It's an incredibly complex book, a compilation of writings and scriptures, letters and narratives. The scriptures are chalk-full of metaphors, poetry, and literary devices of varying sorts. I do not understand it all, and pretending to seems to be a bit of an injustice. Still, there are ways to study ancient texts in an academic, in an intellectual yet ever so passionate way that can do the original writers justice, and in viewing their works through a proper lens we can do a bit of justice to their words.
Words are important, after all, and the words of the biblical writers contain context, cultural influences, and historical background among other elements. There is much to consider in terms of how to understand the biblical text, and I think it's vital to consider it all.
Here's why:
Because cherry-picking bible verses is misguided and even profane.
Because what we say about the Bible shapes what we say about God.
And what we say about God shapes who we are as people.
Theology at it's core is merely what we say about God and how we live that out in our day-to-day lives. Our theology shapes our identity, and identity matters. Identity is who we are. Identity is where our purpose lies.
Identity is important.
So today we're going to open up those bibles around this friendly campfire. Let's study the text together, considering context and history and the culture of the time. The authors were certainly children of their cultures, and we cannot disregard that. We might not understand all of the writings, but let's make peace with that. Let's wrestle with the text, for there's beauty in such a struggle. God will meet us here.
I'll rekindle the fire a bit so that it's comfortable and toasty in this space. We'll need the flames to keep us warm. Let's call upon the Holy Spirit, for I think His guidance and wisdom is needed in studying the text. Let's set down our personal cultural lens and pick up the lens of Jesus. He is named the Incarnate Word of God Himself, and I'm thinking that the Incarnate Word would be most useful in this adventure. We'll need Him in our time of studying the Scriptures, for He will help us set aside our own personal biases to make room for what is right in front of us.
In this light, the Scriptures are allowed to be what they are rather than perhaps what we want them to be.
Intellectually and passionately studying the Bible is one of my favorite pastimes. I thrive on the words because they contain so much meaning. They're weighty and extraordinary and oftentimes heavy, and they're always crammed full with purpose. Let's examine the words together, love. There's a message waiting for us.
Today's message is this: God meets you where you're at.
Breathe in that breath of fresh air. It's been a long time coming.
When it comes to identity, there are many labels stamped upon us all, some from the world and others from the Church. I want to consider labels given to women in our modern times, specifically an intriguing one: the Proverbs 31 woman.
The Church has taken this passage of scripture and presented it as an ideal job description for a woman to fulfill, as if our lives were destined for checklists and legalistic living. Love, hear me out: you are not made for such unrealistic expectations. You can stop striving, you can rest assured in the truth that God has made you for a life of freedom rather than one of perfection. If God's plan for humanity means anything for us as people, men, women, and children alike it is this: we are made for freedom.
For freedom we've been set free.
To preach the Proverbs 31 passage as an unrealistic set of high expectations is to distort it from it's original context entirely. I cannot pretend to understand the entire meaning of the text, but I'd like to think there is a better way to view it than as a checklist of do's and dont's, a checklist written in the bronze age that still applies to women today nonetheless.
Let's view it through the lens it was made to be viewed through. Lean in close, I have a fun fact to whisper your way.
Did you know that this passage, in it's original context, was a blessing and affirmation of valor for the lives of women in that time period? Jewish husbands would memorize such descriptions as Proverbs 31 as a way to celebrate their wives.
It is meant to be a celebration of the lives of women in their, in our, everyday lives.
Another view is this (because yes, there are always multiples sides to ancient texts): we will call her Lady Wisdom. The voice spoken in the text is one of encouragement, one meant to spur the reader on to pursue a life of wisdom. It's sort of the idea that wisdom is virtuous and worth gaining in life. Wisdom is at the heart of God. This passage is depicting the benefits that come from pursuing wisdom over folly.
And that's really all I feel comfortable stating about the passage. It's a text of the time, an ancient piece of work produced to be encouraging and beautiful and absolutely anything but a checklist for women in a modern-day setting.
