Does God have gender? Why was Jesus male?

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I don’t think so, because then you would be rejecting the way how God asked us to address him in scriptures. You can definitely think of him in ways where he is like a mother (e.g. Gives life, nurturing etc), but calling him Mother is a different thing. It goes against what he asks us to do.
 
I mean that way of thinking would be more valid if you’re saying Christianity isn’t true and it was written by a bunch of people in a certain culture. Not necessarily the way Christians themselves would explain it.
 
Yes, in part. He talks in the prophets about Israel growing up as a child before Him, and then when she was grown espousing her to Himself forever. There is beautiful poetic language in Hosea of God’s faithfulness to Israel despite her unfaithfulness.

Jesus gives us salvation and we all receive it.

He guides, protects, shepherds, disciplines, and provides for Israel and then the Church.

Jesus was the Prophet, Priest, and King. He is the Head of the Church, so he must be male to fulfill all of those roles. Only men could be kings and priests.

Men have the God-given task of being the spiritual heads of their families, just like priests and bishops are the spiritual shepherds of their flocks. Jesus was male as the first Priest and as the role-model for all future priests.

We do not call God “Mother.” He loves us more than our earthly mothers and cares tenderly for us, but He is our Father. He gave us Mary for a Mother, and she is also a type of our Holy Mother Church, who cares for us and guides to Heaven.
 
We are created in God’s image. Male and Female reflect different, complementary attributes of God.

Jesus is was born male, because those are the attributes God needed Jesus to have to perform his mission on earth.
 
we cannot ascribe our definitions , our prejudices, our biases to God.

Jesus in His humanity is Male. God has no gender. God is not a creature. God is the creator
 
God is fully spirit but Jesus told us to pray to “our Father”.
 
Yup. The way God presents Himself in the Incarnation, and the way God reveals Himself to the prophets, were supposed to be part of what we understand about God. So although we know that God is a pure spirit with no sex, we should be primarily meditating on how He presents Himself to us, as Lord and Father and Son and Bridegroom, and so on.

Every so often, as a corrective, we can think of Jesus as a mother hen trying to gather chicks under her wings, or think about Communion as being like mother’s milk. Saints did it, and it’s fine in moderation.

But in our society, where masculinity is often mocked and devalued, or where men try too hard to be manly as a rebellion against the mockery, it’s probably more edgy to meditate on Jesus as true Man and new Adam, and on God’s masculine qualities and titles.
 
"Ascribing human characteristics to God is idolatry."

I do not know if it is idolatry, I’m not sure what all idolatry entails, but if a missionary presented God to a group of possible converts by studying the extensive list of Church approved attributes assigned to Him, in which He becomes a completely alien, unknowable, distant, non-communicable being who would never be accepted by the future believers. So they make up a lot of human characteristics to present to the nonbelievers. My grandmother is a good example of a very religious believer who does so only because to her, God is just a super human with magic powers and with the characteristics of a kind, loving grandfather who watches over us 24/7. She thinks He is as was explained in Sunday School by some well meaning wanna be theologian when she was a kid. I find it sad that the great majority of Christians I know also think of God in these pathetic human terms.
 
clarkgamble1 said:
I do not know if it is idolatry, I’m not sure what all idolatry entails,
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Images don’t have to be physical, they can be of the mind and creating an image to worship is idolatry.

Being a member of a non-proselytising religion, the problem faced by missionaries is academic 😉

The Jewish consensus about Christianity is that what would be idolatry for Jews isn’t for Christians, perhaps it’s the same sort of thing with you and your grandmother! 🙂
 
‘So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.’
Gen 1:27
So there is a feminine aspect to God, otherwise he would not have created both male and female humans in his image as God stated above.
 
Jesus directed us to call God “our Father,” and He called God “Father” also.

Is that a fairy tale or a baby game? Is Jesus idolatrous?

It’s okay to say that God is a pure spirit with no sex, and to say that both human masculine and feminine good characteristics derive from Him (as do all good things). Those things are true.

But that doesn’t change the fact that God revealed Himself under mostly masculine names and images, and that He chose to become incarnate as a man. Not insulting to women, not strange to say it – it’s just true. And the more people refuse to acknowledge that, the more wisdom they miss getting.
 
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anhphan said:
I wonder why we call God Father, not Mother.
Did Jesus decide to be male? Or He is male? Thank you very much.
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First, I think you are missing the distinction that Christians make between the Father and the Son. While both are the one true being of God, scripture makes a distinction between the persons of the Father and the Son. Why do we refer to God as Father? Because He refers to Himself in this way. Whether that is an anthropomorphism in the case of the Father, I won’t speculate. We just use the terminology provided to us through His revelation. Now, whether Jesus was male, he most certainly was. Jesus, the Word, through the incarnation took on human flesh into the Godhead. Though he was fully God, through the incarnation he also became fully man. Since people by definition have a physical gender, it would be accurate to say that God the Son was male.
 
As others have said, God has no gender nor need of gender, He creates in other ways. We need gender for procreation, God does not.

The idea of God having gender must stem from the use of the word Him for convenience and perhaps to ascribe the ancient traditions of patriarchy and submission to such. A name avoids confusion but since God is the ultimate and unique Supreme Being and Creator there can be no confusion.

Exodus 3:14 “ God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the sons of Israel, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’”
 
The idea of God having gender must stem from the use of the word Him for convenience and perhaps to ascribe the ancient traditions of patriarchy and submission to such.
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Female earth deities were common throughout the world. In nature, life is incubated and nurtured directly from the woman. It would not have been so difficult for God to define himself as a she.

Because the Hebrews were monotheists, there was only one God and that God was defined as a He. It demonstrates that God surpasses and transcends nature; he generates life from nothing and without anybody else’s help. He has no cohort and needs no cohort.
 
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The word is sex, not gender. God does have a grammatical gender i most languages. He does not have a sex.
 
anhphan said:
I wonder why we call God Father, not Mother.
Did Jesus decide to be male? Or He is male? Thank you very much.
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The Divine Nature has no gender. God chose to reveal himself using masculine pronouns, but he has no divine gender himself. Jesus is male, though, insofar as his human nature is male. His divine nature is not male or female.
 
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