Proverbs 31:10 “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.”

Though Proverbs 31 does have literal meaning as it pertains to the character of a Godly woman, it has even greater meaning regarding the church of God. As we know, the word “woman” refers to a church in Bible prophecy.

Jeremiah 6:2 “I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.”

2 Corinthians 11:2 “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”

Revelation 21:9 “And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”

This is true in a literal sense too. In these end times, finding a virtuous woman is terribly difficult. Godly women (and men for that matter) are few and far between. In fact, our Lord says as much when He spoke about His second coming.

Luke 18:8 “I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”

I am talking about a VIRTUOUS woman though. If someone wanted to find a spouse, it’s incredibly easy. The compromise is that you would need to take your standards from the world, not the Bible. There are billions of women on this planet, but extremely few can be described as virtuous. But what does this even mean. Virtuous means: strength, might, efficiency, ability, and force. Here is another verse where we see the word virtue, but as it applies to Jesus Christ.

Mark 5:30 “And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?”

“Virtue” – inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or things exerts and puts forth; power for performing miracles; moral power and excellence of soul; the power and influence which belong to riches and wealth; moral goodness.

And here is another verse.

Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Manliness (valor), excellence, moral excellence such as with modesty and purity, a virtuous course of thought, feeling, and action.

In short, virtue is an attribute of Jesus Christ and speaks to His goodness, His glory, His excellence, His majesty, His manliness (as He is the epitome of what a man is supposed to be), His morality, His purity, His thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and His power. How does this apply to the woman of Proverbs 31? Let’s look at a few more places to have even more clarity on the purity of Jesus Christ’s virtue and what it means for us.

Isaiah 48:10 “Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.”

Proverbs 17:3 “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.”

Zechariah 13:9 “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.”

There is something important that is being described here that we need to understand. The Lord is using the imagery of a furnace to convey the message that we must be set into the fires of affliction in order to be purified.

In the crucible, wherein the metal is made pure, something happens when the heat intensifies. Impurities rise to the surface and are scraped off. Those impurities are known as “dross”. In the spiritual context, the dross represents our sins. Now, here is the part that makes me shed tears. When the refiner goes to the furnace, opens the door, and scrapes off the dross, he then closes the door so the metal can continue to be molten and cause even more dross to rise to the surface. Every time he does this, the metal becomes a little more pure. Also understand that the more pure the metal becomes, the more reflective it becomes. Then, at the end, when our Father opens the door, He no longer sees us, but the reflection of His dear Son.

As Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God, was tested and came out of the trials with all His purity intact, so too has His Bible been tested and come out the other end retaining the utter purity with which it first entered those trials.

Psalm 12:6 “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.”

The virtuous woman, the virtuous church of Jesus Christ has been in (and continues to go through) the fires of affliction which the Lord uses to purify His children. She has learned to trust in every utterance from the lips of God. She has been tested, she has been through the hardships, tribulations, trials, heartaches, heartbreaks, pains, and sufferings which have been designed to melt her so that the dross of her sins and iniquities can be scraped off.

Psalm 119:67, 71, 75 “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.”

Understand first that the Lord will never cause us to go through any affliction unless is was for a greater purpose, to bring us closer to Him.

Lamentations 3:31-33 “For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.”

The virtuous woman has been tried and has passed the test. Because she has been refined in the fires of affliction, she is now a vessel fit for the master’s use. Her good works, which are the works of Jesus Christ since she walks even as He walked, are now an integral part of her daily life. Every moment of her day is spent in humble reverence of her spiritual spouse, the one who saved her in the first place, her Lord and Saviour.

2 Timothy 2:20-21 “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.”

Also, keep in mind that the good works of this virtuous woman are all encompassing and are seen even in how she speaks.

Proverbs 10:20 “The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth.”

So, is it true that a virtuous woman is more valuable than rubies? Yes, and so much more. She is so valuable that our Father sent His Son, the Saviour and Redeemer God, to pay the price of His own life so that His bride could be saved. What is a ruby but an utterly worthless thing in the perspective of the value of the life of Jesus Christ? How valuable must we be to Him that He would willingly suffer as we do and die the death we deserve?

Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

But how disgusting our sin must be. How worthless our efforts. How deranged our perspective on life. How insane our choices. That the King of all would choose to pay a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay. How gracious, how merciful, how loving … how virtuous is our Saviour!

Does the woman of Proverbs 31 have virtue? Yes, but not because she herself is virtuous. But because she has given her knee to the Lord above, He has given her of His own virtue … she is a partaker of His nature. When she willingly and reverently chose to submit to Him and have her old self die on His cross, her human nature died, and the divine nature of Jesus Christ now rests in her.

Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

So yes, she is more valuable than rubies, but only because the incalculable worth of Jesus Christ is in her.

Scripture simultaneously continues to speak of the believer as a person who must choose, obey, resist sin, mortify the flesh, renew the mind, and walk in the Spirit.

So the beautiful paradox is:

Christ lives in us, but we are still called to walk with Him.

The virtuous woman isn’t an autonomous superhuman who somehow possesses righteousness independently. Nor is she merely passive. Christ’s life produces active obedience through her.

Proverbs 31:11 “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.”

Trust is earned through demonstrated character. Proverbs 31 doesn’t merely say that her husband hopes she will be trustworthy. His heart safely trusts her because her consistent conduct has established that trust.

In a more literal sense, the husband who has a righteous wife has all of his needs met. He has no need of anything because she meets his needs on a daily basis. And no, not just when it comes to things like food and water. A righteous wife will also be her husbands mental, emotional, and spiritual support. She fulfills her role as a help meet for her husband. Being a help meet means being a help in all facets of life. Not just one thing here and another thing there that she feels like being helpful with, but in all things and in all areas, she will be his help.

Proverbs 14:1 “Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.”

Proverbs 21:19 “It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.”

Contentious = brawling, argumentative. She builds up her house and does not pluck it down with argumentativeness or fighting.

Ephesians 5:22-24 “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.”

Colossians 3:18 “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.”

This one is controversial in these modern times. The Godly woman submits to her husband. She will display a submissive attitude toward God and her husband. And by the way, this submissive personality manifests itself in every area of life. Here is an example: she will seek to follow her husband rather than lead him. Whether it pertains to walks, hikes, shopping, or anything else, she will be by his side … not trying to lead him. She will give her input in situations but will not be demanding and he is the decision maker, and she knows it because God has told her as much in His perfect Word.

By the same token, the church of God will always be seeking His will, His leadership, His guidance, His instruction, His correction, and His desires. We will always seek to be that submissive Bride of Christ who only wants His will to rule our lives. No, an earthly wife isn’t looking to be ruled by her husband, so please don’t get me wrong. But she will be willing to follow his leadership. And through her following of him, he learns to trust in her, just as the Proverb said.

“The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”

Ephesians 5:33 “Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.”

Reverence = to show deep respect, adoration, honor, love, obedience. Listens to and respects her husband.

In like fashion, we, the Lord’s bride, will meet the requirements of our spiritual spouse. It’s not as if our Creator God has need of anything, but in the same way that a human wife will fulfill all the desires of her husband to the extent that he can trust her in all things, we too will fulfill the desires of our Lord. When He brings a test or a command, we lovingly and faithfully obey His command. He can trust in us because we show a true willingness and desire to obey His will. And though we fail daily, He knows that we have hearts of sincerity which ache and bleed for Him. He can trust that when we mess up and sin, we will repent out of a heart that wants to be shaped after His own. Just like David was lifted up for his sincere love toward God, our Father lifts up all who desire to live a life of Godliness.

Acts 13:22 “And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.”

And just like David, the Lord can openly state that we will fulfill all His will because we are men and women after the heart of God.

Consider the following. You are the supervisor at a grocery store. You have an employee who is faster than everyone else and knows where each and every item is in the store. He is able to do all the work of the store without hesitation or failure. He is a model employee when it comes to hard work and dedication. However, this same employee has a bad attitude toward you and the customers. He insults and berates them; he does not make them feel like they are welcome in the store. As a result of his attitude, no one wants to work with him, and customers do not wish to shop at your store. All of his hard work and dedication is meaningless because his attitude has made everyone around him unable and unwilling to be around him. All of them are so uncomfortable in his presence that there is no profit (monetary or otherwise) in being around him.

