Biblical Womanhood for Every Woman

By: Rebekah Hargraves 

Photo Courtesy of: Clarisse Meyer

“Many women have done noble deeds,
but you surpass them all!” 
Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting,
but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised.
Give her the reward of her labor,
and let her works praise her at the city gates."

~Proverbs 31:29-31

There is a common problem with our current understanding of what constitutes as biblical womanhood in most of our conservative Christian circles, and that problem is the belief that biblical womanhood revolves around only the roles of wife and mother. There is a book on the market today from a popular and prolific Christian author entitled A Woman's High Calling which speaks only to those roles talked about in Titus 2:4-5 - namely those of wife, mother, and homemaker. 

Each of those roles is highly important, beautiful, and sacred to be sure, but they are not what we ought to be thinking of when we're thinking of a woman's high calling. Because as high as they are as callings go, they are not to be understood as the only or even the most important callings a woman can fulfill. If they are, then we are (albeit inadvertently, I'm sure) leaving out the unmarried and childless women, making them think they are incapable of living out true biblical womanhood as God designed it.

The first thing we have to understand is this: a woman's highest calling is the same as that of every other human being - man and woman alike. A woman's highest calling is to be an image bearer of God (see Genesis 1:26-28) and an ambassador of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20) who is living out the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). It is from this foundational place that we can then more accurately begin to deduce what womanhood by God's design truly is. And it is something that all women - regardless of age, marital status, family status, work, ministry, or stage of life, can live out in the regular day-to-day.

After first understanding the foundational point of what a woman's highest calling actually is, we can go from there and then begin to see and learn from the many God-given examples of His Word of women living out true biblical womanhood in a myriad of different ways. Biblical womanhood can – and does! - take on many forms and fashions in God’s design. Take, for example:

•  Biblical womanhood can look like being a wife, mother, and homemaker as described in Titus 2.

 

• Biblical womanhood can look like Deborah who was a leader raised up by God (see Judges 4-5) to bring good to Israel and healing and rest to the land.

 

• Biblical womanhood can look like Priscilla being a Great Commission worker and partnering with her husband to teach others the Word of God (and even going so far as to teach a man – Apollos!- see Acts 18:24-26).

 

• Biblical womanhood can look like running a business as the Proverbs 31 woman and Lydia both did (Proverbs 31:16, 24; Acts 16:14).

 

• Biblical womanhood can look like being a servant of the church as was Phoebe (Romans 16:1-2).

 

• Biblical womanhood can look like serving the poor and needy (Proverbs 31:20, Acts 9:36, 1 Timothy 5:9-10).

I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture! Robust, purposeful, Biblical womanhood as designed by God can be lived out in the lives of all Christian women – whether single, married, mothers, or childless. And that is something to rejoice in! God never intended for biblical womanhood or a woman's high calling to simply refer to the roles of wife and mother. And we shouldn't pretend it does. Those are high and holy callings and should be treated as such. But they do not comprise the sum total of what it means to be a biblical woman by God's design.

Questions for Reflection

1. Have you ever believed that Biblical womanhood only applies to those who are wives and mothers? How did this impact your view of God and of single or childless women?

2. How could believing the lie that marriage and motherhood make up the totality of Biblical womanhood negatively impact a woman's relationship with God? How could this lead to the kind of warning issued by Jesus in Matthew 10:37, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me."?

3. How would you define what Biblical womanhood is in your own words?

4. How can we encourage the single and childless women around us with the truth that they, too, are fully able to live out biblical womanhood in their own lives?