The Biblical Role of the Pastor's wife - South African Theological ...

everything was very good. Sailhamer (1994:14-15) explains that two purposes
are provided by the author of Genesis for the establishment of humankind.
Firstly, placing humankind in the Garden denotes the purpose of fellowship.
God establishes a relationship with His creation. Secondly, God’s purpose in
creating humankind was for them to worship and obey Him. Our obedience is
an act of worship to our Creator, which results in constant fellowship with Him.
God, in His creation of man and woman, demonstrated care and purpose.
God established a union between male and female in that of husband and
wife. This joining together expresses God’s own personal relationship within
Himself; in essence, His unity. This concludes that the most reflective
expression of the complex unity of God is found in the joining of male and
female as husband and wife (Lazenby, 1987:65).
Lazenby (1987:65) shows that human beings, male and female, are
pictured as created in the image of God, “a mystery as ‘male and female’
correspond structurally to ‘the image of God’”. Lazenby tends to focus
primarily on the incompleteness of either gender without the other, thereby
indicating the unity of the male and female within the sexual relationship of
husband and wife to image God equally. He concludes by saying that “being
in God’s image implies an equality of the sexes that allows each to assume
similar duties and roles in the Church and in society as a whole” (p. 70). Thus,
woman was created to image 10 her Creator, as she shares a union with man.
Finally, Fitzpatrick (2003:21, 36) identifies the female, as well as the
male, as created in God’s image. Each becomes an equal representation of
God. She identifies six key aspects in which men and women image God,
namely, in calling humankind to rule, relate, reproduce, reflect, rejoice and
rest like Him (p. 30). In each of these areas male or female equally represent
God. Fitzpatrick does not claim that they, together, in union, image God.
Individually each male and female will image God, thus differing from the view
10 By actively “imaging” one’s Creator, I am seeking to show that one displays God’s
character and person. Rather then simply bearing God’s image, as one might wear a jacket, it
is a continuing reflection of God’s divine character. Therefore, we may image God in a
specific situation, as we feed the hungry or give a wise counsel to a wayward believer or on a
continual basis as we display unconditional respect to our husband.
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