Rebekah Hargraves is the host of the Home and Hearth Podcast, which, up until recently, has always been mostly an interview-style podcast. Now, however, she is branching out into recording the fourth of her solo podcasts to talk today on the topic of what Biblical womanhood actually is. This is a topic Rebekah has written about extensively and shared about on other podcasts, as well, so she’s excited to now be branching out into discussing it on her own podcast!
What She Chats about in Today’s Episode:
~Answering the question “What is Biblical womanhood?” as a kick-off of sorts to an entire series coming up soon
~How my own understanding of Biblical womanhood has changed over the years
~The extremes and main camps of thought surrounding the topic of Biblical womanhood
~The importance of solely using the Bible alone to define womanhood, rather than someone’s teachings of the Bible, what someone’s pastor says, or your own camp of thought
~The crucial importance of looking to the entire canon of Scripture rather than to just a few choice passages for our picture and understanding of what constitutes womanhood by God’s design
~The rich, robust, beautiful picture of womanhood by God’s design that we find in the Scriptures
~The reality of womanhood by God’s design applying to all women everywhere and being good news for all women everywhere; the understanding that if our own picture of womanhood does not/is not, then it is not Biblical
~Four truths about Biblical womanhood:
*Biblical womanhood is womanhood as God designed it, Genesis-Revelation
*Biblical womanhood is for every woman, applicable to every woman, and good news for every woman; it can look like being:
-A wife, mother, and homemaker (Titus 2:3-5)
-A leader like Deborah (Judges 4 & 5)
-Working to provide financially for your family (the book of Ruth)
-A Great Commission worker like Priscilla, proclaiming truth to her brothers-in-Christ (Acts 18:24-26, Romans 16)
-Running a business like the Proverbs 31 woman and Lydia (Proverbs 31, Acts 16:14)
-Being a servant (or deaconess) of the church like Phoebe (Romans 16:1-2)
-Serving the poor and needy (Proverbs 31:20, Acts 9:36, 1 Timothy 5:9-10)
*Biblical womanhood has been clearly defined by God and is to be embraced by us
*Truly Biblical womanhood leaves room for different personalities, tastes, likes and dislikes, and the overarching crucially important practice of walking by faith by walking by the Spirit.
~The lie floating around that says motherhood is a woman’s highest calling; the other lies this lie leads to and what it does to our sisters-in-Christ and their understanding of Biblical womanhood
~Understanding where a woman’s true worth lies
~The reality that marriage and motherhood (as wonderful, impactful, beautiful, and important as those roles are!) are not the sum total of Biblical womanhood
~And more!
Resources Mentioned
Offer for a free audiobook and 30 day trial membership from Audible: www.audibletrial.com/HomeandHearth
Previous Solo Podcast Episodes
My podcast on my journey through legalism on Amber Cullum’s show
My “What is Biblical Womanhood?” blog post
My free “Womanhood by God’s Design” 7-day e-mail course
My podcast episode with Hannah Anderson on growing in discernment
Hannah Anderson’s book Made for More: An Invitation to Live in God’s Image
My blog posts on motherhood not being a woman’s highest calling
My podcast episodes on the mommy wars – Hargraves Home and Hearth, Theology Gals
My blog posts on the mommy wars
Quotes to Remember:
“The most important thing we have to do when it comes to answering the question ‘What is Biblical womanhood?” is look at the entire canon of the Bible, all 66 books, allowing that full canon to define for us what Biblical womanhood is. We simply cannot solely look to those ‘pink passages’ of Scripture (e.g., Titus 2 and Proverbs 31) as Hannah Anderson refers to them. We must look at the entirety of Scripture for our understanding of what constitutes true Biblical womanhood.”
“We must allow Scripture to interpret Scripture.”
“When we look to the whole canon of Scripture, what we find is a far more robust and beautiful picture of and design for womanhood than what either the ultra-liberal or ultra-conservative circles of thought could ever give us.”
“True Biblical womanhood is a design for womanhood that applies to all women everywhere and is good news for all women everywhere. If your idea of Biblical womanhood does not and is not, then your idea is not Biblical.”
“God did not provide His daughters with 66 books in His Word, for them to then simply zero in on only two passages of Scripture (namely, Titus 2 and Proverbs 31) for their understanding of womanhood. Paul makes it clear in 2 Timothy that all Scripture is profitable for us, and that if we do not pay attention to all of it, we are ill-equipped for the work of our daily lives.”
