Male and Female Spiritually

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Hi H____,

Thank you for your question.

One of the least understood verses in all of God’s word is this one:

1Co 2:9  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

“We speak in the words which the holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual with spiritual.” What that means is that every word of God’s word has a spiritual meaning behind its primary outward meaning, which may have nothing at all in common with the outward primary meaning of the word. I am constantly in awe of how God manages to keep the masses of Christianity from seeing what is right there before their eyes. He does this by “comparing spiritual with spiritual.” So many of the prophecies of Christ which are cited in the New Testament demonstrate how the holy spirit uses God’s Words in a way which the natural, carnal world is incapable of understanding. The more theological degrees one is granted, the more blind is that person, unless, like the apostle Paul, he is brought to see that all of his earthly training in the church is the spiritual equivalent of “dung.”

A spiritual female has no physical sex at all. Look at what Christ tells us:

Mat 22:23  The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,
Mat 22:24  Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
Mat 22:25  Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:
Mat 22:26  Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.
Mat 22:27  And last of all the woman died also.
Mat 22:28  Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
Mat 22:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
Mat 22:30  For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
Mat 22:31  But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
Mat 22:32  I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Here we have a group who doesn’t even believe there will be a resurrection asking our Lord about the resurrection. The question is presented in a way which, to these Sadducees, makes the mere possibility of a resurrection seem ridiculous.

What a sad commentary on the state of Israel that the party of the chief priest, the Sadducees, did not even believe in the resurrection of the dead.

In posing their question to Christ, these religious leaders, just like today’s religious leaders, could not understand why, if the invisible things of God are understood by the things that are made, then why can’t we compare spiritual things with physical things and come to a proper understanding of spiritual matters?

Here are two key verses involved in this discussion:

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

… and this verse:

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

“The natural man” being discussed in this verse is not an atheist. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were both a very religious lot. Yet this is exactly what Paul is talking about here in 1Co 2, “the natural [ religious] man.”

“The natural man” being discussed here is what Paul calls a “carnal… babe in Christ” who simply “cannot receive the things of the spirit.” To “the natural man… carnal… babes in Christ… the things of the spirit are foolishness.” That was why the Sadducees were asking this question in the first place. They could not see what the spiritual meaning of the word ‘wife’ was to begin with. To these carnal religious men, the word ‘wife’ meant nothing more than a commodity which a man could buy or sell at will. The sanctity of marriage had been lost in Israel “as they were coming out of Egypt.” In other words, Israel as a nation was never faithful to their husband:

Hos 11:2  As they [ Christ through Moses and Aaron] called them [ Israel], so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

A spiritual ‘bride’ is completely submissive to and subject to her spiritual husband. But Christ, having been resurrected, according to His own words is neither male nor female, but is as the angels which neither [ physically] marry nor are given in marriage.”

And yet we are told that Christ has an espoused bride:

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

If, as the Sadducees we understand Rom 1:20 to be saying, ‘The spiritual Truths of God are clearly seen by comparing physical things with spiritual things’ then spiritual things are indeed foolishness to us, because angels “neither marry nor are given in marriage,” and Romans one contradicts 1Co 2. But 1Co 2 does not contradict Romans one. God’s Word is only understood by its sum:

Psa 119:160 The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.

It is the spirit of the Pharisees and Sadducees which pits one verse of God’s word against another verse of God’s Word. The spiritual mind seeks the sum of God’s word and always finds that each verse helps to explain the other verse and the scriptures never contradict themselves.

Joh 10:35  If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;

With all of this in mind it becomes obvious that what Rom 1:20 is telling us is that “the things that are made” are types and shadows of the invisible things of God. What Rom 1:20 is telling us in relation to your question, is that marriage and the word ‘bride’ spiritually have nothing at all to do with physical marriage or the physical sexes. What we are being told when we are told that Christ has a ‘bride’ is this:

Eph 5:22  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives [ be] to their own husbands in every thing.
Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Eph 5:28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Eph 5:29  For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 5:31  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

Here we have Paul giving what appears to be a lot of good marital advice to the members of the church of Ephesus. And yet what are we told in the very next verse is his real point in all of this:

 Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church .

You ask:

Since the entire church is Christ’s bride, it would be far more accurate, spiritually and Biblically to ask, ‘Isn’t being female who we actually are spiritually?’

Eph 5:22  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

“The things which are seen” ought to typify spiritual realities. “The things which are seen are never actual spiritual realities any more than the word ‘lamb’ ever really means a lamb in scripture. Christ alone is the lamb of God. And it is those who are “in Him” who are God’s figurative lambs and sheep.

Don’t let anyone mislead you into thinking that because “in the resurrection we are neither male nor female… and in Christ there is neither male nor female”), that therefore in the spirit world there is neither headship nor submission.

Gal 3:28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

“One in Christ” means “one mind, one spirit and one body.” It never means that we are all the head of that body. It certainly never means that because we are all one in Christ that therefore there is no need for us to submit to Christ in all things. There is but one ‘head’, and that head of the ‘body’ is Christ to whom the entire church is to “submit.”

The teaching that because we are all one in Christ, women can now teach and preach is as far from the truth as one can get. “The invisible things are understood by the things that are made.” Not by comparing spiritual to physical, but by comparing spiritual types and shadows with spiritual realities. Like the fact that when the aions come to their consummation Christ is still “subject unto the Father.”

1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him [ Christ], then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Paul goes to great lengths to clarify himself on this subject:

1Co 14:34 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.
1Co 14:35  And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
1Co 14:36  What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?
1Co 14:37 If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord .

For an in-depth, scriptural  treatment of this subject, read The Head of Christ Is God on iswasandwillbe. com

I hope this helps to answer your question:

Mike

Other related posts