Our Next Generation Of Godly Mothers

You have heard it said, “We are but one generation away from a being a pagan people.” This is so true. I praise God for my godly parents for the way they raised me. If it were not for them I believe I could have very well been swept up and out with the ways of the world. I know for many parents, it may seem that we have lost our children to the current culture and to the allures of the world. We cling to the promises of Scripture:

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

In today’s world, it is so important to instill proper values in our children because they will not learn it from the world around them. In fact the most important Christian education a child can receive is at home. What we teach to children here at church is nothing if it is not lived out in the home. This is nothing new. The Bible teaches about how we are to raise our children:

Deuteronomy 6:6–7 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.

These things of the faith must always be before us. And we need to realize, our children are never to big to instruct them on these things. In fact for many of our children, even though they are grown and gone a with families of their own, we still need to keep the teaching of the Word of God ever before them.

The world we in which we live in today, it is so much harder to be what God is calling us to be than ever before. Who will instruct the next generation? Today we are looking at the instruction that Paul is giving Titus, a pastor on the island of Crete. The people of Crete were not known for their virtuous living. Paul was instructing Titus what to teach these people in how they should live. This passage today is directed at the older women in the church on Crete. Look around us today, this includes a good number of the women here today. As I know you are well aware, the work of a mother is never done.

Titus 2:3–5

I am so grateful for my mother. She passed on her love for the Lord to her children and she spent much time teaching her daughters how to be godly mothers. And she also spent much time mentoring the young women of the church, as well. My mother, unapologetically was a big advocate of “drug therapy” when she was raising me and my siblings. She “drugged” us to church every Sunday morning, she “drugged” us to church every Sunday evening, and she “drugged” us to church every Wednesday. More than that, she lived out her faith every day.

Titus ministered in a pagan environment among Christians who had a background in such violence, dishonesty, and immorality for which the Cretans were legendary.

Titus had his work cut out for him. The church in Crete had much of the ills of society imbedded in the church. Rather than the church being an influence of the culture, the culture was an influence on the church

Titus 1:10–11 For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11 who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.

Paul exhorts Titus to set them straight.

Titus 1:13b–14 … For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.

Like in many places today, there were those who taught the going trends in the culture. The culture says one thing, but often the Word of God says something else. Then Paul tells Titus a timeless truth:

Titus 1:15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.

Purity is from the inside, not the outside. Nothing on the outside will be corrupted by a person internally pure; However, one who is defiled – the impurity on the inside will corrupts everything he/she touches. As a result Paul adds:

Titus 1:16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

Paul says in his letter to Timothy: