Is a Woman's Place in the Home? Part 1

Recap of Previous Studies: Equality and Hierarchy of Male and Female Roles

0:02 This adult Sunday school class was held on Sunday morning, October 9, 1988, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. For the sake especially of our visitors, let me seek to distill into five minutes the heart of what we have been studying together and establishing from the Word of God in the course of some 17 or 18 class periods. We have begun a series of studies entitled, Crucial Issues Facing the People of God. And the first specific crucial issue that we have been addressing is the issue of male and female roles, identity, and functions.

0:47 And in our initial studies, we were concerned to establish from the Scriptures those areas in which the Bible teaches that men and women are equal. Men and women stand on equal footing. And we saw from the Scriptures that in terms of the dignity of creation, the man and the woman are created in the image of God. They are both morally accountable to God.

1:16 They are made with intelligence and capacity to commune and fellowship with God. And in those fundamental aspects of image-bearing, they stand on equal footing. According to 1 Corinthians 11, there is an element of the image that the man alone bears with reference to the woman, and that is the element of government, and that's an additional factor. But in terms of the Genesis account, we read that in the beginning he created the male and female, and both were created in his image.

1:54 And then in terms of the tragic results of the fall, the man and the woman share equally in the effects of the fall, though Adam bears a unique responsibility in the representative headship of the fall, as in Adam all died. Not in Adam and Eve, just as Eve bore a peculiar responsibility in the circumstances of the fall. For the woman was tempted, we read in 1 Timothy chapter 2. But in terms of the end result, men are not more depraved than women, though some women would question that, neither are women more depraved than men.

2:37 There is absolute equality in the tragic fruit and result of the fall. And then, blessed be God, in terms of redemptive standing and privilege, there is again absolute equality. Galatians 3.28, In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female.

2:57 Galatians 3.28, In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female. Galatians 3.28, In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female.

3:00 Now, with those perspectives forming the foundation and framework of everything else that the Scripture teaches, we then went on to establish from the Word of God that without in any way undermining those three great pillar truths of creation, fall, and redemption, and the equality of the sexes, that the Bible clearly establishes a divinely instituted, hierarchical structure, and the pivotal text is 1 Corinthians 11.3, where we read that the head of Christ is God, the head of the man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man. And if we are prepared to overturn that structure, then we must attack the very heart of Biblical theology with respect to the reference of the Son in the scheme of redemption in which He is subordinate to the Father, by the Father's appointment and His own voluntary choice. And then having established that there is in the Scriptures this structure of male headship and female subordination, we then went to the Scriptures which clearly teach that this divinely instituted structure is to be reflected in the home, in the church, and in the general appearance, and bearing,

4:28 and demeanor of men and women. And we cannot go into all the Scriptures. I'm trying to give you a distillation in five, six minutes of what we covered in 17 or 18 classes. Now having established that, and looked at all of the relevant passages, or the major relevant passages in the Old and the New Testaments, we then took up the objections that come against this teaching, and they come fast and furious in our day, objections that come both from without the church and from within the church.

5:07 And we saw the necessity of taking up such objections because Paul says that elders are not only to exhort in the healthy teaching, but they are to refute the gainsayers. And we looked at five major objections that come from without, objections that are found, expressed, and articulated by the world. Then we looked at three major objections that find expression from within the professing evangelical church. We're not talking now about people who say, I don't believe the Bible is authoritative, I don't believe Jesus Christ is the unique Son of God, I don't believe in salvation by grace on the basis of the death of Christ, but people who claim to be evangelicals and yet are attacking viciously this biblical concept of a divinely instituted, timeless, supra-cultural hierarchy of male headship and female subordination. And if you are here as a visitor and want to know the substance of all of that, I urge that you get the tapes. We cannot go over that ground. Now, having sketched in the general picture of the biblical teaching on this matter, having answered the major objections,

Transition to Specific Applications: The Woman's Place in the Home

6:31 we make a transition this morning. And what we want to do is to take up several specific concerns that are of peculiar relevance in the application of all of this generic teaching. This has been basically the attempt to sketch in the theology of male and female relationships from the Word of God. Though there has been application along the way, this is basically what we've been doing.

