Doctrine for Young Women
26 October 2014 pm – Titus 2:4-5 – Tit 14 – Scott Childs
Introduction: Growing up on a farm, I learned many skills from my father. Rarely did Dad have a formal teaching time with me, but as I watched and worked with him, I learned from his example and mentoring. For example, I learned much about carpentry by working alongside Dad while he built our house.
The Holy Spirit told Titus to instruct the older women to teach the younger women practical doctrine.
Transition: If you will remember, the final duty of the older women, found in the opening phrase of verse four, is to “teach the young women to be sober”. We pointed out that this phrase literally means “to admonish, to bring them to their senses, to encourage in their duties.” This evening we are going to study the specific duties they were to teach by their lives and their lips and the reason for them.
1. Specific Duties for Young Women
a. To love their husbands
1) This is not the word agape, but a word that means to have a friendly love or a companionship love for her husband. God created the woman to be man’s companion and completer. Being her husband’s intimate friend and helper is wife’s noble God-given role.
² Peter Pett: 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.
2) Solomon describes many qualities of a woman who is truly a loving companion and teammate to her husband.
a) She has excellent character that uplifts him.
V (Proverbs 12:4) “A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.”
b) She builds and encourages his home.
V (Proverbs 14:1) “Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.”
c) She is a prudent or careful spender.
V (Proverbs 19:14) “House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: and a prudent wife is from the LORD.”
d) She does not argue and quarrel with him.
V (Proverbs 27:15) “A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike.”
e) She is trustworthy and satisfying to him.
V (Proverbs 31:11) “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.”
3) Older women were to teach the young women how to love their husbands like this because it goes against their sin nature.
b. To love their children
1) Satan tempted wives then and now with a selfish desire to avoid the confinement and responsibility of bearing children.
2) Throughout the Bible, God tells us that children are a blessing to a marriage not curse.
3) Older women are to admonish young women to learn to love children. No godly Christian woman should selfishly refuse to have children.
² This exhortation is still needed where some married women prefer poodle-dogs to children. A.T. Robertson
4) They also need to learn to love their children. Again, this kind of love is not agape, but a friendly, companion love. Children need the security of tender motherly love that disciples their hearts, directs their steps, disciplines their wrongs, drowns their fears, and dries their tears.
c. To be discreet
1) This is the same word that is translated “sober” in Tit 1:8 and “temperate” in Tit 2:2.
2) It means to be of a sound mind, sane, in one’s senses; curbing one’s desires and impulses, self-controlled, temperate. Thayer
3) God wants young women to control their desires, their actions, their mouths, and their attitudes.
d. To be chaste
1) This word means pure. It signifies “moral purity” (1 Jn. 3:3; 1 Tim. 5:22; Jms. 3:17), “innocence” (2 Cor. 7:11), and “chastity” (2 Cor. 11:2). TDNT It also has the idea of modest. Purity is in mind, heart, and body.
² “Purity is the pursuit of righteousness.” Josh Harris
2) In body, words, and actions young wives are to keep themselves totally for their own husbands.
e. To be keepers at home
1) Mickelson defines this word as “a stayer at home, i.e. domestically inclined (a “good housekeeper”)”
2) Throughout the Bible, we find that God’s normal plan for a wife is to be a homemaker. This is will help her fulfil of her role of loving her husband.
3) For a wife to work outside the home is seldom healthy. It strains her domestic work, discourages having children, makes it difficult to love her children properly, stresses marital relations, and increases temptations.
4) Ask God to help you love homemaking.
f. To be good
1) Young women are to be good. In other words be useful, pleasant, joyful, agreeable, excellent, and upright.
2) They are to be good in thought, conduct, use of their time, speech, and in every area of life.
3) God wants every young woman to be of excellent character or virtuous.
V (Proverbs 31:10) “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.”
g. To be obedient to their own husbands
1) This word means to be submissive or to be arranged under their own husband.
2) It is the same word used in Ephesians.
V (Ephesians 5:22) “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.”
V (Ephesians 5:24) “Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.”
3) This is not a humiliating duty, but a God-honouring, God-ordained privilege. To fulfil this role that God planned for your life is the highest honour any wife can fulfil.
4) When a wife allows her husband to lead, she can focus on her other duties without the stress of leadership.
2. The Reason for These Duties
a. The first reason is because God ordained them.
1) God gave these duties or practical doctrines for young women.
2) God knows what is best. He knows exactly how he designed a woman’s body and emotions.
3) God also knows the temptations and struggles that women face in a liberated humanistic society. Loving her husband, loving her children, being self-controlled, pure, a homemaker, good, and submissive are all looked on with scorn.
b. The second reason is “that the word of God be not blasphemed”.
1) The word “blasphemed” means to speak reproachfully, rail at, or revile. Thayer
2) When a Christian young woman fails to do the duties outlined here, the unbelieving world will speak evil of the Bible. Unbelievers love to call Christians, hypocrites. God does not want His holy Word reproached.
Conclusion: Young women, just like God did with the older men and older women, He highlighted areas in which young women are tempted to fail. If you are married, ask yourself these basic questions: 1) Are you the loving friend your husband needs?, 2) Do you love children and lovingly care for your children?, 3) Are you self-controlled, pure in thought and deed, a good housekeeper, of excellent character, and submissive to your husband?
If you need to work on some of these qualities, confess your weakness to the Lord and ask Him to help you. Older ladies, remember you must have these qualities in your life before you can truthfully teach them.
Song: Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord – 337