Scripture Reading: Titus 2:1-8
In 2:1-8 the word healthy is used three times. In verse 1 Paul says, “But as for you, speak the things which are fitting to healthy teaching.” In verse 2 Paul speaks of being healthy in faith, love, and endurance. In verse 8 Paul refers to “healthy speech that cannot be condemned.” Titus was to speak the things which are fitting to healthy teaching and show himself a pattern of healthy words, and the elderly men were to be healthy in faith, love, and endurance. It is significant that in these verses, a portion of Titus in which the saints are charged to live an orderly life in the church, Paul uses the word healthy three times. If we study the verses where this word is used, and especially if we pray-read them, we shall be richly nourished. I would encourage you to pray over Paul’s word concerning healthy teaching, being healthy in faith, love, and endurance, and healthy speech. If you do this, you will enjoy an excellent spiritual meal.
Titus 2:1 says, “But as for you, speak the things which are fitting to healthy teaching.” This verse opens with the word “but” to show that it is in contrast to 1:16. In contrast to those who profess to know God, but by their works deny Him, Titus was to speak the things which are fitting to healthy teaching.
The healthy teaching is always according to the truth (Titus 1:14) of the faith (Titus 1:13). It is the content of the apostles’ teaching, the content of God’s New Testament economy. It not only ministers the life supply to the believers and heals the spiritual diseases, but in so doing also brings the church into a sound condition with a good order. Hence, it is very much stressed in these three books, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, books dealing with the disorder and decline of the church. In 2:1 Paul charged Titus not to deviate from the healthy teaching, from the apostles’ teaching. He should not be like the gainsayers, the vain talkers, those who teach differently and make the church subject to the influence of Judaism and Gnosticism.
We also should be reminded to speak the things which are fitting to healthy teaching. The word healthy points to that which is hygienic and which can both inoculate others against spiritual poison and also supply them with life. Our teachings should not merely pass on knowledge to others, but should supply them with life. Often when I have been tempted to speak about a certain subject, I was stopped. I had the sense that there was not much of the hygienic element in what I planned to say. We need to remind ourselves and be reminded by the Spirit to give forth healthy teaching.
Healthy teachings do not provoke debates or arguments. If we give adequate attention to feeding on the Lord, we shall not care to argue. A dining table is not a place for debate or argument; it is a place for feasting and nourishment. In the church life we should not exchange the dining table for a desk. We all need to learn how to put healthy “dishes” on the dining table to feed the saints.
In the foregoing message we pointed out that in fighting the battle for the truth, we need to maintain excellent relationships with others. Our behavior needs to be according to the highest standard and also very human. In every area of our daily life and family life we must be proper.
In the three Epistles of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus Paul emphasizes the importance of a proper humanity. In 2:2 Paul speaks to the aged men and says, “Aged men are to be temperate, grave, of a sober mind, healthy in faith, in love, in endurance.”
According to this verse, the aged men are to be temperate. To be temperate is to have self-control and to be moderate. It is often easier for an elderly person to be offended or angered than it is for a young person to be bothered in this way. As an elderly person myself, I can testify that in a family it is usually the older ones who become irritated or impatient. Today I can be bothered by certain irritations or nuisances that did not affect me in the least fifty years ago. This indicates that, as an elderly man, I need Paul’s charge to be temperate. Of course, temperateness is a virtue needed by everyone in the church life.
Elderly men should also be grave. Gravity is a qualification of human character which is worthy of utmost respect. It implies dignity and it inspires honor and invites it. Gravity is a virtue which invites the respect of others.
In verse 2 Paul charges the aged men to be of a sober mind. He says the same concerning young women (v. 5) and younger men (v. 6). In 1 Timothy 3:2 Paul lists this among the qualifications of an overseer. To be of a sober mind is to be sensible and also discreet in understanding. No matter what our age may be, we all need a sober mind. If we are of a sober mind, we shall avoid the extremes of being too hot or too cold. On the one hand, we need to be burning in spirit; on the other hand, we need to be of a sober mind. If we would be a proper human being, we need this quality.
If we would be healthy in faith, we need daily to be under the transfusion which comes through the organic union between us and the Triune God. The word faith in verse 2 does not refer to the objective faith, to the things we believe, but to our activity of believing. In our daily living we need a faith which keeps us in the organic union. In order to be healthy in faith, we need to come to the Word and contact the Lord by praying in a living way with our spirit. Then we shall have faith, the infusion of the living God into us through our contact with the Word in the spirit. Faith, therefore, is a living Person infused into us. The more we remain in the organic union with this divine Person, the more healthy we shall be in faith.
If we are healthy in faith, we shall automatically be healthy in love. It is possible to love others too much or too little. In either case, our love is not healthy. Instead, we are somewhat sick in our love.
