with equal dignity, knowing that men and women have equal value.
Nowhere does the Bible say that men are more in God’s image than
women.^4 Men and women share equally in the tremendous privilege
of being in the image of God.
The Bible thus from the very beginning corrects the errors of
male dominance and male superiority that have come as the result
of sin and that have been seen in nearly all cultures in the history of
the world. Wherever men are thought to be better than women,
wherever husbands act as selfish dictators, wherever wives are for-
bidden to have their own jobs outside the home or to vote or to own
property or to be educated, wherever there is abuse or violence
against women, or rape or female infanticide or polygamy or harems,
and wherever women are treated as inferior, the biblical truth of
equality in the image of God is being denied. To all societies and cul-
tures where such things occur, we must proclaim that the very first
page of God’s Word bears a fundamental and irrefutable witness
against these evils.^5
Yet we can say even more. If men and women are equally in the
image of God, then they are equally important to God and equally
valuable to Him. This truth should exclude all feelings of pride or
inferiority, that one sex is better or worse than the other. In contrast
to the views of many non-Christian cultures and religions, no one
should feel proud or superior because he is a man, and no one should
feel disappointed or inferior because she is a woman. That God thinks
men and women to be equal in value settles forever the question of
personal worth, for God’s evaluation is the true standard of personal
value for all eternity.
Further evidence of our equality in the image of God is seen in
the New Testament church, where the Holy Spirit is given in new
fullness to both men and women (Acts 2:17-18), where both men
and women are baptized into the body of Christ (Acts 2:41),^6 and
where both men and women receive spiritual gifts for use in the life
of the church (1 Cor. 12:7, 11; 1 Pet. 4:10). The apostle Paul reminds
us that we are not to be divided into factions that think of themselves
as superior and inferior (such as Jew and Greek, or slave and free, or
30 BUILDINGSTRONGFAMILIES