Summary:

Paul told aged men to be sober (2:2) and aged women “likewise” (v. 3), and young women (v. 4), and now young men (v. 6). God would have Christians of all ages to live above the frivolity of the world and be serious about living for Him.

Paul told Titus to be a “pattern” for young men. Dresses are made by laying a pattern on the cloth and cutting it to the exact shape. Paul was telling Titus to be an exact match to the good works God has laid out for us in his epistles.

God motivated people to walk in good works in time past by showing them the “pattern” of the temple and all the rules of the priesthood (Ezek. 43:10,11) to make them “ashamed” of their sins. If they still wanted to continue in sin after seeing the lengths to which God went to forgive them their sins, that would be the height of ingratitude. Today we look to the cross to see the lengths God went to forgive our sin. It is the height of ingratitude today to continue in sin after God has made us dead to sin (Rom. 6:1,2).

The candlestick in the temple was made according to the “pattern” given in the Law. It was a type of Christ (John 8:12) who was made under the Law (Gal. 4:5) and walked according to the pattern given in the Law. But He was only the light of the world as long as He was in the world (John 9:5). Now we are the light of the world as we hold forth the word of life to men (Phil. 2:15,16).

But we don’t shine as lights in the world by walking according to the pattern given in the Law as the Lord did. We shine by walking according to the pattern given in Paul’s epistles. If you’re still walking in the good works of the Law, observing the sabbath and Israel’s diet laws, you’re telling people we’re under the Law, and that’s not shining the right light of life. It’s hard to get saved by grace if you think we’re under the Law!

Just make sure people see your pattern of good works and glorify God, not you (Mt. 5:16). That only happens if you tell people you belong to Him!

And they must know you’re not doing good works to pay for your sins, but to show your connection to the Savior who paid for your sins.Just like the tribes in Israel that didn’t erect an altar on the wrong side of the Jordan River to sacrifice and pay for their sins, but to show their connection to the altar in Israel that did pay for them (Joshua 22:11-29). They built it according to the “pattern” of the one in Israel to show their connection to it, and we walk in the pattern of good works to show our connection to the Lord who saved us.

If you need more motivation to show yourself a pattern of good works, remember that Moses made the tabernacle according to the “pattern” (Heb. 8:5) “of things in the heavens” (Heb. 9:23), “the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched” (Heb. 8:2). Entering the pattern of the earthly tabernacle they were entering heaven on earth, and you can have heaven on earth if you walk in good works!

Corrupt means to turn something sound into something unsound, so “uncorruptness” in doctrine (2:7) is sound doctrine “Gravity” in doctrine means seriousness, but not to the exclusion of humor. There are funny things in the Bible (Deut. 5:23-27; I Sam. 15:13,14; Job 8:1,2; 12:1,2; 13:5; 21:3). We should be serious enough about the things of God to use every tool in our belt to get truth across, including humor!

“Sincerity” in doctrine (2:7) means pure doctrine, not mixed with sin (I Cor. 5:8) or human wisdom (II Cor. 1:12), and not mixed with things like envy and strife and contention (Phil. 1:15,16).As the presence of the word “sincere” in those verses indicates the truth must be kept pure from those things.

“Sound speech” (2:8) consists of sound doctrine. Sound speech “that cannot be condemned” is doctrine that is set forth so accurately that it cannot be proven untrue, one of the meanings of the word “condemn.” No one can prove the Bible untrue, so all we have to do is convey it accurately! The Lord dealt that way with those who were “of the contrary part” (2:8 cf. Mt. 22:15), and when He did they were “ashamed” (Lu. 13:17)— as Paul said those contrary to Titus would be (2:8). This would shut their mouths (Tit. 1:11)

Summary:

When Paul told aged men to be sober, grave, temperate, and sound in faith, charity and patience, and then said that the aged women “likewise” should be “as becometh holiness,” that means aged women should be holy by being all those things as well. When Paul wrote of the ancient Gentile world that “even their women” were sinful (Rom. 1:31), that reminds us that women are the guardians of decency in society.

But then Paul tells aged women to be holy in an area that’s hard for them when he says they shouldn’t be “false accusers.” This is hard in that women tend to hurt with words (I Tim. 3:11) while men hurt with their fists (I Tim. 3:2,3). Paul adds they shouldn’t be given to wine because wine tends to overcome a woman’s inhibition not to slander others.

The “good things” Paul wants aged women to teach younger women (v.4) include being sober. Coming right after being told not to be given to wine, this means not drunk. Women can be tempted to drink because they must also “love their husbands” (v.4), and some men aren’t easy to love. Aged women must teach this by their example, and by the example of Christ, who loved the unlovable (Rom. 5:6,10). If a wife doesn’t love her husband, she must realize that if love can be taught by aged women, love can be learned by young wives.

You wouldn’t think that wives would need to be taught “to love their children” (2:4), for a mother naturally loves her children. But sin can make women “without natural affection” (Rom. 1:31; II Tim. 3:3). So moms sometimes abuse or abandon their children, and need to be taught not to.

