Biblical Womanhood

Proverbs 31:30—“Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.”

Introduction
The word “charm” here can be translated as favor. Favor—or the good will with which one is regarded—is deceitful, false. Why? Because favor doesn’t reveal the true character of a person; it is misleading. “Beauty,” or loveliness of form, is vain. Why? Because it is transitory and often dangerous, “skin-deep,” as they say. Neither favor nor attractiveness has any real lasting value in the long run—unless it’s accompanied—by what? The fear of the Lord. Our subject in this study is not motherhood, but womanhood. Let’s explore together God’s design for biblical womanhood.

Here are three terms that underscore and unfold the true essence of biblical womanhood:

1. Helpmate (Gen 2:18)
2. Heir (1 Pet 3:7)
3. Honorable (Prov 31; 1 Pet.3:4)

Biblical Facts to Face: How does the Scripture define womanhood?

1. A woman’s helper design and life-giving mission are creational and covenantal concepts. (Gen 2:18, 3:20)
2. A woman’s helper ministry can be summarized as community and compassion. (Ps 144:12)
3. Because of the Fall, a woman cannot fulfill her creation design or accomplish her covenantal mission. (Gen 3:8)
4. Through redemption in Christ, the woman’s ability to be and do what she was created to be and do is restored. (Gen 3:15-16)
5. A redeemed woman is to be equipped to fulfill her design and mission through the ministry of the church. (Titus 2:1, 3-5)
6. A woman must lose her life in order to be a real life giver. (Luke 17:33)
7. A woman’s confident hope in God produces the enduring beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. (1 Pet 3:1-6)

Foundational Truths to Embrace:

• The church is the covenant community. (1 Pet 2:9-10)
• God created men and women equal in being but with diversity of function. (1 Tim 2:9-15)
• God’s kingdom order of male headship is good. (Gen 1:31; Ps 119:68)
• Submission in marriage and in the church is an acceptance of God’s kingdom order. (1 Pet 3:1-6)
• Women are to pass on the legacy of biblical womanhood to the next generation. (Titus 2:1, 3-5)

Why Does a Church Need a Women’s Ministry?

1. We need to cultivate godly, feminine Christian women.
2. We need to promote healthy Christian marriages. We need, more specifically, to promote godly, monogamous, heterosexual marriages.
3. We need to cultivate among our Christian women a joyous embrace of godly, healthy, Christian, male spiritual leadership in the church.
4. We need to help Christian women appreciate the manifold areas of service that are open to them in the church and to equip them distinctively as women to fulfill their ministry.

Conclusion: Spiritual Principle to Remember

The last design made by the great painter, Albert Durer, was a drawing showing Christ on His cross. It was completed, except the face of the divine Sufferer, when the artist was summoned away by death. At the end of the longest holiest life, we only have a part of the picture of Christ fashioned in our soul. Even our best striving leaves only a fragment of real lasting Christlike beauty.

The brightness, the beauty, and the personal perfections in the face of Christ CANNOT be produced by us (John 15:4-5). We are transformed as we catch a glimpse of the glorious features of Christ as He is. When we see Him, as the truth about Him is opened (John 17:17), as our hearts are transparent before Him (2 Cor.5:11, 6:11), believingly and continuously looking at and to Christ is the way of becoming like Him (2 Cor.3:18-19).