HOLY WOMEN
M. W. Biggs
The place women have in Christianity is beautiful; no one who is spiritually minded could read the New Testament without being struck by this fact. The place women are assuming in this world is quite the reverse; they are destroying themselves. In attempting to fill man’s place they forsake their own; and they certainly can never rightly fill his. No place more fittingly sets forth the position of the assembly than does the place of woman; I refer to the position of the assembly in relation to Christ.
The thought of being subject, of submitting ourselves, has already been presented in this epistle. Even to every ordinance of man, whether to the king or to governors, we are to submit ourselves for the Lord’s sake. But in the passage before us the apostle particularly dwells upon the subject place and adornment of women, of wives. We all do well to take heed to the instruction, especially those addressed.
Subjection is a feature proper to the assembly and should mark everyone composing it. It is one of the first lessons of the kingdom of God. The younger are to submit themselves to the elder, yea, all of us are to be subject one to another. The element in us that dislikes to be subject is pride. Pride is sin. There is one who is spoken of as the king over all the children of pride, see Job 41: 34 (A.V.). We do not want to be his subjects, surely! Antichrist will exalt himself. Humility is the opposite of pride and is one of the moral excellencies of Jesus. Jesus humbled Himself. It is well for us definitely to name the feeling in our hearts that objects to our being subject one to another. It is pride or some other form of self-will, some feature that will characterise the “man of sin”. How much pride there is in our hearts! Let us soberly face this question, dear reader, and judge ourselves in the presence of God and in the light of the cross. We sometimes sing—
‘When I behold the wond’rous cross
On which the Lord of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride’.
But we may wisely ask ourselves if we have really meant what we have sung. Pride is very objectionable to God.
While the exhortation is necessary for us all, the scripture we are considering is particularly addressed to wives in respect of their own husbands. A wife here is told of a spiritual weapon far more powerful than the most forceful arguments she might employ, and one in the use of which she will have divine support. The natural heart will think little of such a course, but we may be quite sure God’s way is right and best. A man who will “obey not the word”, may “without the word” be won by his wife’s chaste manner of life. How gracious of God to
appeal to the heart of a sinner through such a channel of affection, to speak to him in such a tender way. Be encouraged, dear sister, if such is your position. Your husband may not read a tract; the Bible may be a book he will not open; but he can and will read you, and God may open his heart through your quiet and submissive spirit and your chaste and gentle ways. Do not forsake this divinely ordered path for one suggested by human reason. Depend upon it, God knows best.
A further instruction is given as to dress, adornment. No scripture seems more overlooked today. As far as the practical effect upon some believers is concerned, it might as well not be in the Bible at all. Have you read 1 Peter 3: 3 and 4, dear sister? Do you recognise the passage as inspired of God? Has it the authority of God over your soul? Have you heeded and are you acting in accordance with what it says? “Holy women” are needed today. The professing church has abandoned her place of subjection to Christ, and women characteristically are giving up theirs. Instead of the adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, a spirit quite the reverse appears general. Outward adornment to attract attention, apparel put on not to cover but for display, seems the order of the day; and, alas! habits that mark the world frequently get in among those who are the Lord’s. Poor world! After all, what has it other than outward adornment? It is without Christ and without God. But is a believer such, too? Has not a woman, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and whose heart has been purified by faith, nothing else? Have we nothing else who have found Christ precious? Indeed we have!
A Christian woman has the capability of moral adornment; she has a beauty that no worldling possesses. What need has she to stoop to the world’s level and gratify vanity and feed pride?
“Holy women” of old have set the example; “holy women” today will follow it. They will possess an adornment “which is in the sight of God of great price”. Do not be afraid of the word “obeyed”. Sarah “obeyed” Abraham, calling him lord. You do not lose your place in so doing, you keep it. Your behaviour is a lesson to everyone in the kingdom of God; in so acting you are a daughter of Sarah.
Husbands are to dwell with their wives according to knowledge, recognising them as the weaker vessel, and to give them honour. How these instructions strike the mind as very different from the world’s behaviour! There is to be consideration given by the husband to the wife that is due to her, an intelligent recognition of what is comely. He is to honour her.
What a contrast this to the degraded condition of women in heathendom, where she was very little other than a slave. What a contrast also to much that goes on today in professed Christian countries! The husband and wife are to be “heirs together” of the grace of life.
Their lives are to be ordered accordingly that prayer be not hindered. Their relationship one with another is to be maintained in keeping with the holy presence of God which they seek in prayer.
The reader will notice that the exhortations in this epistle are not on the high ground of the epistle to the Ephesians. Peter largely deals with principles and behaviour connected with the kingdom of God. May the Lord give us all concern of heart that these simple yet practical and important matters may have their right place in our lives for His name’s sake.
(From ‘Short Papers on Peter’s Epistles’).
Correction: The reference in the July issue (p.9) to J.N.D’s remark that there was never a time when Christ was so dear to the Father as on the cross, should have been ‘Coll. Wrtgs.’ Vol.
25, p.228 (not Vol. 28). There is a similar reference in Vol. 7, p.190).
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