The “Vir­tu­ous Wife” of Proverbs 31 Is a God-Fear­ing Cap­i­tal­ist, Part 2

Last time we began to explore spe­cif­ic ways the free enter­prise sys­tem set the “vir­tu­ous wife” (v. 10) of Proverbs 31 free to ben­e­fit her hus­band and her entire house­hold. All those things that social jus­tice cru­saders have told you about cap­i­tal­ism are wrong. I speak of the cap­i­tal­ist sys­tem under which the wife and moth­er in Proverbs 31 oper­ates. This is cap­i­tal­ism, or the free mar­ket, as it was meant to oper­ate.

Act­ing respon­si­bly and to ben­e­fit, not just her­self, but her loved ones as well, the noble wife works hard, invests wise­ly, makes a sat­is­fy­ing prof­it, and man­ages her assets well. She has not act­ed out of greed, but out of duty — but the read­er can tell this woman finds both her work and its results intense­ly sat­is­fy­ing.

Here, in part 2, we resume our study of Proverbs 31:10–31 by exam­in­ing addi­tion­al ways this noble woman’s work ben­e­fits and bless­es so many.

Wise Instruc­tion

Hav­ing not­ed pre­vi­ous­ly that the noble wife helps the poor with a por­tion of the prof­its she has made from her man­u­fac­tur­ing enter­prise (see v. 20). We see a reminder of this again lat­er in the chap­ter. This reminder high­lights not only her pos­ture toward the poor, but also her nat­ur­al moth­er­ly instincts. She is indeed a moth­er, as we learn from verse 28. Verse 26 says,

²⁶ She opens her mouth with wis­dom,
And on her tongue is the law of kind­ness.

Do not miss the con­nec­tion here. Those with whom this woman inter­acts, espe­cial­ly her chil­dren, hear her speak “the law of kind­ness.” Kind actions do not mere­ly result from feel­ings of sym­pa­thy for those less for­tu­nate or from a desire to fos­ter uni­ty among peo­ple for unity’s sake. Authen­ti­cal­ly kind actions are tied to a set of laws that are best sum­ma­rized by the two great­est com­mand­ments: the divine com­mands to love God whole­heart­ed­ly and to love one’s neigh­bor as one­self (see Matt. 22:34–40). We treat peo­ple with kind­ness because God makes them in His image (see Gen. 1:26–28). We’re also remind­ed that kind­ness is a “fruit of the Spir­it,” and against qual­i­ties such as “love, joy, peace, long­suf­fer­ing, kind­ness, good­ness, faith­ful­ness, gen­tle­ness, [and] self-control…there is no law” (Gal. 5:22–23).

There’s some­thing else we should say about God’s hav­ing made us in His image. Act­ing under a free mar­ket eco­nom­ic sys­tem, we are free not only to pros­per, but to dream and pro­duce cre­ative­ly, reflect­ing the real­i­ty that we are cre­ative beings whom God made. We are not robots, but inde­pen­dent thinkers; and free enter­prise, or cap­i­tal­ism, rec­og­nizes this and allows us to act in obe­di­ence to the divine com­mand of Gen­e­sis 1:26–28.

Con­fi­dence

Why is this wife, who is a moth­er as well (as we saw in v. 28), con­fi­dent about the future? Vers­es 21–22 tell us. In her work, she has con­sid­ered her family’s future needs and, like the indus­tri­ous ant of Proverbs 6, has act­ed to meet them ahead of time. The same qual­i­ty goods made of linen and wool that the noble Mrs. pro­duces to sell to oth­ers (see verse 24), she makes for the mem­bers of her own house­hold, includ­ing “her­self.” Mark it down! This is not a man­i­fes­ta­tion of greed or self­ish­ness. Engag­ing in hard work to pro­vide for one­self and one’s own house­hold are virtues, not flaws or traits for which to be ashamed!

The mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty under­stand this. This woman’s hus­band has a stel­lar rep­u­ta­tion, for he

²³ is known in the gates,
When he sits among the elders of the land.

