30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the
LORD is to be praised.
- Exodus 20:8, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House) 1984.
Dear Friends in Christ,
If you asked the average "man on the street" what day it is today, not many would reply: "It is the fifth Sunday of the Easter season." The answer you’d hear, of course, is that today is Mother’s Day.
Mother’s Day, like Thanksgiving, is not a church holiday; it is strictly a national observation. But because it is so well known, like Thanksgiving, it does offer us as Christians a golden opportunity to reflect upon the various and related subjects it calls to mind...
And that is what we’d like to do today. On the basis of the words of Scripture we just read and others, let’s step outside the church year and take up the dual subjects of Christian beauty and Christian womanhood on this Mother’s Day.
Please note that I said Christian beauty and Christian womanhood. This needs to be emphasized at the outset, because there is a big difference between the way the world defines beauty and womanhood and the way in which our God speaks of it in His Word.
When the world takes note of a beautiful woman it is almost always meant only in the sense of physical attractiveness. And when the world extols "womanhood" today, it usually has to do with the idea that today’s woman is to be assertive, independent and totally free from what the world apologetically considers "traditional female roles."
Not surprisingly, God’s ideas of beauty and womanhood are far different. And it is His ideas that we as Christians care about. This is not to say that God is opposed to either physical beauty or intelligence, for He is the Creator of both and consequently bestows both upon each of His children to the degree He has chosen...
What this is to say is that when God brings the subject up in His word, He speaks of the importance of inner beauty as opposed to outward beauty. So, let’s turn to the pages of Scripture now. There we will find a composite picture of
THE BEAUTIFUL CHRISTIAN WOMAN
And what we’ll find is that her beauty lies in
1. Her devotion to God
2. Her service to others
3. Her acceptance of where God has placed her
1. TRUE BEAUTY LIES IN THE CHRISTIAN WOMAN’S DEVOTION TO GOD
Listen again to the words of our text: Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Who is to be praised? The woman who fears the Lord. "Fear" in this context means to hold in respect, reverence and honor. It presupposes belief and trust in the One true Savior God. Such Godly fear leads to devotion. And Scripture is full of examples of God-fearing, devoted women; women who serve as examples and patterns not only for today’s Christian woman, but today’s Christian man and child and young person as well. Let’s cite just a few examples...
In the book of Second Kings we are told of the Shunamite woman, who, out of love for God, opened her home to the prophet Elisha, a man of God... In First Samuel we learn of a Godly woman named Hannah, whose devotion to God led her to dedicate her son to the service of the Lord. Her son’s name was Samuel, and he grew up to be one of the great leaders and figures God used in the Old Testament.
From the New Testament we find many additional examples. How about the widow to whom Jesus referred to in His well-known lesson on the "Widow’s mite"?... Or how about Mary of Bethany, who sat at the feet of Jesus and drank in the living water of His Word and who later, in a show of love and devotion, anointed Jesus’ feet and washed them with her hair? And then there was her sister Martha, who boldy confessed Jesus as Lord and God at the gravesite of her brother Lazarus... We could mention the Canaanite woman, whose stubborn devotion to Jesus was held up by our Lord as an example of great faith...
We could also note the many important and meaningful events which included devoted, God fearing women. For instance, it was Christian women who were: last at the cross on Good Friday and first at the tomb on Easter Sunday (where were the disciples?)... It was Christian women who were the first to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ (did you know that the early church referred to Mary Magdalene as the "Apostle to the Apostles"?)... Women were the first to greet the Christian missionaries Paul and Silas in Europe. In fact, the first European convert was a woman: Lydia of Thyatira, who had moved moved to the Greek city of Philippi. In a sense, we could consider her the spiritual mother for all of us with a European background...
I think we get the point. There are many God-fearing women in Scripture. The history of the early Christian church is also full of examples. What is interesting to note is that Scripture tells us nothing of what these women looked like. But Scripture does point out their beauty... And their true beauty was in their devotion to God.
2. TRUE BEAUTY LIES IN THE CHRISTIAN WOMAN’S SERVICE TO GOD AND OTHERS
Let’s look again to Scripture for more examples. Read Luke 8:1-3
What does this tell us? Humanly speaking, Jesus was allowed to do what He came to do largely through the support of Christian women.
Another example. Lydia, mentioned earlier, was not only the first European convert, but also the first to serve the Lord in a tangible way when she opened her house to Paul to use as a meeting place. And it was undoubtedly there that the Gospel message first took root in the hearts of those who eventually formed the Philippian congregation...
