“An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.”
– Proverbs 31:10
This final chapter in Proverbs is known for this portrait of a wise woman. And there’s so much we could talk about here in Proverbs 31:10. But what’s really interesting when you study this passage and you read what is written in the beginning of this chapter, this is actually instruction to a man in what to look for in a wife.
May all of our lives be marked by wisdom according to God’s Word rather than the ways of the world.
So single guys listen up, in Proverbs 31:10. And of course it has application to women, to married men, but the whole picture here is here is wisdom, which all throughout this book has been personified as a woman in different places, but now displayed in the life of a woman and specifically a wife who is excellent and is far more precious, more valuable than jewels.
So this is where there are so many ways we could apply this text, but I want to encourage women, wives to pray for excellence. And that prayer is a prayer for wisdom, as you read through Proverbs 31 and you see this portrait of quite honestly a perfect woman.
So don’t be discouraged when you read this chapter and in Proverbs 31:10 to think, “I can’t attain to all of these things”. This is a picture really of perfection. There’s nothing wrong with this woman that is listed here and we know that’s not true. Like we are all sinners. Every woman is a sinner who has struggles, who has weaknesses in different ways.
Praying For Excellence
But the beauty is you have a God who promises to give you wisdom when you ask, to help you grow in areas where you want to grow. And so to pray for that, to pray for excellence according to God’s word, not beauty, like we see later, according to the world, that’s fleeting, fleeting. Don’t pray for that. Pray for excellence according to God’s Word, for wisdom according to God’s Word.
And then the husbands, nourish your wives so that they grow in excellence, so that they grow in wisdom. Be wise yourself in the way you model wisdom before them. Help them cultivate wisdom in their life. Lay down your life to serve them so that they grow in excellence, in wisdom. And then, single guys, look for wise, excellent wives. Do not be deceived by the beauty and charm of this world.
Like Proverbs 31 later says, “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised”. An excellent woman, a wise woman, is to be praised. So as you think about a wife, pray for a wise, excellent wife because she is far more precious than jewels.
God, we pray that you would help us all to live lives of wisdom specifically based on Proverbs 31:10.
I pray for my sisters in Christ both single and married, Lord that you would help them to live with excellence, with wisdom according to your Word, not according to the ways of this world.
I pray for husbands that you would help us to love our wives as Christ loved the church. That they might grow in excellence, they might grow in wisdom. God, I pray for single brothers. I pray that they would not settle for the charm and beauty of this world. I pray that they would seek in a wife wisdom and excellence according to your Word.
God, please make us the men and women you have created us to be. Help us not to be deceived by worldly pictures of masculinity and femininity that totally miss the truth of your Word. We pray that you would help us to trust your word. To be wise and excellent according to it, as men and women made in your image. And we trust that this will be more valuable than anything this world has to offer. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
