Important teaching for younger people and others
Text Titus 2:4-6 Time 15/09/10 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church
Some time ago we began to look at the letter of Paul to Titus. We are currently in Chapter 2. That chapter begins with a call to Titus to teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. Paul then spells out what the various groups in the church need to be taught in particular.
We looked first at verse 1 and also touched on some of the verses that follow making some general remarks on teaching in the church. Our main point was that we need to
Recognise the need of appropriate, sound teaching by the pastor and others to all members.
We said six things. We spoke of the need to recognise:
1. The need for teaching 2. The need for sound teaching 3. The need for appropriate teaching
We then spoke of the need to recognise that:
4. Teaching is not all to be done by the pastor 5. We all need teaching 6. The impact sound teaching can have
After this opening verse, Titus is told what he needs to teach to four different groups - older men ... older women ... younger women ... young men.
I would suggest to you that by young men or young women, he means people under the age of 40 and when it talks about older men and women it is talking about people 60 and over. Many of us are in that middle age bracket 40-60, if you are under 50 you are nearer the young people, if you are over 50 (as I am) nearer the older ones.
As for older men, there are four things Paul mentions. Obviously as with elders in Chapter 1 we are not saying that these are things that should only be found in older men. Rather, these are matters that in particular should be stressed to older men. Older men and others need to remember
1. The importance of being temperate
2. The importance of being worthy of respect
3. The importance of being self-controlled
4. The importance of being sound in faith, love and endurance
Then with older women there are again four things
1. The importance of being reverent in the way you live
2. The importance of not being slanderers
3. The importance of not being addicted to too much alcohol or other drugs
4. The importance of teaching what is good
That leaves us then with the younger women and the young men. Paul is very brief with the young men because he is speaking to Titus and Titus is a young man. He does have five things to say to the younger women, however, in the context of what it is that the older women are to train the younger women to do. And so on the basis of this we say six things
1. Younger women and others remember to love your husband and children, if you have them
The first thing the older women must train the younger women to do is to love their husbands and children. This may sound like a strange thing to say as one would think that every younger woman would automatically love her husband and children if she has them. Surely this is something instinctive and natural? Sadly, in some cases it is not and women do cheat on their husbands or divorce them, they do neglect their children and even abuse them in some rare instances. A study in 2000 by the NSPCC suggested that 6% of children in the UK experience “serious absence of care”. Further, as one writer puts it “This exhortation is still needed where some married women prefer poodle-dogs to children”.
There was a case in the a paper recently of a woman in Swanley, Kent, who became obsessed with a computer game and left her three children (9, 10 and 13) to drink cold baked beans from the tin because there were no spoons. Her dogs died and were left to rot in the dining room for two months. She was given a six-month jail term, suspended for two years, ordered to do 75 hours of unpaid work and was banned from keeping animals or using computers.
Further again, what Paul is calling for here is not mere natural affection but for something beyond that, something that is an outflow of their love to Christ. Women, of course, are told elsewhere to submit to their husbands but here it is made clear that this must be a loving submission – a willing and glad submission. They must also love their children and do all they can to draw them to Christ and to help them in every way possible.
So here is what younger women who have a husband and children must do and one of the things we should pray for younger women – that they will indeed love their husbands and children. It is very easy to imagine that family relationships can take care of themselves but no we need to work at being the mothers and fathers and husbands and wives, etc, that we ought to be in Christ.
2. Younger women, young men and others remember to be self-controlled and pure
Next Paul says that they must be self-controlled and pure. Paul has previously said that the older men need to be self-controlled and in verse 6 he adds Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. Self-control then is important for us all. The call also to be pure is particularly appropriate to young women as they can be under a strong temptation to fall into impure thoughts or words or actions. All of us however, must strive to seek be both self-controlled and pure.
There is a great deal of opposition to this in our society today. Everyone is urging us to let ourselves go, to throw caution to the wind, to walk on the wild side. Advertisers are always encouraging us to indulge ourselves. Take this advert by White Eagle for student loans
“Being at university and especially for the first time you’ll want to party – hard! Part of the appeal of going to university is to do just that, without parents on your back!
It’s good to let your hair down from time to time – just make sure you have budgeted for it. Use your Freedom Card to load a set amount on it and if you take it out with you to a bar or to get cash out, you’ll only be able to spend what you budgeted for – no matter how many you’ve had to drink!”
Let's pray for young men and women and for us all that we will seek to be self-controlled at all times and pure too in everything.
3. Younger women and others remember to be busy at home
The phrase to be busy at home is given as keeping at home in some versions as there is a textual variant. Staying at home and being busy at home are not so very different in some ways, but being busy at home is probably the thing that Paul wants to stress. I don't think Paul is saying that a married woman or a mother cannot work outside the home - such women often do and sometimes there is little choice from an economic point of view. Rather, he is saying that their priority must be being busy at home. It is probably not a popular message with some but, yes, the Bible does expect married women to spend time at home cleaning and washing and cooking and looking after children. Again that doesn't mean that husbands can feel quite complacent about not cleaning or cooking or these other things. However, the biblical order appears to be that it is the women who are to lead in this activity.
