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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Titus 2:4

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That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

4, 5. The standard of holy living for young women

4. that they may teach the young women to be sober ] A.V. ‘teach to be sober’ (i.e. pure) gives the full meaning of the verb, but not its grammatical force train in purity to be lovers of their husbands, lovers of their children. The verb has in Philo and other authors come to have hardly more than the force ‘school,’ ‘train,’ but surely St Paul is here restoring and raising it. The verb is only here, and the subst. only in 2Ti 1:7, where see note.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

That they may teach the young women to be sober – Margin, wise – a word similar to that which in Tit 2:2 is rendered temperate, and in 1Ti 3:2, sober. The meaning is, that they should instruct them to have their desires and passions well regulated, or under proper control.

To love their husbands – philandrous. This word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. In Eph 5:25, Paul directs husbands to love their wives, and in Eph 5:33, the wife to reverence her husband, and here he says that it should be one of the first duties enjoined Son the wife that she should love her husband. All happiness in the marriage relation is based on mutual love. When that departs, happiness departs. No wealth or splendor in a dwelling – no gorgeousness of equipage or apparel – no magnificence of entertainment or sweetness of music – and no forms of courtesy and politeness, can be a compensation for the want of affection. Mutual love between a husband and wife will diffuse comfort through the obscurest cottage of poverty; the want of it cannot be supplied by all that can be furnished in the palaces of the great.

To love their children – Nature prompts to this, and yet there are those so depraved that they have no maternal affection; Notes, Rom 1:31. Religion reproduces natural affection when sin has weakened or destroyed it, and it is the design of Christianity to recover and invigorate all the lost or weakened sensibilities of our nature.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 4. That they may teach the young women to be sober] That it was natural for the young to imitate the old will be readily allowed; it was therefore necessary that the old should be an example of godly living to the young. St. Jerome, taking it for granted that drunkenness and impurity are closely connected, asks this serious question: Quomodo potest docere anus adolescentulas castitatem, cum, si ebrietatem vetulae mulieris adolescentula fuerit imitata, pudica esse non possit? “How can an elderly woman teach young women chastity, when, if the young woman should imitate the drunkenness of the matron, it would be impossible for her to be chaste?”

To love their husbands] The duties recommended in this and the following verses are so plain as to need no comment; and so absolutely necessary to the character of a wife, that no one deserves the name who does not live in the practice of them.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

That they may teach the young women to be sober: young women, especially conversing amongst heathens, are prone to be light and airy, and over frolicsome, following the heat of their youthful temper, and forming their converse after the manner of others; which is a behaviour, though it may suit their youth, yet if they be Christians it will not suit their profession, which calls to them for more gravity: speak to them that are aged to mind them to be sober.

To love their husbands, to love their children: it being natural for young women to love their husbands and children, these precepts seem not so much to concern the things, as the manner of it, to love them as they ought to love them.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

4. to be soberGreek,“self-restrained,” “discreet”; the same Greekas in Tit 2:2, “temperate.”(But see on Tit 2:2; compareNote, 2Ti 1:7). ALFORDtherefore translates, “That they school (admonish in their duty)the young women to be lovers of their husbands,” &c. (thefoundation of all domestic happiness). It was judicious that Titus, ayoung man, should admonish the young women, not directly, but throughthe older women.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

That they may teach the young women to be sober,…. Or to be chaste, modest, and temperate; or to be wise and prudent in their conduct to their husbands, and in the management of family affairs, who have had a large experience of these things before them.

To love their husbands; to help and assist them all they can; to seek their honour and interest; to endeavour to please them in all things; to secure peace, harmony, and union; to carry it affectionately to them, and sympathize with them in all afflictions and distresses; for this is not so much said in opposition to placing their affections on other men, and to the defilement of the marriage bed, as to moroseness and ill nature.

