here - The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Train the young women to love their
husbands and children
It may seem strange to have to train young women to
love their husbands and children, but distractions and
difficulties will threaten their priorities at every turn!
Christian women are to prioritize these familial relationships,
even when feelings are lagging and relationships
outside the home seem less complicated and more
fun. Older women can remind younger women of the
beauty of respectful and honoring love.
Self-controlled, pure
Training in self-control, means the older woman offers
good advice that will bring a young woman to her
senses. Self-control might be applied in a variety of ways
from parenting to maintaining purity, or having upright
moral character.
Working at home, kind
The younger woman should also be trained to be creating
and maintaining her home, to love caring for her
family, and to delight in the domestic sphere because it
is the main context in which love and kindness occur.
The older woman is also to teach the younger to be kind,
not only to those within her household, but perhaps
also by welcoming outsiders into her home.
Submissive to their own husbands
Deferring to another’s leadership is not something that
comes naturally, so the older woman should help the
younger to recognize and affirm her husband’s role as
spiritual leader of the family.
Let us not overlook the potential impact of this
teaching role on the teacher. The older woman who
regularly reminds the younger woman to prioritize her
family and to show kindness to strangers will also be
reminding herself. Ideally, both women will be both
encouraged and more deeply committed in their relationships
and responsibilities as a result of their time
together.
Embracing these home-oriented issues is a weighty
responsibility—the world around us is watching! In
fact, these attitudes and actions are so important they
determine how others view the gospel. We must do this
so that the word of God may not be reviled. Our overarching
concern is to glorify God through spreading the gospel
and reflecting God’s grace—and a woman’s activities
at home serve that evangelistic end. What a privilege!
At the end of chapter two, Paul offers the theological
foundation for his instructions. John Stott summarizes
it in this way: “The particular doctrine in Titus
2, on which Paul grounds his ethical appeal, is that of
the two comings of Christ, which he here calls his two
‘epiphanies’ or appearings.” 1 Jesus has come and is coming
again. “For the grace of God has appeared” (2:11)
and we wait for “the appearing of the glory of our great
God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2:13). Paul challenges
us to look in opposite directions at the same time, “to
look back and remember the epiphany of grace (whose
purpose was to redeem us from all evil and to purify
for God a people of his own), and also to look forward
and anticipate the epiphany of glory (whose purpose
will be to perfect at his second coming the salvation he
began at his first).” 2 This deliberate orientation is a daily
discipline and will give purpose to our duties at home.
Indeed, make us “zealous for good works” (2:14).
When we understand Paul’s desire to leave behind
a strong church, we might expect that his letter would
emphasize evangelism or church growth strategies.
Instead, he reveals his convictions that the family unit
is vital to the church and society, and that relationships
between women are vital to that family unit. He
enlists all women by calling them older and younger!
All women have a responsibility to other women—to
remind one another of theological realities that give
meaning to otherwise mundane days. Today, this
instruction to welcome an older or younger woman into
your life might seem uncomfortable. Perhaps in Paul’s
day it was more natural to have more than one generation
living under one roof—and maybe that means we
have to work a little harder to make it happen. Churches
can inhibit intergenerational friendships by grouping
people by age for classes or fellowship. It takes intentional
effort and often some discomfort to buck age segregation
in the church and have meaningful discipleship
relationships between generations.
Are you a spiritually mature women who could sit
with a younger friend over coffee and remind her of pri-
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