Titus 2.4-Older Women Are to Train Younger Women to Love Their Husbands and Children
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday March 30, 2014
Titus: Titus 2:4-Older Women Are to Train Younger Women to Love Their Husbands and Children
Lesson # 16
Please turn in your Bibles to Titus 2:3.
In Titus 2:2-10, the apostle Paul addresses the responsibilities of various groups in the Christian community on the island of Crete Paul 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 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 2:3 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. (NASB95)
Titus 2:4 is a purpose clause which denotes that older women are to be characterized as reverent ones in the area of conduct, not slanderers, not enslaved to much wine, teachers of good in order that they would be able to train younger women to love their husbands and children.
“They may encourage” is the verb sōphronizō which speaks of training someone to act wisely.
Here in Titus 2:4, the verb refers to older women instructing younger women as to how they were to fulfill their obligations to their husbands and their children in a manner which pleases God or is according to His will as it is revealed by the Spirit through the teaching of the Word of God.
“Younger women” refers to women in the Cretan Christian community who had not yet reached their forties or in other words middle age, which marked an older women.
“Love their husbands” refers to the godly manner in which a Christian woman is to love her husband since Paul is not talking about a wife’s love for her husband according to the standards of the world which is deceived by Satan but rather the love which is according to God’s standards.
“Love their children” refers to the godly manner in which a Christian woman is to love her children since Paul is not talking about a wife’s love for her children according to the standards of the world which is deceived by Satan but rather the love which is according to God’s standards.
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 4 in order that they would be able to train younger women to love their husbands, to love their children. (My translation)
The apostle Paul states the purpose of older women being characterized as reverent ones in the area of conduct, not slanders, not enslaved to much wine, and teachers of good.
They were to be characterized by these things so that they would be able to train younger women to love their husbands and children according to God’s standards, which are revealed by the Spirit through the teaching of the Word of God.
Unregenerate, heathen women love their husbands according to the world’s standards, which is deceived by the devil and sin.
Paul is concerned that younger Christian women would be able to love their husbands and children according to God’s standards rather than according to the standards of Satan’s cosmic system.
He wants the Cretan Christian community to reflect God’s holy character which would stand in stark contrast with conduct of the Judaizers and the apostate pastor-teachers in Crete who were adhering to their legalistic teaching.
In order for younger women to be trained by older women to love their husbands and children according to God’s standards, older women themselves must know God’s standards and live by them.
Older women must love their husbands and children according to God’s standards, otherwise, they are not qualified to train younger women.
Older Christian women must already be loving their husbands and children according to God’s standards in order for them to be qualified to train younger women to love their husbands and children according to God’s standards.
In Ephesians 5:22-24, the apostle Paul communicates to the Ephesian Christian community as to how Christian women are to love their husbands according to God’s standards, namely by being subject to their husbands as to the Lord.
Ephesians 5:22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. (NASB95)
“As to the Lord” emphasizes that the Christian wife is to submit to her husband’s authority in response to the authority of Jesus Christ.
When a Christian wife submits herself to Christ and lets Him be the Lord of her life, she will have no difficulty submitting to her husband.
This does not mean she is a slave since the husband is also to submit to Christ.
The husband is to be a servant of Christ and exercise his authority over his wife in response to Christ’s authority over him.
The wife is to be a servant of Christ and submit to her husband’s authority in response to Christ’s authority over her.
In order for a Christian marriage to be successful, both partners must fulfill the command to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and each other as themselves (Mark 12:30-31).
The best Christian marriages are those where “both” partners put their relationship with the Lord first and know how to love each other like the Lord Jesus Christ has loved all men.
There are two reasons given for this command in Ephesians 5:22: (1) The Lordship of Christ (5:22). (2) The headship of the man in Christ (5:23).
Ephesians 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. (NASB95)
The apostle Peter also teaches that Christian women are to be submissive to their husbands and thus follow the example of how Sarah conducted herself with her husband Abraham.
1 Peter 3:1 In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives 2 as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. 3 Your adornment must not be merely external -- braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses 4 but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. 5 For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands 6 just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear. (NASB95)
Christian women demonstrate their love for their children by training them in the Word of God.
In Ephesians 6:4, Paul taught Christian fathers to bring up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Thus, since a Christian woman is under husband’s authority, she like her husband must obey this command as well.
Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (NASB95)
Paul issues a similar prohibition to the Colossians.
Colossians 3:21 Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart. (NASB95)
To provoke to anger suggests a repeated, ongoing pattern of treatment that gradually builds up a deep-seated anger and resentment that boils over in outward hostility.
Provoking your children to anger can involve the following: (1) Over protecting or “smothering” the child and not letting them make decisions and mistakes on their own commensurate with their age and maturity. (2) Living out one’s own ambitions through their children. (3) Always finding fault with your child and never acknowledging and praising them when they have done well or achieved some great accomplishment in sports, academics, etc. (4) Failing to sacrifice for them and making them feel unwanted and always an intrusion in your life. (5) Failing to let children grow up at a normal pace by always chiding their children for always acting childish, even when what they do is perfectly normal and harmless for their age. (6) Using love as a tool of reward or punishment meaning granting a reward to a child when they are good and withdrawing it when they are bad, which is not God’s way of treating us since God loves us when we misbehave and when we behave and disciplines His children just as much out of love and affection as when He blesses them. (7) Physical and verbal abuse.
“Discipline” refers to systematic training and educating the child in the Lord’s ways.
Fathers and mothers are to train their children by means of the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
The phrase “of the Lord” is a “subjective” genitive meaning it is the Lord Himself who produces the discipline and instruction.
In other words, the authority of the discipline and instruction is the Lord’s and not the fathers.
Therefore, Christian parents are to be the Bible teachers in the home especially the men.