that they may admonish the young women to be attached to [their] husbands, to be attached to [their] children,
Paul tells Titus to teach what fits sound doctrine, and then goes through the household group by group. Verse 4 is the turning point: Titus does not train the young women himself — the older women do, and the first thing they teach is love at home.
The instructions here are plain and everyday. One writer takes that as a mark of Christian teaching, not a lowering of it.
It is all wonderfully simple, down-to-earth, and wholesome. Nothing marks Christianity more than this very flexibility and breadth. Where humility or true greatness is missing, people are afraid of little matters. They shrink back from touching everyday details. The power of Christ makes everything sweet and precious. It gives dignity to the very smallest thing that fills the heart and mind.
Paul speaks to five groups in this chapter. One of them he hands to someone else.
In Titus 2:1-10 the Apostle instructs Titus about older men, older women, young women, young men, and servants. Of these five groups, only four go straight to Titus. One of them he does not commit to Titus himself, but to the older women!
That arrangement answers a complaint older believers often make about themselves.
How often do older sisters say, "I am not able to do anything for the Lord." That is a wrong thing for anyone who knows Him to say. But let the older sisters know that their age and sex make them fit and proper people to serve Christ in many things that some of the more exposed members of His flock badly need.
The verb behind "train" is unusual. Its meaning shapes what this work looks like.
The Apostle is telling Titus about the duties of the older women. Part of that duty is to "teach" or "admonish" the young women. It is a remarkable word, used only here in the New Testament. Its literal sense is to "call someone back to their senses." Very similar words appear three other times in this chapter, translated "discreet" or "sober".
The older women bring what a younger woman cannot supply for herself. The aim is affection that holds up under pressure.
How were they to use their opportunities? They were to "train the young women to love their husbands and children." Here they were exactly in place. With the Lord before their eyes, their experience would prove priceless to those who face the daily difficulties and dilemmas of human life. They were not only to teach the younger women to be subject to their husbands. Cultivating affection in the home is pressed with special force. Christianity was never meant to weaken the affections. If Christ governs, He is also the spring of sure, unfailing strength. There is no trial with the husband or the child to which His grace would not apply.
The teaching is meant to shape daily life, and the teacher's own manner is part of the lesson.
Without Scripture they could not teach the young women rightly. Yet this is not to be mere classroom teaching. It is to take effect in sober wisdom in their lives, and to encourage them to love their husbands and their children. This is wholesome work. More than enough divisive evils are already at work, trying to drive wedges into family life, without an older woman adding to the friction. The young need her solid, faithful teaching.
The two loves are not listed at random.
Notice what it says about love: the older women should teach the younger ones to love their husbands first. This order matters. It is never good for children to take such a large place in our affections that they come between wife and husband. No, love to the husband should come first, and then love to the children. It is the same, of course, for husbands in loving their wives and their children.
- Doctrine. Sound teaching shows itself in everyday details. The power of Christ gives dignity to the smallest thing that fills the heart.
- Teacher. Of the five groups in this chapter, only this one goes to the older women instead of Titus. Their age and sex make them fit servants for it.
- Training. The verb appears nowhere else in the New Testament. It means to call someone back to their senses — life-wisdom passed on, not a lecture.
- Order. Love the husband first, then the children. Then the children never come between wife and husband.
- Result. Christ strengthens affection at home; He never weakens it. No trial with a husband or a child lies outside His grace.
discreet, chaste, diligent in home work, good, subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be evil spoken of.
Paul is telling Titus what "sound doctrine" looks like inside a home. Older women pass on to younger ones how to live as wives and mothers. The list ends with a reason far bigger than home life. How a Christian wife lives affects the way people speak of God's word.
The instructions in this verse are ordinary, everyday things.
It is all wonderfully simple, down to earth, and healthy. Nothing marks Christianity out more than this flexibility and breadth. Where humility or true greatness is missing, people are afraid of little matters. They shy away from everyday details. The power of Christ makes everything sweet and precious. It gives dignity to the very smallest thing that fills the heart and mind.
Start with the word Paul uses for the older women's job.
The apostle is telling Titus about the duties of the older women. Part of that duty is to "teach" or "admonish" the young women. It is a striking word, used only here in the New Testament. It literally means to "bring a person back to his senses." This chapter uses very similar words three other times, translated "discreet" or "sober."
That training is meant to be lived before it is spoken.
Her teaching must come not only through instruction from the Word, but through her example too. We have to learn well for ourselves what we want to teach others.
The verse's first two qualities are "self-controlled" and "pure." Older translations call them "discreet" and "chaste." One writer explains both.
Notice how often the letter to Titus urges the virtue of discretion, or sober-mindedness. It means acting with proper self-restraint, and in a way that fits whatever situation a person is in. Purity too — no mixing of questionable things with what is good — is especially stressed for the young women.
Purity stood out sharply against the world these believers lived in.
Purity has a large place in what the older believers are told to urge on the younger. They were to press them to be "chaste" in action, in word, and in spirit. In this the Spirit of God, who reveals Christ, has all the power. How little the Greeks knew of purity, and the Jews too, to their shame! Their very religion defiled the Greeks. It made every corruption sacred... Purity is so strong and so necessary a quality in Christianity that it visibly and truly proved to be something completely new.
The older English wording "keepers at home" rests on a weaker text.
