Titus 2: 1-5, “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”
As a young woman, I sought out an older woman could teach me the things that I needed to know. Things my own mother had failed to teach me. There was so much that I needed guidance in, so many things that I wanted to learn…about God, homemaking, gardening, cooking, about being a wife, a mother, a homeschooler. I asked so many ladies; many, many times, I asked. No one would help me.
The excuses that I received were wide and varied but, in the end, they were just that: excuses. They didn’t want to be bothered and some of them were honest enough to tell me so; others simply tried to explain away their refusal to obey God. They needed to rest or play with the grandchildren or take time for themselves.
Some of the ladies said they’d already done their duty by raising children, teaching Sunday school, or being in charge of VBS for several years. Some flat out said they just didn’t want to. Several said that they were sure that I could find someone else.
The bottom line is that I never found an older lady who was willing to mentor me, teach me to cook, clean, be a wife or mother, or anything else. I suffered because of it. My family suffered because of it.
God didn’t tell us to teach the younger women if it was convenient. He didn’t ask us if we wanted to, or if we thought we had enough time, knowledge, wisdom, talent, or ability to do so. He didn’t give us a way out. He simply gave us a mandate. We explain it away to our own peril.
God allows us no outs; there is no way out of obedience when He issues a command. If we find it difficult to obey, we must repent and seek His guidance, for what He commands us to do, He enables us to do.
When we are oriented towards God rather than to this world, His commands will not seem grievous. When we love Him more than our own lives, obedience to Him will be sweet to our souls.
God has commanded godly older women to be “teachers of good things.” We have an obligation to God and to our younger women to do just that.
Few younger women today understand the importance of the role of homemaker, or understand the value of a woman’s role, how to be a wife, or the importance of children. It’s up to us to help them to understand and to be obedient to the Lord.
Decades of attack upon the traditional role of women have left many younger women confused and floundering. We must help them to re-orient, to sort through fact and fiction, to learn to understand and embrace their roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers.
Sisters, we have a mandate from God and we must obey it. We must teach our younger sisters to be sober and temperate (so that they neither do too much nor too little, so that they make good use of their days and become wise), to be obedient to their husbands (and to love and respect them), to tenderly love (and value and guide) their children.
We must teach our younger sisters to be pure (in thought, word, deed, and dress), to be keepers of their homes (to value their role as homemaker, to see their homes as their main sphere of influence and to nurture and care for their family and others who cross their path), and to excel in cooking, cleaning, organizing, balancing the budget, wise shopping, sewing, etc.
The most sobering thought in Titus 2: 3-5 is that we are to teach these things to younger women so that “the word of God be not blasphemed.” What that means is this: when we as older women fail to obey God and we do not teach the younger women to be obedient to Him), we are showing contempt and disrespect for the Word of the Lord.
When we fail to obey God’s commands to us, including those to women, we are saying we know better than God does. We’re putting our desires above His commands. I don’t want to be guilty of that and I don’t think that you do, either. I don’t want to have to stand before God one day and explain my disobedience or my contempt for His Word.
Older women are to teach our younger sisters so that they might be prepared to love and guide their own families so that they might raise up godly seed. We are also to prepare them so that, one day, they, too, will be older women who are able to teach the younger women in their lives.
Many before us failed. Let us not join their ranks. Let us take God’s mandate seriously. Let us immerse ourselves in His Word, let us bow down to pray and rise up to teach. Sisters, if we fail in this, we are failing to take God’s Word seriously.
If we are not “teachers of good things” as we have been commanded to be, then somewhere there will be a flesh-and-blood sister (and her family) who will suffer needlessly because of our failure to obey our Lord…and our God will notice.
Soli Deo Gloria!
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