7:03 You've been getting systematic theology applied to the question of the relationship of men and women in the purpose of God. Now what we want to do is to focus in upon several areas in which this teaching is particularly, particularly under attack, and areas in which many of you have not had biblical teaching, biblical models, and therefore could be very vulnerable, not only to books and articles and tapes or radio broadcasts that might undermine biblical teaching in some of these areas, but simply because there's a spirit that is abroad in the very air, as it were, that imperceptibly you could absorb, and I want you to be immunized against that. Now the first has to do with the vexing question of whether or not God has so defined the various roles of men and women as to warrant such a statement as this. And I labored long to word the statement precisely as I have. Here's the statement.

8:22 Check your own reaction as you hear it. The domestic sphere is the primary and ordinary realm within which a woman fulfills her God-assigned role. The domestic sphere is the primary and ordinary realm within which a woman fulfills her God-assigned role. Or, more simply stated, words which in our day can provoke a riot, catcalls and shouts of derision quicker than you can say, Jack Robinson, a woman's place is in the home. All right? Now, anyone got any idea that that notion is under attack in our day? You'll realize that I am not dealing with a straw dummy.

Clarifying the Scope: Excluding Exceptional Circumstances

9:28 I am not dealing with a problem that might occasionally be expressed by someone who drops out of the UFO. But this is something that is very much with us. Now, in taking up the issue under this structure of thought, let me clear away the extraneous concerns that could cloud our judgment and prejudice our affections in the matter. In putting the issue this way, I am not addressing the question of women who are single and thereby not able to fulfill their domestic role in the ordinary way.

10:13 I am not speaking of widows. Nor am I particularly thinking of situations where the children may be grown and out of the home. Those matters are matters where the application of the principles need some fine-tuning. Nor am I thinking of the situation where couples may be childless, either through no choice of their own or because of factors that make it the part of wisdom that they remain childless.

10:49 And I can think of two or three situations in this very congregation where the childlessness of certain couples, as far as we can discern, is not due to the fact that they are unable to bear children, but other biblical considerations have mandated to their consciences that they ought not to bear children. Now, so let's clear away all of these exceptional concerns that if they get into our minds will not really open up our hearts and our affections to the overarching teaching of the Word of God. Furthermore, I am not in any way questioning the legitimacy of a father or a husband or the man of the house doing dishes once a week, twice a week, or perhaps every day, or picking up a vacuum cleaner and vacuuming a rug or scrubbing a floor. So this is not the concern with respect to whether or not in nurturing and cherishing his wife, a father and the head of the home may from time to time or at certain times with a great measure of regularity take up specific and certain domestic tasks ordinarily done by a woman. That is not the question. So clear all of the extraneous stuff away.

Seeking Scriptural Support for the Thesis

12:14 What we want to see from the Word of God is whether or not this statement is justified. The domestic sphere is the primary and ordinary realm within which a woman fulfills her God-assigned role or the abbreviated version a woman's place is in the home by divine appointment and will. Alright? Now as you think of that question and whether or not it ought to be altered, whether or not it can be supported by the Scripture, are there any Scriptures which in your mind address this issue? And what we'll do as we've often done is get all the Scripture that you believe applies to the issue and then we'll seek to arrange those passages or individual texts in order of importance and if you end up where I hope you end up you'll end up at a passage that I hope then to expound with you as we've done before with our Bibles open on our laps. Alright? Any passages which address the subject.

13:28 Alright, Elmer? Alright, Proverbs chapter 31 and most of you are familiar with that portion in which the virtuous woman is described. Some would say that's the passage that ought to be used to show her place is not in the home. That she's a business woman.

13:50 Well, we're going to see that that's a very shallow and forced approach to the passage but nonetheless it is a passage that we do believe supports the statement that we've made. Alright? Some other passages. Alright, Cliff?

