However, that’s where Piper and the Bible part ways. And Piper then begins to lie about what the word of God really says in Genesis 1:27.
“Moses adds the words “male and female” to make sure that no one makes the mistake of thinking that the word “man” in this verse (“he created man in his own image”) refers only to the male human and not to the female human.”
God made “the man” hā·’ā·ḏām הָֽאָדָם֙ (the definitive article, noun – masculine singular) in His own image. In the image of God created He “him” ’ō·ṯōw; אֹת֑וֹ (direct object – masculine singular).
God went to great lengths to say forwards and backwards that the man (singular) was made in God’s image. Before he contrastingly said that “them” male and female were created by God, without adding that they both were created in God’s image. Which I covered in a previous post: https://laf443259520.androsphere.net/2020/11/17/genesis-51-5/
Then Piper goes on to draw all his conclusions about people based solely upon assuming that God’s image is hermaphroditic, equally both male and female:
“Then I said last week that if God created us in His image as male and female, that implies equality of personhood, equality of dignity, mutual respect, harmony, complementarity, and a unified destiny.”
Piper also applies part of the Genesis 3:16 curse on women, onto men:
“Now when we go back to Genesis 3:16, we should probably see the same meaning in the sinful desire of woman. When it says, “Your desire shall be for your husband,” it means that when sin has the upper hand in woman, she will desire to overpower or subdue or exploit man. And when sin has the upper hand in man, he will respond in like manner and with his strength subdue her, or rule over her.”
Did you catch that twist? Piper is saying that if a man rules over his wife or subdues her or uses his God-given greater strength to control her, he is letting sin have the upper hand. Basically, Piper has just taken away all of a man’s right to headship, and any right to control his wife’s behavior, and labelled that all as giving sin the upper hand. Thereby reducing husbands to being observers of, and councilors to, their wives, who should never make her do anything.
Anyhow, Piper and his ilk basically turn marriage into an unworkable union where the wife can act however she wants and the husband, whose authority they have rendered impotent upon pain of damnation for willfully sinning against God, just has to pray about maintaining a positive attitude towards all of her rebellion, while never lifting a finger to stop her.
Satan no longer needs radical Feminists, when he has pastors like Piper to teach men to hearken unto and allow all the whims of defiling women. That weasel would likely screech and argue about my characterization of his words, but at the end of the day, he doesn’t want to empower men to rule over their wives in the image of God and he believes that for a husband to make his wife do anything is likely a sin. Piper believes in full sexual equality, and so he deconstructs God’s holy patriarchy to push for his theoretical state of equality, all stemming from him first counterfeiting the image of our God into a female form, in contradiction to God who always identifies His own sex as only being male.