Titus 2:3-5 Amplified Bible
3 Older women similarly are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor addicted to much wine, teaching what is right and good, 4 so that they may encourage the young women to tenderly love their husbands and their children, 5 to be sensible, pure, makers of a home [where God is honored], good-natured, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
… 5 to be sensible, pure, makers of a home [where God is honored], good-natured, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. (Amplified Bible)
5 and to be sensible, morally pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, so that God’s word won’t be ridiculed. (Common English Bible)
5 sound-minded, pure, working-at-home[a], good, while being subject to their own husbands, in order that the word of God may not be blasphemed. (Disciples’ Literal New Testament (DLNT))
5 They will teach them to be wise and pure, to take care of their homes, to be kind, and to be willing to serve their husbands. Then no one will be able to criticize the teaching God gave us. (Easy to Read Version)
A God-Filled Life
2 1-6 Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives. (The Message)
5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. (NIV)
Husbands and Wives, Wives and Husbands …
Raising their families, Shaping and Transforming Their Households …
So that the Word of God for the Children of God will not be dishonored.
So that the Word of God for the Children of God will not be ridiculed.
So that the Word of God for the Children of God will not be blasphemed.
So, Then no one will be able to criticize the teaching God gave us.
We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior.
For as long as I can remember, I equated discipleship with a program, a fixed, step by step methodical way of helping people to grow in spiritual maturity.
I thought that to disciple someone meant that I had to carve out time to read and study the Bible or a Christian book with them, one on one. But with all the demands of life, I felt I just didn’t have enough bandwidth to do discipleship.
And I felt very guilty about it. Even as recent as my last worship service, when my wife gave her testimony on John 8:47 when we talked at length about doing spiritual good to one another, there was this nagging at the back of my mind telling me that I should be discipling someone or being discipled by someone.
John 8:42-47 GOD’S WORD Translation
42 Jesus told them, “If God were your Father, you would love me. After all, I’m here, and I came from God. I didn’t come on my own. Instead, God sent me. 43 Why don’t you understand the language I use? Is it because you can’t understand the words I use? 44 You come from your father, the devil, and you desire to do what your father wants you to do. The devil was a murderer from the beginning. He has never been truthful. He doesn’t know what the truth is. Whenever he tells a lie, he’s doing what comes naturally to him. He’s a liar and the father of lies. 45 So you don’t believe me because I tell the truth. 46 Can any of you convict me of committing a sin? If I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 The person who belongs to God understands what God says. You don’t understand because you don’t belong to God.”
Hence, I find it ironic, that God in His wisdom should show me this passage from Titus to approach me to do this sharing about being married, about that responsibility to live and love together and having a household that honors my wife, my God and correctly discern the Word of God, study to show myself and my wife approved, to teach, preach, live by the example set by Savior Christ.
I am the least qualified to speak about this—and still don’t have it all together.
But by God’s grace, we have His Word in Titus 2:3-5 that helps us to know what this critical process of discipling others and honoring God’s Word looks like.
TEACH WHAT ACCORDS WITH SOUND DOCTRINE
Paul prefaces this passage with a command to both men and women to teach what accords with sound doctrine (Titus 2:1). This is a key message of this letter which he again repeats in Titus 2:3. In fact, in Titus 1, he says in his greetings to Titus that the purpose of his labors is for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth (Titus 1:1). And Titus 1:9, Paul tells Titus that an elder must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so they may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine, to rebuke those who contradict it (Titus 1:9).
BELIEF AND BEHAVIOUR
In Titus 2:3-5, Paul links the teaching of sound doctrine with a life that is evidenced by the fruit of the gospel. Our behavior is shaped by our beliefs. If we believe the gospel, then our lives should be characterized by godliness. Jesus says in Luke 6:43-44, “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit.”
Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead (James 2:17).
And as many Reformed scholars have put it—we are justified by our faith alone, but not by faith that is alone. It is impossible to have faith that is not evidenced by our works.
GOOD WORKS
What does this good fruit or works look like? It is there in Titus 2:3-5—being reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine, being loving towards our husbands and children, being self-controlled, pure, working at home, assertive, kind and respectful and submissive to our own husbands.
Just to be clear—these instructions do not apply to married women and mothers only, but to all women who are speaking the truth to one another.
Paul himself calls Titus his “true child in a common faith” (Titus 1:4) and Timothy his “beloved child” (2 Tim 1:2).
The good works described here are relational; they happen in community—in our families, at our places of work, in church.
TRAINING
So how do we get from teaching what is good to living a life that reflects the gospel? Through practice (or training)!
James says that we are to be doers of the word, and not hearers only (James 1:22).
Training is a lot like parenting.
As a parent, you are not just helping your child grow in knowledge, you are also training them to behave in a certain way through affirmation and discipline.
Deuteronomy 6:7 says we should teach God’s Word diligently to our children and shall talk of them when we sit in our house, and when we walk by the way, and when we lie down, and when we rise.
Proverbs 22:6 Amplified Train up a child in the way he should go [teaching him to seek God’s wisdom and will for his abilities and talents], Even when he is old he will not depart from it.
