A Disciples Journey 2026 – Lesson 7 – A Wife’s Role According to Scripture – Feb 15, 2026
Five Day Devotional – Lesson 7 – A Wife’s Role – Feb 16-20

A Disciple’s Journey 2026 

A Wife’s Role, According to Scripture

Sermon 7 

Feb 15, 2026

Introduction:

In the previous sermons, we learned that marriage is established and defined by God, and that God assigns and defines each role within the marriage. Husbands and wives will stand before God and give an account for how they fulfilled those roles. Romans 14:12 reminds us, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God,” and 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.”

When we stand before God, His judgment will be according to Scripture—not influenced by cultural trends or personal opinions. For this reason, understanding what the Bible teaches about the responsibilities of wives in marriage is essential. While these roles are frequently discussed and interpreted in various ways, this sermon will focus on the biblical instructions for wives and how following them equips women for the day they stand before Him.

God’s Purpose In Creating Women:

To understand the role of a wife, we must understand why God created Eve. In Genesis 2, God had already created Adam and placed him in the garden. God then said, “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). This statement is important because it is the first time in creation that God declares something “not good.”

Before creating Eve, God caused Adam to observe the animals. Genesis 2:19–20 explains that God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them to Adam to be named. As Adam named them, Scripture says, “but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.” Adam saw that every creature had a counterpart, but none corresponded to him.

Theologians have long noted that God did not create Eve immediately, even though He already knew she was necessary. God allowed Adam to experience his need before providing the answer to that need. This made the need clear to Adam.

After God made that need clear to Adam, He created Eve. Genesis 2:21–22 explains that God formed her and brought her to Adam. Eve was created as the answer to a specific need God had already identified. When Eve was created, Scripture identifies her role with a specific term that defines her place within marriage: a help meet.

The Meaning and Significance of “Help Meet”

Understanding what this term means is essential to understanding the role of a wife.

In Genesis 2:18, God says He will make the woman “an help meet for him.” The word “help” means one who provides support or aid that is needed. It describes someone who supplies what is lacking. The word “meet” means suitable or corresponding. It refers to someone who fits the role and matches the one being helped.

Together, “help meet” means a necessary partner who comes alongside to provide what Adam was lacking by God’s design. God created Adam first and allowed him to experience life without a help meet. Through that process, Adam came to understand what he lacked on his own. Eve was then given as God’s gift to him, completing what God intended from the beginning. Scripture later reflects this same truth when it says, “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD” (Proverbs 18:22). By allowing Adam to recognize this first, God prepared him to value Eve and respond to her with love, honor, and cherish her, giving himself for her as God intended. When a husband understands the purpose and role God gave his wife, he will love, honor, and cherish her, not abuse her, neglect her, or use her for his own pleasure.

The Wife Images God Through The Role of Help Meet

The wife images God in the role of help meet because Scripture uses that same word to describe God as a help to His people.

Scripture uses the same word “help” to describe God’s role as our help. Psalm 33:20 says, “Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.” Psalm 121:1–2 says, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD.” The word translated “help” in these passages is the same word used in Genesis 2:18 to describe the wife as a help meet.

In the Bible, the word “help” describes supplying what would otherwise be missing. When God is called our help, His involvement is essential. Without His help, His people would fail. That same word describes the wife’s role, showing it to be vital in keeping the husband and family aligned with God’s purpose.

Seeing the wife’s role this way helps us understand why finding a wife is a good gift from God. God created Eve as a help meet to complete what Adam was missing without her (Genesis 2:18). Scripture celebrates the wife when it says, “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD” (Proverbs 18:22). A wife should be valued and celebrated as God’s gift. To speak negatively about a wife, or to demean the role is sin and disrespect to God.

Understanding “help meet” correctly clarifies the role God gave the wife. With that clarity, we can now examine the responsibilities Scripture assigns to wives.

The Wife Equips the Husband to Fulfill God’s Plan

With the role of the wife defined as a help meet, Scripture then shows what she is helping her husband do.

Genesis 1:26–28 shows that God made both man and woman in His image and gave them both the responsibility to image Him and rule over His creation.

Genesis 2 shows how this shared responsibility plays out in marriage. God gave Adam the task of tending and caring for the garden (Genesis 2:15), making him responsible for working, protecting, and managing what God had given him. Eve was then created to be his helper, partnering with him in what God has assigned them to do.

Proverbs 14:1 says, “Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.” In Scripture, a wise person lives in a way that images God and follows His commands. A foolish person lives for themselves and ignores God’s instruction. A wise wife builds her home by reflecting God’s character and obeying what He has said. A foolish wife tears it down by living outside of God’s design. This shows that a wife plays a vital role in the family. She comes alongside her husband and helps keep the family aligned with what God created it to be.

First Timothy 5:14 also speaks of guiding the household. Scripture presents this as active involvement in caring for and ordering family life.

Taken together, these passages show that a wife helps her husband carry out what God has given him to do by working with him in the daily decisions, responsibilities, and direction of the family. Every wife that does this is preparing to stand before God for her role in the marriage.

A Common Misunderstanding About the Wife’s Role

Before we go any further, we need to address a false and misleading belief that Eve’s main purpose in creation was to give her husband children. As we have already learned in the creation account, Eve was created because Adam was incomplete on his own. God created the her to complete the Adam, to come alongside him, and to help fulfill the role God gave them together to image Him and rule over creation under His authority (Genesis 1:26–27; Genesis 2:18).

