What is The Goal?

Titus 2:1-6

Several years ago, vandals took the baskets off the backboards at our youth camp. Imagine what it would have been like to try to play basket ball without the baskets. No one would ever know whether the ball went where it was supposed to or not. In order to successfully play the game, new baskets had to be installed.

Without a concrete goal as to what we are trying to accomplish, the ministry will be unsuccessful. We will have no way of determining what we have accomplished, nor a practical idea as to how to proceed. There are almost infinite possibilities. Culture, and unethical or uninformed teachers clamor for attention. It is easy to become distracted or totally confused. Once a goal is established, efforts can then be directed to accomplishing that goal.

Paul instructs Titus, “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:” (Titus 2:1). The word become is used in the same sense that we speak of a woman having a becoming hairdo. It is appropriate or flattering to her. We ought to teach things that are appropriate for sound doctrine. Paul defines certain character traits as goals for each group of Christians. The teaching should contribute to attaining the goals.

“That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.” (Titus 2:2). Mature Christian men ought to exhibit these characteristics. Sober. Grave and temperate overlap in meaning, but they are each different. Christian men ought to be serious minded and thoughtful. They ought to be able to control their lusts and cravings. They ought not be focused on drawing attention to themselves. Their behavior should be mature. I Corinthians 13:11 says, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

They should be sound in faith, their faith based on the Word of God, not traditions or opinion. They should exhibit a sound mature love, not manipulative, self serving or fake. They should have learned to let God work, rather than forcing things to happen on their schedule. They are the example for the younger men.

“The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;” (Titus 2:3). Like the mature men, mature women set an example before the younger people. Their attitudes and actions should be in accord with faith in God, not manipulative or selfish and inconsiderate. They ought not be tale bearers, and especially of false tales. Proverbs 26:28a tells us, “A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it.” “The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.” (Proverbs 26:22) Christian love will avoid causing such hurts.

Mature women ought to be filled with the Holy Spirit, not with wine according to Ephesians 5:18, getting comfort and pleasure from the things of God, rather than from those of the world. They ought to be examples and teachers of good things. They are especially responsible for teaching the girls and younger women.

“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.” (Titus 2:4-5)

The mature women ought to live in such a manner they can teach the younger ones by example without a double standard in several areas. First, they must teach them to be sober, in all its aspects of self control and thoughtfulness. Love is something that needs to be taught. We fall into lust, not into love. Love is an attitude toward another being. We can choose to love our mate and our children, or we can choose not to.

Older women have a responsibility to teach the younger ones to be discreet or careful in their actions to avoid suggestive behavior or dress, and to control their impulses and cravings. They have a great deal of influence over the young woman’s understanding of her role in the home, not just a housekeeper, but a valuable part of the home as a teacher, companion, and mother. They have the duty to teach proper submission, not slavery, manipulation, or rebellion.

“Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.” (Titus 2:6) Young men are to be taught to be thoughtful and to take responsibility for their lives and actions.

Failure to develop these traits properly results in blasphemy against God by husbands, wives, and children, as well as by those around the church, who see God as either evil, irrelevant, or ineffective. The goal is to produce Christians who live in such a manner. To do so it will be necessary to emphasize aspects that are contradicted by local culture until people understand the difference.