As a new born-again Christian, I used to cherry pick on the word of God. I only read chapters that agreed with my way of thinking.
For example, I didn’t like first Corinthians chapter eleven.
“For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.” (Verse 8, 9)
I am like, “What? No! I didn’t come from a man but from my mother’s womb; and I am not created for no man! I am here for myself!”
Very easy logic just like one plus one is two, is it not? So, why do I accept these verses?
Yeah, sometimes what we think we know puffs us up so much that we turn a deaf ear to what we desperately need to know.
The first three chapters of the Book of Genesis were the chapters Holy Spirit was bringing up to attention many times. Oh, how I love Holy Spirit! I really do! He patiently waited for me to sit with these wonderful chapters and internalize them. I knew these chapters way before I came to Christ but I’ve known them as I knew “the Red Riding Hood” story, not as the absolute truth.
But Genesis is not one of old time kids’ stories, it is the word of God, it is the truth that tells me where I came from, where I’m going and why. My identity! If I don’t accept and believe what the Book of Genesis is telling me, I may as well ignore the whole Bible because knowing my identity is foundational to my understanding of the rest of the message of the Bible.
I am a woman; I found my being from “man” (in quotation because “man” is not referring to every man but one man, my husband). I came to this life with this man, as part of his body. Then I found my being from his body.
This is radical, counter-cultural, anti-feminist, counter-intuitive, “counter- to – every” worldly commonsense I can think of.
I know! Very interesting, is it not? I love it! Let me continue.
Since I came from the man’s body, the man cannot be okay without me! Yeap, you heard me right. I am his well-being. His well-being is very much attached to my being in him.
Paul then concluded his first point this way: “Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman.” (Verse 11)
Did you hear that?
Thomas Adams (1583-1652, a Puritan) said, “Woman takes her being from man, man takes his well-being from woman.”
But one has to be very careful trying to interpret and understand this message. Paul was careful enough to add “in the Lord” in the middle of verse 11 because this truth is only true in the message of the Gospel. The message of the Gospel from the beginning to the end, from Genesis to Revelation, is about one Man pursuing one woman for an everlasting marriage. ///