There are many forms of teaching.
There is talking about the Bible with our children, doing family devotions with them, being intentional about the gospel in your conversations with them.
But to talk to them from morning to night is a tall ask.
Instead, this verse in Deuteronomy implies that our children also learn through our conduct when we go about our daily activities.
They model our behavior, they model how we treat others like waiters at a restaurant, other family members, and friends. They listen; Are we kind in our speech, are we hospitable towards each other, friends, family, neighbors?
They listen in to our conversations, how we speak about others, what words and phrases we use, what conversations revolve around—work? money? gossip?
They see what we do, how we act, around the house, do we leave everything to our helper or do we chip in and help with the required household chores.
What routines do we have? Do we spend all our free time watching Netflix? Do we sacrifice any of our comforts or adjust our schedule to make time for others?
Guaranteed, We will make mistakes. We may discipline or say unkind words out of anger after a long day or take out our work stress on our children. But it is in these moments that we can clothe ourselves with Christ’s humility, teach and model prayer, ask God, our children for forgiveness when we sin against them.
The goal of training described in Titus 2 is to present everyone mature in Christ (c.f. Col 1:28).
Hebrews 12:1-2 Amplified Bible
Jesus, the Example
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of [a]witnesses [who by faith have testified to the truth of God’s absolute faithfulness], stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, let us run with endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us, 2 [looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity], who for the joy [of accomplishing the goal] set before Him endured the cross, [b]disregarding the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God [revealing His deity, His authority, and the completion of His work].
We want to see people grow in their knowledge of God and their understanding of The Way and The Truth and The Life if the Bible, so that this next generation, these next “great clouds of future witnesses” may, so when their opportunities reveal themselves, they too will proclaim Him to everyone. We want to see them each grow and mature in godly character so they may resemble more of Christ.
What is the book of Titus trying to reveal to us, trying to poignantly teach us?
Paul’s letter to Titus urged him to remind believers that while they do live in a sinful culture, they can be transformed into a new humanity by the same grace that Jesus demonstrated when he died to redeem them. As a new generation of humanity, they can, should reject lifestyles which are clearly inconsistent with the immutable truths revealed by God’s own Words to us, God’s generous love.
The Apostles’ Teaching
Hebrews 4:12-13 Amplified Bible
12 For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energizing, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged [a]sword, penetrating as far as the division of the [b]soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And not a creature exists that is concealed from His sight, but all things are open and exposed, and revealed to the eyes of Him with whom we have to give account.
Not long ago I heard someone say that if you believe you can possess truth as your own, you will be argumentative and defensive, sometimes even violent.
However, if you realize that truth is something you point to, that only our God owns, you’ll be kind and compassionate because you know truth is for everyone.
If there is one thing that has polarized our society, it is personal expressions of truth.
If you are a follower of Jesus, or you are becoming a follower, you need to know that you are called to be devoted to the truth that belongs not to you but to God.
The very reason Jesus’ early followers held on to and continued in the apostles’ teaching was that the apostles had been with Jesus and had heard the truth from his very lips. Jesus’ followers knew these teachings taught life itself.
When I look at the world around me, I see so much confusion and chaos.
Maybe you see some of the same wasteland.
As people who are trying to find our way through the wasteland of confusion and chaos today, families need to find our anchor in the foundational truth of Jesus so that we don’t build our lives upon the ever-changing sand of society.
The early believers’ devotion to the apostles’ teaching gave them a deep sense of awe for what would lead them to live with holy reverence for God, his Word.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 19 Complete Jewish Bible
19 (0) For the leader. A psalm of David:
2 (1) The heavens declare the glory of God,
the dome of the sky speaks the work of his hands.
3 (2) Every day it utters speech,
every night it reveals knowledge.
4 (3) Without speech, without a word,
without their voices being heard,
5 (4) their line goes out through all the earth
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he places a tent for the sun,
6 (5) which comes out like a bridegroom from the bridal chamber,
with delight like an athlete to run his race.
7 (6) It rises at one side of the sky,
circles around to the other side,
and nothing escapes its heat.
8 (7) The Torah of Adonai is perfect,
restoring the inner person.
The instruction of Adonai is sure,
making wise the thoughtless.
9 (8) The precepts of Adonai are right,
rejoicing the heart.
The mitzvah of Adonai is pure,
enlightening the eyes.
10 (9) The fear of Adonai is clean,
enduring forever.
The rulings of Adonai are true,
they are righteous altogether,
11 (10) more desirable than gold,
than much fine gold,
also sweeter than honey
or drippings from the honeycomb.
12 (11) Through them your servant is warned;
in obeying them there is great reward.
13 (12) Who can discern unintentional sins?
Cleanse me from hidden faults.
14 (13) Also keep your servant from presumptuous sins,
so that they won’t control me.
Then I will be blameless
and free of great offense.
15 (14) May the words of my mouth
and the thoughts of my heart
be acceptable in your presence,
Adonai, my Rock and Redeemer.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 