To love their children; not with a fond, foolish, loose, and ungoverned affection; but so as to seek their real good, and not only their temporal, but spiritual and eternal welfare; to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and to use and keep proper discipline and government over them; for otherwise, amidst all the fondness of natural affection, a parent may be said to hate a child, Pr 13:24.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

That they may train ( ). Purpose clause, and present active subjunctive of , old verb (from , sound in mind, , , as in this verse), to make sane, to restore to one’s senses, to discipline, only here in N.T.

To love their husbands ( ). Predicate accusative with of old adjective (, , fond of one’s husband), only here in N.T. means man, of course, as well as husband, but only husband here, not “fond of men” (other men than their own).

To love their children (). Another old compound, here only in N.T. This exhortation is still needed where some married women prefer poodle-dogs to children.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

They may teach [] . Better, school or train. N. T. o. o LXX The verb means to make sane or sober – minded; to recall a person to his senses; hence, to moderate, chasten, discipline.

To love their husbands, to love their children [ , ] . Lit. to be husband – lovers, children – lovers. Both adjectives N. T. o. o LXX Filandrov in Class. not in this sense, but loving men or masculine habits; lewd. In the better sense often in epitaphs. An inscription at Pergamum has the following : Iouliov Bassov Otakilia Pwllh th glukutath gunaiki, filandrw kai filoteknw sumbiwsash ajmemptwv eth l, Julius Bassus to Otacilia Polla my sweetest wife, who loved her husband and children and lived with me blamelessly for thirty years.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “That they may teach the young women. (hina) “In order that” (sophronizosin tas neas) “They may train the young women.” Eight things were to be goals of training as the aged women guided the younger women.

a) “to be sober” – serious minded

b) “to love their husbands” – (philandrous linai) “To be friendly, affectionate, and physical lovers of their own husbands,” 1Pe 3:1-6.

c) “to love their children” – (philoteknous) “To be friendly, affectionate to their children.

“GOD HELP ME”

“If any little word of mine,

will make a heart the lighter,

If any little song of mine,

will make a life the brighter.

God, help me speak that little word,

Or do my bit of singing,

And drop it in some lonely vale,

To start the echoes ringing.”

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

4. That they may teach young women temperance That they may be more attentive to duty, he shows that it is not enough if their own life be decent, if they do not also train young women, by their instructions, to a decent and chaste life. He therefore adds, that by their example they should train to temperance and gravity those younger women whom the warmth of youth might otherwise lead into imprudence.

To love their husbands and their children I do not agree with those who think that this is a recapitulation of the advices which elderly women should give to those who are younger for a careful perusal of the context will enable any one easily to perceive that Paul goes on in explaining the duties of women, which apply equally to those who are older. Besides, the construction would be inappropriate, σωφρονίζωσι, σώφρονας εἶναι (240) Yet while he instructs elderly females what they ought to be, he at the same time holds out to the younger the example which they ought to follow. Thus he indiscriminately teaches both. In short, he wishes women to be restrained, by conjugal love and affection for their children, from giving themselves up to licentious attachments, he wishes them to rule their own house in a sober and orderly manner, forbids them to wander about in public places, bids them be chaste, and at the same time modest, so as to be subject to the dominion of their husbands; for those who excel in other virtues sometimes take occasion from them to act haughtily, so as to be disobedient to their husbands.

(240) “ Ινα σωφρονίζωσι τὰς νέας “ These words point at the chief purpose of the instructions — namely, that they should teach them to be σώφρονες acting as monitresses and regulators of their morals. Those instructions (as appears from what follows) were to turn on the domestic duties suitable to young married women, and each in the order of importance. The first is, as it were, their cardinal virtue; for it was well said by Socrates, (Ap. Stob. p. 488,) εὐσέβεια γυναικεία, ὁ πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα ἔρως (‘female piety is love to her husband.’) In like manner, modesty is, by Pericles, in his Funeral Oration (Thucyd. 2:45) called ‘the virtue of the female sex.’” — Bloomfield.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Tit. 2:4. That they may teach.R.V. may train. The word almost suggests that there was a certain amount of levity amongst the younger wives inconsistent with a profession of Christianity.

Tit. 2:5. Keepers at home R.V. workers at home. The term in the R.V. comprehends and adds to that in the A.V.