One more example. It was often customary for the Apostle Paul to end his letters by sending special greetings to individuals. There is a particularly long listing in the last chapter of Romans (chapter 16). Let me read some of it to you: Read vs 1-3, 6, 12.
Note how Paul recognizes these women and their service to the church. These were women who used their time, talents and treasures to serve God and others. These were women who made sacrifices so that God through His appointed messengers might get the word of salvation out to a world dying in sin and unbelief. These were devout and zealous workers for the Kingdom...
And Scripture has a name for them. In the truest sense of the word, these were Beautiful Women.
3. TRUE BEAUTY LIES IN THE CHRISTIAN WOMAN’S ACCEPTANCE OF THE ROLE GOD HAS PLACED HER IN
What might that role be? For some, it is the position of being a single woman; a single Christian woman... A single woman who by her actions and attitudes, her dress and demeanor let’s the light of Christ shine forth in all she does and for all to see... A single woman who, out of love for Christ, chooses the high moral ground in a world which is fast loosing any sense of morality...
For others, one of the roles God has placed them in is as a wife; a Christian wife... A wife who is the loving companion of her husband, even as he is to her... A wife who is to be the helper of her husband, even as he is to her, together supporting each other through this brief period of time we call "life"... A wife who does not challenge the leadership position that God has placed upon her husband in their marriage, but seeks to be a blessing to him, even as he seeks to be a blessing to her.
Another role God has placed some Christian women is as a mother; a Christian mother... Is there any more important role? No. We often hear the phrase, "you can’t take it with you." And most of the time that is indeed true. The things we accumulate on this earth have no eternal value. But when it comes to our children, this statement is false. Children are something we can take with us into eternity, so we cannot stress enough the importance of Christian motherhood...
To this point, I’d like to read something to you that has application for every single person here, male or female, married or unmarried. It was written by a woman in one of the parishes I’ve served, and whom I buried about 10 years ago. Her name was Ruby. In her younger years Ruby liked to write poetry. One particular poem, which I copied and kept, she entitled, "Mother."
God gave us treasure from "Heaven" up above
This treasure were mothers To guard and to love
Nothing is so precious In "Heaven" or on earth
Than this dearest woman Who gave me birth
When I was a child Upon her knee
Wondrous were the stories She related to me
She taught me about "Jesus" And his tender love
Of "angels" guarding us From heaven above
She told me the story Of dark "Calvery"
Where "Jesus" gave his life For you and for me.
She hit the nail right on the head, didn’t she? She talked about that which is most important – the spiritual aspect of Christian motherhood. And what she wrote about her mother she tried to pass down to her children.
Now, Ruby was not an educated woman in the sense we think of today. And at the time I got to know her whatever physical attractiveness she may have possessed in her younger years was long gone. She used a wheelchair and suffered from a slight nervous disorder that made her face rhythmically pulsate. And her speech had been altered by a stroke, so you had to work hard to understand her.
But you know what? I’m certain that didn’t make a lick of difference in the eyes of God. To Him she was, and is, a Beautiful Christian Woman.
Which leads us to our final thoughts. Looking to the pages of Scripture (as we have today), we find many examples of these beautiful Christian women; these women who were devoted to God, served Him and gladly accepted the roles He placed them in. But the pages of Scripture are not the only place they can be found...
They are here. In this church. Today. Single and married. Young and old. They are the wives, the mothers, the sisters, the female fellow Christians that make up a goodly portion of this congregation. Sitting beside us and among us are modern day examples of THE BEAUTIFUL CHRISTIAN WOMAN; the woman whose beauty is inner and deep, not outer and shallow...
No doubt, this kind of talk may embarrass them. They may even feel a little uncomfortable with any kind of undue attention. And certainly it must be said that women in our lives and our church are human. As such, they grapple daily with their sinful human nature and, like all of us, must daily take their sins and shortcomings to the cross of Jesus Christ. But they are nevertheless worthy of our honor and recognition on this Mother’s Day...
So, in closing allow me to direct these words to the ladies of our congregation. Ladies, in His grace God has led you to become His children through faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin. For that, you must ever be thankful.
But in His grace God has also brought you to us – as wives, mothers and members of the same Christian family known as St. John’s Lutheran of Wauwatosa. And for that, we are thankful...
Because, in the words of the Proverb, "Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting. But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Amen.