Why do you love a certain brother very much and another brother hardly at all? It is because you love others according to your own taste. In Philippians 2:2 Paul says that we should have the same love. This means that our love for all the saints should be on the same level. To have a different love for different saints is to be unhealthy in love. But to have the same love for all is to be healthy in love.
According to Titus 2:2, aged men should also be healthy in endurance. If we have adequate endurance, we shall be able to bear the things which bother us and trouble us. We have pointed out that it is rather easy for an elderly person to be bothered. As one who has many children and grandchildren and who is involved with so many churches and co-workers, I can testify of the need for endurance. For example, I need endurance simply to care for all the mail I receive day by day. I receive so much mail that I have developed a filing system to categorize and arrange it. Even this takes endurance. If I were short of endurance, I would not know what to do with all this mail.
Especially those of us who are elderly need endurance. The older we become, the greater is our need of endurance. In particular, the elders in a church need endurance. For example, sometimes telephone calls come late at night. To take care of such a call in a proper way requires endurance.
Once again I wish to emphasize the fact that in the church life we aspire to live a proper human life, with all the human virtues. We do not want to be angelic. Our desire is to be genuinely human.
In verses 3 and 4 Paul speaks concerning aged women: “Aged women likewise are to be in demeanor as befits the sacred, not slanderers, nor enslaved by much wine, teachers of what is good, that they may train the young women to be lovers of their husbands, lovers of their children.” Paul’s use of the word “likewise” indicates that the behavior of the aged women should be similar to that of the aged men. In demeanor they should be as befits the sacred. Demeanor means deportment and includes gesture and habit. The word sacred refers to those who are engaged in sacred things. This may be a special term referring to our service in the church. Any service in the church is sacred, and our demeanor should match this sacred service. Demeanor includes everything we are in our attitude, appearance, and deportment. All this should befit that part of the church service in which we participate. Especially the elderly sisters should have a demeanor which befits the sacred things, the things related to the service of the church.
Paul also says that aged women should not be slanderers. The Devil is a slanderer (Rev. 12:10). To slander is to practice the nature of the evil slanderer. An elderly sister should flee slander, the evil act of the Devil.
In verse 3 Paul also mentions not “enslaved by much wine.” This word enslaved can be compared to the word addicted used in 1 Timothy 3:8. To be enslaved may be worse than to be addicted. The aged women certainly should not be slaves of wine.
Paul also says that the aged women should be “teachers of what is good” and train the young women. To be teachers of what is good is to give good instruction.
In verses 4 and 5 we see that the young women are to be “lovers of their husbands, lovers of their children, of a sober mind, chaste, workers at home, good, subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.” The aged women should train the young women to love their husbands and their children. In the church life we strongly emphasize the need of a proper married life and family life. According to Paul’s word, we desire that the sisters love their husbands and children in an absolute way. Furthermore the young women should be sober, chaste, workers at home, kind, and subject to their own husbands so that the word of God may not be blasphemed. The word of God properly and adequately taught in a local church should be testified to by the sisters’ submission to their own husbands. Otherwise, the word of God may be blasphemed, ill spoken of, reproached.
Verse 6 says, “The younger men likewise exhort to be of a sober mind.” Paul’s use of the word likewise indicates that the charge to the younger men is similar to that given to the others. In particular, Paul tells Titus to exhort the younger men to be of a sober mind. We have pointed out that in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus Paul emphasizes the need for all the saints, young and old, male and female, to be of a sober mind. Everyone in the church life needs a sober mind. This is especially needed during the decline of the church. To guard against any decline, all of us in the local churches need to be of a sober mind.
In verses 7 and 8 Paul issues a charge directly to Titus: “Concerning all things show yourself a pattern of good works: in teaching with uncorruptness, gravity, healthy speech that cannot be condemned, in order that the opposer may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.” The apostle first charged Titus to speak things fitting to healthy teaching (v. 1). Now he further charges him to show himself a pattern of good works. In his teaching, which should be healthy, he should show three things: uncorruptness, nothing corrupted or corrupting, but everything pure, genuine, and sincere in content, presentation, and motive; gravity, dignity worthy of respect; and healthy speech, discourse given with healthy words (1 Tim. 6:3) to minister healthy things, speech which is uncensurable, irreprehensible (v. 8). Such speech will cause the opposers to be put to shame. The Greek word rendered opposer in verse 8 means the one of the opposite, contrary, side; that is, the heathen or Jewish opposer. The healthy teaching with the healthy speech of healthy words is the most effective antidote to the opposer’s evil speaking. Such light-shedding and life-imparting teaching of the word of the truth always stops the mouth of doctrinal opinion instigated by the old serpent.
