The Bible clearly instructs wives to be “keepers at home,” “so that the word of God might not be blasphemed” (Titus 2:5). It is clearly stated that there is something that happens when a woman is not a keeper at home which causes the Word of God to be blasphemed. The role of a wife is to be focused on taking dominion with her husband and children. The modern feeling is that a wife can be a CEO, teacher, or lawyer as long as she does not neglect her home. She can do it all. She does not need a singular focus on home life, but this is not how the Bible teaches wives to operate.

Welcome to the Church and Family Life podcast. Church and Family Life exists to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture. And today we want to talk about the home, about what it means to be a keeper at home and walk through several passages of Scripture that describe what it ought to look like for a wife to be a keeper at home. And we recognize that a well cared for home is a blessing to the world, and particularly to children and to husbands and neighborhoods. And to also just acknowledge that home life is something that is diminished in the days that we live in today.

That there are women today who feel that home life is bondage, but we'd like to just quote the word of God. The Bible says that if a woman is not a keeper at home, the word of God is blasphemed. There are things that happen in a woman's life, in her family's life that cause blaspheming if that woman isn't focused on her home. So we want to particularly talk about wives. On a later podcast, we would like to talk about young girls growing up in their home and how to understand the centrality of home life in the years of their youth.

And if they're at home in their 20s and even 30s, how they should think of it. But in this podcast, we wanna address directly the wife and mother in the home. So Jason, here we go. We've been talking about this a long time. Yeah, no, it's good to be talking about it today.

It's so out of favor today that you, when you begin to speak the words of Scripture, even just quoting the bare words of Scripture, you sort of feel that you're contradicting the flow of all the systems of the world. That's true. I think we wanna just start by thundering forth the thought that we've not come here today to apologize for God but to praise Him for His wisdom. His ways are the best ways. And to place a woman in the home, to focus her on providing a healthy abode for a family so that it can flourish is both beautiful and wise of God, and we should thank God for doing it.

The modern wisdom is a woman can do anything she wants. A woman can do everything that she doesn't have to choose. She can, she can do what she desires. She can do it all actually that she can be a CEO. She can be a lawyer as long as she doesn't neglect her home and she doesn't really need to have a singular focus of her life.

We're here to say the Bible actually calls wives to have a singular focus. That's the explicit teaching of the Bible. I know we want to quickly get to text, so let's start in Titus chapter 2. It's a famous text about older women in churches teaching younger women. So let me start in Titus chapter 2 verse 1.

Paul writes to Titus, but as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience. The older women likewise that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, and then there's a listing of the good things. That they admonish the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed." So I want to start with my comments on this text. I want to start by framing it the way Paul frames it in verse one, in sound doctrine, that as for you speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. The reason I think that's so important is the argument that it's culturally bound falls apart.

Right. Paul isn't just speaking into his culture, he's talking in terms of sound doctrine, and then he calls the older women to teach good things, not culturally bound things or things that we've now moved beyond, but the things that the older women are, to exhort the younger women, are home-based things, to love their husband, to love their children, to be keepers at home. Yeah, and the word that the apostle uses is the word that's translated homemaker or keeper at home, and it's actually two Greek words put together. It's oikos, which means home or dwelling place or house, and the word uros, which means overseer, watcher, watchdog, mother bear, you know, someone who's taking authority over the preservation and the care of her family. And there's a companion phrase that actually uses stronger language in 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 14.

In 1 Timothy chapter 5, Paul is describing widows who are eligible for financial support from the local church. And he describes widows whose past lives can be characterized by certain things, and right in the middle of that is keepers at home. And the Greek under that is oikodespiteo, again, it's home, but in that case, it's home ruler or home manager, so... Despot. Yeah, despot.

What's being described here is a million miles away from the maid or the cook. Actually, when you go to Proverbs 31, we find that she manages the maids and the cooks. And during the large portions of the day, she actually is the authority in the home, ordering the home according to her calling. Yeah, I think for many years we've been saying a wife can't do it all, she should focus. I really like how Alistair Begg answered the question, what can a wife and mother do outside the home?

He says, ladies, motherhood is a full-time job. Don't kid yourself that you can be a dental receptionist and a mother, that you can be a typist and a mom, that you can be a vice president and a mom. One of the two things will win. Now, look at your Bible and ask what you have to do. That's pretty succinct.

But the Bible really has a woman with a very clearly defined role. The world hates the role and would like to relieve women of that role and to despise it. I think when you say that, offense is immediately taken, and the question that is immediately blurted out is, are you saying you're a better mom than me? Are you saying you're a better wife than me? And to that I would respond, well, let's take me and my wife out of the equation and just talk about you.

Are you as good a wife as you would be if you gave all your best efforts in time to being a mother? Are you as good of a wife or mother as if you focused on it versus as if it was sort of a hobby to you based on the allocation of your time. I really want to talk about simple math. This is about the allocation of time, the best of your time and energies focused on the things that you are prioritizing by the allocation of that time. Right.