14:03 Titus 2.5 Alright. Titus 2.5.

14:06 You want to read that for us since that's not a whole segment of the chapter? I'll start with the first verse of chapter 2. Alright. But speak thou of things which befit the sound doctrine that aged men be temperate, brave, and sober-minded, sound in faith, in love, and patient, that aged women likewise be reverent in demeanor, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good, that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children.

14:43 And verse 5. To be sober-minded, chaste, workers at home, and to be kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemer. Alright. That looks like it's addressing the subject, doesn't it?

14:58 Alright. Another passage. Yes. Norman?

15:04 Alright. 1 Timothy 2.15. Will you read the passage for us, Norman?

15:14 And how does that lend any light on the subject? What's the setting of that passage? It's addressing women's activity in the church and how it's affecting women's activity in the church. Place the emphasis on where the woman's primary goal and usefulness in the kingdom of God is to become.

15:39 Alright. Alright. Do you see the point that Norman is making? In a context in which Paul is dealing with behavior in the house of God, he has given directions that the men should take the lead in every place, in the prayers.

15:55 In like manner, the women adorn themselves in modest apparel. Then he prohibits a woman from teaching. She's to learn in quietness with all subjection. She is neither to teach nor to exercise dominion over the man.

16:10 Then he gives the biblical rationale in creation and in the fall. And then, as Norman has indicated, it's as though someone says, well, if the woman's primary influence is not to be found in the church in its official leadership, either in prayer, teaching, or governing, what is she her true sphere of influence in advancing the kingdom of God? And Paul's answer is, she shall be saved through her childbearing. That is, her unique contribution comes in conjunction with her domestic role as a bearer of children and all that flows out of it.

16:54 So I believe Norman is right in including this in the list of texts. All right, any other passages that speak to the question of whether or not our thesis is a valid one? That the domestic sphere is the primary and ordinary realm in which a woman is to fulfill her God-given role. All right?

17:15 All right, 1 Timothy 5, 14. 1 Timothy 5 and verse 14. Paul is dealing here with the whole subject of the directives given to widows and who should be put on the role of widows that would be fully subsidized by the church and who should not be. And with regard to the younger widows, he says, I desire therefore that the younger widows marry, bear children, rule the household, give no occasion to the adversary for reviling.

18:00 And what I would like to do, if I may, is back the passage up to verse 9 and include that, all right? Because there he's describing the virtues of a widow worthy of being placed on the role of the widows. And when he describes her virtues, it's very interesting with respect to the subject before us. So let's put 1 Timothy 5, 9-14.

18:28 All right, did someone else have his or her hand raised on a verse that you believe speaks to the issue? All right, Parnell? All right, 1 Peter 3, 1 and 6. In like manner, you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they may, without the word, be gained by the behavior of the wives, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.

19:05 And what do you see in there that puts the emphasis upon her domestic sphere, Parnell? Okay, so by inference, but is there anything explicit about the domestic role here? It's inferred, but it's not explicit, is it? So, let's throw that out.

19:32 That might be a third-ranked soldier, but let's not put him up here in the front ranks. You know, remember the old days when warfare was conducted? You had your front line of soldiers come out, boom, and all the ones that died. Then the second rank came up and filled their place.

19:44 Well, we're dealing with our first-ranked soldiers now. Hopefully, they'll all come out of the battle alive, okay? All right, let's see what comes to your mind. And I ask this because in the past, you have brought forward passages that I have forgotten.

19:57 You have brought forward all the ones I've listed. All I've done is put them in the order that I have them listed here. All right, these are indeed major passages, and I'm not sure whether we've put as a first-ranked soldier or a second-ranked soldier, that's why I left the little blank, the creation account in Genesis 2, 15 to 25, because as we saw in our reading of Genesis 2, it says that the creation account is the first-ranked soldier and the second-ranked soldier in the original study of that passage. It's very clear that God gave Adam his career before he gave him his wife.

