If you’ve been paying any attention to the mainstream news coverage lately, you might have noticed that a certain church in Washington D.C. is questioning the role of women in the church and society, and even questioning the right of women to vote in America. That would go against 105 years of constitutional guarantee of a women’s voice in the affairs of this country.

This made me angry, especially when it was a church misrepresenting the scripture, and a high level government official, the Secretary of State, representing his point of view as a member of this church. What about Deborah, Judge of Israel, or Esther, Queen of Persia, or Abigail risking her life to keep David from doing a foolish thing he would regret when he became king.

Or in the New Testament,  Joanna, the “manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support [Jesus and His disciples] out of their own means” (Luke 8:3). (… out of their own means.) That means they were businesswomen. And then there were countless women scattered throughout the region supporting the work of the new churches. These were women of equal weight and stature as men; some were deacons.

And then, in 1 Corinthians 11, a passage where some pastors and Bible teachers get the biblical authority to have husbands rule wives with a iron hand, we find this very balanced statement as to the place of men and women in the church. People who use 1 Corinthians 11 as a cudgel fail to see these two verses right there in the context of the whole chapter:

“But among the Lord’s people, women are not independent of men, and men are not independent of women. For although the first woman came from man, every other man was born from a woman, and everything comes from God.” (1 Corinthians 1:11-12)

Notice how everything comes out even here. The first woman came from man, but every other man in the history of the world came from a woman. And I think this is the most important part of the whole chapter yet we hardly ever hear it: “women are not independent of men, and men are not independent of women.” We are all dependent upon each other and subject to one another.

It’s similar to what Paul says in Ephesians 5, that we are to be submissive to one another — women in their respect for their husbands, and husbands in their willingness to give themselves up in loving their wives. It’s not just women being submissive to their husbands, it’s husbands and wives being submissive to each other.

And, by the way, “submissive” here means, “completely and utterly vulnerable.” Both vulnerable to each other. No one lording it over anyone. Who’s in charge here? The last part of verse 12 has the answer. “… and everything comes from God.”