Titus 2:5 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Titus 2:5

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They are to teach the younger women ‘to be discreet.’ Here is another word very akin to ‘sober’, which means also ‘safe in mind’, but here it particularly has in in view self-control. The older women must be self-controlled. She is going to pass that on to a new generation of women. So she mustn’t be carried away by temptation. ‘I want to appear as somebody who is well endowed, very rich, splendidly attired, rather special, rather above the average. I'm going to indulge myself.’ No, she is modest, and self-controlled, and careful, and sacrificial also. ‘Chaste’, pure, uncontaminated. ‘Keepers at home’, not meaning that is all she does. ‘She has got to be a keeper at home’, say some. ‘That means she will never have a job; she will never follow a profession. The Bible says it; there it is. It is a command; you have got to follow it.’ You don't understand what that means. Broadly interpreted, the keepers at home language simply means industrious at home. It has nothing to do with precluding paid work. That is an essential these days for both husband and wife. But nevertheless, she is still queen of the home, and she casts across the home the fragrance of her policy, and her heart, and she is the organiser and the arranger of things at home for the good of the whole family, the custodian of the home. ‘Good’, which simply uses means ‘kind’, because the Greek is beneficial good. Kindness is the hallmark of the older ladies, passing it to the younger ladies. ‘Obedient to their own husbands’, honouring his role. Giving him all the advice and help he needs, but honouring his role as, under God, the leader of that home. ‘That the word of God be not blasphemed.’ Why does the apostle Paul put it like this? What’s the significance? Why would people discredit the word of God, if the older women fell short of the mark? To understand this you have to see that in society at large in those days the women were put down. They were nothing at all. They were just treated like servants. They had no status unless they happen to be wealthy in their own right. Outside of Christian homes, the womenfolk were the underdogs as it were, and the doormats. That was how society treated women. Now the Christian women are treated quite differently, and they were elevated, and they had equal standing before God. Now it is true that the husband is the head of the home, but viewed spiritually, men and women are of equal value to God, and have equal standing. (That is why, as a husband, you want to make sure, if you can, that your wife also has her gifts honoured in Christian service, in whatever form that takes: in the teaching of children, or whatever.) Because Christian women were free and able to speak out, and were treated with respect, if at the same time they were to become noted as difficult women, highly feministic women, opinionated women, pushing their husbands around, what a shock to the pagan community! All the more reason for non-Christians to keep their wives down, if this is the outcome. ‘If they become Christians, they will go to the opposite extreme! Give them an inch, and they will take a hundred miles. Here they are: throwing their weight around, and dominating everything.’ That was the danger, and that is why the apostle says, ‘That the word of God be not blasphemed.’ You are Christians; you are now restored to your proper status, and worth, and dignity, as women. Don't go to the other extreme, and bring discredit upon the word of God.

Application

It is very difficult for women these days. Years ago, the woman looked after the home. Fifty years ago, a minority of women in this country went out to work. But it has to be said that keeping home fifty, sixty years ago was more difficult. There was much more to it. There were not superstores, as there have been in the years since. There were not the same appliances. We are probably back in the days of very simple washers and mangles, along with all sorts of other less sophisticated gadgets. There was much more physical work to be done at home. Shopping was a much more complex thing, with numerous little shops – far spread sometimes – to be visited one by one. Many women stayed at home and made their children's clothing and so on. It was a far more involved business, and far more demanding. But she was at home, much of the time. And when you are in the same place, however busy, you need more self-control. There are certain habits and things you can get into.

But now it is even more difficult in a way, because the lady goes out to work too; she has to. Rents are so high; property prices are so high; everything has become so inordinately expensive over the years. You think society has progressed. In some ways it has gone steeply downhill, because everybody has got to work like crazy to pay their way. And yet the woman of the house is expected by many husbands still to be the total home keeper. So she has got a double role. It may have got a little easier, but she is very busy. Do the men join in, or have they been listening to these preachers from across the Atlantic? ‘You’re the boss. She is there to serve you, and your every whim’, and all this nonsensical foolishness, so badly exegeted from the Scripture. Some of them are sound, but the lengths to which they go on this subject are crazy. You can't listen to that. Your wife is out to work. You've got to be involved; you’ve got to help her. She is still queen at home, so you have got a little bit of role reversal at home. She is organising the home, and if you are helping out, you have got to take her instructions some of the time. Think that through! We must examine ourselves daily: where have I gone wrong? I pledge myself anew every day to be holy for the Lord, and pray for help in all things. Then in every Christian home, because of the ministry of the older women and the younger women, we have just a touch of heaven on earth.

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Titus 2:5 Commentary and Bible Study