Tit. 2:7. Showing thyself a pattern.Titus was not to be like the scribes and Pharisees of whom our Lord spoke, who say what others should do and do not themselves observe it. In doctrine uncorruptness.As befits the doctrine of God our Saviour. There must be no admixture of error. Gravity.See the adjective corresponding in Tit. 2:2 and note.

Tit. 2:8. May be ashamed.That possibly he may come to feel shame.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Tit. 2:4-8

Christianity and the Young.

I. Christianity has a message to young married women (Tit. 2:4-5).They are to be discreet and self-restrained in their behaviour; to love their husbands and children, the foundation of all domestic peace and happiness; to be keepers at home, the guardians of the house, and to find their sphere of highest usefulness in the duties of the home circle: whilst thrifty as housewives, they are to be good and kind, not churlish and niggardly; to show love to their own husbands by a dutiful submission; and thus guard the gospel from the reproach which their inconsistencies would occasion. Unless we are virtuous, blasphemy will come through us to the faith. To fail in any duty is to discredit the religion we profess.

II. Christianity has a message to young men (Tit. 2:6).The burden of that message is to be sober-minded, self-restrained. Youth is tempted to excess, and it is no easy task to repress its wild impulses and passions. The youth-time that is spent in pleasure and folly will lay the foundation of a premature and suffering old age. Beza, the Swiss reformer, in his last will and testament thanks God that he was brought to know Him at the age of sixteen, and thus, by having the fear of God before him, escaped the pollutions of the world. We talk about a man beginning life at twenty one, but in nine cases out of ten all the questions of eternity are decided before that. The first twenty years of a mans life, as a rule, mould what his eternity will be.

III. Christianity has a message to young ministers (Tit. 2:7-8).They are to be patterns of good workslively, diligent, zealous. Their purity and sincerity of motive and aim must be apparent in their teaching; and their speech in public and private must be pervaded by a dignified seriousness, that the adversary of the truth may be put to confusion by the power of the word and the evident sincerity and enthusiasm of the preacher. All the freshness, charm, and romance of youth, its poetry, high-spiritedness, and unlimited capacity for work, should be put into every ministerial duty. Youth is a golden opportunity with which we can buy a rich inheritance of future blessedness and joy. The young minister will never again have the vigour and possibilities of work he possesses to-day.

Lessons.

1. Religion does not destroy but augments the pleasures of youth.

2. Religion is the guide and guardian of youth.

3. We are never too young to love and serve God.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Tit. 2:6. Sober-mindedness.

I. Sober-mindedness is a just judgment of things, and this judgment exercised in real effective authority.

II. Must be consciously held as under the sanction and as having the authority of the Supreme Power.

III. Cannot be attained without the persons forming a sound judgment of his own mind.

IV. Must maintain a systematic strong restraint on the passions, fancy, tempers, appetites.

V. Is quite necessary for the subordinate schemes and purposes of life.J. Foster.

Tit. 2:7-8. The Power of Truth.

I. The power of truth in the preacher.

1. His teaching will be living and real.

2. Will so preach the truth as to convince others of his sincerity.

II. The power of truth on others.

1. Will silence criticism.

2. Put opposition to shame and confusion.F. W.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

3. YOUNGER WOMEN Tit. 2:4-5.

Text 2:4, 5

4 that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sober-minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed:

Thought Questions 2:4, 5

70.

When would a young woman become an older woman? How young is young?

71.

Would young women need special training in loving their husbands? Explain.

72.

Isnt it natural for mothers to love their children? Why the need for training?

73.

Sober-minded seems to be a very needed qualification-explain. Show how this quality is especially related to young married women.

74.

If a young woman was a Christian, would she need special training to be chaste?

75.

With whom would the young married women be tempted to be unkind?

76.

Does the expression workers at home suggest that they should not work away from home?

77.

Just what is involved in being in subjection to their own husbands?

78.

The spiritual education of the young married women was for a very worth-while purposewhat was it? Discuss the meaning of the expression the word of God.