So, here is the question: do you keep him around because he is a hard worker? Or do you fire him because, despite his hard work, he is a detriment to the company? Here is another question: can you even trust this man? I mean, he is a hard worker, but his attitude turns away coworkers and customers. You cannot even have a moments peace doing your own work because you are constantly having to worry about who is being hurt by him.

In like manner, we can perform good works with a wrong heart. There are many Atheists and unbelievers who do good things for their fellow man but have not the faith. They cannot be trusted by the Lord to do the right things for the right reasons. The Bride of Christ is trustworthy because we first have placed every ounce of our trust in Him.

2 Samuel 22:3 “The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.”

2 Samuel 22:31 “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.”

Job 13:15 “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.”

Psalm 9:10 “And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.”

Romans 15:12 “And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust.”

When a woman has chosen to get married, she is making an open declaration that her soon-to-be husband is the man to whom her devotion belongs. She is saying that she will do all those things which the Lord has said a Godly woman will do. (The husband has made the same declaration, by the way. But we are discussing virtuous women and wives, not husbands). In a spiritual sense …

When our hearts are truly converted and our old selves have died on the cross of Christ, His divine nature within us will always have us desiring to please our God in Heaven. Every facet of life, every circumstance, every situation is an opportunity to know Him and make Him known. When our lives have been given over fully to the Lord, we see every part of life as an opportunity to serve Him. When our Father drew us nearer to Himself, He moved us to make the choice that Jesus Christ is now the one to whom our devotion belongs. All His will is all our joy. All that He is, is all that we want.

These, and so much more, are the parallels between an earthly wife, and the Bride of Christ.

Women of God can never be like women of the world

The world has enough women who are tough,

We need more women who are tender.

There are enough women who are coarse,

We need women who are kind.

There are enough women who are rude,

We need women who are refined.

There are enough women of fame and fortune,

We need women of faith.

We have enough greed,

We need more goodness.

We have enough vanity,

We need more virtue.

We have enough popularity,

We need more purity.

I’m not arguing that women should be weak. That’s actually contrary to the very word virtuous as Scripture has developed it. A Proverbs 31’s woman is extraordinarily strong, productive, industrious, courageous, and capable.

The distinction I’m making is more nuanced:

Biblical strength is strength governed by righteousness.

She doesn’t need to become less strong. She needs to become strong in the right things and for the right reasons.

And that ties directly back to verse 10: the “virtuous” woman is precious precisely because her strength isn’t merely worldly capability. It has been submitted to God and transformed into something useful for Him.

Proverbs 31:12 “She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.”

“All the days of her life” is especially significant

That phrase makes the virtue of this woman continual rather than occasional.

She doesn’t merely do her husband good when she’s happy with him. She doesn’t obey only when his command happens to coincide with what she wanted to do anyway. Her fundamental disposition is toward his good.

That makes the parallel with Christ’s Bride particularly strong. Faithfulness isn’t simply an isolated act of obedience. It’s a settled direction of the heart.

The Bride of Christ is always thinking about Him. Our deep and passionate love for Him always has us seeking how we may please Him. Afterall, it is written that our love for the Lord will lead us to obedience to His commands.

John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

1 John 5:2-3 “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”

Revelation 12:17 “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

And 1 John 5:3 goes even further by saying His Commandments aren’t grievous. In other words, obedience isn’t supposed to be understood as the reluctant compliance of somebody who wishes they could do something else. Love changes what we desire.

It is also written that none of us can do good.

Psalm 14:3 “They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

Romans 3:12 “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

But we are still commanded to do good.

Psalm 37:27 “Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.”

The good isn’t originating independently in the believer. Christ is the source of the believer’s righteousness and good works.

That gives a very important distinction:

We don’t become righteous because we perform good works; Christ makes us righteous, and His righteousness produces good works in us.

