EQUALITY
Roles do not, in themselves, have anything to do with a person’s comparative worth or importance in God’s eyes. We should understand this by now. Genesis 1 shows the basic equality of male and female. Both were spoken of in exactly the same way as God’s special creation designed to reproduce and to rule over the earth. Genesis 2 and 3 shows that Adam and Eve have different places (roles or functions) in the working arrangement. As the Old and New Testaments unfold, it becomes increasingly clear that Adam and Eve’s roles extend to men and women generally. At the same time, the principle of spiritual equality also becomes clearer, especially in Christ. In our restored relationship with God, He does not view us differently based on our different places here on earth. All baptized believers are covered over with Christ, making them one and the same before God (Galatians 3:27-28). Our basic equality in God’s eyes is a matter of both the original creation and the new creation in Christ.
Just as creation-equality does not remove the assigned roles of Adam and Eve, so the new creation does not remove the roles God gives His people today. The New Testament has many examples of specialized instructions for different parts of the body of Christ. Does this mean God is treating His children unfairly on the basis of their earthly conditions? No. Differences in role are not differences in value or equality. God sees the real value of the person, wherever he or she serves.
GREATNESS
In many earthly situations, it is the one who must serve and follow who is closer to God. Of course, that is not how the world sees it. “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 4:4). In their blind quest for power, position and prestige, worldly people think of servants as inferior. God’s choices make no sense to worldly minds.
God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are (1 Corinthians 1:27-28).
God exalts the humble person (Matthew 5:3; 18:4; 23:12; James 4:6, 10). Hence the person who “humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4). The submissive wife with a “gentle and quiet spirit… is very precious” in God’s sight (1 Peter 3:4). The slave who works well for his earthly master will receive the heavenly inheritance as his reward (Colossians 3:22-24). The one who becomes a “slave to all” is first in the Kingdom (Mark 10:44). That position—“slave to all”—is open to any Christian whether serving as a president or a prisoner, whether a professor or a pauper, whether powerful or powerless. Of the church’s most famous leaders, Paul says, “What they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality” (Galatians 2:6). God and His spiritual people are not impressed by earthly status. Whom does God especially honor? Those who become servants, because “Servant” is the role God assigned to His Son while on earth (Isaiah 53:11; Luke 22:27; Philippians 2:7). Again, we are faced with choices. Do we choose human lenses for looking at roles? Or do we choose God’s view? Are we willing to accept God’s choice about greatness?