And as a secondary matter, which we'll deal in another podcast, girls growing up in a home should learn how to have this kind of focus while they're there in their homes so that they actually provide another generation of of oikos despotess, home rulers, you know, home despots. I have a sentence in my notes, and I try not to read my notes, but in this case, I've chosen the word so carefully. I actually want to read the notes. It takes tremendous preparation, skill, and skills, meaning there are a variety of skills, but they have to be done well. So skill and skills, effort and longevity to cultivate a healthy home.

So just sort of unpack that backwards. Cultivate a healthy home. Healthy homes don't just appear. You don't get there by just going with the flow. They have to be carefully cultivated.

If you don't carefully cultivate them, you don't end up with one. And so to get there, it requires preparation, not just one home ec class on cooking because you're not just cooking. It requires a variety of skills and that those skills be done well and it requires effort over a long period of time to cultivate a healthy home. You are a home builder. Keepers at home should consider themselves home builders.

They're building something every day, and the world needs it, their husbands need it, their children need it, their community needs it, their church needs it. It's just incredibly valuable work. This is an application of the dominion mandate to take dominion. And that's why, you know, Genesis chapter 2 verse 18, verse 20, and 24 are relevant. And what is a wife?

A helper comparable. She's helping the building of a society, of a culture, and her husband needs help. So let's talk about that. Well, I want to start with the word comparable. So in Genesis chapter one, the author Moses goes to great pains to point out that they're both image bearers, male and female, both made in the image of God.

So she's comparable to the man, and made in the image of God just screams capability. Meaning, if you bear the image of God, you're highly capable. So, the man needs a helper, not just a beast to be harnessed for work, but actually a highly capable companion in order to do high-level work, really. Yeah, so the homemaker is a dominion-oriented vision person and, you know, carrying out, you know, a godly vision. Let's talk about another text, Psalm 128.

Blessed are all those who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to Him. You will eat the fruit of your labor. Blessings and prosperity will be yours. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children will be like olive shoots around your table.

Yes, this is the blessing for the man who fears the Lord." So you have this wife who is within her house, and she is a vine, but she has olive shoots going out. Yes. So this, Psalm 128, describes God-fearers, people who fear the Lord and because they have this reverence for God in their hearts and in their lives, they order their lives according to the Word of God, what He has said. No one can read the... Be familiar with the totality of the Bible, and honestly, you don't need to pick between Old Testament and New, they tell the same story, and say, God hasn't spoken to this, God just left it up to us to work out our roles.

No, God has spoken very clearly. God-fearers order their lives in a certain way, and it's according to His Word. The psalm ends with, May you live to see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel. There you have your children, you have the next generation, and you also have the blessing of the nation of Israel.

Okay, let's move on. Let's talk about the industrious woman in Proverbs 31. I'll just say a couple of things. This woman is not stuck at home. She's centered on her home, but she is looking on the way of her household, verse 27 in Proverbs 31.

Yeah, I just preached on biblical womanhood at our church, and one of the things that I said right out of Proverbs 31 is, when a home is functioning according to God's design, with a husband that fears the Lord, wants to serve the Lord, is walking with the Lord, and a wife who wants to fear the Lord, loves the Lord, wants to walk with the Lord. When a home is functioning like that, the wife enjoys tremendous trust and tremendous latitude. And this is exactly what you see on display in Proverbs 31, a wife who has the trust of her husband, that's actually explicit in the text, the heart of her husband safely trusts in her. And then when you look at her activities, she has tremendous latitude over the government of her home, but these are home-based things. That's undeniable.

Yeah, and her focus is the gain of her household. Verse 11 says, the heart of her husband safely trusts her. You just quoted that. So he will have no lack of gain. This woman is a builder.

I like the way you said it. This is not a function of limitation, but it's a function of freedom to go out and to create gain for the family and particularly for her husband. Yeah, certainly not a woman who's cooped up at home, whose entire existence happens within the four walls of their home, but her entire existence is centered around the good of her home for sure. The other thing we ought to comment on in Proverbs 31 is where her husband is. Where's the husband of the Proverbs 31?

He's actually in the gates contending in the community, advancing the interests of the kingdom of God in the community. Think about how the competent management of this home gives him freedom to be in the gates and not also in the home, because those things are well-ordered and running smoothly. They're healthy, they're good, and so the reach of the home is actually extended by the good management of this home by this wife. Yeah, this woman is creating strength. She's creating competence.

She's creating resources so that when a husband comes home from the gates, there's something to be a blessing to him, to strengthen him. And of course, he comes home to strengthen her and you have this interchange. But the idea that the Proverbs 31 woman is just a businesswoman running around buying and selling property, That's not the primary message. The message is she's taking what God has given her and she's multiplying it. That's the issue.

Well, whether you multiply it, there are lots of ways to multiply the prosperity of your house. You know, every woman doesn't have resources to go out and buy fields. That's not the point. The point isn't go figure out how to buy a field. The point is figure out how to bring gain with what God has put in your hands.

