Biblical Womanhood: Strength and Dignity Are Her Clothing

Happy Mother’s Day everyone!

As promised, we are going to take this special day in which we celebrate the mother’s in our lives, to also highlight some biblical doctrine on womanhood and motherhood.

The point of this message is to encourage the women in this room today to seek the God of Heaven for your purpose and design, and in pursuing Him to find success, joy, satisfaction and fulfillment as you submit to Christ.

Now, when I say, I want to encourage the women in this room, I do mean something very specific.

I actually need to clear a few things up at the onset because there are people in our culture, and even in positions authority that have a very hard time even with such a question as, “What is a woman?”

So, when I say that we want to celebrate mothers, and encourage the WOMEN in this church, what I mean is that there are in fact important distinctions between the human female, and the human male that should be celebrated and honored.

For instance...

A man will never be a woman. A Man will never be a mother. A woman will never be a man. And a woman will never be a father. This is true biologically, it’s true logically, and it is true theologically.

The fact that these statements, true as they are, are even contested today is not because we’ve suddenly reached new evolutionary benchmarks, and we’re now smarter than ancient men and women.

It’s because of a forsaking of Christ, and a satanic agenda to banish the God of Scripture from all human thought, to undermine his authority, and raise up in His place a god of everyone’s own making... One that will preferably allow whatever the heart desires.

This needs to be said, because of you’ve been listening and observing, the world is confused.

But if you’re here today and you’re confused about gender identity, can I just first say that I love you, and we love you, and the God of the Bible has a deep deep love that is extending to you today… He’s forgiving, and patient, and gracious, but more than anything, God is committed to righteousness and truth. So the most loving thing I can do, when I know it is Satan inciting confusion, and Satan who is all about the twisting of the words and the intentions God...is to speak God’s timeless truth to you today.

What is a woman according to Scripture?

Look at this foundational text with me...

Genesis 1:26 - 28 Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27  So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

And it is here that we are introduced to this most beautiful phrase, for the first time in Scripture...

The Imago Dei - The Image of God

So, the first point I want to make is that...

A woman is a human female created in the image of God, with dignity and value and gifts and abilities given uniquely to her by her Creator, Jesus Christ.

And this is a good thing.

Design is good.

Design speaks of purpose, and uniqueness, and creativity, and the genius of the Designer.

Design trumps feelings that one might have.

The Bible does not degrade women, but comes right out the gate swinging in favor of women as part of God’s prize creation.

Men and women ARE created equal under God in value and dignity, but not uniformly the same in terms of abilities, capacities, and purposes.

Now let me speak just a little bit more on womanhood, and then I’ll shift to biblical motherhood in particular, and I’ll send you out of here with an important charge.

The world is bent on attacking EVERY definition that has been clearly given to us by God. One of those relentless attacks today is on the issue of a woman’s role, or a woman’s place in society and culture.

Feminists hate even the phrase, “a woman’s place”, because it means we would dare to think that there’s a difference between a man or a woman’s roles in this world.

When I think of a man’s general place in society, I think provider, sacrificial protector of women and children, and the spiritual leader of his home. These are God given characteristics that the majority of man will naturally pursue, because they were created that way.

But what about a woman?

Has God said anything, or has he been silent?

One author said this...

“The Word of God speaks to the issue of motherhood and womanhood. If the Word speaks, then it’s authoritative, if authoritative, then true, regardless of culture, circumstances, or perceived relevance.”

One place the Word of God speaks clearly on this subject is in Titus chapter 2. Let’s look there together.

Titus 2:1-5 But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. 2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Now, this is God’s word on the matter, and there are many other place we could look. But with this, I want to make some clear statements that encapsulate what biblical womanhood is.

Biblical womanhood describes a woman who is created in the image of God, and is reverent in her behavior.

Now what does this mean exactly?

The original language uses a word that is only used once in the New Testament, and it’s right here.

It means the behavior fitting a holy person, or more specifically, a priestess.

John Stott said it like this...older women ‘are to carry into daily life the demeanour of priestesses in a temple’. Or, as we might say, they are to ‘practise the presence of God’ and to allow their sense of his presence to permeate their whole lives. - John Stott

That is reverence. To practice the presence of God

That’s not demeaning, or degrading, but a high calling - that women, created in the image of God, would walk in the presence of the Lord.

Then Paul instructs Titus to teach the older women in the church to avoid two common moral failures of that day, and perhaps our day as well.

Do not slander, and to not be a slave to wine.

The word for slander is actually a familiar word, and it may surprise some of you.

It’s the Greek word, diabolos, a word often used for the devil, because he is the great slander and accuser.

One commentator put it this way

A slanderer is a person who cannot control their tongues in speaking lies, false accusations, and spreading malicious gossip (whether true or untrue). They are the work of Satan himself. They cannot be slanderers and serve God.

