"Doth not even nature itself teach you" (1 Cor. 11:1414Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? (1 Corinthians 11:14)), is capable of a wide application. God has in His wisdom put great differences in the physical, mental, and emotional makeup of man and woman. He has most evidently marked them to be distinct, yet complimentary.
Man's superior height, strength, and emotional character stand in contrast to woman's natural grace, gentleness, mental nimbleness.
The very fact that woman was "taken out of man" proves her equality. She is not an inferior, but an equal, a helpmeet. Between man and man there is similarity-between man and woman there is equality, but with it diversity.
The very fact that woman was "taken out of man" proclaims the headship God has given man, as also, her privilege to accord man the place God has given him.
Man and woman are equal morally, but he is the head positionally.
Scripture distinctly states: "The man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man... Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God." 1 Cor. 11:8, 9, 11, 128For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. 9Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. (1 Corinthians 11:8‑9)
11Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. 12For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God. (1 Corinthians 11:11‑12). How exquisitely guarded and balanced a presentation of the truth this is!
This is all designed to illustrate the relationship between Christ and the Church. In Eph. 5 the relationship between husband and wife is unfolded. Is the wife to submit to the husband? It is on the ground that "The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church" (v. 23). Are the husbands to love their wives? It is even "as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it" (v. 25). Is the man told to leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife as one flesh? We are reminded, "This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church" (v. 32).
From the very first the reader will see woman's place in nature is typical of her place in grace, and a picture of the Church's relation to Christ. How wonderful!