According to the Bible, what defines a woman? What are the key differences between women and men? How does God want a woman’s character to grow and develop?
This short content seeks to answer those questions directly from Scripture.
First let’s consider the dignity of womanhood—why it’s so special to be a woman. Then we’ll look at three qualities inherent to every woman revealed to us both in the opening chapters of the Bible and by mere observation. Finally, we’ll share three hallmarks of godly women. By “godly women” we mean women who have put their faith in Jesus and who are being transformed by his Spirit into women who reflect his own character.
The Value of Every Woman
To be a woman means certain things are true of you. You bear the qualities of womanhood whether or not you feel, look, dress, or want to be what our culture calls feminine. Womanhood is not a status you achieve; it’s your nature. The Bible reveals who you are as a woman, and who God intends for you to be.
The Bible teaches that every woman is made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27), This means you are created to resemble, represent, and reflect who he is in the world. It also means that you are created for a relationship with God, to know him and to be known by him.
This identity inherently dignifies every woman.
The image of God is what sets people apart from the rest of creation. But, in the act of creating humans, God also made a distinction between them—creating us male and female. Men are also made in God’s image.
So, we wonder, what’s the difference between man and woman? What makes a woman who she is?
Three Qualities Inherent to Every Woman
Let’s consider three distinct features of women that differ from men.
1. Women Are Designed to Be Life-Givers
We could start with the most obvious observable difference between us, which is our appearance. God designed women’s bodies as life-giving systems (Genesis 3:20). We are built with the capacity to nurture, house, birth, and nourish new life!! This tells us something about how God created us as women, regardless of if we ever experience intimacy or pregnancy. Susan Hunt says it well: “The redeemed woman is called to be a life-giver in every season, relationship, and situation.”
2. Women Are Beautiful
There’s also something uniquely captivating about women—God made us especially beautiful. The first woman was a gift to the first man, and God made her in such a way that he would find great delight in her (Genesis 2:22-23). Throughout the Bible we learn about the power of femininity. Our feminine spirit is a God-ordained distinctive of gals that’s just part of our makeup, whether we’re wearing makeup or not! Femininity is a transcendent beauty—deeper and stronger than our physical appearance. Regardless of our cultural metric of attractiveness or our own sense of beauty, all women are beautiful on account of their innate femininity as women. God designed us with this intrinsic beauty and created us to be a delight to others and to beautify the world.
3. Women Are Relators
Already from our biology and our beauty we discern a difference in God’s design for creating women. When God created the first woman, he made her to be the perfect companion for the man (Genesis 2:18). He designed her differently than him, not to compete with him, but to complement him. God made man and presented him with a garden to work (Genesis 2:15). God made a woman and presented her to the man to be his help (Genesis 2:18, 22).
From this we learn that God intends for women to be “helpers”—meaning our primary role isn’t to attend to a task, but to people. Women are more relationally inclined than men and are wired for people in a special way. Although both men and women work in God’s world, and although both men and women relate to one another, men and women have different inclinations and propensities—men towards the work God has given them to do and women toward the people God has placed in their lives.
Women are distinct from men in their role in the world, which means, “the action for which a person or thing is specially fitted or used or for which a thing exists” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). We’re made for people.
Three Hallmarks of a Godly Woman
Women are beautiful, relational life-givers. Knowing this about ourselves, what does God-honoring feminine expression look like?
“Godly femininity” has often been distorted into a set of cultural standards for women’s dress, lifestyle, and personality. But true God-honoring femininity is a matter of character, according to Scripture. Of course, character will find expression in what we wear and say and do. But godly femininity does not start there, nor is it ever reduced to those dimensions.
Let’s consider three hallmarks of godly women from Scripture...