Presenting this passage as anything but a celebration of Jewish culture is to present an out of context scriptural concept. When we take passages such as Proverbs 31 and present them as a way to live, as an impossible standard to live up to all we are really doing is constructing a legalistic standard that is exhausting at best. Where before there was celebration there is suddenly despair, because who can live up to such a standard? Additionally, it presents the mindset that all women, and even men for that matter are made to fit one mold. Common assumptions for women based on a teaching of this text include but are not limited to the following:
You're made to have children. You're made to rise early in the morning. You're made to laugh every day. You're made to provide the food for your family (so make sure to ask for an apron come Christmastime). You're made to work hard and be charming but not too much because charm is fleeting and beauty is deceitful and la la la Im so over these teachings.
Love, if you want to have children, then I hope you are able to have them one day. However, you should not feel condemned or out of place if you wish otherwise. Motherhood is a ministry most certainly, but so is being in the workplace or out serving the least of these on the streets. The Proverbs 31 mold is not what you are confined to. You aren't made for a specific purpose other than the one Jesus invites you to be a part of. No other label defines you at your core except this: child.
You are a child of light, a first-fruit brought forth from a God who is good and great and wow He's invited you to be a part of amazing things.
The Christ-following, freedom-loving, kingdom-serving, hey let's go wash feet life is what you're made for.
And this life can take various forms. Being a woman of valor, to implement a term from Rachel Held Evans can look different ways.
I think oftentimes we preach that being a godly woman is found in the image of superwoman, but really this is faltering and misleading. God is more often that not found in the ordinary lives of everyday people. Loving well does not mean being superwoman.
Loving well does not necessarily have to happen in extraordinary ways.
Loving well can happen through ordinary means.
What this means is that we can stop striving, stop exhausting ourselves by comparing our lives to a cherry-picked bible passage. What this means is that we can stop seeking extraordinary lives and experiences and instead start living ordinary lives with extraordinary faith.
This is where our identities are found.
We're ordinary people, like it or not. My life isn't glamorous most days, and I'm guessing that yours isn't either. The women I know who are real and authentic and godly are faithful in the midst of ordinary circumstances. They're women of valor because of their faithfulness to Christ, not because they're mothers or married or because they work well with their hands or rise early in the morning.
Not that any of these things are bad or inherently evil. Motherhood is beautiful and marriage is fantastic (or it seems to be, at least).
It's just that you aren't destined for marriage. You aren't commanded to have children or labeled ungodly if you don't have a crafty pastime or aren't a Pinterest girl who pins bible verses constantly. Rising early is not the only way to be diligent.
Works and acts are not what make a man or woman of godly character.
You don't have to earn godliness. You aren't made for it, and in fact you are only setting yourself up for disaster the second you begin to try.
We're made for good works, this is true. The way to bear good fruit, however, is not by comparing ourselves to a checklist that was written by authors to a particular audience in a particular setting at a particular time in a particular culture a really long time ago.
The way to bear fruit is to align our hearts with God, and I can't write out a formula for how this looks.
It must have something to do with knowing about Christ deeply, for the greater we know Him, the more we know love.
I'm sure it pertains to allowing the work of the mysterious Holy Spirit to transform us from the inside out.
And I'm certain it has everything to do with loving other people. Experiencing God seems to be about solely doing life together, about embracing the ordinary lives of ordinary people and living out extraordinary faith in a messy and broken world.
Together.
We will become godly men and women when we begin to love each other because of our love for Christ. The Church is at her best when she is loving people 'because He first loved us'.
Let's set aside the check-lists and throw our arms 'round each other. Let's clink our mugs together and sing freedom songs around campfires such as this one here. Let's study the scriptures deeply, let's wrestle with the text and attempt to understand what this God movement is all about.
I can't pretend to know all of the answers to biblical interpretation or life at that. Too often we want to know, know, know. We want black and white when really what is awaiting us are varying shades of gray. Life is complicated and the Bible is hard to talk about. Theology is not as easy as we like to make it out. To quote Sarah Bessey, 'People want black and white answers, but Scripture is a rainbow arch across a stormy sky'.