He and his fam­i­ly are known as respon­si­ble, self-sus­tain­ing mem­bers of the city or town in which they reside. They are not free­load­ers. Not only do they make their own way, but they pro­vide exam­ples oth­ers can con­fi­dent­ly fol­low, lead­er­ship for the entire com­mu­ni­ty.

A Woman to be Praised

In part 1 we not­ed that “the wife whose ‘worth is far above rubies’ (v. 10) and who is mar­ried to a man with a ‘heart [that] safe­ly trusts her’ (v. 11) is a woman who freely, enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly, and wise­ly takes advan­tage of all that the free mar­ket sys­tem has to offer.” Do not miss this point: Under social­ism, every­one but the elite few (the dic­ta­tors) strug­gle. Only under a free mar­ket sys­tem can any­one thrive by work­ing hard. When all are unhin­dered from explor­ing their oppor­tu­ni­ties to work, pro­duce, and cre­ate under the free enter­prise sys­tem as it was designed to oper­ate, every­one ben­e­fits.

Under social­ism, every­one but the elite few (the dic­ta­tors) strug­gle. Only under a free mar­ket sys­tem can any­one thrive by work­ing hard. When all are unhin­dered from explor­ing their oppor­tu­ni­ties to work, pro­duce, and cre­ate under the free enter­prise sys­tem as it was designed to oper­ate, every­one ben­e­fits.

I hope you have seen it: I am speak­ing of the truth that it is under the free mar­ket sys­tem that the “vir­tu­ous wife” of Proverbs 31 (see v. 10) can watch “over the ways of her house­hold” (v. 27) and by refrain­ing from eat­ing “the bread of idle­ness” (v. 27) bring pros­per­i­ty to her fam­i­ly and mate­r­i­al and rela­tion­al bless­ings to oth­ers. No won­der

²⁸ Her chil­dren rise up and call her blessed;
Her hus­band also, and he prais­es her:
²⁹ “Many daugh­ters have done well,
But you excel them all.”

A Com­mit­ment to God

One final insight about the free mar­ket approach ver­sus social­ism: Oper­at­ing as it should, the free mar­ket sys­tem allows peo­ple to wor­ship God. By con­trast, social­ism sets the state up as God and makes slaves of all its cit­i­zens. How appro­pri­ate, there­fore, that the woman who has hon­ored her hus­band and fam­i­ly, blessed oth­ers, and hon­ored God under the free mar­ket sys­tem is, in Proverbs 31, applaud­ed by “her own works.”

³⁰ Charm is deceit­ful and beau­ty is pass­ing,
But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.
³¹ Give her of the fruit of her hands,
And let her own works praise her in the gates.

While she is praised and hon­ored, she, in turn, with her actions, lifestyle, and we can assume, with her words as well, hon­ors the Lord.

This is as it should be. As Moses told the Israelites in Deuteron­o­my 8:18:

And you shall remem­ber the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you pow­er to get wealth, that He may estab­lish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

The noble woman in Proverbs 31 didn’t for­get. May we not, either.

Unless oth­er­wise indi­cat­ed, Scrip­ture has been tak­en from the New King James Ver­sion®. Copy­right © 1982 by Thomas Nel­son, Inc. Used by per­mis­sion. All rights reserved.

In this arti­cle, links to Proverbs 31:1–10 via biblegateway.com also show­case the pas­sage in the Chris­t­ian Stan­dard Bible, the CSB. Copy­right © 2017 by Hol­man Bible Pub­lish­ers. Chris­t­ian Stan­dard Bible®, and CSB® are fed­er­al­ly reg­is­tered trade­marks of Hol­man Bible Pub­lish­ers, all rights reserved.

In this arti­cle, links to Proverbs 31:1–10 via biblegateway.com also show­case the pas­sage in the NLT, The New Liv­ing Trans­la­tion, copy­right © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyn­dale House Foun­da­tion. Used by per­mis­sion of Tyn­dale House Pub­lish­ers, Inc., Car­ol Stream, Illi­nois 60188. All rights reserved.