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Yesterday, Daniel over at Unreasonable Faith quoted some of John Piper‘s answer to this question: Is it biblically acceptable for a mother to hold a full time job outside of the home?

It can be. It is like the alcohol question, it can be….

(My quotations are in red because I want my words to look just like Jesus’s words.) About that alcohol question, you mothers who have jobs outside the home might want to go pour yourself a drink before reading this post. Sure, it’s okay–it’s Saturday.

Having said it can be, I want to discourage it…

WHAT?! Why? Because moms are female? Well, God created female lions and they work outside the home when they go hunting! And he created honey bees, too. And might I say that without the female working-class bee buzzing outside of the hive, honey bees would not survive!

…because mothering and homemaking are huge and glorious jobs. […]

I agree with Piper: Mothering and homemaking are indeed glorious jobs. But so are jobs in the medical field or in business or Ann Curry’s job! And lots of women (as well as men) do BOTH! My mom was a glorious mother and homemaker AND she was a damn good full-timing working nurse. MY WIFE JESSICA is a wonderful mother to our son Elias and she “makes” one heck of a home for the three of us. I help, of course. But not as much as I should help. Why? Because my “making home” and Jessica’s “making home” are not equal in her opinion. (Boo!)

And, just being able to focus on the home where ministry can happen—not being enslaved by anybody’s clock—you can say, “I want to work my tail off for king Jesus, but I don’t want anybody to pay me for it.

Wait a minute. Women (and again, men too) can work their tails off for King Jesus outside the home, too. Ministry can happen anywhere: At the mall, in the car, around the block at the bar! And gosh, if you’re gonna work your tail off for King Jesus, and if he does offer a compensation plan, why not get paid for that work? (Of course I’m pretty sure Jesus only pays postmortem.)

I’m going to do it right here in this neighborhood with my husband’s connections and my connections. We’re going to lavish grace on people’s lives.”

Again, and I don’t believe Piper is denying this, but I think we can lavish grace onto people working at home or working outside the home.

So, I’m calling for ministry full-time when I say “don’t work full-time if you have a family.” Turn your family into ministry. Turn your family into a global dream for what this family might become, or what this man might be, or what we might be together as we are home.

All of that sounds really pretty, but I’m really not sure how it relates to a woman working full-time inside the home or outside of the home. Jessica and I want/pursue the “global dream” scenario too. But I hardly believe this requires one of us to be in our house “making home” full-time.

Video:

In all seriousness, what does the “biblical family” look like? I get so tired of hearing Christians talk about this so-called “biblical family model”! If we’re all honest with ourselves, we’d admit that not once is God’s ideal family “modeled” in the Bible. Sure, we can embrace good biblical principles of love, hope, truth, peace, (six wives!), understanding, grace etc when engaging family life.  But this pretty picture of the “biblical family” that so many churches boast about-you know, the one that usually has a hardworking godly father who provides for a godly stay-at-home working mother who’s raising four to six children–ISN’T BIBLICAL! It’s American. And before it was American, it was European. And it’s pretty. But it’s not biblical.

From what “biblical family” do we see this model?

Do we find it in the story of Abraham and Sarah with cute little Isaac. Oh, and Hagar with cute little Ishmael.

Do we find it in the story of Isaac and Rebekah with little masculine Esau and hairless Jacob? This might be close to how we picture the “perfect family” unit. Of course, we have to leave out the part about Isaac loving Esau more than he loved Jacob and Rebekah loving Jacob more than she loved Esau. (Because that’s not very Christ-like!)

Do we find it in the story of Jacob who married sisters Leah (the ugly one) and Rachel (the hot one)? Sounds like the perfect Oprah episode.

Do we find it in the story of sweet Hannah and her bigamist husband Elkanah?

Do we find it in the story of King David? The Bible mentions him having 7 or 8 wives, but it’s believed that he had more?

King Solomon? Elijah? Hosea and his whore?

One could say that Mary and Joseph come close to displaying the American family, well, except for that whole “Jesus storyline.”

The Apostle Paul offered a lot of advice to families, but that advice didn’t come from experience.

My point is this: An ideal “biblical family” isn’t presented within scripture. Most of the families that scripture mentions weren’t even nuclear. The “ideal American family”-the one that we Christians sometimes call “biblical”-is far more cultural than it is biblical.

The question originally asked to Piper inquired whether or not it was biblically acceptable for a woman to work outside of the home?

Piper said it “can be” biblically acceptable. But then he went on to discourage it. Why? If it’s not biblically wrong then why “discourage” it?

I’m all for moms or dads staying home full-time! If that’s what works in your situation, then I think it’s great. But in today’s culture, it’s not realist for many. But because pastors and teachers with amazing influence like Piper “discourage it,” a lot of moms (and sometimes dads) working outside the home feel a lot of unnecessary guilt.

And in today’s culture, the last thing parents need is more guilt.