Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may instruct the young women in sensibility: to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be slandered. (Titus 2:3-5)

In these verses you have a series of short commands with immense and far-reaching implications. And what is at stake is the Word of God not being dishonored.

Wherever you see the women’s liberation movement assaulting the church, the first point of attack is the Word of God, isn‘t it? They assault the Scripture. They twist all these passages, shifting them around and re-interpreting them.

Women in the framework of Christianity who want to move out of their God-ordained role must assault the Word of God. And when women don’t obey what the Word of God says, then people watching will conclude that we don’t think the Bible is really that important. So the Word of God is dishonored, and the Word of God is diminished as to its importance. We don’t want to do that.

Ladies, you want to follow these patterns for the sake of your own joy, for the sake of the blessing of God, for the sake of making marriage the grace of life that God intended it to be, and for the sake of showing the watching world that we obey the Word of God. A lot is at stake here.

In 1 Corinthians 7:34, Paul says this about marriage:

The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit. But one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

In other words, now that the divorced woman is single and the virgin’s never married, the only thing they really have to concentrate on is that which is about the Lord — how to be holy in body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about “how she may please her husband.”

That’s what she lives for. It’s not supposed to be a place of conflict; it’s supposed to be a place where the woman willingly falls under the leadership of her husband and seeks how she can please him.

Look at 1 Timothy 2:11-15:

A woman must learn in quietness, in all submission. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first formed, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into trespass.

But she will be saved through the bearing of children, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with self-restraint.

The first woman was deceived. She led the whole race into sin. The conclusion is that she is, as Peter says, the weaker vessel; she needs covering and protection. She led the race into sin when she abandoned that covering and protection, stepped out from under her husband’s authority, and acted independently. When she did that, she put a stigma upon womankind.

How can that stigma be removed? She is preserved from that stigma “through the bearing of children,” if those children continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.

Once a woman led the race into sin. The stigma that woman bears can be reversed when a woman raises a godly generation of children.

That’s the marvelous balance; the men are the ones leading, but the women are the ones with all the influence. They’re the ones who press those little children to their own heart and nurse them in those early years. They’re the ones who are there all the time, binding up their little wounds and taking them through the issues of life day in and day out.

We show up after work to pontificate around the place. But mothers hold their children’s hearts.

I always laugh when I see these great athletes on camera. I’ve never seen one say, “Hi Dad.” All they ever do is say, “Hi Mom.” We talk to coaches and they tell us that you don’t recruit athletes, you recruit their mothers. If their mother likes you, you’re in.

The woman reverses the stigma of having led the race into sin when she raises godly children. That is the marvelous, marvelous calling of a wife. She’s a keeper at home, a lover of children, a lover of her husband, and submissive.

This post is based on a sermon Dr. MacArthur preached in 1996, titled “God’s Pattern for Wives, Part 1.” In addition to serving as the pastor of Grace Community Church and the voice of Grace to You, Dr. MacArthur is the chancellor of The Master’s University in Santa Clarita, Calif. You can learn more about TMU at www.masters.edu.