Paraphrase 2:4, 5

4 That they may persuade the younger women under their care to be lovers of their husbands, performing the duties of marriage from affection, and lovers of their children, by bringing them up religiously;
5 To be of a calm disposition, chaste, attentive to the affairs of their families, good to their domestics, obedient to their own husbands, that the gospel may not be evil spoken of, as encouraging wives to neglect their husbands and children, on pretence of their attending on the offices of religion.

Comment 2:4, 5

Tit. 2:4-5. Neither Titus nor the elders are given the responsibility of training the young married women. This is the responsibility of the older women. Who would be better qualified? This, of course, presupposes that such older women have themselves learned the lessons they are to teach the younger women. Much of this training can and does take place before the daughter leaves home. The best lesson is a good example, There are seven qualities to be instilled by the older women (whether it be the mother or someone else):

(1) Husband-lovers, (2) Children-lovers, (3) sober-minded, (4) chaste, (5) worker at home, (6) kind, (7) in subjection to her own husband.
Paul has more to say about this group than any other; and well he might, for if failure is found here, it will affect all other groups. The one big lesson is the lesson of love: love your husband, your children, your home, your Lordand we might add, your position as help-meet. When the proper motive is used to obtain these virtues (Cf. Tit. 2:11-14) they seem but a natural outgrowth of the Christian life.

Conduct and character have never been divorced either in the mind of God or in the eyes of the world. If the young married women are examples in the above particulars, the word of God will be honored!

Fact Questions 2:45

43.

Why is the training of young married women given to the older women?

44.

Who are these older women? How shall they teach? i.e., by a class, by private lessons, or just how?

45.

Mention from memory four of the seven areas in which the older women are to give instruction.

46.

Why so much to say about this group?

47.

How does the proper motive relate to this teaching?

48.

When will the word of God be honored?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(4) That they may teach the young women to be sober.Better rendered, simply, that they may teach (or school) the young women, omitting the words to be sober. In Ephesus the representative of the Apostle was directed himself to exhort the younger women; very likely the same charge being given here to the aged women of the congregations was owing to the state of the Cretan Christian, which called not only for more practical and homely, but also for more individual, exhortations. So here this special work was left for the elder women among the faithful to carry out. Such a reformation, not only in the discipline of the Church, but also in the individual life and conversation, as St. Paul desired to see in Crete, would never be brought about by a sermon, or even by many sermons, however eloquent and earnest, from Titus. It would be a matter requiring long time and patience, and would, as observed above, rather follow as the result of patient individual effort and holy example.

To love their husbands, to love their children.There was evidently in Crete a feverish longing for excitement, for novelty in religious teaching; hence the demand for, and consequent supply of, the fables and commandments of men spoken of in Tit. 1:14. Women as well as men preferred rather to do something for religion and for God, and thus to wipe out past transgressions, and perhaps to purchase the liberty of future licence. They preferred the rigid and often difficult observance of the elaborate ritual, the tithing of the mint, and anise, and cummin, to quietly and reverently doing their Fathers business. St. Pauls method of correcting this false and unhealthy view of religion was to recall women as well as men to the steady, faithful performance of those quiet every-day duties to which God had, in His providence, called them. The first duty of these younger women, St. Paul tells Titus, and which he would have their elder sisters impress on them, was the great home duty of loving their husbands and children. While St. Paul would never have the women of Christ forget their new and precious privileges in the present, their glorious hopes in the future, yet here on earth he would never let them desert, or even for a moment forget, their first and chiefest duties. Their work, let them remember, lay not abroad in the busy world. Their first duty was to make home life beautiful by the love of husband and childthat great love which ever teaches forgetfulness of self.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

4. They may teach As Titus was to teach the elder, so the elder must teach the younger. Thus, healthful instruction may be transmitted through many successors.

Love husbands children Unlike the gainsayers and their licentious adherents, let Christian women maintain the pure domestic affections.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘That they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sober-minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.’

Above all they are to train the younger women into what they should be. This was an especially important ministry in a society where such younger women would have little contact with men. Today this ministry can be fulfilled in Sunday School teaching and women’s groups.

The younger women are to be trained up to love their husbands and their children. This is not referring to teaching them natural emotion, but to how they are to exercise that love in the home by being a good helpmeet to their husbands and by bringing up their children wisely because they love them. They teach them how to show their love. They are also to teach them to be moderate and thoughtful, chaste and pure, and to act as good home makers. This was especially important in a place where false teachers were upsetting households (Tit 1:11). By doing this they will be fulfilling their ministry, as described in 1Ti 2:15, of bringing up children ready for the Lord’s service. They are to be kind and submissive (that is, paying them due respect) to their husbands lest the word of God be blasphemed. The point here is that while in the Christian church women were to be seen as equals before God (Gal 3:28), they must not by their behaviour bring discredit on Christ in a world where women were expected to be discreet and stay at home with little male contact. Were they not to do so the church would become seen as libertine, and be ostracised.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Tit 2:4-5 . . . .] Since must necessarily have an object, . . . should not, like , Tit 2:2 , and , Tit 2:3 , be joined with , Tit 2:1 (Hofmann), but with , so that the exhortations given to the young women are to proceed from the older women.

] ( . .) is properly “bring some one to ,” then “amend,” viz. by punishment; it also occurs in the sense of “punish, chastise;” it is synonymous with . According to Beza, it expresses opposition to the juvenilis lascivia et alia ejus aetatis ac sexus vitia.

The aim of the is given in the next words: ( . .) , ( . .) These two ideas are suitably placed first, as pointing to the first and most obvious circumstances of the .

Tit 2:5 . ] The latter is to be taken here not in the general sense of “blameless,” but in the more special sense of “chaste” (Wiesinger).

( Rec. ); Wahl rightly: “ex et custos: custos domus, de feminis, quae domi se continent neque , 1Ti 5:13 .” Vulgate: domus curam habentes; Luther: “domestic.” The word (read by Tischendorf, see critical remarks) does not occur elsewhere; if it be genuine, it must mean “ working in the house ” (Alford: “workers at home”), which, indeed, does not agree with the formation of the word. The word occurring in later Greek means: “make a house;” see Pape, s.v.

Chrysostom: , , .

] is rightly taken by almost all as an independent epithet: “kindly.” Some expositors, however, connect it with (so Theophylact, Oecumenius); but this is wrong, since is itself an adjective. Hofmann joins it with , and translates it “good housewives” (so Buttmann, in his edition of the N., T., has no comma between the two words); but where are the grounds for explaining to mean “ housewives ”?

] On ., comp. 1Co 7:2 . The thought that wives are to be subject to their husbands is often expressed in the N. T. in the same words, comp. Eph 5:22 ; Col 3:18 ; 1Pe 3:1 . It is to be noted that the apostle adds this after using . The one thing does not put an end to the other; on the contrary, neither quality is of the right kind unless it includes the other. How much weight was laid by the apostle on the may be seen from the words: , which are closely connected with . . .; comp. Tit 2:10 , where the same thought is expressed positively, and 1Ti 6:1 . The apostolic preaching of freedom and equality in Christ might easily be applied in a fleshly sense for removing all natural subordination, and thus disgrace be brought on the word of God; hence the express warning. The remark of Chrysostom: , , , is unsatisfactory, because the apostle’s words are thereby arbitrarily restricted to a relation which is quite special.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

Ver. 4. To be sober ] Or wise, teaching them as schoolmasters do their disciples; so the word signifies. He was a foolish man that said, , I love not to have a woman wise. (Eurip.) “A prudent wife is of the Lord.” Such a one was Abigail, and Aspasia, Milesia, the wife of Cyrus, who was said to be , fair and wise also. (Aelian. xii. 1.) To love their husbands, though old and less lovely, as that famous Valadaura in Ludovicus Vives.

