Titus 2:1-6

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1 But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. 2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled (Titus 2:1-6 ESV).

I stopped in verse 6 because this verse ends the exhortations to people based on gender and age; verses 7-8 are an exhortation to Titus directly, and verses 9-10 are directed at slaves. (However, 7-8 could be viewed as impacting the young men as well, as the NIV shows by translating the beginning of 7 like this: “In everything set them an example.”)

APPLICATIONS

1. Pastors

   • We should exhort and apply the Scripture to different age groups specifically in sermons.

   • We should leave careful teaching of young women to the older women, while exhorting those older women to teach the younger.

“Communicating Paul’s exhortations for the younger women was not Titus’s direct responsibility. Rather, this was to be the duty of the older women” (Lea and Griffin, NAC on 1, 2 Timothy, Titus, 300).

2. Older men

They set an example to everyone else because of their age, and so should be examples of maturity.

Notice that “faith,” “love,” and “steadfastness” (2d-f) “repeat the common NT trio of faith, hope, and love, with patience appropriately taking the place of hope” (Knight, NIGTC on The Pastoral Epistles, 306). See especially 1 Thessalonians 1:3, which uses the phrase “steadfastness of hope.”

3. Older women

   • They must live godly lives in word and action.

   • They have an additional responsibility to teach younger women how to live in a way that is “good” (3d), which is “described in the virtues listed” below (Knight, 310).

Paul “link[s] the older to the younger as those who teach what they themselves are and seek to be” (Knight, 307).

If you are an older woman, how are you actively obeying this verse, teaching some younger woman her God-given responsibilities?

4. Young women

I’m going to spend the most time here because of my purpose in examining what the Scripture commands of men and women as distinct from each other, and because the passage focuses on young women much more than on young men.

“Four of the seven virtues listed here for young women relate to marriage and the home” (Knight, 310). “Of the seven adjectives used to describe the desirable qualities for Christian young women, four implicitly presuppose a life involving marriage and family” (Lea and Griffin, 300).

The kind of life described here is beautiful, the truly good life! Beware the lies of our culture and entertainment industry that real life is found in competing with men and career success.

• So if you are unmarried, is this the kind of life you desire and pray for?

The NIV translates οἰκουργούς as “busy at home.” Knight comments on the implications of this: “[W]omen should be diligent homemakers (cf. 1 Tim. 5:14 in contrast to 5:13; cf. also Pr. 31:10–31 with its wide range of activities done by the wife as homemaker)” (Knight, 308). “Taken independently, “to be busy at home” (oikourgous) would indicate an efficient management of household responsibilities, and “kind” (agatha) would indicate a lack of irritability in light of the nagging demands of mundane and routine household duties” (Lea and Griffin, 300-01).

• So if you are married, is your focus on your home, loving your husband and children, busy there to make it a wonderful, Christ-centered, organized place? Or is home-making a burden, a distraction from money-making and “important” things? Are you submitting to your husband in all things (Eph 5:24)? Or are you taking charge, impatient with his lack of spirituality, or resisting his attempts to make your home godlier?

5. Young men

   • Are you self-controlled in your sexuality? Are you loving and delighting in your wife, husbands? Single men, are you restraining your desires and mortifying your lusts for the sake of Christ?

   • Are you self-controlled in your finances? Do you save money wisely, spending it in a controlled way and not on whatever you feel like buying? Are you using it to be a blessing to others and to spread the gospel, thus laying up treasures in Heaven?

   • Are you self-controlled in your strength? Do you eat well, not overeating and not eating so much junk food that your strength to serve Christ and others is weakened, you are made soft and self-focused, and your health is damaged?