Duties of a Christian Woman

God, in his wisdom and grace, restricts our lives. The principles of discipleship never change, but the way those principles work themselves out in our daily lives do change.  A fifty-five year old auto mechanic in Texas will work out his discipleship different than a twenty-seven year old Christian business executive in New York City. They will both grow in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26). However, that fruit will look different in different contexts. So it is with men and women. Our sex restricts us in certain ways, most obviously in the bearing of the children, but in other ways as well.  A woman cannot be a pastor. Why? The Lord decided she would be female.  This is not cruelty on God’s part. It is his grace and mercy.  We can either delight in the restrictions or rebel. 

The normal center for a Christian woman to work out her discipleship to Christ is the home. This does not mean four walls. It means sons and daughters and budgets and menus and child-birth and hospitality and education and scraped knees and prayer with the children and gardens and term papers and soup and movies. A vast majority of the Scriptural commands given specifically to women in the Bible are about the home. A woman therefore is to grow into conformity to Jesus by cheerfully obeying the commands he has given to her in Scripture concerning her specific calling as a woman.  Here are many of the specific commands given to women.

1.   She is to fear the Lord, be discreet, chaste, modest, known for good works, trusting in God, having a gentle and quiet spirit, and not a busybody or idle. ( Proverbs 31:30, I Timothy 2:9-10, I Timothy 5:9-15, Titus 2:3-5, I Peter 3:1-6)

2.   She is to love, respect and submit to her husband and be his helpmeet in his vocation. (Genesis 2:18, Proverbs 31:11-12, Ephesians 5:22 & 33, Titus 2:4, I Peter 3:1-6)

3.   She is to bear children, love children, and raise them to be disciples of Jesus Christ. (Genesis 1:28, 9:1, I Timothy 2:15, 5:10 & 14, Titus 2:4)

4.   She is to keep and manage/rule the home. (Proverbs 14:1, 31:10-31, I Timothy 5:14, Titus 2:5)

5.   She is to show hospitality to the people of God. (I Timothy 5:10)

6.   She is to care for the poor, afflicted, and strangers outside of her home. (Proverbs 31:20, I Timothy 5:10) This means that a woman cannot be entirely family centered. To do so would be to contradict the Scriptures.

7.   The older women should be teaching the younger women. (Titus 2:3)

All of this seems plain enough when one reads the Bible. But men love to make the plain obscure and the straight crooked. Here is what a Christian woman should aim to look like. If a Christian woman does not have these things as her goal, then she is playing the wrong game. 

Of course, there is more a Christian woman should be doing, such as prayer, attending worship, etc. But she should not be striving to do less than what is listed.