A Virtuous Woman
Proverbs 31:10
Sermon by Jack Nazary
The mother of King Lemuel taught him words of wisdom by precept and practice.
She taught him the prophecy by precept - verse 10 we conclude that she taught him by practice.
In verse 1, he mentions his mother.
In verse 11-31, he describes her. In the text he asks, "Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far about rubies?" Rubies have always been precious because of their scarcity and beauty.
Virtue stood for various elements of character - but always has been used to define the best qualities of character.
A number of qualities here are: trustworthiness, faithfulness, purity, industry, honesty, love, unselfishness, judgment, social grace, wisdom, kindness, and the fear of God.
I. She is trustworthy - verses 11-12
No doubt about her faithfulness. Her husband has full confidence in her. Never found in bar room with some other man; never give cause for husband and others to wonder about her fidelity; never flirts with the grocery clerk at the meat counter or the salesman at the door. A woman is never more queenly than when she obeys - Ephesians 5:22 "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord."
Wives submit:
enjoy submission - accept it as a gift of God
joy and obedience to God's order - acknowledge the Lordship of Christ
joy of meeting a husband's needs
joy of exemplifying the relations between Christ and the Church
joy of victorious atmosphere in home
joy of viewing the kingdom and previewing Heaven
I doubt if a wife will ever win her husband to Christ or her unsurrendered husband to the will of God until she is willing to yield to plain teachings of the Word. The Bible is holy inspired, authoritative word of God. It is hard for a Christian woman to submit herself to an old stinking-tobacco smoking, liquor drinking sinner. Therefore, a Christian girl should be so careful not to marry an unsaved man. Especially when the man is mean and cowardly enough to strike his wife. Domestic violence is on the rise in our nation and it should be stopped. But many sweet Godly women who have stayed true and continue to love their husbands to the point that he is saved and the children too. God blesses such submission.
Read on in Ephesians 5:23-25 - "Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it." Love never fails - the love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13 states it plainly in verses 4-6. Love is selflessly, sacrificially given. The husband is the head of the home in all areas = physical, mental, moral, spiritual, emotional.
II. The Thrifty Housekeeper
verse 13 - "She seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands." willing worker
verse 14 - she bringeth food from afar
verse 15-19 - she is industrious. She provides food for her household and servant girls. She works vigorously in the fields and in the home.
"Man works from sun up to sun down, but a woman's work is never done" patches clothes, sews on buttons, washes, dries, and folds clothes, irons clothes, cleans house, mop, vacuum floors, washes dishes, cooks meals, etc. So much rests upon the wife. A man asks, "Not can you cook but can you thaw?" (HA)
III. A virtuous woman's kindness
verse 20 - She cares for the poor and needy. Her love is expressed to all who need it.
verse 21-24- thrifty but not stingy
verse 25 - she is equipped with - strength and honor
verse 26-27 - She speaks with wisdom and expresses kindness. She is kind to everyone. Christian mothers should show this trait in all their dealings with others.
IV. Motherhood - A real blessing
verse 28 - "her children arise and call her blessed"
She takes care of her children - hold fevered brow, dry tears from cheeks of a child, kiss away the hurt. There is no earthly love like a mother's love.
Abraham Lincoln once said, "All I am or ever hope to be I owe to my angel mother." One man said he would never forget the sermonettes his mother taught him as child. "Tell the truth and tell it ever, costeth what it will"; For he who hides the wrong he did, does the wrong thing still." Another one was, "when a task is once begun, you leave it not until it's done." And "Be a matter great or small, do it well or not at all." The lessons about honesty, persistence and the importance of doing your very best in whatever you do were never forgotten because of his caring and loving MOM.
"The most beautiful diadem a woman can wear is the crown of motherhood."
V. The fear and love of God.
verse 30 - "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised."
Psalm 27:10 - "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up."
