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Can Women Work Outside the Home?

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Can women work in the work place or are they to stay at home?  That is a question that I wrestled with last week as I preached through Titus 2.  In Titus 2:1-10, Paul is describing different people who make up the church and how they live a life of holiness.  And when referring to young women, Paul zooms in and specifically focuses on how they live a holy life with regards to their husband, children and the home.

Titus 2:4–5 (ESV)

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.

When approaching a text like this, it is important to consider what has prompted Paul to write what he has.  Crete was a very immoral place where people pursued their own selfish appetites at all costs. In Titus 1:12, Paul quoted a Cretan philosopher who wrote, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”  Very likely the young women in Crete were not committed to their husbands or children. Their children and home may have felt like a prison and submission to their husbands was seen as a four letter curse word.

Therefore, Paul focused on holiness within the home to help the young christian women know how they were to live as salt and light within their community.   And a life of holiness involves “working at home.”

So does this mean a women cannot work out of the home?

No.  At least not necessarily.

Paul is helping young women to see that their holiness will involve the priority of their home.  This is important to consider.  For it seems too often today, women pursue employment outside of their home not necessarily because they need the extra income but because they feel trapped and/or as if they need to do something to feel “more” important.

Culture (in Crete and especially here in America) has seemed to demean the role of a house wife.  But the church is not called to just fall in line with culture.  For within the biblical framework we see that wives/moms are very important in helping shepherd their children in the faith and encouraging their husbands to lead well.

So when the question is raised should a young women work outside the home, I think there are other questions that need to be answered first.  Questions such as…

  • What is the motivation for working outside the home?
  • Will this job inhibit the woman from making her children and husband a priority?
  • Should the husband be looking for a different job that will pay more?
  • Are there things that can be removed from their lifestyle that will lessen the need for the wife/mom to work outside the home?

And with these questions, there should be much time spent in prayer and wisdom sought from others.  In Titus 2:3-4 Paul encourages the older women to help train the younger women towards holiness.  Older women should be stepping forward to help young women make these kind of difficult choices.  Often they will be able to share insight from God’s Word and their own experiences which will help in bringing about the right decision.

Bottom line: Paul is not saying, young women cannot work outside the home.  But he is saying that the home will be a place where the woman lives out her holiness.  And so if the woman is to work outside the home, let it not be at the expense of the home but rather as a means of serving her children and husband.

Now you may be asking, what about a single mom?  Can she work outside the home?  First, In the context of Titus 2:4-5, it seems that Paul is specifically referring to young married women.  So let us be careful in how we apply this text to women who may not be married.  Secondly, a single mom is still in the position to serve her children, and certainly one way she will do this is by working.  Her children need food, clothes, a home, etc… and very likely those things will only come as a result of her working.

Surely there are more questions that could be asked.  How many hours would be okay for a young married woman with children to work?  Should she just work during the time her kids are at school?  Is there a point when her kids get to a certain age it would be okay for her to work?

The important thing to remember is that as children of God we have been saved to live holy lives.  Therefore let us use God’s Word to guide and help provide a framework for our decisions.  Let us also pray and seek wisdom from others on how we might live in holiness so that God would be glorified and unbelievers would see the beauty of God’s Word lived out.

Dead People Don’t Run

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Paul begins Ephesians 2 with a hideous picture of the unbeliever.  In essence he says every person apart from Jesus Christ is spiritually dead and they are a follower of Satan (2:1-3).  Paul in no way tries to sugar coat his words.  He is not trying to make unbelievers feel good about themselves in their sinful condition.  Rather he wants them to know how desperate they are, how sick they are, and how damned they are.  By saying that every unbeliever is a follower of “the prince of the power of the air” (Satan), Paul also shows there is no neutral ground apart from Jesus. 

When playing tag with my kids they love to run to “base” so that they are safe and I cannot tag them.  Tag is a kids game with no eternal consequences.  Let us not be foolish to think we can apply the rules of tag to our spiritual lives and somehow be okay.  

The only spiritual “base” is Jesus Christ and He is not something we can run to.  Dead people don’t run.  This is why in Ephesians 2:4-5 we are told, “But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love which which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved.”  We did not run to Jesus but by God’s grace Jesus came to us so that we would be saved and made alive.  

