Notice
Posted by ericnovak on April 16th, 2008Not Just an Opinion is no longer running. We may start up again with a new writer staff, but for the time being the site will remain the the same.
Eric Novak
http://www.ericnovak.com
Keepers of the Home or Defenders of the Workplace?
Posted by ericnovak on July 27th, 2007Keepers of the Home or Defenders of the Workplace?
Posted by Eric Novak and Jocelyn Dixon
Intro:
Should women be the keepers of the home? This subject is widely pondered, debated, and disputed. We’re going to give a few scripture references, and then a commentary after each one. This should clarify why women being keepers of the home is Not Just an Opinion.
Titus 2: 3-5 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.
Eric:
The most common argument against Titus is that Paul, even though a man with some good points was sexist. There is a problem with this theory. The whole Bible is God inspired. If God hadn’t wanted anything in the Bible about women being keepers of the home, you can be sure he wouldn’t have inspired Paul to write it. If we start saying that one writer in the Bible is wrong, then we have to start discounting other books of the Bible, too!
1 Timothy 5: 14 “So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander.
Jocelyn:
Paul is very clear in this verse to Timothy about young women, mainly widows, and he explains why they should marry, have children, and keep their homes. It’s very simple, and only if you disagree is it complicated. Paul goes on to say that not only is the home a place for you, your family, your belongings, but a place where you can freely worship God in your daily life without being persecuted by the secular world. As keepers at home, women have a great opportunity to be a Christ-like witness to other women by keeping their house and raising Godly children.
As a young widow, God doesn’t want you to be single, support yourself and be in a place of temptation. If you are a widow with children and have a job, where does that leave your children? How can you care for them as you should with a job? That is why Paul says, “I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes”. God has a design for women and it was to be handmaidens and women of virtue, and for them to honor their husbands. If you are not in the world, then you will not conform to it. You will, as Paul said, give the enemy no opportunity for slander. The enemy being Satan. The Bible says that he is as “a roaring lion seeking those he may devour”. Satan knows that God intended the woman to be at home, but over the centuries Satan has watered it down so much that we cannot tell if it’s water or wine. We don’t know if it’s God’s living water or if it Satan’s drunken wine. Satan has made people believe that the role of Home Keeper is a role of slavery and a lesser job. Feminist women say that men are slave drivers and we shouldn’t have to put up with that. Sadly people believe it. I personally know a mom who once thought that she needed to do something important, so she put her children in school and got a job. The job destroyed God’s design for her life. The job came in front of her husband, her family and her house. She tried to please her extended family, co-workers and her boss, rather than please God and her family. She had given the enemy an opportunity for slander and Satan devoured her. Years later she finally realized that the best job for her, her husband and her children was at home. She is now happily at home, where she should have been all along.
The role of being a home keeper should not be taken lightly and should not be neglected. Whether you are a young lady or a mature woman, you should always take delight in being a keeper at home, rather than a defender of the workplace.
Proverbs 7: 10-11 “Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent. She is loud and defiant; her feet never stay at home.
Eric:
In Proverbs, Solomon makes a point of saying that the adulteress does not stay at home. Obviously the opposite of an adulteress – a moral person would remain at home. Solomon, one of the wisest men that ever lived said that one of the many character flaws of the adulteress is that she doesn’t stay at home. Doesn’t that make you wonder if women should be keepers of the home? A woman abandoning her role as keeper of the home and going out into the workforce is one of the first steps to the disintegration of the family.
God made distinctions in the roles for man and woman for specific reasons. He made the man to provide, and the woman to keep the home. Our culture has reversed the roles, taking away a man’s God given role. A women should take care of her children and not leave them in the care of others while she works.