Young wives must be taught to be “discreet” (2:5), which means wise in avoiding mistakes and accomplishing a purpose (cf. Gen. 41:33) — the purpose of making a home for her husband and kids. They must also learn to be “chaste,” pure from extramarital sexual contact. Young wives must also be “keepers at home” (2:5). Some say that means she shouldn’t have any kind of life outside the home, but zookeepers and barkeepers do, as do jailkeepers (Acts 16:27). They keep prisoners from escaping, and so must the mothers of young children! Keepers of sheep (Gen. 4:2) feed and care for them, as moms do their kids. Doorkeepers (Ps. 84:10) must keep more than the door to the house, but also the door of their kids’ mouths (Ps. 141:3) by watching what they say. Doorkeepers in the temple also kept false religions out (II Ki.23:4), and moms must keep false teachers from creeping into the house (cf. II Tim. 3:6). Kids might not seem to be paying attention, but they learn little by little by repetition (Isa. 28:10,11). Moms also have to be the “keeper of the wardrobe” (II Ki. 22:14), in charge of laundry.

Mothers can also be doorkeepers that are involved in the family finances (cf. II Chron. 34:9,10). The virtuous woman did (Pr. 31:16-24), as did Lydia (Acts 16:14). These women were involved in earning finances as well as managing them.

Some Christians believe wives can work outside the home before they have kids, or after the kids are grown. Some believe they can operate home businesses. But if it is your understanding that wives shouldn’t work outside the home, just don’t judge those who hold other convictions (Rom. 14:4,5). Whatever your position, God is on your side!

Young wives must also learn “to be obedient to their own husbands.” Are there exceptions to this rule? Well, are there exceptions to the rule that all believers must obey the government? (Dan. 3:8-18; Acts 5:29). In the same way, if a wife’s husband asks her to cheat on their income taxes, she can refuse to sign the return. Do wives have to obey when he wishes to be intimate and she doesn’t? It’s easy for a husband to read I Corinthians 7:4 and say to his wife, “I have power over your body so I can do as I please with it.” But he’s forgetting his wife has power over his body and so he can’t do as he pleases with it.

Summary:

The word “become” (v.1) means fitting or appropriate. For example, women weren’t well received in Roman society, but Paul told the Romans that it isn’t fitting for God’s people not to receive a woman just because she’s a woman (Rom. 16:1,2).

“Become” also means to make something look good. The bickering in Philippi wasn’t making the gospel look good (Phil. 1:27). So when Paul told Titus to “speak the things which become sound doctrine,” he was telling him to speak to believers and tell them how to act in appropriate ways that make sound doctrine look good.

To do that, he tells aged men to be “sober” (2:2). The only thing sadder than a drunk is an old drunk, for hope that he will quit drinking has faded. “Sober” also means not thinking higher of yourself than you ought (Rom. 12:3), as aged men sometimes look back at their lives and do, like Nebuchadnezzar (Dn. 4:30). That’s not becoming to sound doctrine!

Aged men must also be “grave” (2:2), a word that means to be serious—serious about the things of the Lord!Sometimes aged men relax their commitment to the truth, thinking they’ve done enough for the truth in their lives. Knowing this, Paul tells them to be grave instead.

He also tells them to be “temperate” (2:2), which means moderate. It’s related to the word “temper,” which we think of as anger, but that’s what happens when you lose your temper. Your temper is the calm, moderate way you’re supposed to look at things without losing your temper. Not all aged men can look back at their lives and feel good about their accomplishments, and so get angry. But aged Christian men shouldn’t, because if you’re saved you’ve accomplished a praiseworthy amount of things for the Lord (I Cor. 4:5).

Aged men should also be “sound in faith” (2:2). “Sound” means healthy and strong (cf. Isa. 1:6). He’s not saying aged men should be strong in the faith, the body of truth given to Paul. That’s true, but here it means strong in faithfulness or dependability (cf. Rom. 3:3). Aged men need to be told to be sound in faith because with age comes weariness in well doing (Gal. 6:9).

Aged men must also be sound “in charity” (2:2), which means being sound in longsuffering (I Cor. 13:4), which gets harder as you get older! Charity also “envieth not” (13:4). Envy hurts worse when you get older because toward the end of your life you realize you probably aren’t going to ever get the things you spent your life envying!

Being sound in charity also means not being “puffed up” (13:4) with knowledge (I Cor. 8:4). Old men have to be warned about this because they have accumulated a lot of knowledge! Charity also doesn’t behave “unseemly” (13:5), or inappropriately in sensual areas (cf. Rom. 1:27). Being a dirty old man is unbecoming to sound doctrine.

Charity also “believeth all things” (13:7), that is, believes the best about someone. That’s hard for aged men after a lifetime of seeing people at their worst, but they must if they want to be sound “in charity.”

Aged men should also be sound “in patience” (2:2), a word often associated with being patient for the coming of the Lord (Ps. 37:7). That gets harder for older men after a lifetime of watching the unsaved prosper, as Psalm 37:7 talks about.

Are you sound in faith? One definition of “sound” is to strike something to see if it is strong based on the sound it makes when you strike it. If you’re not sure if you’re faithfulness is sound, you’ll find out when something in life strikes it. Similarly, if you’re not sure if you are sound in charity, you’ll find out when you offer someone charity and they lash out at you.

We should all learn to walk in ways that are becoming to the sound doctrine we preach. It’s not enough to believe sound doctrine, it’s not enough to teach sound doctrine. We must live sound doctrine in such a way that is becoming to it!