“Motherhood is not a woman’s highest calling. It is a high calling, a holy calling, an impactful calling, a sacred calling, and it is the furthest thing from mundane when viewed in light of eternity and the impact of motherhood on the kingdom of God. But it is not a woman’s highest calling. Saying it is is idolatry. A woman’s true highest calling is the same as a man’s – to be an image bearer of God and an ambassador of Christ living out the Great Commission and daily seeking to bring Him glory.”
“If we say motherhood in and of itself is a woman’s highest calling, we are saying our unmarried and childless sisters-in-Christ are incapable of furthering God’s kingdom and living out the purposeful, impactful Great Commission lifestyle.”
“Motherhood is an outworking of our true highest calling. That is where it gets its importance and impact from. True Biblical womanhood lines up with this fact, because truly Biblical womanhood is for the single woman, the married woman, the childless woman, and the mother, alike.”
“Patriarchal cultures such as that during Bible times will tell you that a woman’s worth is based in her ability to bear children. God never said that, though. He said children were a blessing, yes, but He never said His daughters’ worth was based on whether or not they could bear such blessings. After all – God is the One Who ultimately opens and closes the womb. Not us.”
“A woman’s worth comes solely from the fact that she is an image bearer of God.”
“Women who can’t have children, women who must work to provide for their families, women who never marry, women who love their jobs, women who lead, women who proclaim truth, can all live out true Biblical womanhood as designed by God. We see this repeatedly throughout the Word, through examples such as Priscilla, Huldah, Deborah, Anna, Lydia, and others. That is why Biblical womanhood is such good news for every woman – because it can be lived out by women in a whole host of different life circumstances.”
“Biblical womanhood consists of a whole host of different roles, seasons, circumstances, and lines of work.”
“Biblical womanhood has been clearly defined and described for us by God and is to be taken seriously by us. May we be careful then to not make the mistake of running so far into left field, away from legalism’s dangerous ways, that we then make the opposite mistake of ignoring passages like Titus 2 and Proverbs 31. While we mustn’t make the mistake of zeroing in on those two passages to the negligence of the rest of God’s Word, we likewise mustn’t make the mistake of failing to pay any attention whatsoever to those ‘pink passages’. They are there for a reason and have been given to us by God. We must therefore be Biblically balanced and look to every book – Genesis to Revelation – for our understanding of Biblical womanhood. And thank the Lord that He has given us this blueprint and these examples.”
“Truly Biblical womanhood leaves room for different personalities, tastes, likes, dislikes, and the overarching crucially important practice of walking by faith by walking by the Spirit. Legalism, however, does not. Legalism says there is a one-size-fits-all method and practice. Which is precisely why we have the mommy wars in raging existence today.”
“When we think all women must be married or that all women should bear children, we are forgetting that our God is a big God with a different plan and purpose for each one of His daughters.”
“The Victorian idea that to be a ‘Biblical’ woman you must stay at home is bad news for the woman in the third world country who must go out and work to provide for her family. If our idea of Biblical womanhood is not good news for every woman, then it is not womanhood as God designed it.”
“Biblical womanhood is not reserved for those who like pink, enjoy hosting tea parties, and wear dresses. Womanhood by God’s design is not so confining as that, but instead represents our God’s creativity and diversity in design. It encompasses all seasons of life, all personalities, all cultures, all callings, and all tastes when bowed down to the authority of Christ and His Word.”
“It is time for us to stop presenting ‘Biblical womanhood’ in either one of these two unbiblical extremes: it is time to stop liberally presenting Biblical womanhood as a man-bashing, role-destroying concept. Likewise, it is time to stop conservatively presenting Biblical womanhood as only being that which encompasses the callings of wife and mother.”
Where You Can Find Rebekah Online:
Websites – Hargraves Home and Hearth, Spirit-Filled Woman Magazine
Instagram –@rebekahhargraves
Facebook – Hargraves Home and Hearth
Twitter – @hhomeandhearth
Podcast – Home and Hearth Podcast
To Leave a Rating and Review on iTunes
Have you been encouraged or inspired by today’s episode? If so, could I ask a little favor? If you could leave the podcast a rating and review in iTunes, that would be amazing! The more ratings and reviews a podcast receives, the more iTunes shows that podcast to other folks searching for shows to listen to, so by leaving me a rating and review, you truly are partnering with me in this podcast ministry to encourage and help as many women as we possibly can. Thank you so much for taking the time to do that! Here’s how:
If you’re on your computer:
- Access iTunes on your desktop and type Home and Hearth in the search box on the upper right hand corner.
- Click on the podcast photo when it comes up
- Click on “Ratings and Reviews” beneath the podcast title
- Under “Customer Reviews”, click on “Write a Review”
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