20:30 And she was given not to have an alternate and competing career. Adam was created and placed into the garden to dress it and to keep it. That was his career task. Then God said, I will make an helper not to have an equal and competing career.

20:46 Now, I'm not saying that Adam was created and placed into the garden to dress it but I will make a helper answering to his needs. And the woman was brought to the man and the man named her an expression of authority and I believe implicit in that is that her realm was qualitatively distinctive from the realm of Adam's. So that we might want to put Genesis 2, 15 is the passage to begin with, yes, 15 to 25. I'm just not sure whether we ought to consider that a front rank or a second rank soldier.

Exposition of Titus 2: The Issue at Stake and Directives for Older Men

21:28 All right? Now, I've placed at the top of the list the Titus 2 passage and in the time that remains let's turn to that passage and seek to understand what it says with our Bibles open before us and with me asking you certain questions that I trust will become the shovels by which you will be able to unearth the evident truth of the passage Titus chapter 2. You'll remember the situation of Titus. He is an apostolic representative.

22:05 Paul has left him in the island of Crete, verse 5 of chapter 1. For this cause I, for this cause left I you in Crete that you should set in order the things that were wanting or lacking and appoint elders in every city as I gave you charge, so Paul leaves Timothy in the isle of Crete that he might be as it were the eyes and the hands and the mouth of Paul to see the church at Crete brought to greater maturity in Christ not only in terms of its leadership that's the first issue addressed and he gives them the standard for biblical elders but also with reference to directives in practical godliness that were peculiarly suited to the situation of the Cretans and so in chapter 2 and verse 1 he takes up some of those specific directives to practical godliness notice but speak the things which befit the sound or healthy doctrine and then he doesn't say and Titus since you have the Holy Spirit and you're a man of good judgment you can figure out what that will mean he doesn't leave Titus to the impulses of his renewed heart and to the conclusions of his sanctified mind to determine

23:34 for himself what things befit sound doctrine he gives specifics and the first specific is that aged men be temperate grave sober minded sound in faith in love in patience you see even the old men were liable to the eroding influence of the Cretan culture which Paul says was marked in verse twelve quoting one of their own poets it was a master stroke so no one could say ah Paul you're an outsider and a Jew and you're just prejudiced against us Cretans he said I'll quote one of your own poets here's one of your own's assessment about you Cretans Cretans are always liars and the testimony is true Paul was not stereotyping them out of prejudice he was describing the dominant sins of that society that were admitted by one of their own secular poets and he says that testimony is a true testimony now in the light of that can you see the relevance of this directive to the older men in a peculiar way he admonishes them in a society marked by lying evil beasts people who were given over to sensuality and to idleness he says exhort the older

25:03 men to be self-controlled to be grave to be sober-minded that is to be in touch with reality sober-minded doesn't mean going around with a long face it means going around with your head screwed on right in terms of spiritual it does not mean this excessive somberness sober-minded means you're in touch with reality it's the opposite of being demented being out of your tree being out of touch with reality now then he addresses in verse three the aged women and he says of the aged women that they may be good in order that they may train the young women to love their husbands to love their children to be here's our word again sober-minded chaste workers at home kind being in subjection to their own husbands in order that the word of God be not blasphemed in verse six and then to Titus himself in verses seven and eight

The Blasphemy of God's Word When Roles are Rejected

26:32 then he moves to a different segment in verse nine he exhorts slaves or servants and then he puts a great capstone on all of that practical instruction stating in essence that without this kind of practical godliness the purpose for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity purify to himself a peculiar people that is a people that are his own peculiar possessions zealous of good works all right now question number one with the passage open before you in this matter of what is the issue at stake in whether or not women understand and fulfill their god-given role according to the scriptures what is the issue at stake according to the passage all right Steve all right and where do we find that all right you see that image presence vision presence

28:02 experience downturn freedom for all those that are continually measured into what is fill upon those the word of God be not blasphemed. In other words, a woman's fulfilling of her God-given role is a matter of the honor and glory of God and the credibility of the gospel. Do you see that? We are not dealing with a matter that has its ultimate roots in anything that is man-centered, but something that is God-centered. All of this, Paul says, to the end that the word of God be not dishonored or blasphemed, clearly teaching that if women do not fulfill their God-assigned roles, it is not a matter that they have been enlightened or a matter that they have nobly thrown off the shackles of a given role.

