I had one Christian woman recently tell me that she disliked it when pastors preached from Proverbs 31 on Mother’s Day. The reason is that their was no way she could attain living a life to the Proverbs 31 standard. Christian, if we preach Proverbs 31 as the ideal woman, there are three cautions: 1) Audience. The audience is not women, but rather young men, potential kings who are told to pursue a wife like this. 2) Context. In Proverbs 1, wisdom is personified as a woman who raises her voice. The intent of Proverbs 31 is not to spotlight wifely perfection, but rather to highlight Lady Wisdom and 3) Theological. This wife is perfect and super-human. She stays up late, gets up early, runs a business, never speaks an unkind word, makes meals, sews clothes and raises kids. Yes, there are secondary applications that are helpful and edifying. But after 30 chapters of describing, defining and demonstrating what wisdom is and what wisdom is not, Solomon is not telling young men to go find Wonder Woman or Captain Marvel to marry! Rather, the primary intent of Proverbs 31 is to highlight what godly wisdom looks like. Today’s message, titled God’s Wisdom for Moms’ and Everyone Else presents four displays of godly wisdom. The first is….
Wisdom is not primarily intellectual, but relational
The fear of the LORD is reverent, joyful worship of God. This is foundational. There is a difference between having knowledge of God and knowing God. There is also distinction between theory and practice. Many of us can argue about our specific applications, yet our mouths go strangely silent when we sing about God. Yes, knowledge is the starting block to run the race that God has called us to; however, we have to eventually run (or at least walk). If doctrine does not lead to devotion, then something is wrong. Christian, the vast majority of us do not need more knowledge. Rather, we just need to act on the knowledge we already possess!….
To listen to or watch this entire sermon, click on the following links: