If you have ever wondered what part you play in the church or in the furtherment of the Kingdom of God as a woman and what it looks like to be a woman who exemplifies who Christ is to you in your ever day life, then this weeks post is for you. This week we are going to dive into Titus 2 and what it is really calling both men and women to do in their everyday lives in the routine day to day interactions and life. Before we dive into Titus 2 I want to start by giving some background information on the book of Titus as a whole so that we can have the proper context when we are digging deeper into the second chapter of this book.
As I began to research why Paul wrote this letter to Titus, I stumbled across an article by the Bible Project about that very thing. In this article ,which I have given the link for below, Titus was a Greek believer and someone who traveled with Paul aided as a coworker in his ministry as he went around and shared the Gospel and started church’s. Paul sent Titus to the island of Crete, which is a large island off the coast of Greece, to restore the order of the group of home churches who had fallen into the hands of Cretan leaders who were destructive and and corrupt all the while claiming to be Christians. So Paul sent Titus to straighten out the churches and their leadership. In Paul’s letters to Titus, the book of Titus, he offered him instructions to help Titus straighten things out and turn the churches back to the way of God and way from the Cretan culture that had seeped into the churches. This was a very pivotal move in Paul’s opinion because where the Crete Islands were located they had very strategic harbors that serviced many cities all over the Mediterranean sea and Paul felt that it was a great place to start a network of churches for that reason. So it was very important for him and the mission God set him on that those churches be corrected and the corrupt leaders be transformed so that the network of churches could grow in God and then spread out across the Mediterranean sea to all the cities. So the bottom line of the letter to Titus is this “devotion to Jesus Christ is powerful because it can produce new kinds of people. Spirit-empowered faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus will declare God’s grace all over the world.” (https://bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-titus/)
Now let’s jump into Titus 2, the chapter as a whole is that there are ways to honor God from within every station of life, regardless of age, gender, or situation. Paul goes beyond describing who needs to do what; he lays out the theological foundations of the ethics he outlines. (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, pg. 2188) In this post we are going to focus on verses 3-5. In these verses Paul is telling the church leaders to 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. in this verse he is telling the church leaders to get rid of the Cretan way and teach the older women to be followers of God in their every day life. He then turns to the older women and say that when this is done and they are taught these things they are to take it to the younger women and show and urge the younger women to love their husband and children, to be self controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject (submissive) to their husbands so that no one will malign the Word of God. So basically in verse 3-5 Paul is saying once the older women are taught in the ways of the LORD they will then turn to the younger ladies in the church and teach them these ways so that they can be women of God and they can raise up, with their husbands, their families up in the ways of the LORD. All of this would be transformational in the church and the corrupt way would be gone. The rest of chapter 2 Paul gives the same formula to the men and then to the servants and how all this would alter the church and transform the church and the mission of God which is spreading the Gospel to the cities and nations around them.
Now let us put this in our time and apply it to us and our walks and local churches. Think of your own personal context is there an older lady who could pour into you in your walk and then is there a younger lady in your life that you could pour into as they walk with the LORD? This passage is a beautiful picture of what discipleship is suppose to be. If you think about it, much like these new believers Paul was writing to, when you first entered your relationship with God you did not know fully what it looked like to be a follower. You knew the basics but you did not know how to walk it out. it was not until someone who was further in their walk came alongside you and started walking with you and teaching you the ways of the LORD. Look at this passage first the older women are called to be sober minded, encouragers (not slanderers), and to be reverent in the ways they live. These ways are what Paul is talking about when he tells the leaders to teach them what is good. Once that was done and the ladies started walking in that way they can then urge the younger women to do the same and in turn the would be submissive to their husbands, love their children (as God loves HIs), to be self-controlled and pure, and to be busy at home. And once that is done the younger women pour into their children and they grow in the ways of the LORD and it causes a ripple affect that changes generations. The very same thing is true about what Paul says about older men and younger men in this passage. We need both men and women to be taught the ways of the LORD and for them to invest in men and women who are younger than them so that they can then invest in those who are younger than them. New believers are added when this is the DNA of a believer, the church grows, and the world starts to look different. That is if every follower takes this passage to heart and starts to implement this in their every day life.
Discipleship is a vital piece of the Christian walk. It gives believers a person to lean on in hard times. It gives them someone who has been there and can give them advice as they are walking through similar things. It gives them someone who knows them on a personal level to call them out when they slip or are choosing old ways over Christ. Just like in Titus as a whole the instruction for change in the group of house churches was to teach the people the good way and for them to hold each other accountable and teach the next generation these ways. So this is why discipleship it keeps the church and believers healthy and centered on God so that their people can grow in their walks with God and they can go out into the communities around them to reach the lost. It is vital that this happens for women in the church. This is the part that women play in the church , impacting the next generation of children and youth by impacting the mothers of these children and youth and teaching them the ways of the LORD, how to be a Godly wife, mother, friend, and daughter. This makes a huge impact in the church and for the Kingdoms of God. This is what it means to be a woman of God, to be an encourager, sober minded, being reverent in your life, sacrificial, to love and be submissive to a Godly husband (if you are married), love your children (or children around you) teaching them the ways of the LORD from a young age, and investing in other women who are in your life.
So my challenge to you is to go out and find an older woman who can invest in you and pour into you and find a younger woman or 2 and invest in them. Meet them where they are and help them understand God more and who He created them to be. Then watch how much those two things change your life as well as the community around you. Thank you for taking the time to read this post, let me know what you think!
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