The point of telling Titus to instruct the women in the church this way is to teach them to control their tongues - to master their words and not fall pray to this wicked trap.

The second moral failure spoken to the context of the church over which Titus was shepherding, was that of being given to wine. This must have been an issue for this particular context. But there’s an overarching point when you put these two together.

2. Biblical womanhood describes a woman who is created in the image of God, with value and dignity, and has mastered her emotions and her appetites.

Have you mastered your emotions and your appetites?

A woman of God does not drown her sorrows in a bottle, but looks to Christ her King and His sufficiency.

A woman of God takes her urge to gossip or entertain gossipers, and seeks, instead, to pray for all with humility and compassion.

A woman of God knows who she is in Christ, and has no need to look for her identity in any created things.

She is beautiful because of her Maker, and has much to give to this world without having to go outside of the order which God set in place for her flourishing.

When a woman walks reverently before God, and with self control over her appetites and emotions, Paul says she’s then ready to train others. This is a task that Paul does not give to Titus himself, but he asks that older women, not just spiritually older, but those who have matured in life, and have married, and have walked with God through trials, and have seen their faith tested, to specifically take on this important roll and TEACH the younger women.

v3 Teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Here’s one best selling author’s words on the matter. Tell me what you thing.

“When women lose themselves, the world loses its way. We do not need more selfless women. What we need right now is more women who have detoxed themselves so completely from the world's expectations that they are full of nothing but themselves. What we need are women who are full of themselves. A woman who is full of herself knows and trusts herself enough to say and do what must be done. She lets the rest burn.” - Glennon Doyle

Please, ladies, do not read this woman’s books. And if you have, or if you own a copy, do not sell it. Either bury it, or burn it, because this is pure evil being touted as freedom and revolution for women.

The author goes on to later say this:

“The only thing that was ever wrong with me was my belief that there was something wrong with me.”

That is anti-gospel, and therefore, anti-freedom.

The trap for women, just as it is for men, is conformity to the loudest voices in the world, and the rejection of eternally relevant truths from God.

God’s word defines what a woman is. God’s word tells you who you are, and though sin makes it VERY difficult, Jesus Christ suffered and died so that you can die to all your sinful desires, and walk in resurrected life and freedom.

Caught in the cross hairs of this conversation in the world about womanhood, is none other than motherhood. And although not every woman is a mother, or will be a mother, or can be a mother, for various reasons - all of which demand the empathy and compassion of the church - it still remains that motherhood, and the raising of children in the Lord is a most valuable and precious gift from God.

In Genesis, with the command to procreate, and multiply image bearers, we see the call of mother-hood there from the beginning. It was so ingrained into humanity, that one of the greatest travesties for ancient Hebrew women was not that they would miss out on a successful career, but that they would be barren. Every Hebrew woman since Eve, and up to the time of Christ, longed to have a child, and that that child might be the Redeemer of Israel and the world.

It would be an understatement to say that motherhood is important. It’s crucial. And that the world be filled with God-fearing women who mother in every respect that the Lord allows them. Some biological, some through adoption, some through other relationships - but to be that reverent woman of Christ, trusting in His salvation, and teaching others to follow your steps as you follow Christ.

To the younger women in the room who are longing for motherhood because God designed you for that longing, the road before you is a high and honorable calling, and to be a godly woman, a godly mother, and to nurture a home some day, is not the lesser of occupations. But surrender it to the Lord.

For those who are unsure of motherhood because society has called it inferior…or you’ve seen only bad examples of it, or for any of our sisters who are barren to this day - do not lose hope, but hope in Christ… He is the suffering high-priest, who, on your behalf, experienced loss, and pain, and agony, and much suffering so that you, by faith, can have the deepest and most fulfilling identity in Him.

My final charge to you is this...

Women of New City Church, and guests by the providence of God...

Being a mother is an investment worth a lifetime. You are front line disciple-makers, along with your husbands, and with your church family. God has created you to nurture, to give, to sacrifice, to love, to empathize, to fight for life, not take it, to fight for truth, to feel pain to a greater degree and threshold than any of the men around you or in this world.

And all of this shows forth a side of the nature of God that humanity would never know without you. So press forward in each of your callings, ladies. The enemy of womanhood is not men, it is not society, it is not your past experiences… it is sin and Satan, and the power over both is Jesus Christ, his cross, and his resurrection.

I’ll end with these words from a famous mother of an ancient king...

Proverbs 31:25-31 Strength and dignity are her clothing,

and she laughs at the time to come.

26  She opens her mouth with wisdom,

and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

27  She looks well to the ways of her household

and does not eat the bread of idleness.

28  Her children rise up and call her blessed;

her husband also, and he praises her:

29  “Many women have done excellently,

but you surpass them all.”

30  Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,

but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

31  Give her of the fruit of her hands,

and let her works praise her in the gates.