Opening illustration: A preacher tells how he was once entertained by a teacher and his wife who had two boys in their middle teens. He writes, "Immediately on entering, I felt the home atmosphere. They were evidently a fine Christian family. However, I noticed that the carpet in the living room was tattered, and that there were actually holes in it. Nevertheless, the family was without doubt self-respecting. Before I left, the mother told me a story that helped me to understand about the rug. She said that one day when she was ready to sweep and dust, half a dozen boys were in her home. `Now,’ she had said, `you fellows will have to go out for a while for I have some things to do in the house this morning.’ `But where shall we go?’ they had asked. `How about your aunt’s?’ she then suggested to one. ’Do you think she would have us in her place? Not much!’ the boy had replied. Then she said to an-other, `Why don’t you go over to your house?’ and he had answered quickly, `Oh, Mother would never allow six of us in her fancy home!’ A few more questions and she found that hers was the only place where the boys were allowed to come in at will and have fun. She confided that now they always gathered at her place, and that was why they would soon have to buy a new car-pet. After hearing her story, her tattered rug was transformed in my estimation! It became to me the most beautiful one I had ever seen — for it was worn out in keeping and making good boys."
We all like to see a house that is neat and well cared for, but not at the expense of human values.
Let us turn to Titus 2 and see what God’s Word has to say about this.
Introduction: One of the most devastating and debilitating and destructive movements in our day is the Feminist Movement. It is changing not only the world but sadly it is changing the church. And as a result, the Word of God is being dishonored, opponents are having plenty bad to say about us and God, our Savior, is being dishonored and shamed. Radical feminism has brainwashed our culture. It has brainwashed our culture to the degree that even the church has fallen victim to this. Church leaders, theologians, professors of theology who are supposed to be profound in the Scripture as well as lay people in the church have bought the feminist lies. Is this what God’s Word portrays?
But young women have always needed instruction, just like young men and older women and older men do. And so here the Word of God is at stake ... the honor of the Scripture and the glory of God and the silencing of the opponents of the gospel. In other words, this simple set of commands has immense implications, has far-reaching ramifications for the Kingdom. If you love Christ, if you seek to honor God, if you want to lift up and exalt the Word, if you want to silence the critics, you will be eager to obey these commands. If you want to do what the society says, if you want to fulfill your own fleshly desire, you will disobey them. Jesus said it simply and concisely in the summary statement, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." And here are some of His commandments given to us by the Holy Spirit through the pen of the Apostle Paul.
How to model as a GREAT GODLY MOM?
1. Model to Exemplify ~ Godly Character (v. 3)
(a) The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they admonish the young women
(b) The older women likewise: Just as Titus had to give special consideration to the older men, also must he keep in mind how to approach the older women. They have their own set of temptations and opportunities.
© Titus must teach them to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers. The word for slanderers is the same word used for "devils." When the older women - or anyone else, for that matter - slander and gossip are devils’ works!
(d) "It is a curious trait of human nature that most people would rather repeat and hear a malicious story than one to somebody’s credit." (Barclay)
(e) Not given to much wine: This was a common failing of older women in Roman and Greek culture. Paul recognizes that this special challenge needs special instruction.
(f) Teachers of good things: If the older women have special challenges, they also have special opportunities. God can use their wisdom and experience as they admonish the young women. This gives the older women something positive to live towards, instead of the negative things of slander and alcohol abuse.
2. Model to Mentor ~ younger generation (v. 4)
• Older women are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, not enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good. Then we come to the next category, the one for today, young women, verse 4 and 5, "That they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands that the Word of God may not be dishonored."
• God has a magnificent and wonderful design for women.
• She is to assist the people under pressure. That means if somebody just lost a loved one, go make the meals, wash the clothes and care for the children. That’s the kind of person she is to be.
• She is to be there assisting people under pressure and to be known as one who devotes herself to every good work on behalf of others and not herself.
• That’s what she was when she was young and that’s what qualifies her to be on the list of widows when she grows old.
• It is a design which will fulfill their created purpose, maximize their uniqueness, make them a blessing to the world and bring fulfillment to their own lives and glory to the name of God. And that design is briefly stated there in those two verses.
• The instruction there is God’s design for women, women in the church so that the church can have a powerful witness and so that God can be glorified and His Word honored.
3. Model to Love ~ husband & children (v. 4, 5)
(a) The young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.
(b) The young women: According to Paul’s instruction, Titus was not to make it his ministry to teach the young women directly. Instead, he was to equip and encourage the older women to teach the young women.
© Of course, this doesn’t mean that the young women were barred from listening to Titus teach. It simply means that it was wrong - and dangerous - for Titus to make the young women a focus of his ministry. If there was a young women Bible Study group, Titus shouldn’t teach it. The older women should.
(d) To love their husbands, to love their children: Instruction for the young women begins with home matters. God has given them a strategic position of influence and assistance to their husbands and their children, and they must let love dominate their influence and assistance.
(e) Paul says that love for husbands and children must be taught. Certainly, aspects of this love are inborn. But other aspects - especially aspects that reflect the self-giving sacrifice of Jesus - must be taught.
(f) To be discreet, chaste, homemakers: The young women must be taught these attitudes (discreet, chaste) and skills (homemakers).
(g) Good, obedient to their own husbands: Goodness isn’t always easy in a world that blurs the line between good and evil, so the older women need to teach the younger to be good. Obedient to their own husbands is another way of expressing the wife’s duty of submission in the marriage relationship.
• Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:22)
• Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. (Colossians 3:18)
• Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands … won by the conduct of their wives … (1 Peter 3: 1)
(h) That the word of God may not be blasphemed: This shows how important it is for the older women to teach these things, and for the younger women to learn them. When Christians don’t live in a Biblical, godly manner it means that the word of God may be blasphemed among the ungodly.
The home is where a woman provides the expressions of love for her husband and her children. The home is where she leads and guides and teaches and raises the godly generation. The home is where she is protected and secured from other men and potentially wicked relationships and abuses. The home is where she lodges strangers, washes saints’ feet, shows hospitality and devotes herself to every good work. That’s her sphere. And whatever of that home and whatever of the goodness of her life she can take outside and not sacrifice the home between her and the Lord and her husband.
Application: Charles Hadden Spurgeon made this tribute to his wife. "She delights in her husband, in his person, his character, his affection. To her he is not only the chief and foremost of mankind, but in her eyes he is all in all. Her heart’s love belongs to him and to him only. He is her little world, her paradise, her choice treasure. She is glad to sink her individuality in him. She seeks no renown for herself. His honor is reflected upon her and she rejoices in it. She will defend his name with her dying breath. Safe enough is he where she can speak for him. His smiling gratitude is all the reward she seeks, even in her dress she thinks of him and considers nothing beautiful which is distasteful to him. He has many objects in life, some of which she does not quite understand. But she believes them all and anything she can do to promote them she delights to perform. Such a wife as a true spouse realizes the model marriage relation and sets forth what our oneness with the Lord ought to be."
And as I was reading Spurgeon’s tribute through, I was really moved in my heart because these thoughts were in my mind, to thank the Lord for my own wife who has been to me such a tremendous strength, realizing that all those things that he said she was to him, my own wife has been to me and what a component that is in helping me to fulfill God’s calling in my life, even though I’ve not been deserving of all that she has done for me. And I see that where this is lived out in marriages, God’s Kingdom advances with great strength and this can happen even in your life though you’re not in ministry, the pattern should be the same.
