第一次堕落的内在原因乃是女人出头。夏娃所以被蛇引诱，是因忘记她的丈夫。魔鬼很狡猾，牠知道女人比男人软弱（彼前三7），就以女人为攻击的目标。不管女人对蛇说甚么，只要她站在那里对蛇说话，她就错了，因为这指明她出了头。她最安全的方法乃是不对那恶者说话，而转到她丈夫背后藏起来。如果夏娃这样作，那狡猾者就失败了。虽然她有丈夫，她却自己作主。
女人的意义乃是在神面前代表人。以赛亚五十四章五节说，“因为造你的，是你的丈夫。”神是宇宙中独一的男人。不管我们是男性或女性，我们都是祂妻子的一部分。人的地位不是丈夫的地位，乃是妻子的地位。神是头，我们不是头。神是我们的丈夫，我们的头，我们必须常常保守自己在祂的遮盖下。女人必须蒙头，绝不可出头（林前十一3，5，14～15）。神既是我们的头，我们应该一直转向祂。
女人的失败是在于越过男人，自己出头。夏娃这一边的失败，豫表人出头，并表征人越过神，把神放在一边。同样的原则也行在今天。甚么时候我们把主放在一边，凭自己行事，我们就被击败。如果我们自己努力想要得胜，这努力就是一个失败，因为这使我们远离我们的丈夫，我们的头。永远不要靠自己作甚么。想靠自己作甚么就是自己出头，离开了妻子的地位。我们该有智慧，永远不自居丈夫的地位。
在伊甸园中的夏娃是我们的代表。有时几乎我们所有的人都照她的方法行事。无论甚么环境临到，我们都凭自己去应付。虽然我们会有很多祷告，但是问题一来，我们就忘了我们的丈夫，行事如同没有丈夫的人。我们必须记得人第一次堕落的原则：人放弃了妻子的地位，僭取丈夫的地位，自己作头、作丈夫。我们所努力的无论是成功或是失败，都没有甚么两样，只要我们离开神，以为没有祂也能行动，就已经失败了。
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The Inner Cause of Man’s First Fall – 1 Cor. 11:3
The inner cause of man’s first fall was the woman taking the lead. Eve was tempted by the serpent because she forgot her husband. The devil is cunning; he knows that women are weaker than men (1 Peter 3:7), so he targeted the woman for attack. It didn’t matter what she said to the serpent — just the fact that she stood there speaking to it was already wrong, because it showed that she had stepped out of her proper place. The safest thing she could have done was to refuse to speak to the evil one and instead hide behind her husband. If Eve had done that, the cunning one would have failed. Though she had a husband, she acted on her own.
In God’s eyes, the woman represents humanity. Isaiah 54:5 says, “For your Maker is your husband.” God is the only true man in the universe. Regardless of whether we are male or female, we are all part of His wife. Our status is not that of a husband — it is that of a wife. God is the Head — we are not the head. God is our Husband, our Head and we always have to remain under His covering. A woman should cover her head and never take the lead (1 Cor. 11:3, 5, 14–15). Since God is our Head, we should continually turn to Him.
Eve’s failure was that she bypassed her husband and acted independently. Her failure represents how man stepped out to take the lead, bypassing God and putting Him aside. The same principle operates today. Whenever we put the Lord aside and act on our own, we are defeated. Even if we try hard to overcome, that very effort is itself a failure — because it causes us to depart from our Husband, our Head. Never rely on yourself to do anything. The moment you attempt to do anything by yourself, you have stepped out of place, left the position of a wife, and assumed the role of the husband. We must have the wisdom to never take the husband’s place.
Eve in the garden of Eden represents us. Very often, all of us behave the same way she did. When any situation comes upon us, we handle it by ourselves. Though we may pray often, when trouble actually comes, we forget our Husband and act as though we have none. We must remember the principle from man’s first fall: man abandoned the position of the wife and usurped the position of the husband — becoming the head himself. Whether what we do seems to succeed or fail, it makes no difference. As soon as we leave God and act as if we can do something without Him, we have already failed.