I am grateful for God’s Word and how Scripture elevates and edifies the role of a woman—godly and committed to Him. Our God has elevated the position of womanhood and given every woman a place of honor, a place of respect, and near reverence in the Christian home.
In our society, there remain mixed signals regarding the place and the priority of a woman.
A female professor of sociology at a northeast university gave this advice about two decades ago: “In 20 years, mothers will be a mere specialty group in the United States like plumbers, auto workers, or engineers. We need to demand that the ancient occupation of motherhood fall into disrepute and that women commit themselves to other occupations. Women must be liberated to enjoy the fruit of other occupations, whether they want to or not.”
The feminist agenda attacks the value of the Christian home and biblical home, and certainly the whole idea of the value of a mother. The value of a woman is denigrated by such unbelievable and inconceivable ideas. This professor went on to write: “The idea of woman’s emancipation is based upon a profound enmity between the sexes—upon envy and imitation.”
Our relationship as men and women is not based in the Bible upon envy or imitation, but rather in recognition that our roles and responsibilities in life are different but of equal value. And when God created the man and the woman, He created them distinctly and uniquely, personably wonderful. Everybody knows that a woman is far superior to a man … at being a woman. And that a man is far superior to a woman … at being a man.
When God created the woman, the Bible says that He fashioned the woman with His own hands as a helpmate to the man. Not his competer, but his completer. And it’s a beautiful description as to why God made the woman.
He saw the need of man and the loneliness of man and the aching emptiness of man by himself and the incompleteness of that man. And He said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18).
God created woman from the rib of man. He could have created her from the dust of the ground, just as He did Adam. He could have spoken her into existence, just as He did the heavens and the earth. But instead, He took her from the side of the man.
When Adam saw that woman, he cried out, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23).
Through this Scripture, God is teaching us an essential lesson about this relationship between a man and a woman established by God, that we are linked together and therefore life is shared together.
God made us with different responsibilities and different roles and different temperaments and different personalities. But as we focus on the role of the woman here, God’s Word clearly affirms the role and the personhood of a godly woman.
A godly Christian woman is of inestimable value to her husband. She is a treasure that no one can buy. And since man is described in the Bible as the head of the home, this same Scripture describes the woman as the crown and glory of the home—a precious, valuable treasure that God has given.
In Proverbs 31, we have not only a model for every woman, but we also have counsel for men, as they consider their wife and mother or grandmother—women who have made a powerful impact in their life. Consider verses 10–12:
An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.
And verses 25–30 paint a beautiful picture of a wise and godly woman:
Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
The last sentence in this Scripture tells precisely what makes the godly woman, the worthy woman, the wise woman different: a woman who fears the Lord.
The fear of the Lord is love on its knees, and a Christ-centered, spirit-filled woman committed to following Jesus Christ, walking with Him and obeying Him, is certainly a gift from the Lord.
No one is more charming, more beautiful, than a woman whose countenance glows with the glory and the presence of God. No cosmetic can produce that kind of beauty—the beauty of a wise and godly woman.
The author of Proverbs goes on to point out the virtues of a woman worthy of praise: she is productive; she’s a thinker; she’s a wise woman who works diligently; she has courage; she has persistence; she has strength.
And, so fittingly, Proverbs 31 ends with: Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.
The works of the wise and godly woman speak for themselves. I commend the woman who walks with God and who does what God has called her to do as the highest calling of life.