And in Eph 2:10 we see that we were made alive so we would do good works.  God saved us from our sin, He gave us new life in His Son Jesus Christ, not so we would act like we are on a cruise, kicking back, drinking mai tai’s, and pigging out at the buffet, but so we would live for His glory.  We have been saved by grace from our sins so we would no longer follow Satan but follow Jesus.  We have been saved to do good works so that other would see God’s love and grace in us and also be saved.  We have been saved to be lights in this world directing all people to the hope of Jesus Christ.  

And while this new life in Christ is amazing, we will not truly understand how wonderful it is apart from understanding how dead we were before being saved.  So many believers I have talked to want to know nothing or very little of their sinfulness.  But that is a terrible mistake and one that Satan hopes we will all fall into.  For until we know the hopelessness we were in before Jesus we will not appreciate and know the the amazing life we have been saved into through Jesus Christ.  By studying God’s Word and seeing the ugliness of our sin, we will see the beauty and the necessity of the cross of Jesus Christ.  And we will be filled with love, gratitude, and grace to live out our new lives for the glory of God in Jesus Christ.   

Slow to Speak and Quick to Hear

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In James chapter 1, James writes that we do not sin because God tempts us or because His gifts are bad (1:13,16).  His point is that we do not sin because of external forces upon us. 

So why do we sin if it not because of things outside of us?  We sin because we have evil desires.  In 1:14-15 he writes, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” We sin because of the sin within us.  This means that you do not sin because of your spouse, your children, your job, your finances, or anything else that we so often blame.  We have no one and nothing to blame for our sinful actions but ourselves.

So what do we do?  As Christians we have been forgiven of our sins and made into new creations.  No longer are we slaves to sin but we do still fight with sin.  How do we live victorious over the sin that tries to creep up from within our own souls?

In 1:19 James begins to answer this. “Be quick to hear, slow to speak , slow to anger…” Because we know our sin wants to lash out, James exhorts us as believers to think before we speak.  We are not to react quickly to someone’s comments or actions but rather we are to think first.  We are to pray about our response.  By being quick to hear we demonstrate love to the other person by actually listening to them rather them formulating our response and defense.   Being slow to speak is like removing oxygen from a fire, it gives time for all the flames to go away.  Being slow to speak also gives us time to use our words for the greatest impact.

Is there really hope for our fast moving tongues?  Can we really stop them? James 1:26 says, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.” Here, James points out that real faith in Jesus Christ has a transformative effect on our tongues.  The grace of Jesus Christ that saves us from our sins also has the power to bridle our tongues.  There is no other religion that can do that.  There is no other faith that has the power to overcome and kill the sinful desires of our hearts. So as a believer in Jesus how do we become quick to hear and slow to speak?  James says it is the power of the religion that gives the victory.  And since we became believers by faith in Jesus then we will only experience victory over sin as we continue to grow in our faith in Jesus.    And one way we grow in faith in Jesus is by reading His word and then ‘doing’ His Word (1:22).   

If we as believers are going to continually experience victory over our sinful desires then we must commit to reading and obeying the Word by faith.  And while we could say prayer and fellowship and other spiritual disciplines are important, it is the Word of God that James points out as necessary here in chapter 1. This makes sense when we remember what Paul says in Romans 10:17, “Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.”  We came to faith in Jesus through the Word and we will grow in our faith through the Word.  The Word of God is indispensable to the christian life and victory over sin.  The Word feeds out faith and makes it grow stronger and stronger.

Fanning the flame of courage

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In 2 Timothy 2:6 Paul tells Timothy, his child of the faith, that he is to “fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”

What is the gift that Timothy is to fan into flame?  And how is he to fan this gift into flame?  Paul never tells us explicitly what this gift is but there are many clues in this letter that lead us to a clear picture.Let’s take these questions one at a time.

What is the gift that Timothy is to fan into flame?

In verse 7, Paul reminds Timothy the Spirit that now dwells in him is not one of fear but of power, love, and self-control.  Then Paul tells Timothy not to be ashamed that he (Paul) is suffering.  At the end of the chapter Paul reminds Timothy of Onesiphorus who was not ashamed of the gospel or of Paul and was willing to be identified with him in Rome.  There are many other clues but it seems that the gift Paul is encouraging Timothy to fan into a flame is courage and strength in the gospel.  He wants Timothy to be bold in his faith and not be ashamed of suffering or the thought of suffering.

How does one fan into the flame this gift of courage? 

