However, neither [is] woman without man, nor man without woman, in [the] Lord.
Paul has just been teaching the order set at creation: the man as head, and the woman formed from the man and for him. Then he turns with one word — "Nevertheless." The verse asks us to hold two things together: a real difference of place, and a real need of one another.
The word marks a deliberate turn in the argument. He has pressed the difference of position. Now he sets beside it something both share.
He keeps the difference of place, but he also states that both have the same standing in the Lord. The woman was formed from the man and for the man. Yet the true Man had to be the woman's offspring. And the human race goes on in the earth only because the woman conceives and bears. Each is necessary to the other, and all of God, who frames the creature at His will, and for His praise.
Notice where the statement stands. It comes after the argument about the man's place, from the same writer who made it.
Nothing can be stronger than this. The apostle had been proving the official superiority of the man over the woman. Then he states that, even so, one was not without the other in the Lord.
This need of each other is not just a fact of nature. It is taken up "in the Lord", and that runs against the way the world is going.
Still, this question of authority and subjection in the creation order in no way weakens the truth that the man and the woman depend on each other. But that mutual dependence is to be taken up in the Lord. In the world men and women are throwing off their allegiance to God, so they want to be more and more independent of one another. In Christianity we are brought back to depending on the Lord, and so on one another, and to owning that all things are of God. How can we be independent of the One from Whom we have our origin?
The first woman came from the man. Ever since, every man has come through a woman. Neither side can look down on the other.
Yet she is not to be treated as inferior to the man, unfit to be his companion, unsuited to be his helper. For as the woman is of the man, so the man is by the woman. She was taken out of the man at the first, and ever since the man has owed his existence on earth to her. If both would weigh these plain statements of the Word, they would learn their true place towards each other. It would free the woman from the misdirected energy we see around us, and lead her to fill the place God intended for her.
The beauty of it shows when each keeps the place God gave.
There is a unity in God's creation, and it looks most beautiful when both man and woman keep their place and work as each is fitted to work. God gives each a dignity of their own, and each should act in the dignity that fits the place God has given.
Equal standing in Christ and God's order on earth are not rivals. One does not cancel the other.
There is an equality they share, of the most perfect and highest kind. It can never be touched, never set aside, and it should be owned as fully as possible. On the other hand, that does not set aside God's order for the earth. In the place God has given to man and to woman here, the head of the woman is the man. The higher truth is shown in the lower one. There are not two heads in creation, but one. Two heads would mean division. God's thought is unity… The man and the woman together form man in the full sense of humanity, and so the woman is needed to make the man what he is.
You can see this where believers meet.
First, we see men and women seated together. This speaks of their equal and shared interest in Christ, where there is neither male nor female. As we read here, "in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman." As persons, they have the same standing in the church of God.
- Nevertheless. The word comes after the argument for order, not before it. The same apostle who taught the difference of place denies that either sex stands alone.
- Place. The difference of place stands. What Paul denies is independence. Equal standing and different function belong together.
- Origin. The woman came from the man. Ever since, the man has come through the woman. The debt runs both ways, so neither can claim to be superior.
- Sphere. "In the Lord" is where this dependence is taken up. The world throws off allegiance to God, and then wants independence from one another. Christianity brings back both.
- Result. God gives each a dignity in the place He gave. It shows best when both fill that place, and both hold the same standing in the church of God.
For as the woman [is] of the man, so also [is] the man by the woman, but all things of God.
Paul has just said that neither man nor woman stands alone in the Lord; now he gives the reason. The woman came from the man at the start, and ever since then every man has come through a woman — and both facts run back to one source, God Himself.
The verse does not cancel the order set out earlier in the chapter. Authority and subjection still leave the two needing each other, and that need belongs in the Lord.
This question of authority and subjection in the creation order does not in any way weaken the truth that the man and the woman depend on each other. But that mutual dependence is to be taken up in the Lord. In the world men and women are throwing off their allegiance to God. So they seek more and more to be independent of one another. In Christianity we come back to depend on the Lord, and so on one another. We come to recognise that all things are of God. How can we be independent of the One from whom we have our origin?
Verse 8 said the woman came from the man. Verse 12 adds the other half, and it draws that half from ordinary birth.
Verse 12 both explains and develops this. God is the originator of all. Here it is not only the woman from the man as in verse 8, but also that every man (child) comes through the woman.
This two-way need rules out one false picture of authority. It also explains the closing words about all things being from God.
Verses 11 and 12 show, however, that the man and the woman are the complement of one another. The man is not a dictator and the woman is not a slave. Each is necessary in his or her place for the human race to continue. "And all things are from God." His wisdom and work is supreme in every aspect of creation.
Order and equal standing are not rivals here. Paul holds both, and the line that runs from the woman reaches all the way to Christ.
He keeps the difference of place, and he also states that both share one standing in the Lord. If the woman came from the man and for the man at the start, the true Man must also be the woman's seed. Also, mankind continues on the earth by the natural conception of the woman. Each is necessary to the other, and all of God, who frames the creature at His will, and for His praise.
That shared standing is visible whenever believers gather.
First, we see men and women seated together. This tells of their equal and common interest in Christ, where there is neither male nor female, as we read here, "For neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord"; for, personally considered, they have the same standing in the church of God.
The phrase "born of woman" carries more than biology. The woman was deceived first, yet the Saviour came into the world through her.
The heir, or governor, is also spoken of as born of the woman — that is, once man had fallen; so great is the grace in God's purpose. Made out of the man where evil was worked out, He was born out of the woman: marvellous grace. "Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman." Yet the man was created first, not the woman, and "the woman was deceived and became a transgressor." But as the woman is for the man, so the man is by the woman. Note this well: as we have said, it is marvellous grace.
The verse ends in beauty, not competition. Each has a dignity the other does not have, and it goes with the place God gave.
God's creation has a unity, and it is most beautiful when both man and woman keep the place and function each is fitted for. For though the woman came from man to begin with, since that time man has come through the woman. Each has a dignity of its own, and both should act with the dignity that fits the place God has given.
- Origin. The woman came from the man at creation. Since then every man has come through a woman, so the need runs both ways.
- Dependence. Authority never means independence. In the Lord we come back to depend on Him, and so on one another.
- Standing. The two keep different places, yet they share one standing in the Lord.
- Grace. Man is now born of woman, and so the true Man came as the woman's seed. Grace worked through the one who was deceived first.
- God. All things are from God. He frames the creature at His will and for His praise, and the dignity of each lies in the place He gave.