No one can fairly question that the oldest and best manuscripts support this word... The common word "keepers at home" is far weaker in moral force.
Either reading points the same way.
The meaning is much the same either way. Wives are reminded that their place of service is the home. No work or pleasure should be allowed to interfere with that place. God Himself has given them the home as their field of work. So working in it with care is a matter of faithfulness to Him.
Next comes a single word: "good."
This next instruction is of great value, and it follows diligence in home-work. The younger women are to be "good" in the sense of kindness. If Christ were not before their eyes, home-work might be looked down on as drudgery. But even if the work were done perfectly, is that all it takes to satisfy or please a husband? Goodness spreads happiness all round... There is no place where kindness is worth more, and no place where it is rarer. Only the Lord's grace could make it a settled habit, in a home where countless small things come up to test patience.
The word "own" in "their own husbands" is there to encourage a wife's heart (Leslie M. Grant). From that one daily habit, a writer traces a line straight to the reputation of God's word.
What irritates a husband more than a wife who is quick to question his authority or interfere with his plans? Nothing wins a husband's ear like the habit of subjection... Suppose a wife fails to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour by subjection, even in that close relationship. She is sure to bring reproach — not only on herself, or on the people around her, but on the word of God itself.
- Doctrine — sound teaching shows itself in everyday details, not in argument. Christ gives dignity to the smallest thing.
- Training — the older women bring the younger back to their senses, by example as much as by words.
- Character — self-control means proper self-restraint. Purity marked Christianity out as something completely new.
- Home — the better reading is workers at home, not merely keepers. God gave the home as a field to work in, and "good" means kindness while doing it.
- Reputation — every link runs to one end. A wife's refusal to submit brings reproach not on herself alone, but on the word of God.
The younger men in like manner exhort to be discreet
Paul has just addressed the older men, the older women, and the younger women. Now he turns to the young men, and gives them one instruction. Older translations call it being "sober-minded" or "discreet." Why is one word enough?
Paul asks one thing of them, and commentators say it is not one item on a list.
As for the young men, Titus is to urge them to be sober-minded, or discreet, as we have seen before. This, of course, is a covering virtue. It concerns the whole life. But Titus is also to show himself an example of good works, and that matters for the sake of the young men.
The word is wider than "sober" sounds today.
He was also to be "temperate." Our day has narrowed that word, and so far misused it. Its real meaning is self-control — not in one area, but in all. In a Christian, the sense of God's presence, His grace, and the fear of Him checks every way of expressing feeling or inclination.
Paul gave similar advice to another young worker. One writer draws on it to show what a young believer must hold back.
Avoid youthful lusts. Not only the worldly or bodily ones, but the "youthful" ones: acting on impulse, self-confidence, treating things lightly, impatience, and the like. It is not enough to guard against what older people would most resent. He was to pursue practical consistency, or righteousness. He was to walk in faith, not in mere human caution or policy. He was to hold on to love, not to selfish interests. He was to keep peace, not allow strife or push for his own will.
Young men might feel singled out. Read the chapter as a whole and the charge lands on everyone.
Titus 2 shows us the mind of the Spirit on sobriety in a very full and remarkable way. Read it, and you will find that every class of Christian here is plainly urged to be sober. Verse 2 urges that "the aged men be sober, grave," and so on; verse 3, that "the aged women likewise." Then verse 4 tells the older women to teach the young women to be sober. In verse 6 Titus is to urge the young men to be sober-minded, and in verse 7 Paul urges Titus himself to be serious. Finally, verse 12 speaks of the grace of God "teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world."
Pollock quotes an older translation, which says "sober" where the ESV has "self-controlled." That word keeps repeating here, and so does "sound."
"Soberly." This word appears five times in the Authorized Version of Titus. In one place it translates a word meaning watchful or vigilant (Titus 2:2). The other times, the word means self-control, good judgment and general soundness of mind. The word "sound" also appears five times. It translates a word with the sense of "healthful" — the word we have brought into our own language as "hygienic." The letter to Titus may well be called the letter of spiritual hygiene and sobriety.
The very next line turns from the young men to Titus himself, and the reason is easy to see.
Why this is fitting is obvious. He was to urge them to a right mind, or discretion. But his own example now comes to the front. Any failure of his in discretion would especially damage his godly influence with such young men.
Titus was a young man himself. Two things have to hold together in him, and losing either empties the other.
Young men are to be discreet in their words and ways. Titus himself, being a young man, is especially urged to act in a way that would be a pattern for the young men, in good works and in teaching. Again we learn how closely the life and the teaching are connected. On one hand, if the life is not right, the teaching, however correct, will have no power. On the other hand, let us beware of being content with good living while careless about sound teaching... If we act in the light of these instructions, those who want to oppose us will be silenced, with nothing bad to say about us.
- One word. Young men get one instruction. It is a covering virtue, and it reaches the whole life, not one corner of it.
- Self-control. The word means restraint in every direction. A sense of God's presence checks every feeling and inclination.
- Youthful. It curbs more than bodily sin. Impulsiveness, self-confidence, flippancy and impatience go too, and righteousness, faith, love and peace take their place.
- Everyone. Older men, older women, young women, young men and Titus himself all get the same call in this one chapter.
- Health. The word for "sound" means healthful. This is spiritual hygiene, taught by example, and it leaves opponents with nothing bad to say.