向在家工作的姐妹讲道
牧师们应当把会众中的妇女看作家人来对待。这似乎是提摩太前书5:2的教导：“劝老年妇女如同母亲，劝少年妇女如同姐妹。”但是，神又是如何让牧师们向妇女讲道的呢？
事实上，神确有吩咐过。圣经有三段经文特别突出强调了如何向妇女讲道，尤其针对她们在家里的工作。这些经文鼓励牧师们向他们在基督里的母亲和姐妹讲道的时候，至少牢记三件事：请时刻记得我们受到的咒诅、我们所在的处境和周遭的文化。
考虑到上述三点，也是我作为姐妹的观察， 我的目标并不是就每一点都提供适合的应用。即便我确有提供了一些实际的建议，但我更希望为你提供三扇窗户，让你进入这些在家工作的妇女的生活和内心，以便于你“按情理”（彼前3:7）向我们传讲任何一段经文 。
1. 牢记于心我们所受的咒诅
首先，请记得姐妹们所受的咒诅 。在伊甸园里，神咒诅夏娃：“我必多多加增你怀胎的苦楚，你生产儿女必多受苦楚。你必恋慕你丈夫，你丈夫必管辖你”（创3:16）。
这些关系是在家工作的妇女所面对的核心问题。今天的女人们仍旧挣扎于想要篡夺丈夫的带领权，同样也还在生产上受苦。想一想彼得如何带着这个考虑来直接教导女人和丈夫的关系的：
你们作妻子的，要顺服自己的丈夫… 你们不要以外面的辫头发、戴金饰、穿美衣、为妆饰，只要以里面存着长久温柔安静的心为妆饰… 因为古时仰赖 神的圣洁妇人，正是以此为妆饰，顺服自己的丈夫… 你们若行善，不因恐吓而害怕，便是撒拉的女儿了。（彼前3:1-6）
彼得在这里劝告女人活在丈夫的带领之下，要培养温柔安静的灵，而不是专横又操控的灵。而且，他也鼓励女人不要惧怕，在跟随丈夫的时候要信靠神。这样做，她们便彰显了福音。你可以怎样效法彼得的榜样呢？我从不同的经文给出一些讲道的建议：
首先，讲到旧约的时候，可以在讲以色列的历史时考虑多关注“古时仰赖神的圣洁妇人”。这些妇人如何在顺服丈夫的事上把盼望放在神那里？她们是在帮助丈夫跟随神，还是诱使丈夫转离神，像那些迦南妇人和所罗门的妻子们？鼓励你的姐妹们把她们所有的问题带到神面前，不论是担心孩子的健康或者未来，还是家里的财务状况，或者别的任何事情。
第二，讲到智慧文学的时候，帮助你的姐妹们思考，她们的态度会得到丈夫的称赞（箴31:28），还是会导致他们宁可住在房顶的角上（箴21:9）。她们是否信实地管教孩子来彰显母亲的爱呢（箴29:15；31:26）？
第三，讲到新约的时候，恳请你的姐妹们将她们的疲惫和挣扎带到耶稣那里，不要尝试躲进小说里、或者借着运动和购物，来逃避咒诅。鼓励她们思考自己每日的生活在被福音改变。比如，如果你在讲雅各书，她们的口舌如何？是否在忠心地建立和帮助自己的丈夫，并且温柔地、耐心地在教导自己的孩子，还是在口舌上犯罪，借此来指责或发泄怒气？
2. 牢记于心我们所在的处境
其次，要想到我们所在的处境——家庭。想一想彼得如何在教导妇人方面提供指导：
所以我愿意年轻的寡妇嫁人、生养儿女、治理家务，不给敌人辱骂的把柄．（提前5:14）
又劝老年妇人，举止行动要恭敬，不说谗言、不给酒作奴仆，用善道教训人。好指教少年妇人爱丈夫，爱儿女，谨守，贞洁，料理家务，待人有恩，顺服自己的丈夫，免得 神的道理被毁谤。（多2:3-5）
从这些经文我们可以看出，先来考虑你究竟在对老年妇人还是少年妇人讲道是很重要的。并不是所有的女人都处在同样的人生阶段，因此，她们的家庭处境也不同。要记得同样也很重要的是，神给女人的首要责任就是丈夫和孩子，并且首要服侍的焦点、也是首先要活出得救生命的地方就是在家庭当中。这就是我们的处境。
想一想你给出的讲道应用有没有在年轻妇人的处境中建立她们的生命，还是脱离了她们的处境。比如，如果你提出基督徒的忠心表现在出去宣教，或者门训八个人，或是每周参加街头传福音的活动，那样你可能就脱离了她们的处境。一位四个孩子的妈妈通常时间安排并不灵活，因而不能参加这些精彩的活动。然而老年妇人或许有可能。却要告诉年轻妇人可以在神所给她们的处境中建造神的国度。怎么做呢？我会再从不同的经文给出一些讲道的建议：
从旧约中：考虑带出神如何做以色列的帮助者，并且神已经赋予女人在丈夫生命中同样的角色。她们可以怎样在自己的角色当中成长？帮助她们思考怎样做妈妈，通过思想神如何信实地对待祂持续悖逆的儿子——以色列民。你教会里的那些妈妈们听到摩西呼求神“我向这百姓怎么行呢？”（出17:4）会深有同感。
从新约中：鼓励你的姐妹们思考，她们可以怎样使用自己的家来接触到万国，或许是接待一位宣教士，或者请一位留学生来家里吃饭。当她们考虑传福音的时候，督促她们思考和邻居、足球队的其他父母还有售货员传福音的机会。还有就是，她们是否在尽一切可能地使自己的孩子做耶稣的门徒，就算她们记得只有神可以施行拯救？
问她们问题，“福音怎样改变你在家的工作？”并且帮助她们从经文出发去思考那个问题。比如，如果你在讲彼得前书，那就鼓励你的姐妹们在她们各人的生活中追求圣洁，并且向着圣洁的目标来管理自己的家。她们的孩子从书上和媒体中在接收什么样的讯息？家里谈话的语气是怎样的？有没有在外邦人中做到“品行端正”，使得“他们因看见你们的好行为，便在鉴察的日子归荣耀给神”（彼前2:12）？总的来说，就是要劝告姐妹们要“有行善的名声，就如养育儿女，接待远人，洗圣徒的脚，救济遭难的人，竭力行各样善事”（提前5:10）。
按着我们在家的处境来讲道，还要劝告我们去接纳自己的处境。鼓励年轻的妇人遵从保罗的建议，结婚、生子并管理自己的家，这些对于很多二十多岁的妇人来说是反文化的。鼓励年长的姐妹要顺服。保罗在提多书2章的建议是要教导年轻妇人去尽这些职分。鼓励她们都要尽力做工，记得她们所服侍的乃是主基督（西3:24）。
3. 牢记于心我们所在的文化
最后，记得我们的文化。时刻想着你的姐妹们呼吸的文化空气，还有它如何污染她们的心。