And that's okay.
God is big enough for our thoughts, He's not intimidated by our questions. I imagine that as we ask them we may end up living our way into the answers. This is how I prefer to approach theology and the Bible: cultural biases aside and through the lens of Christ, for Jesus is the only grounded truth I am convinced of.
It's a bit intimidating, but it forces me to trust the process. It challenges my thinking, because I've learned that Jesus is often grander, bigger, more counter-cultural than I would've expected.
Studying the Bible in this way, from a mindset that is okay with not knowing every answer or having it all figured out has actually grown my love for the text. It's helped me to transition away from seeing the Bible as an indexed answer book and toward a view that it is actually a marvelous story of a God who loves His children deeply, a God that is bigger and more incomprehensible than I could ever imagine.
One time I had it out with God. If being a Proverbs 31 woman is the only way to please you, then I really can do without. No woman can live up to this standard.
Until I learned that no woman is meant to, and no man for that matter. My friends and I used to write out lists of attributes for a godly man, so that in any case we would be asked out we could simply hold up our out-of-this-world list of standards and decide if the guy was worthy of dating us or not (because of course we all fulfilled the description for a woman of godly character).
I've seen so many friends deny a boy a relationship, or even simply a date because he didn't measure up to a list of perfection. This used to be my mindset: do this and that and oh all of these things too or hell no.
First of all, we need to stop seeing brothers and sisters as potential husbands and wives. No one guaranteed marriage for any of us. Secondly, we need to stop holding each other to impossible standards.
This is neither fair nor biblical. We need to stop dehumanizing each other with teachings such as these. How demoralizing is it to say that godliness is found in perfection? If this is true, then what is our need for grace? Being godly is not found in perfection. Being godly is found in progression toward Christ, in a man or woman who will fall face down before the cross from a place of humility. Being godly, being like Christ in purest form is found in washing the feet of other people. Being godly is found in a heart that is not perfect but rather is repentive. Sanctification is important, and progressively living well because of our growing maturity should be a natural product of a faithful heart. When we talk about right living, however, let's talk about our own sin. Let's improve our lives under grace because of our faith, not because we want to match a ridiculous checklist. Being faithful is not found in upholding a standard.
Being faithful is found in Christ: loving Him, knowing Him, serving Him.
Nothing more, nothing less.
This mindset has an empowering message for us all, but I want to consider what it says for women. What this means is that the single woman is no less kingdom-efficient than the married one. These two situations are simply different from one another, neither is inferior or superior to the other. What this means is that you are not called as a woman to the 'Proverbs 31' life. You are merely called to the freedom life, the Jesus-following and people-loving life. What this means is that though virtue and valor are certainly found in the words of Proverbs 31, fruits of the spirit are definitely not confined to these words. Godliness is found in various areas of life, faithfulness to God can take many forms.
Faithfulness can happen in the actions of a woman who cooks and cleans for her family on a regular basis, and it can also happen through the strongly preached words from a female from the pulpit. A woman can minister hardcore as a mother to her children, and she can be just as effective as someone in the workplace, as a college girl, as a painter, a musician, an engineer, or you know whatever your precious self wants to pursue.
You have to look deep down inside yourself and discover who you are, and you have to understand that your calling is simultaneously different and the same as the woman next to you. We are all called to be faithful in serving Christ, but we are all made to serve Him in different ways. You have to press hard into the side of the Father and let His love flow through your words and actions. He's made us all diversely unique, and He wants to work through us all in ways that are special to each of us. You have to study the sweet life of Jesus and decide for yourself if you want to buy into His movement or not.
His movement of restoration and redemption and life for us all.
I want this for you. I would love to see you reclaim your identity solely upon the name that Jesus gives you: daughter.
Hey guys, Jesus calls you sons.
He calls us all friends.
And He meets us where we're at.
