What is the role of a woman in the home according to the teachings of the Bible?

In this video, Dr. Joel Beeke refers to Paul's letter to Titus to shed light on the significance of a woman's role in a Christian home. He draws from the model established by the Puritans, who were among the first to elevate the status of marriage and the home in church history. Contrary to negative views of marriage and the home that prevailed earlier, Paul's vision, as interpreted by Beeke, supports a harmonious Christian home where the husband and wife understand and fulfill their respective roles with joy and commitment.

Beeke rebukes the notion of belittling the role of a housewife, emphasizing its importance as the center of the home. He affirms that while a woman can work outside the home, her primary duty lies in loving and caring for her husband and children. The prosperity of the family, church, nation, and world can be traced back to the stability and happiness of the Christian home, where each member acknowledges and adheres to their God-ordained roles.

Proverbs 31:10-11 (NKJV): 'Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain.'

As far as women are concerned, in the home, according to Paul's letter to Titus, I think it's very clear what Paul's aiming at. He's aiming at what the Puritans modeled, and they were the first group really that modeled that in church history effectively. Because before that marriage was often looked down on as a negative thing. The Reformers began to turn the ship around. You know, it's sinful to be married.

If you're more holy, you know, you would be a higher level church office like a priest, can't marry. Augustine taught, Even if you have sex with your wife, you're sinning, but it's something you have to do to have children. This is all negative. But what Paul is aiming for is something very clear. The happy Christian home where the father is hard-working, supplies for the family, supports the family with his instruction, his daily family worship, his caring for his children, and the wife is a happy wife at home, loving her husband, loving her children, servant-hearted, and willing to receive instruction from older women or from the pulpit So that whole picture of the godly woman who's the hub of the whole is a place of honor.

So when you hear a Christian say, which is astonishing, oh, I'm just a housewife, They say it innocently, don't they? But it shows you how far the world has made inroads in the concept of what a godly woman is to be. Because just a housewife. I often say from the pulpit that a wife is, I'll say, the second most important occupation in the world. I do think the ministry is number one, because you're dealing with so many souls.

But the wife is the center of the home. And as the Puritans used to say, as goes family worship between a couple and then in the home, so goes the family, as goes the family, so goes the church, as goes the church, so goes the nation, as goes the nation, so goes the world. It boils down into that happy Christian home where both husband and wife know their own roles and put their own priorities in accord with Scripture's priorities. Now I'm not saying that a woman may never work out of the home in any capacity. I won't go that far.

But I am saying that the Bible makes pretty clear that The woman's primary realm of duty is in loving her husband and loving and caring for her children. Now when those children get older or they're not in school, I don't see anything wrong with her using some skills outside the home, or even when she has a few children, perhaps half a day a week or one day a week, whatever it may be, but not at the expense of the children. So the role here is pretty clear.