When our feelings conflict with God’s Word
Sisters, do we truly believe God’s Word? Do we take everything the Lord has spoken seriously? Even when Scripture challenges our assumptions, confronts our unholy desires, and requires us to repent?
Galatians 6: 7-8, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”
It is easy to say that we believe the Bible. It is much harder to submit to it when its teachings are unpopular, inconvenient, or contrary to what we have always believed.
Women sometimes claim that certain passages of Scripture are outdated, mistranslated, or misunderstood. This is not because the meaning is truly unclear, but because they simply do not like what the Bible says. But God’s Word is not ever subject to our approval. We are always subject to its authority. God has given His Church a complete and sufficient revelation in Scripture. The canon is closed. There are no new messages that will be revealed, and no private revelations as we read or pray. God’s Word is complete and it stands. It and it alone is our authority.
2 Timothy 3: 16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
We must not rely on fallible feelings. The question must always be, what does God’s Word say?
Feminism and the Rejection of Biblical Authority
The early feminists and suffragettes also believed they could stand in judgment over Scripture. Many despised God’s design for men and women and rejected biblical teachings that did not support their goals. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an early suffragette and the writer of The Declaration of Sentiments, went so far as to produce The Woman’s Bible, that erased, criticized, and reinterpreted the passages of Scripture that address women.
God designed women for marriage, home, and family. Men were created to be the leaders, protectors, and providers. Feminists deny the distinctions between men and women and downplay home and family. These distinctions between men and women that feminists so willingly attack are not mistakes to be erased. They are part of God’s wise design.
The world tells women that they should follow their hearts and that personal fulfillment means that we can do everything men can do. But Scripture does not teach this. It never says that men and women are interchangeable. We must be careful not to adopt functional androgyny. We must never believe that the distinctions between men and women have no practical meaning. God created us male and female on purpose. Our homes, our churches, and our societies only function correctly when we understand biblical manhood and womanhood correctly.
We must once again teach the differences in roles and function and purpose in men and women. Older women to younger. Pastor to church. Father and mother to children.
God’s Design for Wives, Mothers, and Homemakers
Since feminism began reshaping our society, fewer women have devoted themselves to marriage, motherhood, and the home. Even fewer teach their daughters to desire such a supposed old-fashioned role. It’s a forgotten role, one ignored in many homes and in an increasing number of churches. As we’ve seen, teaching the truths of Titus 2 can get a pastor defrocked. It can certainly cause women who value it to get laughed at, be scorned, and lose friends. But silence and failing to teach the importance of obeying God by being wives, mothers, and homemakers, does not help women, not from the pulpit and not from older women. Ignoring what God commands simply leads us to greater and greater sin.
Our Hearts Are Not Reliable Guides
Scripture warns us about the condition of the human heart in Jeremiah 17:9, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Culture can mislead us. Friends can mislead us. Hollywood can mislead us. Teachers, authors, and religious leaders can mislead us. Our own desires can mislead us, too. But God never commanded us to follow our hearts. What we want isn’t a reliable guide.
Our emotions are real, but they are not an authority. What “the heart wants” is a dangerous foundation upon which to build a life.
Romans 1: 22, Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
God’s Word is the only solid and unchanging truth we possess. It must govern our beliefs, correct our thinking, and direct our lives. The Bible is sufficient, authoritative, infallible, and inerrant.
Build Your Life Upon the Word
The wise woman chooses to believe the Lord over every human voice—including her own. She does not ask, “What does the culture approve of?” She does not ask, “What feels right to me?” She asks, “What has God said?” Then, by His grace, she seeks to obey.
God will never withdraw His commands because the world dislikes them. He has never told us that submission is no longer relevant, that homemaking is no longer relevant, or that marriage and motherhood are not the highest calling for women. God’s Word will never change.
Sisters, let us examine ourselves honestly. Let us ask: Do we believe the whole counsel of God, or only the portions that agree with us? Are we willing to be corrected? Are we willing to lay down our opinions when they conflict with Scripture? Let us build our lives upon the Word of God rather than upon feelings, trends, personal impressions, or cultural expectations.
If you struggle to understand why the Bible can be trusted, I recommend the message “Why You Can Believe the Bible” by Voddie Baucham:
May we be women who believe God, love His Word, and obey Him—even when obedience is costly.
Soli Deo Gloria!