29:25 Given cultural tradition, or worse yet, vicious, wicked, male, pig-chauvinistic chains, when they throw over God's order, they are attempting to yank God Himself from His throne. And when you have a community that professes to be the community born by the word of God, what dishonor to that word comes when that community, in such a vital issue, is not a matter of a woman's primary influence is ignored, or worse yet, overthrown with defiance? You see,

30:08 the community born by the word is to be shaped by the very word which has given it birth. And it's a tragic thing when evangelicals say, oh yes, we are begotten again by the word of truth. We claim a supernatural Bible that has set forth a supernatural Savior, and it's the word of God, and it is not the word of God, but it is the word of God. Well, that's of God that has given us birth as an evangelical community, but with respect to what that Word says about roles of men and women, we throw over the Word of God and still maintain the name of evangelical. The Word of God is blasphemed by that action. And Paul was very conscious of that, that this was not a cultural matter. This was not a matter of a half-sanctified, prejudiced rabbi speaking out of the matrix of his old rabbinical teaching. He was very conscious that the Word of God was regulating these directives. All right? Now let's look

Directives for Aged Women: Demeanor, Negatives, and the Positive of Teaching Good

31:09 at the passage. The demeanor of the older women is set forth in this general statement, the aged women are to be reverent in demeanor. Now we could take a lot of time going into the nuances of the particular words. Paul uses, but we'll not do that. Suffice it to say that demeanor befitting a sacred calling is that to which the older women are called. And then you have two negatives and one positive. Not slanderers, their tongues are in control, nor enslaved to much wine, their appetites are in control. Their tongues...

31:58 and their appetites are in control. I'm convinced we're Paul writing in our day, knowing that not only is domestic drunkenness a chronic problem among middle-aged women in America, bored, kids are all grown and gone, they have all their conveniences, and if they're not out seeking an independent career, they're sitting at home watching the soap operas and drinking booze. Perhaps Paul would have also included, not only that, but also that the older women should not be enslaved to much wine, but not enslaved to much TV watching, in which they're living out the fantasies of youth, wishing they could somehow find the fountain of youth and have it all back again. Well, be that as it may, the directives to the aged women, you see, are in terms of two negatives, not slanderers, not enslaved to much wine, and then one positive, teachers of that which is good. And this is for the word used, teachers of that which is good, is a compound word. It's one word in the Greek.

33:08 At the front of it, you have the word kalos, which means that which is morally good or noble, and then the word for teacher. So, good teachers, that is, teachers of that which is good. But it's not a word that's used anywhere else in the New Testament to describe the formal functions of teaching and preaching. So, we know immediately that whatever Paul had in mind, he is not saying that the aged women, once they reach a certain age, are automatically to be thrust forward into some kind of a formal, structured, public teaching ministry. The text will not bear that weight in its context, in the linguistic structure of it, in the actual language that is used. And what is the thing that they are to teach, or to impart, by example? By informal interaction, by the instruction they are enabled to give. Well, let's look at the seven things that they are to impart.

Training Young Women: Seven Focal Points from Titus 2

34:10 The aged women are to be, in a certain way, in order that they may train the young women. All right? And it's this word, train, that I've been referring to, that is, again, another, I'm sorry, is another word that...

34:29 Is found only in this place, in this particular verbal form, nowhere else. Sophronizo. Now, the other family word, sophroneo, is found in Romans 12.3, translated, to think soberly. In Mark 5.15, the demoniac was found in his right mind, so it means to bring someone to his senses. To encourage, to advise, and to urge, to bring someone to think in terms of reality. So, the older women are to be instrumental by example, and influence, and where appropriate instruction, to train the young women. And now, let's look at the seven things that are to be the focal point of their training.