空气中充斥着像汉娜·罗森的《男衰女强》一书中的各种观点，从标题中也就可见一斑。我们的文化在向女人宣传的是，要在职业中寻找价值、身份认同、人的用处和奖赏。世界说，要是我们把才干和生命首先用在家庭中，就等于是浪费。甚至基督徒的妻子也接受这种说法，尤其是年轻妻子。
保罗在写给提摩太的书信中深谙以弗所的女性文化。即便他没有直接针对家庭提出意见，我们仍然可以从他教导妇女的心学到一些功课。他直接指向以弗所的时尚文化，以及它如何给妇女带来试探：
又愿女人廉耻、自守，以正派衣裳为妆饰，不以编发、黄金、珍珠、和贵价的衣裳为妆饰。只要有善行．这才与自称是敬 神的女人相宜。（提前2:9-10）
保罗看到那里的文化鼓动妇女借着引诱男人进而掌控他们。我们的文化同样如此，促使女人取代男人的角色。
提醒你的教会里那些结了婚的姐妹，她们选择工作的关键是什么：应该是福音！基督和教会的位置是不可调换的。鼓励她们，若她们接受帮助者角色，其实是在反映出教会和基督的关系（弗5:22-24）。鼓励她们，若她们放下属世的雄心抱负去服侍家人，就是在以一种可见的方式将你的生命降服于基督并展现了他的谦卑（腓2）。鼓励她们，因为她们在为基督在永恒中所预备的奖赏而服侍（西3:24）。
因此，弟兄们，当你向教会里在家工作的姐妹讲道、牧养她们的时候，请时刻记得我们受到的咒诅、我们所在的处境和周遭的文化。如此以来，你将把福音带进神为着祂的荣耀已经给我们的善工中。
Preaching to Women Who Work in the Home
Pastors should treat women in the congregation like family. That seems to be the lesson of 1 Timothy 5:2: “Treat…older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters.” But does God say how they should preach to women?
In fact, he does. Three passages of Scripture in particular stand out for their instruction on how to preach to women, especially regarding their work in the home. They encourage pastors to remember at least three things when they are preaching to their mothers and sisters in Christ: remember their curse, remember their context, and remember their culture.
In considering these three points, which I offer as observations from a sister, my goal is not to provide you with every available application. Though I do offer some practical suggestions, even more than that, I hope to give you three windows into the lives and hearts of women working in the home so that you can preach any passage to us “in an understanding way” (1 Pet. 3:7).
REMEMBER OUR CURSE
First, remember your sisters’ curse. In the garden, God placed a curse on Eve’s calling: “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (Gen. 3:16).
These relationships are at the heart of the woman’s work in the home. Women today still struggle with the desire to usurp their husband’s leadership, and they still suffer pain and trouble in childbearing. Consider how Peter takes this curse into account by speaking to women directly about their relationship with their husbands:
Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands…your beauty should not come from outward adornment…instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit…this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful…you are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear. (1 Pet. 3:1-6)
