Titus 2.3-Paul Defines Proper Conduct for Older Christian Women
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday March 23, 2014
Titus: Titus 2:3-Paul Defines Proper Conduct for Older Christian Women
Lesson # 15
Please turn in your Bibles to Titus 2:2.
In Titus 2:2-10, the apostle Paul addresses the responsibilities of various groups in the Christian community on the island of Crete.
He addresses the appropriate godly conduct of older men and women in the Christian community as well as in relation to younger men and women as well as slaves.
In Titus 2:2-3, Paul addresses the proper godly conduct which older men and women in the Christian community are to manifest as a lifestyle.
Then, in Titus 2:4-5, the apostle addresses the responsibilities of younger Christian women which they were to learn from the older women.
In Titus 2:6-8, he addresses the proper godly conduct of younger Christian men.
Lastly, in Titus 2:9-10, Paul addresses the proper godly conduct which slaves were to manifest in relation to their masters.
Titus 2:2 Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. 6 Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; 7 in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, 8 sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. 9 Urge bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. (NASB95)
Titus 2:3 Likewise, older women are to be characterized as reverent ones in the area of conduct, not slanderers, not enslaved to much wine, teachers of good. (My translation)
“Older women” refers to women in the Christian community who were in their forties or were forty-six years of age or older or in other words, this word describes women who are at least middle age or older.
Like the older men in the Christian community, older women in the Christian community were to live by a code of conduct.
They were both to live by means of the Word of God, which through the Holy Spirit reveals the Father’s will for the Christian to become like Christ.
In the same way, older Christian men were to be characterized by certain qualities, so Christian women were to be characterized by certain qualities as well.
The apostle Paul teaches Titus and the Cretan church that older Christian women were to be characterized as reverent ones in the area of their conduct or behavior,
This means that they were to demonstrate their reverence for God by means of their behavior, which was to be governed by the Father’s will which is revealed by the Spirit in the Word of God, which is the mind and thinking of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God.
In other words, they were to worship God by means of the way they lived their lives.
Worship of the Lord involves “reverence” for Him, which is an attitude of deep respect and awe for Him.
Thus older Christian women were to demonstrate their deep respect and awe for God by the way they conducted their lives.
Worship of the Lord also involves “respect” for Him, which is to esteem the excellence of His Person as manifested through His attributes such as love, faithfulness, mercy, compassion, justice, righteousness, truth, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, immutability, and sovereignty.
Thus, through their godly conduct older Christian women were to esteem the excellence of the person of the God as manifested through His attribute of omnipotence.
Worship of the Lord involves “awe” of Him, which means we are to possess an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration for Him.
Therefore, through their godly conduct older Christian women would demonstrate they possess an overwhelming feeling of reverence and admiration for God.
Worship of the Lord also involves “wonder” towards Him, which refers to being filled with admiration, amazement and awe of Him and reaches right into our hearts and shakes us up and enriches our lives and overwhelms us with an emotion that is a mixture of gratitude, adoration, reverence, fear and love for Him.
Therefore, older Christian women would demonstrate their admiration, amazement and awe for God through their godly conduct.
“Not slanderers” denies any idea that older Christian women are characterized as being slanderers.
It means that older Christian women must never be known in their community in which they live as those who spread lies about people or gossip so as to injure a person’s reputation.
To “slander” someone refers to defaming someone’s character as a result of bitterness towards them.
Thus, older Christian women were not to be characterized as defaming the character of others as a result of bitterness, jealous and envy towards them.
Christians are prohibited from slandering each other or any person for that matter (Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:8; 1 Peter 2:1).
Interestingly, in 1 Timothy 3:11, Paul teaches that the wives of those who are candidates to be deacons must not be characterized as slanders.
“Not enslaved to much wine” denies any idea of Christian women being characterized as enslaved to much wine.
If you recall, in Titus 1:12, Paul quoted Epimenides who said that Cretan were “always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”
Paul affirms the truthfulness of this statement in Titus 1:13.
Therefore we can that the Cretan culture had a problem with alcoholism.
There was a problem with drunkenness in the ancient world just as there is a problem with drunkenness today in the twenty-first century.
The Scriptures warn against drunkenness many times (Proverbs 20:1; 23:20-21; 23:29-35).
Interestingly, Paul mentions the sins of slander and drunkenness in relation to older Christian women but does not mention these sins in relation to older Christian men.
Obviously both men and women are guilty of these sins.
Thus, why would these two be mentioned by Paul in relation to older women and not older men?
The fact that Paul mentions the sins of drunkenness and slander with regards to older women rather than men would suggest that on the island of Crete, there was a problem with these sins among older women.
Slanderous talk and drunkenness were among the vices commonly associated with many older women in Greco-Roman society.
In Titus 2:3, “teachers of good” is used in relation to his statements in Titus 2:4-5.
This indicates that older Christian women were to be characterized as teaching younger Christian women what is good, which is revealed in the Word of God by the Holy Spirit.
Older Christian women were to be characterized as teaching younger Christian women that which is good in the sense of teaching these younger women the Word of God so as to compel them to live in obedience to the Word of God which will produce godly conduct.
The apostle Paul taught that older Christian women are to be teachers of younger Christian women.
However, they are never permitted to teach men in a public setting in the local assembly (1 Timothy 2:11-15).