35:26 All right? Do you see any structure, any pattern, any relationship? As you look down through the seven, what is evident with the first two?

35:43 Do you see any... The first thing he mentions is that they're to love their husbands.

35:53 All right. If a home is to be well-ordered to begin with, the woman must be in subjection to her husband, and she's not going to be able to do that unless she has love for her husband. The second item is that she's supposed to love her children.

36:09 One of the major tasks of a woman at home is to take care of her children, or she doesn't have any love for children. All the other instructions aren't going to be much help for her. All right. So, there is a couplet here in the first two directives.

36:23 They are directives to be husband-lovers and children-lovers. And that would be a more wooden rendering of the words again. In the original, you have one word for a husband-lover and one word for children-lover. Okay?

36:40 So, that's to be the first thing that characterizes these women who have been brought... Brought to sober, realistic thinking by the influence of older, godly women.

36:52 It is godliness that impresses upon younger women their primary responsibilities to love their husbands, to love in the way that God himself has expounded in the other relevant passages. Ephesians chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5. Chapter 3.

37:17 Colossians chapter 3. In which the woman's love to her husband is manifested by her willing submission to her husband. All right? And then she is to love her children.

37:33 And again, she's not left free to dictate what that love will do and how it conducts itself. She is, under the guidance and oversight of her husband and cooperation...

37:46 With him. Because Ephesians 6.4 places the primary administrative responsibility of the nurture of children upon the fathers. You fathers nurture them.

37:58 And then there is to be the outworking of all the teaching of the book of Proverbs about hear my son the instruction of a father, listen to the counsels of your mother, the whole matter of discipline and training, etc., etc. That love, again, is not something that is determined. It is determined by the individual subjectively in terms of its manifestation.

38:21 We look elsewhere in the word of God for what it does and how it acts. All right? She's to be a husband lover. She's to be a children lover.

38:30 And then the third requirement is she is to be sober-minded. To be sober-minded. And again, this word does not mean sad-faced. Long-faced.

38:47 Going around looking like to laugh would be to commit the unpardonable sin. It means prudent. It means there is mental self-control, reasonable, sensible, a woman of good judgment. Now, isn't this very interesting?

39:07 That in saying that the older women are to train the younger women with respect to domestic privileges and responsibilities. Teaching. Teaching them to have as their supreme commitment their privileges and responsibilities in conjunction with their husband and their children. This is not leading them into a kind of insanity, as many would say in our day.

39:33 It is attendant with imparting sober-mindedness. It is thinking according to the reality of what God has designed the woman to be and to do. All right? So they are to be sober-minded.

39:51 Then the fourth quality, chaste. That is, morally and ethically pure. No question with respect to the fact that this woman has one man in her home, in her heart, in her eyes, in her desires, in her affections. There is to be no question whatsoever.

40:16 There is to be no question whatsoever that she is a chaste woman. And now here is the killer, the next word. All right?

The Crucial Role of "House Workers" and Societal Reversal

40:25 Workers at home. And here again, you have one word in the Greek. It is a compound word made up the word for house, oikos, and the word for work, ergeo. And it literally says house workers.

40:43 House workers. The term we would use is probably the closest. Today is home makers. But it is interesting that it says house workers.

41:00 We have been given a verbal snow job in our day. When you fill out a form, it says place of employment, head of the house. All right? Then it says, does your wife work?

41:15 You know what I put on those things? I say yes.

41:21 Name of employer, Albert N. Martin. You are not going to be snow jobbed into thinking my wife sits home and does nothing. Okay?

41:39 Okay? People ask me, does your wife work? I say, of course she does. If she didn't, she wouldn't eat.

41:43 And they look at me. It's a discussion opener, I'll tell you.

41:55 The Bible says if anyone will not work, let him not eat. She'd be a subject of church discipline if she just sat home and did nothing. If she didn't shape up after admonition, I'd go to my fellow elders and say, look, my wife wants to eat of my hard-earned money and she won't work.

