Genesis 1 (NIV)
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Let’s Pray….Today brothers and sisters I would like to broaden this celebration of motherhood to embrace something that flows from broader stream, and that stream is WOMANHOOD!
And that is why I would like to bring you a message this Mother’s Day morning that I’ve simply entitled:
Celebrating Womanhood!
I suppose the inspiration for this message flows from a three-fold conviction:
1) At the penitentiary I have spent untold hours walking the men there, through the concept of manhood, what it means to be a man biblically, not culturally, and as I have done so, my understanding of, and appreciation for womanhood has expanded and grown, because you cannot understand the one without the other. For our passage says that in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. And I have come to understand THE CROWNING JEWEL OF GOD’S CREATION – WOMAN in a whole new way!
2) And I would like to say this very carefully, yet TRUTHFULLY not all mothers became mothers according to the biblical parameters established by God, some have become mothers outside of the confines of wedlock, which is obviously not God’s ideal. The only passage that I could find that speaks specifically about illegitimacy is not very flattering or good!
Deuteronomy 23:2 No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the Lord -ESV
Yet before anyone gets buried in a sea of condemnation, I like what Pastor Rick Warren said at a "Celebrate Life" event hosted by a pro-life an organization called CARE NET, which is a faith-based pregnancy center int Texas, pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church made a famous statement regarding this to which I wholeheartedly agree with…
Rick Warren –“There are illegitimate parents, but there are no illegitimate children. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did."
Rick Warren – The Purpose Driven Life -“You are not an accident. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He was not at all surprised by your birth. In fact, he expected it. Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God. He thought of you first. It is not fate, nor chance, nor luck, nor coincidence that you are breathing at this very moment. God knew that those two individuals possessed exactly the right genetic makeup to create the custom “you” that he had in mind. Your parents had the DNA that God wanted in order to create you. So, God didn’t need to create you. He wasn’t lonely, but he wanted to create you in order to express his love.”
Even in a fallen, sinful, mistake prone world, God still expresses his love in unfathomable ways. David and Bathsheba has a child out of adultery that died at birth, but the second son they had became the wisest’s man outside of Jesus himself, and eventually became a King named Solomon! Like the hymn says - God moves in a mysterious ways His wonders to perform: He plants His footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.
3) The third reason is perhaps the most important one - Not all woman are called to become mothers….Paul said in…
1 Corinthians 7: 8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. -NIV
Why?
1 Corinthians 7:34 I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— 34 and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. 35 I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. -NIV
1 Corinthians 7:20 Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them. -NIV
1 Corinthians 7: 7 I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.- NIV.
And so today I feel a need to broaden the topic a bit beyond motherhood to womanhood, and my proposition to you this Mother’s Day morning is this:
That a study of the characteristics Biblical Womanhood will grant us an avalanche of reasons as to why we can celebrate the crowning jewel of God’s creation called – Woman!
Characteristic #1 of the crowning jewel of God’s creation that is a cause of celebration this mother’s day morning is…
I. Characteristic #1 - Her Reflection!
A) Reflection?
1. An image seen in a mirror or shiny surface, or a body of water, etc.
Although 1 Corinthians 11:7-8 say this…
1 Corinthians 11: 7 A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man did not come from woman, but woman from man;-NIV
The point I want to make is this:
B) Reality:
Genesis 1:26a When God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,-NIV
1. Mankind is a general term for humanity.
Genesis 1:27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.- NIV
2. The language of Scripture, is clear, that both man and woman –reflect the Image of God!
a) Woman reflect the Image of God as much as men do!
i. A woman can reflect God’s righteous and holy character.
2 Corinthians 3: 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone (a man or woman) turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, (men and woman alike) who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. -NIV
ii. A woman can reflect the character, creativity, compassion, care and love of Christ as much as a man can.
Dr, Allen Ross – Woman is man’s peer, his equal in capacities of intellect, moral worth, and sensibility. She can think, feel, imagine, reason. She can sell goods, plan buildings, make statues, diagnose diseases, construct philosophies, or write epics, In a word, what is open to a man as a human being is open to her!
C) Respect?
1. Woman?
a) She too is a reflector of the Image of God!
Q: How does she best do this?
A: By understanding:
II. Characteristic #2 - Her Rulership!
A) Rulership?
1. Woman??
Genesis 1 (NIV)
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind (man and woman) in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind (man and woman) in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them (man and woman) and said to them (man and woman), “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
B) Rule?