This, of course, flies in the face of what many women today believe. As people have seen the way that opposing this view can lead to great difficulties there has been some movement in people's thinking but the underlying argument remains the same. I came across a recent interview with Karen Brady who has been called the most famous business woman in the country, following her appointment as Director of Birmingham City F C some years ago. She is currently working for the Avon Cosmetics company. Having made reference to her mentoring Avon reps in juggling family life and business commitments, the interview goes on.
You are a mother of two yourself who went back to work just three days after giving birth to your daughter how much do you regret this decision when you look back on it now? And why did you make this decision?
I do regret the decision but when you are younger you tend to have a different view. You don’t understand that a career lasts a lifetime. It’s important for women who want to stop and have a family to have the ability to do that.
Fourteen years ago when I had my daughter phrases like flexible working and work-life balance simply didn’t exist. These days there are lots more options for mothers who want to work.
For women who feel pressurised into returning to work what would you say?
One of the key messages for all women is that you don't have to have an ambition to run a global bank nor do you have to stay at home running the household.
There is a medium ground and there are opportunities out there to find the balance that will work for you.
For many mothers the question of when to go back to work is a huge one so do you have any advice?
The super-woman thing doesn’t exist. Accept that you will have to work at balancing a career and family life.
However, there are flexible working opportunities available, such as that Avon offers, so don’t be afraid to explore options that will help you successfully juggle work and family commitments.
Again the lesson is for young women to seek to be busy at home and for the rest of us to pray for them along those lines and for us all to be diligent about doing our duty, however mundane it may be or despised it is by the world.
4. Younger women and others remember to be kind
The fourth thing here is that younger women are to be kind. This is a very general word – to be good or kind, to be thoughtful towards others. This is something that younger women in particular but all of us should work at – being kind.
In the 1928 Olympics Henry Pearce of Australia was competing in the single scull rowing event. He was leading when a duck and her ducklings came into view up ahead. They were on a collision course and Pearce reckoned that his scull would cut the string in two and sink a few ducklings in the process, so he pulled in his oars. When the ducks passed, he again bent his back to the task. Even so he still won. That act of kindness didn't cost anything then but sometimes it can.
Many years ago in the world championships in Copenhagen in the marathon tandem kayak racing, the Danes were leading when their rudder was damaged. The British pair, who were in second place, stopped to help the Danes fix it. The Danes went on to defeat the British by one second in an event that lasted nearly three hours.
However, the British kayakers did win the Pierre de Coubertin International Fair Play Trophy. The trophy has been awarded annually for nearly 50 years. In the past, the trophy has gone to a Hungarian tennis player who pleaded with officials to give his opponent more time to recover from a cramp. The first trophy went to an Italian bobsledder named Eugenio Monti for a gesture that exhibited a touch of class. In the two-man bobsled event at the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics, Monti was the leader after his final run. The only one given a chance to beat him was Tony Nash of Great Britain. As Nash and his team mate got ready for their final run, they discovered that a critical bolt on their sled had snapped at the last moment. Monti was informed of the problem and immediately took the corresponding bolt from his own sled and sent it up to Nash. Nash fixed his sled, came hurtling down the course to set a record and won the gold medal.
If people in the world can be so kind surely we can be kinder, like that woman Dorcas or Tabitha who was always doing good and helping the poor (Acts 9).
5. Younger women and others remember to be subject to your husband, if you have one
Paul finally goes back to younger women and their husbands. Yes, they must love their husbands but they must also be subject to their husbands. This, as we have suggested, is the main emphasis in the New Testament.
Ephesians 5:22-14 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Colossians 3:18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
1 Peter 3:1-6 Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behaviour of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewellery and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.
Again, this cuts right against the grain today with many people. There is an understandable idea that if women seek to be submissive they will simply be taken advantage of. This is why Peter says do not give way to fear. The fear of what might happen to us or what people might say is very real in some cases but it is God's Word that we must listen to.
Wives must submit to their husbands and all of us must pray that they will be able to. We in turn must take our duties seriously as we have said and be the mothers and fathers and husbands and wives, etc, that we ought to be in Christ.
6. Understand why this is so important
The final thing we ought to note is Paul 's remark so that no one will malign the word of God. The gospel was truly revolutionary. It was turning the world upside down. However, Paul saw that there was always a danger of people taking hold of its ideas and misusing them so that it led to chaos and anarchy. Paul saw that would be a disaster for the truth. He saw that it was important that Christians behaved in a way that would not be maligned by those on the outside. Christianity is now well established, of course, but it is good that we remind ourselves of the impact that the way we live has on those on the outside. Younger women, like us all, are being watched and if we are unloving to our husbands or bad mouth them or unloving to our children leading to possible family breakdown; if we lack self-control or purity, if we are are not busy at home or in whatever is our calling; if we fail to be kind, etc, then people will malign the word of God. Isn't what has happened in the Roman Catholic church a lesson to us? The scandal of the child abuse cases has put them totally on the back foot. The same thing will happen to us if we fail either in that way or in the ways written about here.
So, for the sake of God's Word let's love our families, be submissive where appropriate, practice self-control, be pure, so our duty and be kind at all times.