To love their children ] And to seal up their love, not by hugging them to death, as apes do their young; but by educating them in the fear and admonition of the Lord, as Bathsheba, Pro 31:1 . Plutarch speaks of a Spartan woman, that when her neighbours were showing their apparel and jewels, she brought out her children, virtuous and well taught, and said, These are my ornaments and jewels. Mothers must learn to love their children’s souls,1Pe 3:41Pe 3:4 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Tit 2:4 . . The only other examples of with a pres. indic. in Paul are 1Co 4:6 ( ) and Gal 4:17 ( ). These may be cases of an unusual formation of the subj., both being verbs in – . , 1Jn 5:20 , is another instance. Train is the excellent rendering of the R.V. The A.V., teach to be sober , although an adequate rendering elsewhere, leaves disconnected. Timothy is bidden (1Ti 5:2 ) himself; but this refers to pastoral public monitions, not to private training in domestic virtues and duties, as here.

: There is no other instance in the Greek Bible of , in the positive, being applied to a young person; though it is common in secular literature. There is possibly a certain fitness in the word as applied here to recently married women, whom the apostle has perhaps exclusively in view.

: “This is the chief point of all that is good in a household” (Chrys.). One of the three things in which Wisdom “was beautified” is “a woman and her husband that walk together in agreement” ( Sir 25:1 ).

: “She who loves the root will much more love the fruit” (Chrys.). is cited from an “epitaph from Pergamum about the time of Hadrian” by Deissmann, who gives other references to secular literature. ( Bible Studies , trans. p. 255 sq .).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

That = In order that. Greek. hina.

teach. . . to be sober. Greek. sophroniao. Only here. Op. Tit 2:6, Tit 2:12; 1Ti 2:9.

young women. Feminine of Greek. neos. See Joh 21:18.

love. . . husbands. Greek. philandros. Only here.

love . . . children. Greek. philoteknos. Only here.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Tit 2:4. , that they may teach the young women to be sober) Titus is enjoined to treat the Cretan women with somewhat greater severity than Timothy was to treat the women of Ephesus, 1Ti 5:2. He himself was to admonish the latter; Titus is to admonish the former, by means of the women who were more advanced in age.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Tit 2:4

that they may train the young women to love their husbands,-Not only must they love their husbands, but they must do to them what love requires at their hands. She loves her husband who is his truest helper in attaining a true and holy life. [This would be a matter requiring long time and patience, and would follow as the result of the steady, faithful performance of those quiet, everyday duties to which God had in his providence called them.]

to love their children,-To love their children is to nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord. (Eph 6:4.) Love is the fulfilling of the law. Love to the child is to do what the law requires the mother to do for the child. Often mothers from a selfish feeling spoil their children. They deceive themselves, thinking it is from love. The Scriptures deal in practical questions, not mere sentiments. Solomon said: He that spareth his rod hateth his son; but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. (Pro 13:24.) That is, he that fails to restrain his son and train him in the right way hates him. Many parents will be made to realize at the last day that they were the worst enemies of their children and had led them to ruin; that their mistaken and selfish feeling for them was hatred and not love.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

the: 1Ti 5:2, 1Ti 5:11, 1Ti 5:14

sober: or, wise, Tit 2:2

to love their husbands: 1Ti 5:14

Reciprocal: Deu 24:5 – a man Est 1:22 – that every man Psa 119:9 – shall Psa 148:12 – young men Pro 31:27 – General Ecc 3:8 – time to love Rom 12:3 – soberly Rom 12:17 – Provide Rom 15:14 – able Col 3:18 – submit 1Th 4:11 – and to do Tit 2:3 – teachers Tit 2:12 – soberly Heb 5:12 – teachers Heb 10:24 – love 1Pe 3:5 – the holy 1Pe 5:8 – sober

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Tit 2:4. Teach is from a Greek word that has a general meaning, and is defined by Thayer, “to make or cause one to come to his senses; to moderate, control, curb, discipline; to hold one to his duty; to admonish, to exhort earnestly.” When the young women are sober or self-controlled themselves, and then exert such influence upon others of their age class, it will cause them to love their husbands and children. They will show that love by the proper kind of behaviour.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Tit 2:4. To avoid reproach, Titus exhortations to younger females are to pass through the elder women.

Teach, better school, so to discipline as to bring one to practical wisdom. The virtues in which young married women need to be schooled follow: the virtues of home life. When first the Gospel gave dignity to womanhood and spiritual equality with man, some loosening might be feared of the natural subordination of the sex in marriage, causing the new faith to be evil spoken of (blasphemed).

Discreet is the word rendered temperate in Tit 2:2, and sober-minded in Tit 2:6. Better to retain the same rendering throughout, where the term is so characteristic See on sober in Tit 1:8.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Week 5: Tit 2:4-8 THE YOUNG

That is the young chronologically. I might mention for the sake of the younger generation, that most adults in the older age groups actually feel in their minds as though they are young. When an older person thinks of themselves, they normally think of themselves as in their teen to early twenty era. This is not vanity, that is just kind of the way it is.

One old woman commented once that she was a young lady trapped in an old woman’s body. When we look in the mirror in the morning we often wonder who that person is – that can’t be me – I’m not that old!

It is a bit of an intellectual battle that goes on. We know we are young but the old body doesn’t function the way it should. This is why old folks balk at going to the retirement centers – they aren’t old enough for that yet. I recently heard those very words from a woman that was in her 80’s.

Just an illustration of this. I am writing most of this study at a Jack in the Box over coffee. There is an elderly woman that frequents the place from time to time, well, daily – kind of like me. She stops at McDonald’s across the street to pick up some of her food then comes here to get the rest of her food and then eats it here.

The McDonald’s gave her a kid’s magazine this morning and she proceeded to read the jokes to me, which we both enjoyed. All adults, no matter the age, are kids at heart – don’t forget that as you plan your dealings with the senior segment of your congregation. They enjoy things that you might not think they would. Indeed, they enjoy most things middle-agers enjoy. In fact some seniors enjoy what the young enjoy; they just can’t do it all quite as quickly.

4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

5 [To be] discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

“Teach” is a different word than the usual one used in the New Testament. This has the thought of return one to their senses, or sober them up if drunk, or to control or curb someone. It can also relate to disciple someone. Thus we see the young women were out of control in some manner and the older women were to put them to a proper place. Since the family and home seem to be the context, you’d assume that the young women were out of control in relation to their family and home.

The term “sober” is the same Greek word translated teach. Sober the young women so that they can be sober. One must wonder what a mess these families must have been in if the older women were to teach such subjects as these.

The understanding of this word translated “teach” gives new light upon the last part of the verse. The women are to be corrected in their love of their husbands and children. They didn’t love them properly or at all. This was to be corrected and the young women were to properly love their family.

Oh, what a message for the church today. Have you talked with and/or seen the attitudes of young women in the church lately? They have little concept of proper Christian womanhood. Many are rebellious toward their husbands and lacking in care of their children. They are more interested in their own desires than in fulfilling their wifely/motherly duties. Many are more interested in amassing toys than rewards in heaven. The latest fashion is the most important, the latest in houses, cars are the most important.

They need to be brought back to reality and their families. There is a tremendous need for families in general to get back on track in the church.

“Discreet” is a related word to the one translated teach and sober in the previous verse. It relates to being discreet, sober, and sane, in one’s own senses. Again, the thought of proper control of yourself.

“Chaste” is the thought of pure, without sin, or without wrong. In the area of sexuality, she should be taught to be without wrong. In the area of her marital relationship she should be taught to be without wrong.

In this area of sexuality, I don’t think most church goers have any idea what is going on in our teen girl’s minds. This is the next generation of mothers that is going to be teaching our Sunday schools. Most teen girls today feel that oral sex is not really sex. They also feel it is about as casual a thing as kissing.

If churches don’t wake up to the way the world has warped our kids we are in for even bigger trouble than we have now. We have got to start teaching about proper marriage, about improper divorce, about the sin of remarriage, about the proper sexuality.