The command to multiply and fill the earth was given to both Adam and Eve as husband and wife. Genesis 1:28 says that God spoke to them and said, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” This command was never given to Eve alone. The responsibility belongs to both husband and wife together.

To assign childbearing as the wife’s primary role dismisses what Scripture teaches about her purpose and value as a help meet. It reduces a God-given role to one shared part of marriage and ignores the reason God created her in the first place. When that happens, God’s design is distorted, and women are reduced a single purpose in the marriage. History shows that this distortion has led to abuse, misuse, and a loss of the biblical understanding of marriage.

Helping Through Godly Wisdom

There is a misconception that a godly wife always plays a passive role, but the Bible gives examples of godly wives who intervened when sin or harm threatened the family.

One example is found in 1 Samuel 25. Abigail was the wife of Nabal. David was an Israelite leader whom God had chosen to eventually replace Saul as king. David and his men had protected Nabal’s shepherds and property. When David later asked Nabal for food, Nabal refused and insulted him. David became angry and prepared to kill Nabal and the men of his household.

Abigail learned of the situation. She prepared food for David and his men and went out to meet him. She brought bread, wine, meat, and provisions to make peace and stop bloodshed. She spoke to David with wisdom and reminded him that taking vengeance would be sin. David later said to her, “Blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood” (1 Samuel 25:33).

After this, the LORD killed Nabal. After his death, David sent for Abigail and married her (1 Samuel 25:38–42). David had already acknowledged her wisdom and credited her with keeping him from sin. Her actions showed the value of a godly wife who intercedes on behalf of her family and her God.

Abigail is a perfect example of the godly wife described in Proverbs 31:11, where it says, “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her.”

Abigail is not an exception or outlier of godly wives. The Bible gives other examples of wives acting with godly wisdom at critical moments. In the book of Esther, Esther stepped in when a royal decree ordered the killing of every Jewish man, woman, and child. When Esther intervened, god overturn the law and saved the Jewish people (Esther 4–7).

In Acts 18:26, Priscilla and her husband Aquila met a man named Apollos. Scripture says Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures and spoke boldly. God was already using him, and he had he was a popular preacher. However, his knowledge only went as far as the teachings of John the Baptist. He understood the need for repentance and the importance of preparing for the Messiah, but he didn’t yet know what Jesus had accomplished through His death and resurrection. Priscilla and Aquila took the time to talk with him privately and explain what he was missing. Together, this husband and wife helped him grow in his faith, allowing God to use them to strengthen someone He was already working through.

Taken together, these examples show that a wife’s role as a help meet can include intervening with wisdom at the right time, restraining sin, protecting others, and strengthening God’s work through faithful obedience.

The Biblical Understanding of Submission in Marriage

As we learn about the wife’s role, we also need to talk about submission, because it is grossly misunderstood by both men and women, both inside and outside the church.

In our culture, men who control and dominate their wives are often celebrated for “keeping their wives in line,” while men who follow God’s design and value their wives’ wisdom and contribution to decisions are criticized or dismissed. At the same time, women who practice biblical submission are often treated as weak or outdated, while women who openly disrespect or defy their husbands are encouraged and celebrated. This confusion exist because sin has distorted God’s design on both sides.

We begin with the command in Ephesians 5:22: “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.”

As we have already seen, God holds the husband ultimately responsible for the family. Because of that, the wife is called to submit to his leadership. Biblical submission in marriage does not mean that a husband dominates or controls his wife. Instead, it is a model of partnership and shared leadership, where both husband and wife fulfill their roles according to God’s design. The wife actively offers her wisdom, counsel, and discernment, trusting God and honoring her husband’s final decisions. In this way, submission is not simply yielding to a man’s desires; it is faithfully obeying God’s purpose for marriage, as husband and wife work together with mutual respect, strengthening each other and supporting God’s work in their lives.

Ephesians 5 explains biblical submission through the example of Christ and the church. “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church” (Ephesians 5:23). Christ bears responsibility for the church. He gave Himself for her, cleanses her by His word, and is preparing her to be presented to God holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:25–27). The church submits to Christ, not because Christ is dominating or controlling, but because He carries the responsibility of the family before God.

That same pattern shapes marriage. A husband who abuses his role will answer to God. A wife who rejects God’s command to submit will also answer to Him. Together, husband and wife live out their roles so their marriage reflects Christ, supports the work of the gospel, and prepares them to stand before God having done what He designed them to do.

This contradicts the worlds view of marriage; but when both husband and wife honor their roles the family is strong and the marriage images God.

Review:

Today we saw that the wife’s role in marriage is established and defined by God. Eve was created because Adam was incomplete on his own, and she was given as a help meet to come alongside him and fulfill the role God gave them together to image Him and rule over creation under His authority. Scripture shows that the wife images God through the role of help meet, equips her husband as they live out God’s purpose together, and uses godly wisdom to protect, strengthen, and support what God is doing in the family. We also saw that submission fits within this design. God holds the husband ultimately accountable for the family, and the wife submits to his leadership as part of obeying God, not as an inferior person the marriage, but as a faithful one. In the end, both husband and wife will stand before God and give an account for how they fulfilled the roles He assigned. When those roles are honored according to Scripture, marriage reflects Christ and both husband and wife are prepared to stand before Him in the day of judgment.