LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Ministry of a Woman of God (1)
"But she shall be saved in childbearing, if she continue in faith, love, and sanctification, with modesty ... Let the married women be subject to their own husbands, as to the Lord" (1 Tim. 2:15; Eph. 5:22).
The woman of God has ample possibilities for fulfillment and service. From these passages, we can extract two areas of responsibility of the woman in the home: 1. To love and respect her husband. 2. To love and care for her children.
To love and respect her husband. The first commandment is to love. Being a woman of a sensitive and affectionate character, this demand is generally not very costly. The believing woman who has married in love will have a favorable disposition towards her husband, which will make it easier for her to face difficult days and to strengthen the bonds of love already existing. However, if she has not married in love, then she will find the opportunity to find in God the love that has eluded her.
In any case, she will be able to love her husband with the love of the Lord, even if he is not a believer. However, the demand to respect her husband may encounter greater difficulties than the demand to love him. The woman's character is more lively, and she will quickly want to get ahead of her husband in her opinion, in her opinion and even in her decision making, which can turn into a tendency to disqualify him.
If the wife's love for her husband could be considered a more or less natural and spontaneous feeling, respect is not. Therefore, the greatest demand for the wife is to respect her husband, valuing him as the church values her Lord. Love (without due respect) could be for the wife a convenient excuse to manipulate the husband, and a cause of permanent friction that provokes God's displeasure.
Love and care for their children. Love for children translates into care, nurture, instruction and discipline, in the Lord (Eph. 6:4). A woman's love for her children is the most necessary affection for them, and therefore, it cannot be delegated. This means that a woman of God cannot transfer this function to another woman. She may receive help, but she cannot be replaced.
A woman who works too much and is therefore away from the home for too long is in danger of having the 'nanny' take her place in her children's hearts. The 'nanny' may well take her place in the home, but not that of the mother in the love and instruction of the children. So the home is the first and undelegable sphere of action and service of a woman of God. If she fails in this, she fails in everything.