Discipleship - Part 4 Series

The text we’ve been dealing with over the last three lessons teaches what God has required of the older men and women of the church.

Titus 2:1 But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine:

Titus 2:2 that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience;

Titus 2:3 the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

We’ve been learning that older men and women were to be like Christ. The reason older men and women were to model the character of Christ is because they were to instruct, by word and example, the younger men and woman how to become Christ-like.

Titus 2:4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,

Titus 2:5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

Titus 2:6 Likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded…

Last time we learned that the older women were to train the young women. The word train in Titus 2:4 is also related to the word translated “temperate/self-controlled” in Titus 2:2, and probably should be translated, “train by making sober-minded.”

This word also means, “to recall a person to his senses” because when a person is not sober, they are inebriated or lacking the full and complete use of their senses. This is why someone under the influence of drugs or alcohol should not drive or operate machinery.

There are some spiritual faculties that young men and women need to be called to use.

Young men and women were to be taught to think spiritually and act spiritually. The older men and older women were to assist the younger men and women to think spiritually and act spiritually.

In verse 3-5 he focuses primarily on how the older women were to “indoctrinate” or teach the younger women.

Let’s use our mind’s eye for a moment and imagine the kinds of books the older woman would use to teach this material to the younger woman. Listen to what might be the title to these books:

“How to Blow Your Husband’s Mind” (Loving your husband)

“How Not To Raise Spoiled Brats” (Loving your children)

“Putting a Muzzle on your Mouth” (Being sensible or discreet)

“Every Young Woman's Battle: Guarding Your Mind, Heart, and Body in a Sex-Saturated World” (Being pure)

“Home Management 101” (Becoming workers at home)

“Cruella De-vil You Are Not” (Being a woman of kindness)

“Treating your Husband Like a King So He Will Treat You Like a Queen” (Being subject to your own husbands)

Why were the older women to teach the younger women to have these characteristics? Paul gives the answer at the end of verse 5: “…that the Word of God may not be blasphemed.”

Let's open each of these imaginary books in order to get a brief overview of each of these assignments.

“How to Blow Your Husband’s Mind” (Loving your husband)

philandros - fil'-an-dros. Means “fond of (her) man, i.e. affectionate as a wife. She was to be his friend.

It is interesting that the Scripture issues this command in a time when many women were treated as less than citizens. In our Western society, a man and a woman fall in love and then hopefully get married; but in the East, marriages were not as romantic.

In a great many pagan marriages of the first century, the husband was much older than his wife. It was a commonly accepted practice for the man to sleep around with many women and take on a wife only to father legitimate children. There was little communication, cooperation, or affection—or expectation of these. Often the two got married and then had to learn to love each other.

In view of this, the encouragement to young women was to “be affectionate” and to be her husband’s friend.

Respect to a man is synonymous with love and affection.

* Respecting your husband means not throwing his mistakes back in his face.

* Respecting your husband means not speaking rudely to him.

* Respecting your husband means not embarrassing him in public or badmouthing him to others (not even to your girlfriend or your mother).

Respecting your husband is probably the most important thing you can do in order to be your husband's best friend. No man feels “believed in” when his wife second guesses him or badmouths him.

When a wife supports her husband, he feels respected. When he feels respected, he feels loved.

If a wife respects her husband in the presence of the children…if she respects and reverences her husband in the presence of her friends and his friends, she will blow his mind. She will make him feel like a king and more often than not, he will treat her like a queen.