Daily Bread 2010 - Titus 2
Daily Bread 2010 – Titus 2
What Must Be Taught to Various Groups
1You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. 2Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
3Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
6Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
9Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, 10and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
15These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.
As Paul counsels Titus on how to lead the church on the island of Crete, he teaches him to focus on different things for different groups. These groups are differentiated by gender, age, and economic/occupational factors. It reminds us that at different stages of life, there are different aspects of our spiritual walk that need to be attended to.
We see definite roles laid out for men and women and slaves, consistent with the culture Paul was addressing. Some people make the mistake of thinking that as Paul is describing these cultural conditions that they are normative/prescriptive for all time as opposed to being descriptive of that age. For instance this passage isn’t advocating that slavery is a good thing, but that slaves should serve their master so as to make the Christian way of life more attractive. It is the same with women being busy at home and subject to their husbands. Paul teaches this so that those who oppose them may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about them.
If the slaves or the women had used their freedom in Christ and not submitted to the authority system that was in place (be it good or bad), it would have brought a bad reputation on the young church that enough troubles getting established and faced much persecution.
This is where how one interprets the bible is so important, also called “exegesis”. We must extract the meaning of the text using all the best we have of different translations, understanding of the original language (for the NT, Greek) and also the best understanding of the social/historical/literary context of the passage. Once we extract the meaning of the text with these tools, we can then begin to make application for today.
In the passage, the main thing it is teaching is how important our personal conduct is as we live our lives. We often call this, “walking the talk”. If we say we are Christian and then live a life contrary to our stated beliefs, it will make our teaching about God our Savior repulsive not attractive.
Does your life cause more people to want to check out the Christian faith, or the run away? Though none of us are perfect (least of all me!), we need to strive to be a consistent reflection of God’s love and grace through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit!
Jesus help us to live lives in our world so that we will draw more people to you not push them away. In each stage of our lives there are unique challenges but we know that You who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it. Amen.
What Must Be Taught to Various Groups
1You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. 2Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
3Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
6Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
9Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, 10and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
15These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.
As Paul counsels Titus on how to lead the church on the island of Crete, he teaches him to focus on different things for different groups. These groups are differentiated by gender, age, and economic/occupational factors. It reminds us that at different stages of life, there are different aspects of our spiritual walk that need to be attended to.
We see definite roles laid out for men and women and slaves, consistent with the culture Paul was addressing. Some people make the mistake of thinking that as Paul is describing these cultural conditions that they are normative/prescriptive for all time as opposed to being descriptive of that age. For instance this passage isn’t advocating that slavery is a good thing, but that slaves should serve their master so as to make the Christian way of life more attractive. It is the same with women being busy at home and subject to their husbands. Paul teaches this so that those who oppose them may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about them.
If the slaves or the women had used their freedom in Christ and not submitted to the authority system that was in place (be it good or bad), it would have brought a bad reputation on the young church that enough troubles getting established and faced much persecution.
This is where how one interprets the bible is so important, also called “exegesis”. We must extract the meaning of the text using all the best we have of different translations, understanding of the original language (for the NT, Greek) and also the best understanding of the social/historical/literary context of the passage. Once we extract the meaning of the text with these tools, we can then begin to make application for today.
In the passage, the main thing it is teaching is how important our personal conduct is as we live our lives. We often call this, “walking the talk”. If we say we are Christian and then live a life contrary to our stated beliefs, it will make our teaching about God our Savior repulsive not attractive.
Does your life cause more people to want to check out the Christian faith, or the run away? Though none of us are perfect (least of all me!), we need to strive to be a consistent reflection of God’s love and grace through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit!
Jesus help us to live lives in our world so that we will draw more people to you not push them away. In each stage of our lives there are unique challenges but we know that You who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it. Amen.
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