Virtuous Woman

I. Her Inner Adornment

When you read this passage, beloved, it becomes very plain, does it not, that there is one underlying principle here? And that when the Word of God talks about the believing wife, that it is exactly this which sets her apart from all else, that she is a woman who fears Jehovah. If there is any adornment or beauty to be found in a woman, it is this and this alone. The virtuous woman is more precious that rubies. She is so because she has one fundamental characteristic, one adornment that stands out above all else, and that is this, she is a child of God. She trusts in the Lord, and bows in the fear of God before His Word. She is adorned with that work of God's grace in her heart whereby she is made a living daughter of Zion, a child of God by faith. God alone makes the virtuous woman. God alone makes a wife who is indeed a blessing, for faith and godly fear do not proceed from us. It is that work of God's grace and Spirit in us, whereby the Lord takes us as we are, dead in ourselves, sinful and rebellious, and washes away our sin and uncleanness, uniting us unto Jesus Christ our Lord, making us one plant with Him.

The spiritual adornment of the virtuous woman, that woman which is above rubies in her price is this above all else, that she fears Jehovah. That she is a child of God. God alone can take that fountain of sinful pride which is rooted in the flesh of every man and woman, and humble it in the dust. He alone can take that rebellious sinfulness of our flesh and turn it around, writing there the love of God. The virtuous woman is one who knows the Lord, whose heart is set upon the Lord, her God. She is one who confesses her sins, humbling herself before God, seeking her life not in herself, but in Jesus Christ. She is to be praised. She is the subject of our text.

There are many kinds of adornment in the world. God sets before us, beloved,this one adornment-- a believing and obedient heart which fears Jehovah-- as that which is most precious. And without it, no woman is indeed beautiful, and that is manifest in this also, that she walks in meekness and in godly fear as a child of God. That is why those Proverbs, which we read, say that a prudent wife, a wife that fears the Lord, is a gift of God. He makes virtuous women, not man. By the sovereign power of His grace He makes women, who are in themselves foolish and unbelieving, His own daughters, binding them to Himself. That is the wife, which every believing young man ought to seek.

And that means too that that fear of the Lord which is written upon the heart comes to conscious and active expression in a godly walk of life. The fear of God bears the fruit of a walk of godly fear. For you that are wives, that walking by faith before the Lord begins by taking up His Word, with meekness before the Lord and with prayer, seeking His grace day by day. As a woman that fears Jehovah you seek to know His will, to know the way of the Lord, and to walk in His precepts. You seek to clothe yourself, not with your own strength and your own wisdom and the philosophy of this world, but with that strength and wisdom which God alone can give. That is why our text says that strength and honor are the clothing of a godly woman.

It is with spiritual sobriety and meekness, as the virtues of a child of God, that the godly woman clothes herself, that the young woman who seeks a husband in the church clothes herself. It is a woman who is thus clothed whom you, young men, are to seek as a wife. It is that which causes the husband of such a wife to rise up and call her blessed. Not broidered hair and gold or pearls are the adornment of the daughters of Zion. The adornment of the believing godly women is wholly other from the adornment of this world. It is, as the Apostle Paul says in I Timothy 2, that adornment which becometh godliness, and he says in verse 9 by way of exhortation, " In like manner also that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but that which becometh women professing godliness, with good works. Put on faith, put on charity, put on meekness." It is for the very same reason that Peter calls us as children of God to add to our "… faith, virtue and to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall not be barren nor unfruitful in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Such,beloved, is the adornment of the godly woman, whose price is above rubies. A living faith which walks day by day with the Lord her God, whose joy is in Christ her Savior, and whose confidence is not in herself, but in that cross of Jesus Christ. She is beautiful indeed. It is this that you and I are to seek,that adornment,that Spiritual beauty, that walk of faith with the Lord. To be a woman that feareth Jehovah is to possess all that the women of this world lack. It is a beauty, which God approves, a glory that transcends the glory of this world.

That may be somewhat hard to hear. We live in a world, which makes much of another kind of beauty, another kind of adornment, and that is the outward appearance and adornment of the flesh. The Word of God says of that, that grace is deceitful. And favor, that outward beauty of the women of this world, is a lie. It is vain.Understand that well, you young women.

It is vain in the first place because it fades away and does not endure. It has no abiding value. Oh, but God does not indeed advocate ugliness. Nevertheless, the Scriptures never make very much of feminine beauty. To be modest, to be chaste, becometh godliness. It is one thing to be fittingly and attractively dressed, as is pleasing to your husband. The virtuous woman as she is described in out text is one whose clothing is silk and purple. She is not intentionally unattractive. But nevertheless, her adornment is not found in silk and purple, but in her faith. The children of this world want to draw attention to themselves and to walk in sinful pride. And they make much of the outward appearance of women. They set up an idol before which they bow down and worship, and object to be lusted after by every man that walks by. They come to you with all kinds of propaganda, all kinds of information on how to make yourselves more and more beautiful, more attractive and seductive. And they pour out again and again in all that they do that one great image of the beautiful woman, whose body is oh so attractive, whose hair is beautifully arranged. They have magazines devoted to every part of you from your feet to your head, from your hair to your make-up. And they tell you, "Be glamorous, dress this way, walk that way, look this way. This is what makes a woman attractive. This is what makes her truly beautiful. This is the woman you should be."

