Is Empowering Women Biblical?
There’s a lot of talk about women empowerment these days. One church had a sermon titled “Empowering Women” and the sermon was on 1 Corinthians 14 about women being silent in the churches, it being a shame for them to speak in the churches, and if they have a question, they are to ask their husbands at home. Somehow, the sermon turned into empowering women so that they can even preach in the churches.
If I were to give a talk on empowering women, which seems to be a main theme among many female preachers these days, I would share the Gospel with them. The only way for a woman to be truly “empowered” would be to believe the Gospel and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Being empowered with the Holy Spirit means that it is His Spirit which works mightily within us to accomplish His will for our life. It doesn’t mean that we work out our own will and what we want to do in life.
It seems that most women who preach/teach about women empowerment really mean for women to be empowered to do what men do: preach, climb the career ladder, make money, go into politics, be movers and shakers, etc. It doesn’t have anything to do with obeying the Lord and His will. God’s will for women is to have meek and quiet spirits. It’s the complete opposite of what women are being taught these days. Instead of being taught to be empowered, they need to be taught who they are in Christ and His beautiful will for them.
A woman with a meek and quiet spirit trusts in God Almighty. She loves what God has called her to do. She has no desire to rule or be a man. She wants to live in godly submission to her husband and seek his best. She doesn’t get rattled easily because she rests in Him and His plan for her life. She doesn’t worry about the “what ifs” because she knows the “what ifs” steal her joy. Those questions take God out of the equation. She is thankful that God made her a woman and is content with the life that He has given to her. The only way she wants to be empowered is by doing what He has asked her to do with His Spirit working mightily within her.
Let’s teach women to be “empowered” with godliness, not with worldliness. God commands older women to teach younger women biblical womanhood and how to be the woman that God has called them to be, not be empowered to do things that He has not called them to do. Christ didn’t die to empower women so they could go their own way. No, He empowered them to be transformed into His likeness and filled with the fruits of the Spirit to do His will.
But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
1 Peter 3:4
17 thoughts on “Is Empowering Women Biblical?”
The woman you describe is in my opinion way more “empowered” than the “modern woman”. It takes a lot of strength nowadays for a woman to listen to her heart and decide to stay at home, not to pursue a college degree and a career despite the society telling her she can (more like, she must) have those things.
Amen! True empowerment is SUBMISSION to God. If God wanted women to have rights, He would not have said ,”Keep silent in church.” Women today are jealous of men because God gave men more freedom, but we must keep in mind that God’s restrictions are for our protection.
It’s not listening to her heart, Ana. It’s about obeying God and His will for her life but yes, a woman who actually obeys the Lord is more empowered than the modern woman who goes her own way. The modern woman is “empowered” to do what is right in her own eyes. God has something to say about this and it’s not good.
Having the burden of going to work every day to provide for one’s family is not more freedom for men than for women. This is what feminists want women to believe. We have the freedom to stay home, create, care for our children and home, and train them up in the ways of the Lord! Both sexes have different responsibilities but we are both FREE in Christ which means everything.
Somehow, the sermon [on 1 Corinthians 14] turned into empowering women so that they can even preach in the churches.
While they may be competent at very little else, if there’s one thing that churchian franchise CEOs are experts at doing, it’s perverting the Scriptures to appeal to itchy female ears.
Just to clarify, I of course agree with that, it is God’s plan for women to stay at home, merely that should be the reason why women should not pursue careers. What I meant was, a lot of women (with a few exceptions, of course) actually WANT to stay at home, especially right after their babies are born, and they know they cannot take care of their husbands and children properly with their attention divided, yet they still have careers and sort of “settle” for only 2 or 3 children, even though they could have more, simply because they know they cannot handle more and a job and the society pressures them into this sort of a “modern” lifestyle. I think a lot of women actually feel in their hearts what God’s desire for them is but they don’t have the courage to defy the people around them telling them they should try to “juggle it all”, if I may say so. That is why I appreciate the whole Trad-wife movement and blogs like yours: they encourage women and tell them that their instincts to stay at home and take care of their children are not wrong, they are in fact Biblical.
When I said, “Men have more freedom,” I was referring to the freedom of choosing what they want to do if life, making decision in church, or how they want their homes run, etc, not freedom to work a job.
We have freedom what to do in life too! We can marry and decide who to marry, bear children, guide the home (making sure the man we marry wants these things too), decide how we want to decorate our homes, what foods to fix, etc. It’s not freedom to be in authority. They are held to much higher accountability than those under them. You are believing the lies of feminism.
We live in a self-centered world. Some may know God’s will for their lives but they prefer to do things the way they want to do them.
“God’s will for women is to have meek and quiet spirits”. I hope you don´t mind that this sentence goes into my little golden thoughts notebook. Meek-and-quiet-spirited women are such a beautiful vision, and so rare to see these days! I like when I find one in the middle of this noisy world. How quietly they move, how beautifully they are dressed, how compassionately they look at people, how sweetly they speak, if they do speak at all! Working on being such a jewel-woman will take me all my life, with the help of God, and lots of failures and new beginnings. So when I discover one of them, I watch her silently and try to learn.
I wish I had known better in my younger years. What is left of them, very little, nothing of value. So much studying, fighting, arguing, debating, trying to be seen and well-known never brought my home but anxiety. But oh, the feeling of peace flowing when I know I´m doing the baking, the washing, the cooking, the caring that God intended for me to do in simplicity and tenderness!
Thank you for another great post. Keep on the good work. The world needs God´s truth so much.
What a beautiful comment, Rachel. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
Loved this! ? I so agree with you! ? I literally just got your book, “Biblical Womanhood”… so excited to read it! Blessings and prayers from Delaware. ?
Thank you, Stacie! I hope you enjoy it.
I’ve been to numerous rallies in California to end this lockdown, and what I’ve noticed is that women are overwhelmingly in leadership roles.
A major reason why this despotic and destructive lockdown has been in force for as long as it has is because of women’s fear. Because our feminized society is both in thrall to fear and averse to any degree of risk, we refuse to move beyond the paralysis stage. Of course there’s also the fact that Machiavellian MEN in power are exploiting this feminine fear to solidify their own hold on that power.
Ahh…to be at home raising the next generation of male leaders. Telling them the Bible stories, teaching them Bible verses, esteeeming their Daddy highly, praying for them lots…. so challenging yet so fulfilling ?
I never thought of it this way but you are right! President Trump wanted the country opened by Easter and he doesn’t wear a mask. The country should have opened by Easter but many persuaded him not to. It would have caused much less suffering in the end.
The most empowering thing I have ever done in my life is giving birth. Nothing can be more empowering than bringing new life into the world.