Virtuous Woman

By Herrmann G. Braunlin

Proverbs 12:4

Three thousand years ago, the wisest man who ever lived wrote this: "A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones." Primarily, those words in Proverbs 12:4 mean just what they say.

Why, look around you at your circle of friends. Isn't that statement true? A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband. And isn't it true that she that maketh him ashamed is as rottenness in his bones? The damage, you see, isn't just surface. It weakens a man in the very structure of his being.

That brief description needs to be recalled in these days. Because not only do we see houses destroyed, but homes destroyed. A return to old-fashioned standards of honest and virtuous man-and-wife relationships would be a mighty wholesome thing.

Spiritual meaning. In the Bible, God often uses earthly incidents to illustrate spiritual facts. For example, He pictures the whole great company of believers, the church of Christ, in several waysas a flock of sheep, Christ being the shepherd who protects us; as a building, Christ being the foundation who supports us; as a body, Christ being the head, He guides us. And it is also pictured as a bride, Christ being the holy bridegroom. He loves us.

That last illustration is found, to be specific, in Ephesians 5:25. But all through the rest of the Bible, this symbolism is carried through. For example, the apostle says that he espoused the believers to Christ (II Cor. 11:2). It means that we now belong to Him.

Is it not true that just as a virtuous woman is a crown to her husband in the human level, so the virtuous believer is spiritually a crown to Christ? But every one of us that causes Him shame is a grief to Him.

In II Corinthians 5, the Bible tells us what Christ did for us and what we should do for Him. First, we read in verse 14: "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all (and that's what He did), then were all dead (that is, in the sight of God)."

Now, here's our part in verse 15: "And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again."

Our Lord Jesus did His part. He died for all. And together with Him, our old self died. Now we are to do our part. All of us who are new creatures in Christ should live unto Him who died for us.

Now and then people ask, "Where can you find any real Christians?" If by real you mean perfect, I'm afraid the only place you'll find them is in heaven.

But if you mean virtuous, in a practical sense, I say there are many. And I'm glad to have met many, many of God's people who have acted the way they should act, even under provocation and pressure. There are people who live true.

But there are also plenty who don't. And as Solomon said, they are as rottenness to the bones.

Are you a "virtuous woman" to Christ? By the grace of God, I do pray that you are. o

Herrmann G. Braunlin is pastor emeritus of Hawthorne Gospel Church, 2000 Route 208, Hawthorne, NJ 07506.

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