Page 68 - No Apologies

Labor Outside the Home

Although the Bible reveals that woman was created to be a helper for man, and her
role in child bearing and homemaking is set forth as a pattern for the godly woman, there
are occasions when Yahweh will direct a woman to labor outside the home. There is a
tendency among Christians to seek to reduce all things to doctrines and formulas in a one-
size-fits-all manner. The only formula I have found that will universally reveal the will of
God for a person’s life is the following:

Do the next thing the Spirit of God directs you to do.
(Repeat)

We can ascertain principles and patterns from the word of God, but individual
guidance for a person’s life must of necessity come from an intimate communion with God
through the agency of the Holy Spirit.

I Corinthians 2:11-13
For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which
is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now
we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that
we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not
in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining
spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

Galatians 5:16
I say then: Walk by the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Some may have concluded from the preceding chapter that the Scriptures, or this
author, universally condemns work outside the home. The Bible does not condemn work
outside the home, and neither do I. What Yahweh does not approve of is work that is
initiated by the soul of man. Most women who work outside the home are not doing so by
the commandment of God. They are doing so because their own soul has determined work
outside the home to be needful or desirable. The soul is not to be the guide for the Christian.
Christ said those who would be His disciples must hate their souls. They must embrace a
course in this world that is not soul-directed.

Luke 14:26
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate... even his own life (psuche - soul), he
cannot be My disciple.”

Matthew 16:24-26
Then Yahshua said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life
(psuche - soul) will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what
profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will