Again, Paul does not give any explicit steps here.  He does not give a five step method to a more courageous life.  But he does tell Timothy in verse 13 to “follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”  It seem that Paul is saying saying there is a connection to fanning the flame and obedience to God’s Word.  Then in chapter 2:1 Paul tells Timothy to be strengthened by the grace of Christ Jesus.  Paul began his letter in chapter 1:2 by saying “grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.”  It seems that Paul is saying that as you read this letter Timothy, may God’s grace be with you.  Therefore in 2:1 when he says be strengthened by the grace of Christ Jesus, I believe Paul is encouraging Timothy to let the Words of God in this letter strengthen him.  Meaning, Timothy, believe in these words which are actually coming from God, not me.  What I find interesting is that right after Paul tells Timothy to be strengthened he then goes on into the second chapter exhorting Timothy how to live.  For example in verses 3-5 he tells Timothy to be like a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer.  The point is, Timothy is not to go sit in a room, read God’s Word, wait to be strengthened and then go live out that strength.  Rather, Timothy will be strengthened as he faithfully reads God’s Word and lives obediently as God has called him to.

So what does all this mean today?  

To begin with, 2 Timothy was not written only for Pastors.  It’s not only pastors who have been given the gift of courage.  It’s not only pastors who are not to be ashamed of suffering for the gospel.  Timothy is an example of a believer who is struggling to live by faith in a hostile world.  He very much realizes that the world opposes Christianity outside and even inside the church.    And this is very much the same situation we find ourselves in today.  A Christian who truly lives out their faith in this world will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12).  The Christian life is not an easy life, but it is hard and costly.  So, let us all realize that we need to fan the flame of courage in our life.

  • We do this by trusting in God’s Word and faithfully seeking to obey it.
  • We do this by looking back at the cross and reminding ourselves that Jesus is the one who went to the cross and abolished death and brings life (2 Tim 1:10).
  • We do this by looking at other Christians who have gone before us living faithful and obedient lives (2 Tim 1:15-18).
  • We do this remembering that even if we suffer and are bound in chains, the gospel is unable to be bound and it will continue to spread throughout this world (2 Tim 2:8-9).
  • We do this knowing that God is faithful to Himself and therefore all who have given their lives and endured hardship for His glory will reign with Him forever (2 Tim 2:11-13).

Coming to God for Mercy

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Psalm 123:2-3

Behold, as the eyes of the servants 

look to the hand of their master,

as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress,

so our eyes look to the Lord our God,

till he has mercy upon us.

Israel knew that God is the One who gives mercy. The only rest that satisfies their souls was in God.  They had played the whore with other idols only to experience misery and pain.  It is God who gives mercy, and rest, and peace.  

How desperately we today need to be reminded to come to God for mercy and grace.  We can so easily be tempted to look for hope in other places.  But let us come before God as a servant does his master, as a maidservant does her mistress, and with arms open wide and heads down in worship receive mercy from the one true God.  Mercy and grace flow as naturally from God as water does a fountain.  And He loves to to satisfy His children with Himself.  Let us come before God.

 

Sin-Killing Holiness-Pursuing Promises of God

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Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.  (2 Cor. 7:1) 

Paul has previously just listed some promises of God that he says ought have major implications to our lives.  They promises are to spur us towards holiness.  These promises cause us to remove all types of defilements from our lives and they increase our fear of God.  What are these promises?

There are at least 3 promises:

Promise #1: God lives with His church

In verse 16, Paul quotes Leviticus 26, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be there God.”

God lives with His people.  He dwells with us and walks with us.  He is our God and He calls us His people.  He acknowledges us, desires us, and own us.  

Promise #2: God is our Father and we are His children

In verse 18, God says He will be a Father to us and we shall be His sons and daughters.  God is not just some distant God desiring to be worshipped by a distant people.  But He becomes our Father and we become His sons and daughters.  God loves us.  He makes us a part of His eternal family.  

Promise #3: The church is the temple of the living God.

In the first half of verse 16, Paul says we are the temple of the living God.  The church is God’s temple. The church is the holy dwelling place of God.  The church is where God specifically reveals Himself to the world. 

So how do these promises spur us towards holiness?