42:12 And she'd be in before the elders to be admonished. And if she didn't repent, she'd be censured and labeled as a disorderly person and placed under church. Church discipline. That's what the scripture says.

42:22 But you see, a lot of so-called innocent terminology is not so innocent. It is calculated to give the impression that the women who abandon women are to train the younger women to be house workers. That is, those whose energies...

42:49 See, we get our word energy from the Greek word, energeo. Their energies are expected primarily from the household. And the older godly women are to train the younger women by example and by precept and by every legitimate means of influence to be workers at home. All right?

43:21 Now the next requirement, and here the old 1901, very seldom do I have to say it's a bad translation. Well, this is a bad translation of the Greek word. It says, kind. Nowhere else is this word, agathos, translated kind, to my knowledge, in the English translations.

43:46 Its uniform translation is good.

43:51 So they are to train the younger women to be good, doing what is good and beneficial to,

44:02 and then finally, train the younger women not only to be house workers, good, but to train the older women to be house workers. Now, you see, those that try to state that egalitarian marriages, that is, a marriage, mutual submission between the husband and the wife, is the divine pattern, then got big problems with this, because the same verb used here, I believe it's in a participial form, is the one that is used in verse 9 when he talks about servants and their masters. Exhorts, servants to be in subjection to their own master. So, you see, we cannot avoid the fact that God has mandated in this passage that the older women are to train the women so to think of the relationship God has established that whereas it begins with loving their husbands and ends with being in subjection to their husbands, there is no contradiction, there is no contradiction within that complex of seven specific directives given by the older women to the younger women with the great end in view

45:32 that the word of God be not blasphemed. Now, looking at this for a few minutes, can you see what's happened in our day and the terrible reversal we've had?

45:47 Younger women went off to college. There they learned at the feet of their feminist teachers that they were not supposed to be women. That it's time to liberate women from the horrible bondage of this biblical pattern. So what's happened in our day?

46:03 You have the younger women trying... You were sold a bill of goods by all those male chauvinist pigs, by those oppressionist religious people who use the Bible to keep you under...

46:22 And what you have is in which you've lived and which your four mothers lived for generations, and appreciate the marvelous liberty into which we have been brought. And what are the marvelous fruits of it? By their fruits you'll know them. What has it brought upon our society?

46:52 A disintegration that causes even some of the most godless, pagan sociologists to say, where will it all end? The horrible fruits that have come and people look back in pity a day when, even in society where the word of God did not rule consciously, but where there was the spillover of common grace and these basic perspectives were worked out to some degree even among the ungodly. And they look back upon those dull years when people knew their places and their roles and fulfilled them and gave birth to one generation after another that had some measure of stability and responsibility and now this so-called enlightened generation that has thrown all of this over, it's as though God is saying, all right, you're going to be so smart and totally throw over my way, then live with the mess that you create. And that's the tragedy that we see all around us. All right, then in the light of this passage, the domestic sphere is the primary and ordinary realm within which a woman fulfills her God-assigned role,

Addressing Questions and Cautions on Application

48:11 does this passage support that assertion to your own satisfaction and judgment in the light of the word of God? All right, in the few minutes that remain before we turn, God willing, next week to the subsequent, the other passages, are there questions that you have growing out of or comments that you want to make based upon our examination of this passage? Yes, Mike? I may have already answered it wrong for when a newly married couple gets married and she works for a few, before they decide to settle down, is that, is there anything biblically wrong with that?

48:48 Is there anything biblically wrong with a couple getting married and choosing so to space their efforts to bear children that they do not immediately seek to have a wife conceive? Is that your question? Or to have her at home? She works where?

49:09 She works outside the home.

49:13 Good, good. All right, Mikey. Now, let's all appoint, let's appoint ourselves a committee of one to check up on each other's terminology, all right? Then I'll not be the only one around here doing it.

49:26 It'd be lovely to have some company, all right? Let's try to get our speech speaking accurately on this matter. And that's why I picked on you, Mike. I didn't think you'd mind me picking on you.