1. How does a woman rule, doesn’t the scripture say?
1 Timothy 2:12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women will be saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.-NIV
2. She rules by understanding her role!!
a) To rule can mean three things:
i. To take responsibility
ii, To carry out one’s vocation with excellence
iii. To multiply biologically and spiritually
1 Timothy 5:14 So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander.- NIV
Strongs Lexicon - manage their households, -????desp?te?? (oikodespotein)
To manage a household. From oikodespotes; to be the head of a family.
2. Point is – she rules by understanding, embracing, and celebrating her role!
III. Characteristic # 3 - Her Role!!
A) Consider creation:
Genesis 2:7 Then the Lord God formed a man (Adam) from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.-NIV
Genesis 2:19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. – NIV
Dr. Charles J. Ellicott – There was not found among them no counterpart of himself, capable of answering his thoughts and of holding with him rational discourse.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown - There was not found among them no counterpart to have social intercourse with.
Dr. Joseph Excell- This was the chief reason for assembling the creatures. It was meant to reveal his loneliness. The longing for a partner was already deeply seated in his nature, and the survey of the animals, coming to him probably in pairs, could not fail to intensify that secret hunger of his soul.
B) Commentary on the aloneness of man:
1. God said:
Genesis 2:18a The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.
Benson Commentary - Though there was an upper world of angels and lower world of brutes, yet, there being none of the same rank of beings with himself.
John Gill- It is not good that man should be alone; not pleasant and comfortable to himself, nor agreeable to his nature, being a social creature.
2. Made in the Image of God!
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness
3. That is a mention of the TRINITARIAN GOD!
2 Corinthians 13:14 May the grace of the LORD Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. -NIV
Dr. Joseph Excell- While the animals were produced either in swarms (as the fishes) or in pairs (as the birds and beasts), man was created as an individual.
a) But this sets the table for….
C) THE CROWING JEWEL OF GOD’S CREATION!!
John Eldridge - Picture Michelangelo's David. He is ... magnificent. Truly, the masterpiece seems complete. And yet, the Master says that something is not good, not right. Something is missing ... and that something is woman!
John Eldridge - She is the crescendo, the final, astonishing creative work of God!
J. Parker, D. D. - God has always been thinking what would be for the man's good. How, then, does God propose to meet loneliness? By making another man? Why, when He made a man to keep Cain company, Cain killed him! It would seem to be one of the deepest laws of human nature that man must kill man, and that the only chance of keeping society together is by the marvelous influence of woman.
J. Parker, D. D. - For man to be alone means suicide; for two men to be together means homicide; woman alone can keep society moving and healthful. The woman and the little child are the saviors of social order to this day all over the world.
J. Parker, D. D. - Womanhood will save any civilization from decay.
Genesis 2:18b I will make a helper suitable for him.”
D) ROLE?
1. Helper- one who helps?
2. Condescending title?
a) Helper?
2. Hang on! You will see that it is not!!
Genesis 2:21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh.
J. Parker, D. D. - Beautiful and very tender is this notion of throwing man into a deep sleep to take a rib from him as the starting point of a blessed companionship. So much is always being done for us when we are in states of unconsciousness! We do not get our best blessings by our own fussiness and clever contrivance: they come we know not how. They. are sweet surprises; they are born of the spirit, and are as untraceable as the veerings of the wind. This is the course of true love, and of marriages that are made in heaven. You cannot by searching, and advertising, and scheming find out a companion for the lonely soul. She will come upon you unconsciously.
Genesis 2:22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
Keil and Delitzsch -The woman was created, not of dust of the earth, but from a rib of Adam, because she was formed for an inseparable unity and fellowship of life with the man.
Chrysostom -“Let us remember that God did not take the Woman from man’s feet to be trampled upon and enslaved, or from his head that she should dominate him, but from his side to be his companion from beneath his arm to receive his protection, and from near his heart to have his love and affection.”
Genesis 2:23a The man said, this now…
Dr. S Lewis Johnson- Adam’s response was, “Wow!” The Hebrew word translated now is a word that has the force here of “at last!” We’ve had all of these animals, it is almost as if he said, all these animals passing by, and this naming work that has been a bore, but this at last is ,“Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” There is animation, there is excitement in the words of the first man, and you can see that he is carried up and lifted up by what has happened to him because he breaks out into poetic speech.