Here Peter exhorts women to cultivate a gentle and quiet spirit, not a domineering, manipulative one, as they live under their husband’s leadership. And he encourages women not to give way to fear, but to trust God as they follow their husband. In so doing, women display the gospel. How can you follow Peter’s example? A few suggestions for preaching from different portions of Scripture:
First, when preaching from the Old Testament, consider spotlighting the “holy women of the past” as you preach through the story of Israel. How were the women good examples (or not) of putting their hope in God as they submitted to their husbands? Did they help their husbands follow God, or did they lead them away from him, like the Canaanite women and Solomon’s wives? Encourage your women to bring all their troubles to God, whether it’s fear over their children’s health or future, or anxiety about the financial security of their home, or anything else.
Second, when you are in the wisdom literature, help your women consider if their attitude draws their husbands’ praise (Prov. 31:28) or drives their husbands to want to live on the roof (Prov. 21:9). Are they loving their children by faithfully disciplining them (Prov. 29:15; 31:26)?
Third, when you are preaching in the New Testament, urge your women to go to Jesus with their weariness and struggles, and not try to flee the curse by escaping into novels, exercise, or shopping. Encourage them to consider how their daily lives are being transformed by the gospel. For example, if you are preaching in James, how is their speech? Are they using it faithfully to build up and help their husbands and to gently, patiently instruct their children, or do they use their speech sinfully to express criticism or anger?
REMEMBER OUR CONTEXT
Next, remember our context—the household. Consider how Paul provides instruction about teaching women:
So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. (1 Tim. 5:14)
Teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. (Tit. 2:3-5)
From these texts, we can see it is important to consider whether you are preaching to older women or younger women. Not all women are in the same season of life—and, thus, their households will not all look the same. It is also important to remember that the primary responsibility God has given us is to our husbands and children, and the primary entity that should receive the focus of our labors and where we work out our salvation is our household. This is our context.