They are to be brought to proper knowledge of keeping the home. Again, today where are our Christian mothers? Are they at home keeping it in proper order, or are they out at the mall, out wherever it is that they go to do their thing?

Keeping a home in our society is almost a four-letter word. It is one of the most honored of places for a woman to be, yet our society has placed it down with the lowest of low positions. We need to let our young women know where God would have them be. It is not that they can’t work, nor work outside the home, but the best place is normally in the home loving and caring for their family. We will delve into this more in a moment.

And we see even further reference to the marital relationship. She is to be in submission or obedient to her husband. It is curious in my mind why Paul would have added the word “own” before the husband, but maybe the Cretan society was like ours is today. She is to submit to her own husband and not someone else’s husband. I don’t know how much more clear I need to make this, but maybe I can. Your husband is your only husband, there is no other. There is no one else’s husband that you should be submitting to.

We have seen women stray into adultery, and many of them see nothing wrong in what they have done. One husband I spoke to said it was six months after the fact before his wife could realize that what she had done was wrong and that she had sinned. THESE ARE CHRISTIAN WOMEN and they don’t know that it is wrong to sleep with another man. PASTORS WAKE UP TO WHAT HAS NOT BEEN TAUGHT IN WAY TOO MANY YEARS IN OUR CHURCHES.

I would take a side trail for a moment. I am way down on the church in generalities, I know there are many churches that are teaching the word as they ought, but too many are not and it is these churches that are producing the sin of the church today. Yes, individual responsibility is in view, but so is the lack of teaching.

If your church is preaching the word, is talking about the sin of our society, then praise God, but realize that many aren’t and you don’t want your teenagers going off to youth groups that you don’t have confidence in.

Subject to their “own” husband. What a telling command. How sad that any Christian gathering should need part of their group to be taught such things at the command of an apostle. You would think that it would be common practice to teach every class of youth these things.

Many today decry curriculum in our Sunday school, but it is needed so that when the day is over we can know that every kid that has gone through our system has been taught the basics of Christian living.

Paul desires these things be set aright so that the Word is not blasphemed. The term blasphemed relates to “speaking ill of” or speaking against. It is the same word that is used of speaking against God.

Our family life is a witness to the Word, it is a witness to our belief in that Word and it is a witness to the world around us.

All of this because Paul did not want God’s name blasphemed. Ezekiel has a chapter where God is acting to keep His name in a proper light. He is desirous to keep His name clean from blot, yet believers today could care less about how they reflect upon His name.

I think it important to read this chapter so that you can know how God feels about his GOOD name. Eze 36:1-38 is somewhat similar if you want to give a read.

Eze 20:1-49

20:1 And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth [month], the tenth [day] of the month, [that] certain of the elders of Israel came to enquire of the LORD, and sat before me.

2 Then came the word of the LORD unto me, saying,

3 Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye come to enquire of me? [As] I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you.

4 Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge [them]? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers:

5 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up mine hand unto them, saying, I [am] the LORD your God;

6 In the day [that] I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which [is] the glory of all lands:

7 Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I [am] the LORD your God.

8 But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

9 But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they [were], in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.

10 Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness.

11 And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which [if] a man do, he shall even live in them.

12 Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I [am] the LORD that sanctify them.

13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which [if] a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.

14 But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.

15 Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given [them], flowing with milk and honey, which [is] the glory of all lands;

16 Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.

17 Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.

18 But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols:

19 I [am] the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them;

20 And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I [am] the LORD your God.

21 Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which [if] a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.

22 Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth.

23 I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries;

24 Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols.

25 Wherefore I gave them also statutes [that were] not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;

26 And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through [the fire] all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I [am] the LORD.

27 Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me.

28 [For] when I had brought them into the land, [for] the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering: there also they made their sweet savour, and poured out there their drink offerings.

29 Then I said unto them, What [is] the high place whereunto ye go? And the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day.

30 Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations?

31 For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? [As] I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you.

32 And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.

33 [As] I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you:

34 And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.

35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.

36 Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD.

37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant:

38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.