In the first two chapters of Genesis, we have a record of a perfectly ordered world. God's perfect order is described from the very first verse. It is evident in the text of Scripture that we could describe God's created order as binary. There are dual opposite distinctives that work in functional complementarity in the ordered operation of creation. God created heavens and earth. God is the Creator and not part of the creation. God separates land from sea, darkness from light, night from day, waters above from waters below, lights for the day and lights for the night. He also creates man and woman, male and female. By the end of the creation week, we see the difference between work and rest. In Genesis two Adam is created physically from the dust with a soul from the breath of God (physical and spiritual). The image of God and the breath of soulish life, makes distinction between mankind and animals. We also see God making covenant with Adam that will result in obedience or disobedience and ultimately life or death. The forbidden fruit in the garden depicted the difference between good and evil. We could continue, but I hope you get the picture that God's binary order in creation is comprehensive in the entire creation.
Unfortunately, our society has reduced the term, "binary," to gender discussions alone. The Christian has a comprehensive answer to those proposing non-binary gender classifications. It is not that Genesis teaches a binary worldview of gender alone, but that the bible teaches a binary worldview of everything. This is God's created order.
When it comes to gender roles, Genesis 1 and 2 are indeed specific. In Genesis 2 we are given a concentrated look at the creation of humanity, and it starts with Adam and then moves to Eve. Adam is to be a leader and Eve a helper (another binary order). Adam is made first (noted by Paul in 1 Timothy 2:13). Adam is given responsibility for God's direction not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He is given authority to name the kinds of animals. He is told to work and keep (serve and protect) the garden. And when Eve is finally made from Adam (again noted by Paul 1 Corinthians 11:8), Adam names her woman because she came from man. Naming is clear evidence of leadership/authority under the direction of God.
Genesis 2 also explicitly builds anticipation of a coming helper who will be fit for Adam. Eve is the perfect partner in complimentary union. She's given to her husband to carry out God's purpose for humanity to spread his glory across the earth through fruitful multiplication and dominion. In their binary order, Adam and Eve are complimentary in physicality, complimentary in roles, and complimentary in masculinity and femininity. They were to be a one-flesh, complimentary union for God's glory.
Once we see the glory of God's binary, complimentary order for the entire creation, we can see the truly wicked nature of Satan's tactic to deceive them. Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" After thinking through the comprehensive binary order of creation, I wonder if you can pick the immediate undermining of God from Satan. Look at these words carefully - He said to the woman... Satan spoke to Eve rather than Adam as representatives of humanity in the garden.
I wonder if we see that the first deception was to undermine God's order by essentially putting Eve in a position for Adam to follow her lead. This is not to say that Adam had no responsibility to speak up and stop what was happening. It appears from the text that Adam was right there. It simply shows that sinful temptations begin when God's created order is defied.
When God first approaches Adam and Eve in their sin, notice God's application of his own created order. Eve was the first to be deceived and sin, but God first speaks to Adam, the leader. Genesis 3:9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"
In 1 Timothy 2, Paul is instructing Timothy about the order for the church. In our relational difficulties we ought to realize that the church lives in a Genesis 3 world. Sin has caused men to harshly dominate those we are to love, protect and lead, and women to seek dominance in places God had never ordained for them. Paul says that men need to come to the church gathering with prayerful, gentle, and humble hearts before the Lord. (1 Tim 2:8). There is no room for harsh dominance in the church. Women are to come in quietness, modesty, self-control, not putting themselves in first place or as a spectacle, but for submission to the teaching of God's word. (1 Tim 2:9-12).
Paul goes on to say that the authoritative teaching/leading role in the church is for qualified men, not women. The reason he gives is because Eve was deceived (not Adam) and sinned (1 Tim 2:12-14). He is not saying that Adam was not deceived at all, and that Adam did not sin. He is saying that Genesis 3 shows that God's order was violated when Satan pursued Eve rather than Adam. The reason we have male only eldership and the reason that families in the church follow God's order of leader (husband) and helper (wife), is because the church reflects that we have been redeemed to live out God's created order as originally intended. We have complimentary unions that work in partnership for God's greater glory.
The church is a picture of God's beautiful order and should be places where we are self-sacrificing for each other in leading and helping whether in the church family or our own physical families. Our concern is not just for order for the working of gender relationships, but God's entire created order displayed in all that we think, say and do. Because of the cross, we have been able to deny our sinful selves, and follow Jesus in redemptive, transformative glory. It's a glory that shines light to a clueless and dark world.
The church is God's picture of God's order that shines his glory to a world full of satanic disorder.