GOD'S CALL FOR SOUND TEACHING

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 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.

Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.

Titus 2:1-10, 15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In his opening chapter to Titus, his ministry partner who was entrusted to grow the Christian church on the island of Crete, we find Paul discussing two specific tasks that needed immediate attention.

The first was the selection of elders, qualified Christian leaders who could partner with Titus to bring the legitimate, true Gospel message to the island’s lost. After providing a list of requirements to screen men for the elder position, Paul adds that the men were to show the ability to “hold firmly to the trustworthy message” (aka the legitimate Gospel” as it had “been taught” so to “encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it”.

This latter part of Paul’s exhortation served as a lead in for the second matter Titus had to address, the attempted infiltration of false teaching on the island.

Paul went onto warn Titus about “many rebellious people” on Crete who were “full of meaningless talk and deception”, particularly those who were part “of the circumcision group”. These teachers of false doctrine tried to convince others that there was more required to gain salvation than simply believing in Jesus as Savior. Circumcision was also needed in accordance with the old covenant, Mosaic Law.

Towards the end of chapter 1, we read Paul raining against this form of impure teaching, demanding that Titus ensure it was rebuked and “silenced” as it was “disrupting whole households by teaching things” that were inappropriate and untrue. Further, the false teachers were doing it “the sake of dishonest gain”.

As chapter 2 opens, we find Paul shift his focus to what he wanted Titus and the selected, appointed elders to teach and it wasn’t what he wanted but rather what the Lord was prescribing. This teaching was “sound doctrine” and Paul’s provides specific guidance to different subsets of the Cretan society. This included:

1. Older men.

Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

It’s important to remember how patriarchal cultures were in first century A.D. Men were at the forefront and older men were looked to for wisdom gained from a lot of life experience. Therefore, it would be of critical importance to make sure the older men on Crete were living in step with the sound doctrine of the Gospel, reflecting a life that looked like Jesus, a life that showed temperate, self controlled, faithful, loving, and persevering behavior. This would help the men be “worthy of respect” among the people, role models for the Christian lifestyle.

2. Older women.

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 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.

I find it interesting here that Paul doesn’t direct Titus to teach the young women as he does the young men which we will cover next. Rather, the teaching responsibility is placed on the older women who were “to be reverent in the way” they lived which include a refrain from slandering others or becoming alcoholics from a love of wine.

These reverent older women would be able to “teach what is good” and instruct the younger women in ways a man couldn’t. They could “urge the younger women to love their husbands and children” while being “busy at home”. They could model “self-controlled and pure” and “kind” behavior while ensuring “no one will malign the word of God” through falsely influencing the young women.

Like the older men, the older women were expected to play a major role in showing the younger women what proper Christian living looked like.

3. Younger men.

Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

If you’re a man reading this, maybe you can remember your younger days. If you’re like me, they weren’t your proudest moments in life, for sure.

Immaturity and a general attitude of invulnerability lead young men to do some pretty crazy, risky things. Self control isn’t exactly a strong suit when we’re younger and left to our own devices.

It’s obvious that this isn’t just a modern day phenomenon because as we read Paul’s words, there must have been some wild and crazy young men living on Crete, young men who needed encouragement to become “self controlled”. And so Paul exhorts Titus to set the example for the youth by doing what was good, lacing his teaching with “integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned”. This was to be done “so that those” who opposed Titus might “be ashamed” because they would have nothing to use as a point of discrediting the true Christian Gospel teachers, of which Paul and Titus were counted.

4. Slaves.

Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

Like other things we read in the scriptures that reflected societal flaws, slavery was present and accepted during biblical times, so much so that we find it addressed quite a few times, particularly in Paul’s epistles.

What makes this part of his direction on teaching different from other places where slavery is addressed is that there’s no mention of the masters here in Titus. Paul only touches on what was to be taught to the slaves. I don’t have a good answer for why this is in this letter but it is.

As for the slaves, Paul urges Titus to teach obedience “to their masters in everything”, making every effort to “try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them” so they could “show that they can be fully trusted”. Just as Jesus was oppressed and mistreated and yet stayed focused on carrying out His Father’s will, so too were the slaves encouraged to “make the teaching about God” attractive “in every way”.

Titus, and anyone screened and appointed to assist him in the Cretan church, had a lot of work to do to teach the things Paul directed, to carry out God’s plan for sound teaching. He (they) were to do so with encouragement but also with authoritative rebuking when needed, especially directed to those who may oppose or despise them.

Today, we can look at these words from Titus 2 and use them as a template in the church as all applies with the exception of the guidance for the slaves.

Older men should still be instructed in proper Christ-like behavior so to be worthy of the respect of those younger.

Ditto for older women who can then teach the younger women how to be obedient to the scriptures in the way they live within their families and life in general.

And self control should be stressed with younger men, teaching them the critical importance of integrity and soundness of speech.

As Christians, we all play a role in shaping behavior in others but it begins with ourselves. The goal every day is to be a little more Christ-like in the way we think, talk, and act than we were yesterday. A commitment to this transforming process, day after day, will allow us to reap a harvest of the fruit of the Spirit and that fruit will reveal the authenticity of our faith to others as we become role models for them through an unwavering, uncompromising submission to the sound teaching of our Lord.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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