The Word of God says of all those things, and you young women, understand that! That it is deceitful, it is a lie. It is nothing but emptiness. A fair woman without spiritual discretion of faith, says the writer of Proverbs, is worthless. She is an abomination. Those beautiful women who are portrayed in all the advertising know not the Lord. They have not His fear. They are not women who fear Jehovah. They are women of this world, daughters of the Canaanite and the Philistine. The Word of God says of them, that they have no spiritual discretion at all. They are utterly to be rejected. Understand that, you young men, and you husbands. The beauty of your wife is not to be found in her outward appearance, but in that adornment of faith and its fruit in godly obedience. And you women also, it is not how your hair looks today, but where your heart is in church that is of importance, that you are women that fear the Lord.

And that the Word of God might underscore this beloved, we read in Proverbs 11:22, that " … as a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman without discretion." All those beautiful women, however fair they may be, have no spiritual discretion. Do you know what they are? They are nothing but a jewel of gold in a pig's nose. That's what they are. That's what God says about them. Are you seeking to be a jewel of gold in a pig's nose? Is that the kind of woman you want to marry? " As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman without discretion." That is, without the perception and discernment that comes from the Spirit of God. Grace is deceitful. Beauty is vain. Walk in your faith. That is your first adornment. Without it you are nothing. Such a wife seek. Such a wife is to be praised because she is truly beautiful in the sight of God. She is His workmanship.And that ,beloved, that spiritual adornment of piety and godliness, comes to expression in a godly walk too. Our text emphasizes that as well. It says of that woman that she is adorned with wisdom. "She openeth her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness." She walks in meekness and humility before the Lord in the love of the neighbor so that when she opens her mouth there comes forth from her that living reality of faith in Christ, and she speaks out of the kindness of her own heart, because the kindness and the mercy of her God dwell there. A virtuous woman is not a busybody. She is not an idle slanderer, a talebearer whose tongue is sharp and pointed to wound and cut the neighbor. She is not one who delights in gathering together with the other women to gossip about all the things going on in the neighborhood and the family and to tear and to cut down. In her mouth is the law of kindness.

She is a woman who fears Jehovah and she walks that way with her husband and her children. She walks in kindness with them in all wisdom. Her husband is not that object of scorn and ridicule that is called hen-pecked. He is not one who has a wife who is continually contentious and who uses her tongue as a weapon against him. She is not a brawling woman who is always angry and bitter and striving with her husband, because the meekness and humility which belong to a godly woman are in her heart. She humbles herself before God and she does so therefore also in kindness before her husband. That is why the Word of God says unto you as godly women, "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as unto the Lord," and that in all things lawful according to the Word of God. Obey them, reverence them, says the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:33."reverence her husband." The women of this world, who walk in brazen boldness over against their husbands, are not the children of God. The woman, who walks with a sharp, contentious tongue, is not a wife who fears Jehovah. And you as children of God have also that weakness of the flesh that cleaves to you. " It is better", says the Word of God, " to dwell in the corner of a housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house". "Yea, it is better to dwell in a wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman". Such a woman will always have her own way and in her mouth there is very little kindness at all. She does not understand the meekness, which ought to characterize her as one who fears the Lord. That meekness and humility which we have before God shows itself in how we walk. Such is to be the walk of a godly wife.

And that means too, that she seeks the kingdom. She adorns herself with the hope of salvation. She is a woman who is seeking first the things, which are above. The focus of her life is not upon the things of this world. She is not continually nagging her husband for the treasures of Egypt and the things of this life, because she wants this and she wants that. She is not greedy and covetous. Rather, the godly woman seeks the things that are above. And she walks in that principle too when it comes to her whole life and walk, so that in her walk in the home she is prudent, careful and diligent. She is not one from whom you have to take the credit cards because you cannot trust her. She is not one who is always nagging her husband for this or that new thing in the home, so that her voice becomes, as it were, like the continual dropping of the rain on a very rainy day, always pursuing her husband. Her husband may safely leave in her care, and that with confidence, that which is her proper sphere and charge, the home.

The heart of the husband of that virtuous woman doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. He will not have to go out and by unjust gain accumulate wealth to keep the continual dropping silent. Nor, because his wife is so caught up with the things and treasures of this world, will he be always on the edge of bankruptcy. She walks by faith, seeking the things, which are above.

That's very different from the children of this world who find their meaning in the things of this life here below. That's very different from the women of this world who are always anxious about what they shall eat and what they shall drink and wherewithal they shall be clothed. The daughters of Zion fear Jehovah, walk in His ways by faith, seeking the city that has foundations. When Abraham went out of the Ur of the Chaldees, not knowing where he was going, Sarah went with him, walking by faith.

Do you see yourselves there? You young women? Wives and Mothers? That is the virtuous woman that our text would set before you. Such women you are to seek to be from the hand of the Lord. The husband who possesses such a wife shall indeed have no need of spoil. He may safely trust in her. For she is a wife who will do him good and not evil all the days of his life.