These promises reveal to us the the transformation we have experienced because of God’s love.  God sent His Son to die on a cross so we would be saved, brought into relationship with Himself and live with Him.  And because God is holy, those whom He indwells are holy.  We have been made holy by God.  Because of God working in our lives we have undergone a major identity transformation.  

Before God saved us, we were sinful rebellious, idol worshippers.  But now that we have been saved, we have been made into new creations (2 Cor. 5:17), are being transformed into the image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18), made ambassadors for God (2 Cor. 5:20), and given the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).  How can we live in sin?  That is not who we are anymore?  Rather, because we are indwelled by the Holy God we are free to tear away sin that clings to us and run towards holiness. 

These promises spur us towards holiness because they reveal God’s powerful grace that has transformed unto His living temple.

Ferguson on Mortifying Sin

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Here is a great blog post by Sinclair Ferguson on Mortifying Sin.  It is definitely worth a read.

http://www.ligonier.org/blog/how-mortify-sin/

In this blog, Ferguson walks through Colossians 3 and gives some incredible wisdom on what it means as believers to kill sin.  One thing i particularly found helpful is the fact that we do not “put to death” our sin in isolation from “putting on our new self”.  These actions are not to be separated.  We do not just reject sin but because of the Spirit working in us, we exchange the desire of sin for the desire of holiness.

Check out the post.  It will not disappoint.

35 years old

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Today I am 35 years old and that means I have taken approximately 242,725,000 breaths in my life.  That’s a lot of breaths.  And as I was thinking of time, age, and breathing, God in His providence brought me to Psalm 90.  I have always liked this Psalm and today it became even more beautiful for me.  

In this Psalm we have the grandeur of God contrasted with the frailty of man.  In verse 2, it says, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”  And then in verse 3, we read, “You return man to dust.”  

God is great, glorious, and everlasting and then there is man, who is not great, glorious or everlasting.  The life of man is compared to grass that grows and flourishes in the morning but then fades and withers in the evening. Man is weak and frail and dies.  Even Methuselah, the oldest man recorded in scripture reached the very old age of 969 years, but then in Psalm 90:4 we read, “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past.”  Methuselah almost reached 1000 years old and that seems amazing. But in light of verse 4, that is like one day for God.  In fact, Methuselah didn’t even live for one entire day.  The Psalmist has made it absolutely clear, sinful man is frail and returns to the dust while our holy God lives forever in perfect glory.  

And then we come to verse 12.  Here the psalmist says, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”  The psalmist realizing that life is short, appeals for God’s wisdom that while we live here on earth we might live holy lives.  Then in verse 14, he cries out, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” And then in verse 17, “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!”

So to summarize, the Psalmist, knowing that God is great and glorious and that he is weak and frail, appeals to God for His wisdom, steadfast love, and favor.  The psalmist throws himself at God’s mercy and grace.  He has nothing and in his sinfulness He deserves nothing.  

So what happens?  Well Psalm 90 doesn’t tell us, but as we consider the grand narrative of the Bible we see that God does answer this request.  He does gracioulsy provide wisdom, steadfast love, and favor for man.  And he does it through His Son Jesus Christ.  And now because of the grace of Jesus we have been given the mind of Christ (Phil 2:5; 1 Cor 2:14-16) that we would live holy and wise lives.  We have been given the steadfast love of God for it is God who now dwells in us (1 Jn 4:7).  And we have certainly received the favor of God through His Son Jesus.  For because of Jesus, God tells us He will continue to lavish His grace upon us for all eternity (Eph 2:7).

So in the end, I am 35 years old and I am not promised one more day.  But by God’s grace I will live a holy life for His glory.  God satisfies me everyday with is perfect all-satisfying steadfast love.  And I know His favor rests upon me, not for what I have done for Him, but because of the grace He has bestowed upon me.  

#12 Because of the Cross we now live for Jesus

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Jesus died to free us from the bonds of sin.  He died so that no longer would we be slaves to sin but that we would be slaves to God.  He died that we would live for the glory of God in all that we do.  As John Piper said, “Christ died for the glory of Christ.”

2 Corinthians 5:15 (ESV)
15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Philippians 3:7–8 (ESV)
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

#11 Jesus went to the cross to bring us to God

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It doesn’t get much more clear than these two verses.  We were far from God.  But by the grace of Jesus Christ at the cross we are brought near.  PRAISE GOD!

1 Peter 3:18 (ESV)
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

Ephesians 2:13 (ESV)
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.