Even now there are some Christian domestic circles where women are shut out of the spiritual conversation. Husband and wife don’t consider things together. Sometimes there is male laziness and the man makes no contribution to the home; women talk only about babies and domestic matters – this may be the man’s fault because he does not include her as he should. He is responsible for potentiating his wife in her role. ‘Thou shalt not kill’ includes the marginalisation of a wife. Remember that Moses extends the sixth commandment to include kidnap, withholding of honour from parents, gossip. It would also include denying a wife her meaningful role in life.
Does all that the Bible says here about the sophisticated role of women give scope to Christian feminists? Neo-evangelicals emphasise such verses as Paul’s statement in Galatians 3:28: ‘There is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus’. They explain away the texts which teach distinctive roles for men and women as cultural or transitional. But in Galatians, Paul means only to teach that we have equal access to Christ, equal status before him in prayer, and of course that in heaven we will be completely equal. His words do not imply that the order of this world should be overturned, for God has ordained distinct roles within marriage as long this world continues. Nowhere does Scripture teach that Christians are free to ignore God’s rules for marriage. Marriage will end when God ends it, when it is fulfilled in what it has always pre-figured: the true marriage between Christ and the church, not before. The order that God has ordained within marriage and the church is quite clear in Scripture. Some however slip far away from sound doctrine when they compare women to slaves, and argue that just as slaves are now free, so should women be. Paul’s teaching on distinct role relationships is in effect cancelled, but this teaching still stands. Unlike marriage, slavery was not ordained as part of creation intended to stand for all time. If marriage has become little better than slavery, it has been perverted by fallen wickedness. This passage in Proverbs shows that the Biblical concept of the believing wife is anything but slavery. Others handle this problem in a distinctly spineless way. They say, ‘The issue of the role of women is not a fundamental of the faith. We mustn’t be divisive and so we will not speak against equal roles for men and women in the church. If the churches join together, then it is better to do so on a like-minded basis.’ Let Christian teachers need to have the courage of their convictions and not be ashamed of any part of God’s word.
Does Proverbs 31 mean that a female Christian employer can’t take authority over a male employee at work? No, that work relationship is merit based, not based on God’s order for men and women in society in general and in marriage and the church in particular.