Can a Wife and/or Mother Work Outside the Home?

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for Family Life

“Teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,  To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.” Paul, Titus 2:5, KJV 

7 December 2013 

Dear _________________:

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!  I trust that all is well with your family. I want to thank you for holding me accountable to the Word of God during these last weeks. We are accountable to each other, to the church, and ultimately, to the Lord Jesus Christ before whom “each one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). 

In view of our mutual need for accountability, you have personally expressed concern about my wife’s teaching ministry at a Christian school. Your concern needs to be addressed because it challenges my integrity before and submission to the Word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. At times Paul had to defend himself, and now I feel compelled to assume a similar posture. I have given much thought to the exegesis and theology concerning the issue you have raised, and have come to some relevant and practical conclusions. 

Specifically, you question, because of Paul’s counsel in Titus 2:5—that older women are to teach younger women to be “keepers at home” (KJV)—whether my wife has the scriptural right to teach at the school where my children attend because, according to your thinking about and your personal application of the verse in question, she does not exhibit the Christian virtue of being a “worker at home.” Allow me please, to state first my understanding of the truth this scripture communicates, and then its application to our Christian family. In this letter consider with me the exegetical, theological, practical and personal reservations I have with regard to the position you hold.
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