Consider whether your sermon applications build up your younger women in their context—or preach them out of it. For example, if you present Christian faithfulness as going on mission trips, discipling eight people, and engaging in weekly street evangelism, you may be preaching younger women out of their context. The mother of four young children usually does not have the flexibility to undertake those excellent activities. An older woman, however, may. Instead, talk to the younger women about how they can be building God’s Kingdom in the context God has given them. How? Again, I’d offer a few suggestions for preaching from different parts of the Bible.
From the Old Testament: Consider pointing out how God is Israel’s helper, and that he has given your women the same role in their husband’s life. How can they grow in that role? Help them consider what they can learn about their mothering as they consider God’s faithfulness towards his regularly disobedient son, the people of Israel. Your moms can relate to Moses when he said to God, “What am I to do with these people?” (Ex. 17:5).
From the New Testament: Encourage your women to consider how they can use their homes to reach the nations, maybe by hosting a visiting missionary or international students for a meal. As they consider their evangelism, urge your women to think through the opportunities they have with neighbors, soccer team parents, and retail workers. Also: Are they doing all they can to make disciples of their own children, even as they remember that only God saves?
Ask them, “How is the gospel transforming your work in the home?” And help them consider that question in light of your Scriptural text. For example, if you are in 1 Peter, encourage your women to pursue holiness in their own lives and manage their households towards holiness. What kinds of books and media are the children taking in? What is the tone of conversation in the home? Is the family living a “good life” among the pagans so that “they may see their good deeds and glorify God” (1 Pet. 2:12)? Generally, urge the women to be “well known for [their] good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble and devoting [themselves] to all kinds of good deeds” (1 Tim. 5:10).
Also, preach to our context in the household by exhorting us to embrace it. Urge your younger women to obey Paul’s counsel to marry, have children, and manage their homes, which is countercultural to many women in their twenties. Urge your older women to obey Paul’s counsel in Titus 2 to instruct the younger women in these jobs. Urge them all to work with excellence, remembering that it is the Lord Christ they are serving (Col. 3:24).
REMEMBER OUR CULTURE
Finally, remember our culture. Keep in mind the cultural air your women are breathing and how it can pollute their hearts.
That air is full of ideas like those presented in Hanna Rosin’s The End of Men: And the Rise of Women, the point of which is largely captured in the title. Our culture tells women to find value, identity, usefulness, and reward in career. It says that we are wasting our gifts and our lives by applying them primarily to family life. And even Christian women are buying into this message, especially younger women.
In writing to Timothy, Paul well understood female culture in Ephesus. Though his comments are not regarding the household, we can still take a lesson from how he addresses women’s hearts. He speaks directly to the Ephesian fashion culture and how it tempted women:
I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds appropriate for women who profess to worship God. (1 Tim. 2:9-10)
Paul saw that this culture encouraged women to dress to exercise power over men by alluring them. Our culture does the same—and it pushes women to take on the very roles of men.
Remind your married women of what is at stake in the work they choose: the gospel! Christ and the church are not interchangeable. Encourage them that when they embrace their helper role, they are imaging the church’s relationship to Christ (Eph. 5:22-24). Encourage your women that when they lay down worldly ambition to serve their family, they are surrendering their lives in a very tangible way to follow Christ and display his humility (Phil. 2). Encourage them that they are working for the eternal reward Christ has for them (Col. 3:24).
So, brothers, as you preach to and shepherd your women who are working in the home, remember our curse, our context, and our culture. In so doing, you will bring the gospel to bear on the good work God has given us, for his glory.
作者：Bari Nichols 翻译肢体：侯淑婧
用圣经视野和实用资源装备教会领袖
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