Genesis 2:23b “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;
Ellicot - He welcomed her joyfully, and exclaimed, “This at last is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:” that is, she is man’s counterpart,
Excell- "This vividly points to the joyful astonishment, that rests with the full power of first love"
3. It was love at first sight!
Keil and Delitzsch - The design of God in the creation of the woman is perceived by Adam, as soon as he awakes, when the woman is brought to him by God. Without a revelation from God, he discovers in the woman "bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh." The words, "this is now (????? lit., this time) bone of my bones," etc., are expressive of joyous astonishment at the suitable helpmate
Genesis 2:23b she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”
E) Perspective?
1. She will be called "woman," because unlike any of the animals Adam had seen in God's creation. None of them were like him. She was of his very bones and flesh.
Genesis 2:24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
F) Point?
1. Helper – Helpmeet - is not a derogatory term!!
a) HELP, HELPER, IS NEVER USED IN SCRIPTURE TO REFER TO AN INFERIOR BEING HELPING A SUPERIOR BEING!
2. What did (God the Son) Jesus, call God the Holy Spirit?
John 14:16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; -NASB
John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. -NASB
John 15:26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, -NASB
John 16:7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you., -NASB
3. The Holy Spirit is Fully God, equal with the Father and the Son, but His Role is to Help!
4. Woman who is equally human as a man is given a role to help!
5. A Helper is simply one who assists another in reaching complete fulfillment!
6. Helper is never used in scripture as an inferior helping a superior!
7. In many ways it is used as a Superior (God) helping an inferior (man!)
Psalm 54:4 Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.-ESV
Hebrews 13:6 So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? -NIV
John 14:25 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. -NIV
8. Advocate –One who intercedes on behalf of others, one who is called alongside to help!
a) So when God says:
Genesis 2:18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
G) Purpose?
1. Suitable – ????????????? (k?·ne?·dow)
a) Suitableness - Refers to something that is different, but is within the same path, plan and purpose.
i. The help is suitable, or fitting, because it corresponds to him.
ii. The concept of a helpmeet gives the picture of parallelism: the man and woman are not the same, but they follow the same purposes, plan, and path.
2. Submissiveness
Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.-NIV
a) Submit - ?p?t?ss?- hypotasso
i. Is a military term
a. Meaning to arrange troop divisions in a military fashion under the command of a leader!
H) Principle?
1. Submission is not a female thing– it is a Christian thing!
Ephesians 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.-NIV
2. SUBMISSION IS THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY!!
3. Submissiveness is the Spirit of Jesus Christ!
John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me-NIV
Mark 14:36 And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.-NIV
Philippians 2 (KJV)
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
1 Peter 2: 13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.-NIV
Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them—for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account—so that they may do this with joy, not groaning; for this would be unhelpful for you.
4. A helpmate is an honorable and valued position, not one of inferiority.
5. Single woman, not married?
a) Woman are frequently seen as helpers, helpmates, laboring together with men in the church!
Romans 16:1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. 2 I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me. 3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. 4 They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them
IV. Characteristic #4 - Her Relational Superiority!
Genesis 2:18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” _NIV
A) Point?
1. Woman was created to meet a relational need!
D’Ann Davis, - Director of Living Hope Ministries
At Living Hope we focus on five main elements of biblical femininity. These are not exhaustive or exclusive, but they are the areas we focus on when helping our women grow up in their biblical call of femininity.
D’Ann Davis, -Director of Living Hope Ministries
First, our relational capacity as women means we thrive when we have multiple relationships that have many layers, and we are most fulfilled when we are deeply connected with lots of people. We see in Genesis 2:18-25 that we were created with the express purpose of providing relationship for another. It is in our nature to want to connect.
D’Ann Davis, -Director of Living Hope Ministries
That is why girls love to talk for hours and do not need an activity to keep them busy while doing it like men might. We love to sit and tell everything about every situation and every feeling associated with it, and we long to feel heard and understood. That is why when a man interrupts us and says, “Let me tell you what you need to do,” we get frustrated because we do not primarily use language as a means for solution-finding as much as we do for relational connecting.
D’Ann Davis, -Director of Living Hope Ministries
As women we blossom in relationship and can provide a relational environment that nurtures others so they feel at home in our presence.
Relationship Institute-WOMAN
Women value love, communication, beauty and relationships.