49:36 Still my friend. All right, good. Well, here again, Mike, that kind of question cannot be answered carte blanche and make a hard, fast rule. All we can say is that any couple seeking to be submissive to the Word of God must bring what they believe are the exceptional circumstances of their own marriage.

49:59 They must bring them to the touchstone of Scripture and must make judgments in the light of the Word of God that they would be prepared to justify in the presence of God in the day of judgment. So you see, that's why we must be careful, and this is where we will refuse to go beyond stating this, this is what the passage teaches. This is what other passages teach, and we'll work our way through. Now, when any given couple comes to apply the passages to their own specific circumstances, there are principles from the Word of God that must be operative in the wrestling through of these matters to a resolution so that we recognize Romans 14, to his own master a servant stands or falls. Who art thou that judges another man's servant? And it would be tragic if we created a situation in which a couple were married next December and then we saw that the wife still carried on her job for six months or for a year outside the home for us to say, she's living in sin, she's living in sin, and they have 50 people coming to the elders saying, oh, you're getting on their case, you're getting on their case. There may be good and wise reasons.

51:12 For example, all right, let me just give you a specific that I have had brought to me in the counseling situation. We've got about two minutes and I can cover this. Where a couple have said, if we are to have long-term stability in our commitment to live in this particular area, we're at such and such a place economically, if we choose not to seek to bear a child in the first two years of our marriage and recognizing it is an abnormal, not a normal situation, my wife has agreed to work outside of the home, for the first year, two years, and we're not living on her income. Every bit is being sucked away into a savings account with a view to being that which will be seed money that will grow through proper investments that ten years from now, hopefully, will be able to get into the house market, whatever. I would find it very difficult to say, you are sinning. You see, I could not take the place of God and say, you are absolutely sinning. Because there is no fundamental, mental rejection of this perspective whatsoever.

52:22 There is a recognition that it is an abnormal situation, one that they never want to get comfortable in, and one that has nothing to do with pursuing carnal ends and justifying it under a, you know, spiritual talk. So, we must be very careful then, you see, when we would come to judge others. However, we can say, in any given church family, if the majority of the married women, are working full-time jobs out of the home, even when there are children in the home, something's fishy. There is not sufficient pressure of the word of God upon the conscience of that congregation.

53:05 And I'm thankful to God that I've been able to say many, many times in many settings, the vast majority of our women, where it means real sacrifice. And I know some of the specifics of what that sacrifice involves are coming. They're committed to living by the biblical pattern, though it means living at a standard that many would say is borderline poverty. But they'd rather live at that standard because the Bible nowhere says that poverty is shameful.

53:35 Better is a poor man that walks in his integrity, the scripture says, than the man that must sacrifice his conscience to get out of what people would call poor. So, in these matters, we must be very careful about judging, one another, and I would, Mike, in answer to your question, be very reluctant to make any such judgment without knowing the particulars if someone came for counsel, all right? Well, let me urge you, if you're able to do so between now and next week, because God willing, we'll have our pastors with us, and we don't want you intimidated because you've got some 70 or 80 preachers sitting here. We want to carry on our class as usual.

54:17 Please look up these other passages. 1 Timothy 5, 19-14, the 1 Timothy 2, 15 passage in Proverbs 31, and come prepared to work through them to see whether or not they also justify the statement that the domestic sphere is the primary and ordinary realm in which a woman is to fulfill her God-given role. All right, let's pray together. Our Father, we are so thankful that amid our suffering, we are so thankful that, that we are so thankful that, towards the din of the voices of men and women who claim to be great authorities, that we have your holy word as a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. We thank you especially for this pivotal passage in Paul's letter to Titus that sets out so clearly what it is that brings a congregation and brings particularly older, and younger women into a lifestyle that commends the word of God rather than gives occasion to blaspheme it. And we pray that this portion will have its proper weight and regulative power in our thinking and in our practice. We ask with thankful hearts

55:43 for your presence and for your word through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.