Helping, Nurturing, and Complementing: God's Design for Womanhood
2:31
God creates and defines womanhood in Genesis 2, the foundational text for understanding the sexes. From Genesis 2, we can observe three truths about womanhood.
First, womanhood begins with the body.
The woman's body comes from the man’s body. Hers is distinct from his. This distinctness is not a floating essence, as if anyone can embody the spirit of womanhood. To the contrary, womanhood is embodied in every woman. In the simplest form, we communicate to our children that if you have a girl's body, you are a girl. (This goes all the way down to the level of genetics; if your genes are an XX pattern, you're a woman, if an XY pattern, you're a man. Sin can mess with these realities and distort the body, but we nonetheless find clarity in God's design of our body.)
Second, womanhood is connected with helping and nurturing.
The woman is called the "helper" of the man in verse 18. This does not mean something inferior, as people often think today. In our culture, we often associate "helping" with low-ability jobs and undistinguished tasks. But this is not at all how the Bible presents helping. Helping in the biblical picture is exalted. Like serving, helping means you have the strengths and skills that others need. In the Bible, God is called the "helper" of his people, and Jesus identified Himself as the divine "servant."
Women are gifted by God in so many wonderful ways. Women are specially formed by the Creator to help, nurture, bear life, care for children with special intuition, and offer wisdom about all sorts of matters. Womanhood is thus not a "lesser" reality than manhood; it is distinct, equal to manhood, and women bless the world in too many ways to count.
Third, the woman is complementary to the man.
In the creation account, the woman is not made to be alone. The Bible does teach in 1 Corinthians 7 that some people are called by God to singleness, and this is God's good plan for them. But most people are called to marriage. This is according to God's design from the beginning.
In the biblical vision, a woman is made—as God leads her—to be a wife. She is made to follow a husband's godly leadership in the home through a submissive life. She does not compete with him; she complements him. Sexually, socially, and in their roles, the man and the woman beautifully fit together as God saves, grows, and matures them.
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Continue to "Identity Redefined: Standing Against Cultural Confusion"