A woman’s sense of self is defined through their feelings and the quality of their relationships. They spend much time supporting, nurturing and helping each other. They experience fulfillment through sharing and relating.
Relationship Institute-MEN
Men have a much more difficult time relating to their own feelings, and may feel very threatened by the expression of feelings in their presence. This may cause them to react by withdrawing or attempting to control the situation through a display of control and/or power.
Men are actually more vulnerable and dependent on relationships than women are and are more devastated by the ending, since they have fewer friends and sources of emotional support.
V. Characteristic #5 - Her Rearing Capacity!
A) Rear?
1. To raise upright.
2. To bring to maturity or self-sufficiency usually through nurturing care,
3. To nurse
4. To cause to grow
Genesis 3:20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
5. Mother? (Oxford Dictionary)
a) To give birth to.
b) To deliver
c) To bear
d) To produce
e) To bring forth a birth
f) To bring up (a child) with care and affection.
g) To express a maternal tenderness or affection
h) To care for or protect
D’Ann Davis, -Director of Living Hope Ministries
Another element of femininity on which I have briefly touched already is that we are nurturers by nature. We see this even in our physical form as we have breasts to nurture a newborn. We have a uterus to nurture a fetus. Our very composition is that which breeds and nurtures life.
D’Ann Davis, -Director of Living Hope Ministries
There are many women who sadly deal with infertility or are simply in a season of singleness. These women still possess the nurturing elements of their body in their biological composition. A woman is not less feminine if she is single or if she is married and unable to bear children. She is just as womanly in form and spirit as the woman who has twenty children. She still has the hard-wired design of a nurturing creature, whether or not God chooses to use those bodily tools to produce offspring. She is a nurturer, and it serves her well to operate out of that role, whether or not that includes a husband or biological children.
B) Reflection?
1. Of the nature of God!
2. No creature God has ever made reflect this attribute of His more than a woman!
3. We see in Isaiah the nurturing nature of God, and how we as women reflect that image.
Isaiah 49:15“Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. 16 Behold I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.”
4. Women reflect this attribute of God in a way that men cannot as well!
1 Thessalonians 2:7b Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, 8 so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.
5. Not mothers or wives?
D’Ann Davis, -Director of Living Hope Ministries
As a single woman, I can nurture those in my life through love, affection, softness, and care in a way that a man might not be able to do. As a woman I am no greater than men, I just fill a different role and can operate in that role in a way that both flourishes me in my own femininity and nourishes him in his masculinity.
Gloria Furman – Crossway Press- Womanhood cannot be handcuffed to mere biology, can nurturing be relegated to procreation? Through the gospel we see that fertility and “filling the earth” is something that extends to bearing fruit that will last through discipleship—a privilege and responsibility that every Christian woman gets to enjoy.
D’Ann Davis, -Director of Living Hope Ministries -I can also nurture women in a way that pushes them to Christ and helps them blossom in their femininity.
Titus 2:1 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. - ESV
6. Train
a) To teach so as to make fit, qualified, or proficient
b) To form by instruction
c) To make prepared fir
d) To direct the growth of
7. Eve’s sin brought a curse upon her that was relational
Genesis 3: 16 Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you.” -NLT
8. A Christian woman can be used to reverse that curse!!
VI. Characteristic #6 - Her Resplendency!
A) Resplendency?
1. Her shining brilliance; her beauty!
B) Reminder:
D’Ann Davis, -Director of Living Hope Ministries
The next element of femininity is the desire to be beautiful. This is not predicated on outward appearance but is not to the exclusion of it.
C) Roster?
1. Outwardly beautiful woman in the bible?
a) Sarai
Genesis 12:11As he was approaching the border of Egypt, Abram said to his wife, Sarai, “Look, you are a very beautiful woman.
b) Rebekah
Genesis 26:7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought , “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”
c) Abigail
1 Samuel 25:3 His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings—he was a Calebite.
d) Tamar
2 Samuel 14:27 Three sons and a daughter were born to Absalom. His daughter’s name was Tamar, and she became a beautiful woman.
e) Esther
Esther 2:7 Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.
D) Remember?
Proverbs 31:22b she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
1. Nothing wrong with being concerned with outward beauty!
1 Peter 3:3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. -NIV
1 Peter 3:3 Your adornment must not be merely external--braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; - NASB
1 Peter 3:4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. -NIV
Proverbs 30:31 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.-NIV
1 Peter 3 (TPT)
4 Let your true beauty come from your inner personality, not a focus on the external. For lasting beauty comes from a gentle and peaceful spirit, which is precious in God’s sight and is much more important than the outward adornment of elaborate hair, jewelry, and fine clothes.
