By: Heidi Jo Falk
In Titus 2:3-5, Paul is instructing Titus, a pastor, on some essentials to teach his congregation…
In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not addicted to much wine. They are to teach what is good, so they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children, to be self-controlled, pure, homemakers, kind, and submissive to their husbands, so that God’s message will not be slandered. (HCSB)
If you would have asked me what I thought of these verses early in my marriage or motherhood, I would have said, “Awesome—I’m off the hook. I don’t have to worry about that until I’m the older woman.” But when I read a book a few years ago that highlighted and taught the specifics of the Titus 2, it hit me like a ton of bricks… It doesn’t matter that I’m not the official “older woman” yet. What Paul is commanding Titus to have the older women teach the younger women is what I need to be doing. Now.
But what really floored me was the final phrase of verse 5—”so that God’s message will not be slandered”. Other translations say, “that the word of God may not be reviled” and “so that no one will malign the word of God”. That’s the purpose of doing all those things?! I love my husband and children, show self-control, kindness and purity, work at home, and submit to my husband to show the truth of the word of God? THAT is a grand purpose. THAT fuels me for the mundane and routine parts of my day. THAT is the privilege and a responsibility that God has given me as a woman and THAT is something I want to know as much about as I can.
Thankfully, I did and do have some “older women” in my life—teaching me and living out the precepts in these verses. But I also knew it was my responsibility and a wise course of action to dig in and learn more about the distinctives for myself.
So I did. I am. And I would like to invite you to learn along with me. Each month on the BBT blog, I’ll be sharing some truth from the Titus 2 command. What we can learn from the text and related passages, what I’ve discovered and experienced, what I’ve seen lived out, and what we can challenge ourselves with in the areas described in the verses. I hope you’ll join me. When we’re studying a passage commanding women to learn from each other, there’s no way I can do this alone!! So watch for the T2 series and get ready to dive into the exceptional purpose of displaying and living out the word of God.
HEIDI JO FULK is passionate about encouraging woman and girls to love and live God’s word. She is wife to her high school sweetheart, Dan, and mom to their four young children — Emma Jo, Gretchen, Tucker and Brock. Heidi leads a women’s Bible study and an elementary girls’ ministry at her church.