Since the woman in Proverbs 31 is one who will do good to her husband, then this will be the character of the Bride of Christ. She will walk away from evil in order to do good. But how can we do good when we are unable to? The answer is quite simple. When describing a Godly woman, Paul was moved by the Holy Spirit to say the following …

Titus 2:5 “To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”

Just as a married woman is commanded to be obedient to her husband on earth, we, as the Bride of Christ, are commanded to be obedient to our spiritual spouse. The commitment we have toward doing good has us pursuing the goodness of God. Our love for Him has us constantly seeking how to do good toward Him in every area of life.

Ephesians 5:22-24 “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.”

Colossians 3:18 “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.”

The church body is subject unto Christ. And as faithful wives are obedient to their husbands, we will also be faithful, submissive, and obedient to Jesus. Since we are subject unto Christ, that means doing what He says, when He says to do it. Anything to the contrary is us being unfaithful to our spouse.

And faithfulness is the number one way we “do Him good and not evil” as the verse says. Being faithful to Him will ensure that everything else falls into place. An unfaithful spouse is described as an adulterer or an adulteress.

Hebrews 13:4 “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

James 4:4 “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

That gives Proverbs 31:12 a much deeper meaning. Doing Christ good and not evil isn’t merely about doing certain religious activities. It’s about remaining faithful to Him rather than giving our affection, allegiance, and obedience to another master.

To remain faithful to our spiritual spouse, we cannot be friends with the world. But what does it mean to be friends with the world? Basically, to be friends with the world means believing what the world believes, preferring what the world prefers, loving the things of the world, desiring the things of the world above the things of God, and pursuing worldly things above pursuing God. In short, to be friends with the world means to love anything of the world above loving God. Notice what Jesus said to Satan when He rebuked him …

Matthew 16:23 “But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”

“Savourest” – G5426

φρονέω

phroneō

fron-eh’-o

From G5424; to exercise the mind, that is, entertain or have a sentiment or opinion; by implication to be (mentally) disposed (more or less earnestly in a certain direction); intensively to interest oneself in (with concern or obedience): – set the affection on, (be) care (-ful), (be like-, + be of one, + be of the same, + let this) mind (-ed, regard, savour, think.

“Savourest” isn’t simply doing. It’s the orientation of the mind—what one thinks about, desires, values, and sets one’s affection upon.

So the issue ultimately becomes:

What does the Bride love?

If Christ is her husband, then His interests become her interests. His commandments become her delight. His Word becomes her standard. His desires become more important than her own. She does Him good because she loves Him.

Satan has his affections, interests, and desires set in the things of man … which is another way of saying that he loves the world. Obviously, he will move people to love the world more than God since he himself hates God. So, the outcome of listening to him is that we become friends with the world, little realizing that we have chosen suffering, misery, and destruction because of this choice. This is how we become enemies of God … by choosing the same desires of Satan. Of course, this means we have committed adultery against our spiritual spouse. This adultery, or lack of faithfulness, is especially evident when it comes to believing things outside of the Bible.

Revelation 17:2 “With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

A wife who loves her husband cannot simultaneously give her deepest allegiance to another man. Likewise, Christ’s Bride cannot give her deepest allegiance to the world and remain faithful to Christ.

Without getting too far into it, we already understand that wine means doctrine in Bible prophecy. It can refer to good or bad doctrine, but it does refer to doctrine, nonetheless. The doctrines that have been spewed from the first beast of Revelation, the Vatican, have taken over the world. Everything from Sunday keeping, to celebrating man’s traditions like xmas and Easter, to eating whatever you want, to wearing whatever you want, have overtaken the worlds religions and the secular world. In believing and following after the false doctrines of Rome, adultery has been committed.

The woman doesn’t possess an independent reservoir of goodness that she brings to Christ. She belongs to Him, trusts Him, submits to Him, and therefore His character is manifested through her.

The virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 is declared to be one who does good and not evil to her husband. In this we find that faithfulness is the key to doing good. But just as the virtuous woman has no righteousness of her own, she neither has the ability to good outside of Jesus Christ doing good through her. Her faithfulness to her husband is what allows her to do good in the first place.

Proverbs 31:13 “She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.”