5 Holy women of long ago who had set their hopes in God beautified themselves with lives lived in deference to their own husbands’ authority. 6 For example, our “mother,” Sarah, devoted herself to her husband, Abraham, and even called him “master.” And you have become her daughters when you do what is right without fear and intimidation.
Dr. Ray Pritchard of Keep Believing Ministries- Check out any contemporary magazine for women and you will discover that the world’s view of beauty is based almost entirely on external appearance. The current issue of People magazine features page after page of attractive young pop culture icons, wearing the latest fashions and showing off their current boyfriend or girlfriend.
Dr. Ray Pritchard of Keep Believing Ministries- I spent several hours this week leafing through three women’s magazines, looking at the ads and the articles. Here are a few things I found:
“Amazing body makeovers! Try the winning plan.”
“Her look says it all. Incredibly stylish. Irresistibly beautiful.”
“Want younger looking skin in 14 days? Reduce lines nearly 50% in 2 weeks.”
“ Expert tips and makeover tricks to get your best look now.”
Dr. Ray Pritchard of Keep Believing Ministries- The desire for outward beauty is neither wrong nor unnatural. Everything God creates has its own sort of beauty. The word translated “adornment” comes from the Greek word kosmos, which means an orderly arrangement, from which we get the English word cosmetics. God gave us the inner desire for beauty, design and order in nature.
Dr. Ray Pritchard of Keep Believing Ministries- What makes a Christian woman truly beautiful? “The unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.” There’s a lot to ponder in that statement. What is unfading beauty? It’s beauty that doesn’t depend solely on mascara or eye shadow or lip gloss or silk skirts or contact lens or the latest fashions. It’s beauty that is just as beautiful when you’re 57 as when you are 17. It’s unfading and therefore never goes out of style and never has to be replaced. This is how women get more beautiful as they grow older. Their gentle and quiet spirit shines through so that as their physical beauty diminishes, their inner beauty remains. In the truest sense, they are more beautiful in the end than at the beginning. The word “gentle” translates a common Greek word that means meek. That’s a powerful concept that Jesus used to describe himself in Matthew 11:29. Meekness is “my power under God’s control.”
My lips under God’s control.
My eyes under God’s control.
My ears under God’s control.
My thoughts under God’s control.
My emotions under God’s control.
My actions under God’s control.
My attitudes under God’s control.
My responses under God’s control.
My relationships under God’s control.
Dr. Ray Pritchard of Keep Believing Ministries- The “gentle” spirit is one where the Christian woman lives under the moment-by-moment leading of the Holy Spirit. The word “quiet” is an unusual Greek word that means tranquil or undisturbed, like the surface of a lake on a windless afternoon. It describes a heart that is not easily ruffled by the cares and concerns of life. If the husband is the head of the home, the wife is the heart of the home. She sets the emotional tone for the entire family. She sets the tone by her own spirit. Everyone else resonates to the note she sounds. If the home is peaceful, quiet, restful, it is because the wife has created that atmosphere. If the home is hectic, loud, disorganized and strident, it is also because the wife has set that tone by her own spirit.
VII. Characteristic #6 - Her Recherche’?
A) Rescherche? (French word!)
1. Refinement, rarity, elegance, beauty and fragility.
D’Ann Davis, -Director of Living Hope Ministries - A third element of femininity is vulnerability. As women, we have an incredible ability to be soft, sensitive, and vulnerable,
1 Peter 3:7 Husbands, you in turn must treat your wives with tenderness, viewing them as feminine partners who deserve to be honored, for they are co-heirs with you of the “divine grace of life,” so that nothing will hinder your prayers. -TPT
1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.-KJV
D’Ann Davis, -Director of Living Hope Ministries - This is not suggesting that women are pathetic or measly; it means that we are more delicate and should be treated as such.
Close:
The beauty of a woman
Is not in the clothes she wears,
The figure that she carries,
Or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes,
Because that is the doorway to her heart,
The place where love resides.
The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole
But true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.
It is the caring that she lovingly gives,
The passion that she shows,
And the beauty of a woman
With passing years only grows!
– – – written by Teresa Mahieu
