Women Who Excel
I was a man trapped inside a woman's body, but then I was born.
Frankly, that was the last time I really had an inside perspective of a woman. Who really understands a woman? God does. He designed them, He wrote the specs. The Apostle Paul instructs Titus to put the church in order in Crete. Couldn’t our world use some order these days? Listen to Titus 2:3-5:
“Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”
Some say this passage sounds like, “Hey Marty, let’s get back in the Delorean.” It is not that at all. Instead, it’s God’s gracious guidance on how a woman can radically change the world today. Ladies, you were born female, but being a godly woman is a choice. Here are three life-giving decisions a woman can make:
1. CHOOSE AN INFECTIOUS PASSION FOR FAMILY. In the Christian life, everything starts at home. This is why Paul invites women to influence the world as they “love their husbands and children” and are “working at home.” Ladies, stop thinking that providing care for your family is somehow not a real job. Hey, stay-at-home moms, don’t you ever whisper under your breath what you do. You rock the world. As G.K. Chesterton said,
“How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No. A woman's function is laborious but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.”
2. CHOOSE A CONTAGIOUS CHRIST-LIKE ATTITUDE. Scripture calls on women to “submit to their own husbands.” (Ephesians 5:22) Submission is not a 4-letter word; it is a 10-letter word! Submission is more of an attitude than merely an action. Submission is not suppression nor does it have anything to do with value, worth, giftedness or equality, but simply God’s design for order.
Submission is arranging your leadership, gifts, and talents under the sacrificial, unconditional, life-on-the-line, you-before-me, loving, servant leadership of your husband.
Submission is God-like because it imitates Jesus. Jesus didn’t clench-fist his equality with God, he instead, submitted himself to the Father. Was Jesus a doormat? Don’t be fooled into thinking submission is demeaning... our Savior submitted His life to the point of death for each of us.
3. CHOOSE CHARACTER BEAUTY OVER COSMETIC BEAUTY. Paul calls you to be “pure” and “self-controlled” (Titus 2:5) Both “pure” and “self-controlled” touch on the area of sexual holiness. Ladies, your worth is not based on how your skin is wrapped around your bones. In the New Living Translation, 1 Peter 3:3-4 says:
Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.
You're a whole person, not a part of one. Your worth is found in the fact that the Father paid “one Jesus Christ” for you.
Carry yourself as a princess of the King. Cause men to pause because of the beauty of your character.
On behalf of all men, ladies, forgive us for being jerks and not servants in so many areas. Please don’t let our sin stop you from living out your God-designed role.
