Titus 2.6-Paul Commands Titus to Continue Exhorting Younger Men to be Sound-Minded
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday April 13, 2014
Titus: Titus 2:6-Paul Commands Titus to Continue Exhorting Younger Men to be Sound-Minded
Lesson # 18
Please turn in your Bibles to Titus 2:3.
Titus 2:2 Older men are, as an eternal spiritual truth to be characterized as level-headed, dignified, sound-minded by being characterized as sound in the Christian faith, in the uniqueness of divine-love, in the uniqueness of godly perseverance. 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 be lovers of their husbands, lovers of their children 5 sound-minded ones, pure ones, homemakers, performers of divine good, those who voluntarily obey their own husbands so that the Word originating from God will not be slandered. (My translation)
Titus 2:6 Likewise urge the young men to be sensible. (NASB95)
This verse is presenting a similarity between younger women and younger men in the Christian community with respect to how they were to conduct themselves.
“Urge” is the verb parakaleō (παρακαλέω), which means “to exhort” in the sense of authoritatively training the body of Christ through instruction in the sense of communicating the gospel message to them so as to compel obedience in every area of their lives.
This authoritative training through instruction in the gospel would include teaching, reproving, correcting and training with regards to living out in one’s life the righteousness of God (2 Timothy 3:16).
The present imperative form of the verb is a “customary present imperative” whose force is for Titus to simply continue making it his habit of exhorting younger men in the Christian community to be sensible or sound-minded ones which would be the result of hearing and obeying the gospel or sound doctrine.
“Younger men” refer to men in the Cretan Christian community who had not yet reached their forties or in other words middle age, which marked an older man.
“To be sensible” is the verb sōphroneō (σωφρονέω), which is a compound word composed of saos, “sound, healthy, whole” and phroneo, “to think,” thus the word literally means “to be of sound mind.”
It indicates that Paul wanted Titus to continue making it his habit of exhorting younger men in the Christian community to “think properly” or “to be sound-minded.”
This would take place when these younger men thought and governed their lives according to godly standards which are communicated in the gospel through the apostolic teaching, which now appears in the Greek New Testament.
Titus 2:6 Likewise, you continue making it your habit of exhorting younger men to be sound-minded. (My translation)
The apostle Paul now addresses the conduct of younger Christian men on the island of Crete.
In the apostle’s day, a younger man or woman were individuals who had not yet reached their forties or in other words middle age, which marked an older man and woman in the first century.
Just as younger women in the Christian community on the island of Crete had the responsibility to live godly lives so likewise younger men had the same responsibility as well.
Both younger men and women in the Christian community had a code of conduct which they are to adhere to in their lives.
Both were required by God to be characterized as adhering to His standard or system of behavior which is revealed by the Spirit in the Word of God.
Paul commands Titus to continue making it his habit of exhorting younger Christian men on the island of Crete to be sound-minded.
Titus was already performing this task thus this command in Titus 2:6 is simply a reminder.
Sound-mindedness was to characterize the Cretan church which is indicated by the fact that in Titus 1:8 Paul says that overseers or pastors were to be characterized as being sound-minded.
Older Christian men were to be characterized by sound-mindedness according to Titus 2:2.
Furthermore, Titus 2:5 says that younger Christian women were to be trained by older Christian women to be sound-minded.
Older Christian women were not explicitly told to be sound-minded but this is implied because older Christian women can’t train younger Christian women to be sound-minded if they themselves are not sound-minded.
The Christian community on the island of Crete must be characterized by sound-mindedness because it is the basis for godly conduct.
It is the result of being obedient to truth as taught by the apostles in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul is deeply concerned about what Christians think about.
If they are thinking according to sound doctrine, their conduct will be godly.
However, if they are thinking according to the lies of Satan’s cosmic system as propagated by the Judaizers and the apostate pastors on the island of Crete, then their conduct will be ungodly.
This same verb sōphroneō which appears in Titus 2:6 also appears in Romans 12:3 where it also means “to think properly, to be sound-minded.”
In Romans 12:3, Paul forbid his readers from thinking more highly of themselves than they were obligated to think.
In contrast to this he commanded that they think properly about themselves, which is accomplished by obeying the command in Romans 12:2 to renovate one’s mind.
Thinking properly about themselves would be consistent with the objective standard that the Father distributed to each believer by which they can accurately and objectively form an opinion of themselves, namely justifying faith.
Romans 12:1 Therefore, I appeal to each and every one of you spiritual brothers and sisters on the basis of the merciful acts produced by God the Father to offer your bodies as a sacrifice-alive, holy, extremely pleasing and beneficial to God the Father, which is your reasonable service. 2 Consequently, do not conform your behavior in accordance with the standards of this age. On the contrary, permit yourselves to be transformed by renovating your mind in order that each and every one of you may discern what is, as an eternal spiritual truth, God the Father’s will, that which is good as well as extremely pleasing and in addition perfect. 3 In fact, by means of the spiritual gift, which was assigned to me for the benefit of myself and others I say for the benefit of each and every person, namely those who are at this particular time living among all of you not to think more highly of oneself than what one is, as an eternal spiritual truth, obligated to think. On the contrary, make it a habit to think so that you think properly about yourselves consistent with the objective standard God the Father distributed to each and every person without exception for their benefit, namely justifying faith. (My translation)
In Romans 12:1, the apostle Paul appealed to his Christian readers in Rome on the basis of the merciful acts of the Father on their behalf to offer their bodies as a sacrifice-alive, holy, extremely pleasing to the Father, which is their reasonable service to the Father.
Then in Romans 12:2, he prohibits his Christian readers in Rome from being conformed to the standards of the cosmic system of Satan.
Also, in this passage, he issues a command on the heels of this prohibition to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.
This transformation of the believer’s character into the image of Christ by renovating their mind accomplishes what the Father intended in that it provides the believer the capacity to discern what the will of God is with regards to any situation.
To be transformed refers to the process performed by the Holy Spirit in the believer who is obeying the Spirit’s voice, which is heard through the Word of God and deals with conforming the believer into the image of Christ in an experiential sense and also involves prayer both in learning and applying the Word of God.
“By renovating your mind” is accomplished by the Holy Spirit when the believer prayerfully obeys His voice, which is heard through the Word of God and also involves not only learning and obeying the Word of God but also prayer since prayer must accompany learning the Word and applying it.
Specifically, it involves not only prayer but appropriating by faith one’s new position in Christ and considering oneself crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ.
This renovation is related to the command in Ephesians 5:18 to be filled with the Spirit and the command in Colossians 3:16 to let the Word of Christ richly dwell in you.
This renovation of the believer’s manner of thinking is referred to in Romans 8:5-6 and is called submission to the Spirit.
The apostle Paul teaches in Romans 12:2 that this transformation of the believer’s character, or in other words the reproduction of Christ-like character in the believer begins with his or her thinking or thought process, their manner or way of thinking.
Interestingly, it appears that sound-mindedness is the only thing Paul seems to require of younger Christian men in Titus 2:6 but this is emphatically not the case.
In Titus 2:7-8, Paul addresses the conduct of Titus by reminding him that in all things he was to show himself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about Christianity.
What Paul requires of Titus is what he required of these younger Christian men which indicates that Titus was himself a younger man and had not yet reached middle-age at the time the apostle wrote him this letter.
Therefore, it is clear that Paul wants Titus to be an example for younger Christian men on the island of Crete.