So let's talk about the wise woman in Proverbs 14.1. The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands. Yeah. It almost doesn't need comment, right? A house, a good house must be built and who will do the building of it.

And we don't just mean home construction, we mean the cultivation of the good things that make a home environment healthy and a blessing. Well, it's the wise woman who builds it, but foolish women buy the allocation of their time and energy and hours, and by the way, they do their home quote building or actually tearing it down. You know, another of the Proverbs says that by wisdom, a house is built by understanding its rooms are filled with precious and pleasant treasures. That's what a woman does. She fills the rooms with precious and pleasant treasures, and she does that by the word of God through her faithfulness, through her humility, and through her building her house.

She builds it by being a wise woman. And this is figurative language, you know, that's not about beautiful home decor, although pleasant homes often have beautiful home decor, but it's really talking about the things that contribute to the health of the members of the home. So let's look at Malachi 2.15. The faithful woman is doing something that God wants. I'll read the text.

But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring, therefore take heed to your spirit. That's what God wants. He wants a godly offspring.

That's the focus of a woman's, a wife's life. So let's, I do want to comment on this passage, but let's just set it in the context of the flow of the argument that we're making. We started with Paul. Paul's teaching something to the women in that church there. But then we went back to Genesis chapter one in the history books, or Genesis chapter two, a helper comparable to the man.

And then we went to Psalm, Psalm 127, Psalm 14. So the same song, so to speak, is being sung in the poetry books. And then we went to the wisdom books, Proverbs 31, completely consistent with what Paul is teaching in Titus 2, and now we're in the prophets, Malachi 2. The argument being made here is that Paul isn't teaching something strange at all. Paul is teaching something that appears in the historical books, in the poetry books, in the wisdom books, in the prophets.

Paul is just drawing on Scripture, Genesis to Revelation, and teaching the same thing that the Bible teaches everywhere. Amen. Let's talk about the evangelistic woman and the evangelistic field of the home. And we go to 1 Timothy 3.15, and we learn about Timothy's mother and grandmother. From childhood, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

And the Apostle is just giving a word of encouragement to mothers and grandmothers to fill their children's hearts with the Word of God. Many pastors might make the mothers of children feel guilty and say, you've gotta go out on this evangelistic campaign. You need to go out witnessing. You need to go get on the road. And they feel guilty as a result of it.

But the reality is God has given an evangelistic field to every mother. God has given eternal souls to every mother. That's her primary evangelistic field. And to make busy mothers feel guilty because they're not out hitting the streets, I think is incredibly unprofitable. It's definitely discouraging because they have quite enough to do in the evangelizing of their children.

Yeah, don't send them out where they have less influence. Keep them home where they have a tremendous amount of influence to impact their children. Just to follow on what you were quoting in 2 Timothy, in chapter 1 he says, when I called to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, Paul to Timothy, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is also in you. And then he follows up in chapter three by saying, when you were a boy, you were taught the Holy Scriptures, you know who taught them to you. So it was this grandmother and this mother who poured the Word of God into his life, which God used for the conversion of a soul.

There's a great book that Jeremy Walker wrote a few years ago called The Broken-Hearted evangelist, and he addresses this there. He says, don't bruise the conscience of a busy mother with children. He says, her mission field is at her feet. Her mission field is in her arms and on her back. And then he goes on and he just reminds of examples of godly mothers like of Augustine and Spurgeon and John Payton.

The role of a mother in a home, evangelizing, giving her her greatest energies to her children to raise them is so precious and so good. And so we're here to encourage wives to don't listen to the world and give your whole energy to your children and your family, your home. Be the wise woman who builds her house and brings gain to her husband. I'm a pretty even-keeled guy. You've known me for a long time.

Not much infuriates me. Here's one thing that infuriates me. The notion that a keeper at home is the embodiment of wasted potential. And the reason it infuriates me is because it's so condescending and it's so untrue. I'm married to one of the most capable people I know, men or women, and I worked in private industry for 20 years, and I know what people with certain skill sets can make.

My wife could have made a tremendous amount of money putting those skills to work outside our home, but she's focused all that energy and used all of her skills. She's not the embodiment of wasted potential. Actually, all those skills that she has, she's used every one of them in creating a certain kind of home for us, and I'm so grateful. Actually, my mom did that in the home that I grew up in. I'm so grateful for both my mom and my wife that they decided to focus their energies on her home and not be deluded in a hundred other things.

Amen. Yeah. Okay. Well, so there you have it. We're here to encourage wives to give themselves to be keepers at home, the way that the scriptures describe it.

And don't listen to the world, they're wrong. And what you find is women who do devote themselves to such a thing are a blessing, a far greater blessing than the lawyers and the CEOs out there who've left their homes. So there you have it. Thank you for joining us on the Church and Family Life podcast, and we really hope to see you next Monday. Thanks for listening to the Church and Family Life podcast.

We have thousands of resources on our website, announcements of conferences coming up. Hope you can join us. Go to churchandfamilylife.com. See you next Monday for our next broadcast of the Church and Family Life podcast.