Recently I came across a web site called, “Lies Moms Tell Their Kids To Get Them To Behave.”  One mom was so tired of her kids misbehaving while shopping that she told them the store’s security cameras were actually Santa-cams that had a direct feed to the North Pole, and if they misbehaved, Santa would know.

Of course, Paul gives a different reason why children should obey their parents, saying,

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right” (Ephesians 6:1).

This verse is positively sublime in its splendor and simplicity, for it supplies parents with the answer to the eternal question of “why?”  You tell your son to do something, and he asks, “Why?”  Instead of replying with the usual, “Because I said so,” next time try, “Because God’s Word says that obeying me is the right thing to do!”  That’s also a much better reason to ask children to behave than to win the favor of some mythical North Pole elf!         

But children are not the only ones whom God calls upon to behave.  Paul told Titus,

“But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience” (Titus 2:1,2).

Did you notice that Paul didn’t just tell aged men how to behave, he told them why their behavior should honor the Savior?  He pointed out that the things he mentions here are “the things which become sound doctrine.”  That word “become” means to make something look good, and making sound doctrine look good is something that all Christians should aspire to do!

Of course, for aged men, some of these things can be pretty challenging.  Take that last one, for example.  In the Bible, the word “patience” is often associated with patiently waiting for the Lord to come, as it is in the first time the Bible mentions patience:

“Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way” (Psalm 37:7).

Now I know that the psalmist was talking about waiting patiently for the Lord’s coming at the end of the Tribulation to set up the kingdom of heaven on earth for the people of Israel.  But the principle he expresses here holds true for us members of the Body of Christ, who are looking for the “blessed hope” of the Rapture (Tit. 2:13).  Christians of all ages should wait patiently for the Lord to rapture us to Heaven, where we’ll enjoy all the blessings of the life to come, and not “fret” over the way that unsaved men seem to be prospering in this life.  It’s easy to get impatient for the coming of the Lord if you spend your time looking at all the people in the world who are prospering in worldly things.

And being sound in this kind of patience is especially hard for aged Christian men, who have spent their entire lives watching unsaved men prosper, while they themselves gave a lot of money to the Lord’s work that could have prospered them had they kept it instead.  Add to this the aches and pains of old age, and it is no wonder Paul tells aged men to be sound in patience as they wait for the coming of the Lord!

Do you know what will help you to stop fretting over the prosperity of unsaved men at any age?  Paul gives us the secret when he wrote about being “strengthened with all might…unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness” (Col. 1:11), and then added,

“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (v. 12).

Being thankful for the inheritance that lies before us in Heaven goes a long way in helping us look past the prosperity of others in this life.  So thank God for your salvation, and then “rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him!”

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

“…speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be… sound in… charity” (Titus 2:1,2).

To adorn the sound doctrine that they profess to believe, the Apostle Paul instructed Titus to tell aged men to be sound in charity.  To guide them in this, Paul gives a detailed description of charity in I Corinthians 13:4-7 that serves as a good guide for Christians of all ages.  Newer Bibles change “charity” to love here, but charity is love in action, and that’s the kind of charity that all Christians should seek to be sound in!  But Paul counsels aged men to be sound in charity because some of the descriptions he gave the Corinthians of charity are harder for aged men to exhibit.

For instance, he says that charity “suffereth long” (I Cor. 13:4).  Do you know any aged men who don’t suffer long with others, who get cranky when people vex them instead?  Paul says aged men should rather be sound in charity, and “kind” (v. 4) when people tax their longsuffering.

Charity also “envieth not” (I Cor. 13:4).  People of all ages are envious, but envy hurts more as you get older.  You see, if you spend your life envying the things possessed by others, and not getting them, by the time you get old you realize you’re probably never going to get them.  No wonder Paul tells aged men they should be sound in charity instead of being envious.

Paul also says charity “is not puffed up” (I Cor. 13:4).  That’s a reference to pride caused by too much knowledge (I Cor. 8;1).  And who has more knowledge than aged men?  If you don’t believe that, just ask one!  But I’ve known older Christian men who were puffed up by their knowledge of the Bible, and that’s not very becoming to sound doctrine.

Charity also doesn’t “behave itself unseemly” (I Cor. 13:5), a word that means inappropriately, or even indecently.  The only other time the Bible uses this term is to describe homosexuality (Rom. 1:27).  But homosexuality isn’t the only way to behave unseemly.  You’ve probably heard the term “dirty old man.”  That’s an old man who acts inappropriately toward women.

A few years ago, one of our former presidents was accused of acting unseemly, touching women inappropriately while taking photographs with them.  If those accusations were true, he perhaps thought it was innocent because he was so elderly.  But that is not a fitting way for a former president to act, and it is surely no way for an aged Christian man to act.  Aged men should be sound in charity instead, and charity “doth not behave itself unseemly.”

Paul also wrote that charity “believeth all things” (I Cor. 13:7). That means when something happens that makes you question the integrity of a brother in Christ, don’t be so quick to believe something bad about him.  Believe “all things” good about him until you get all the facts.

A man who used to attend the church that I pastor once said to me, “Maybe you’ve noticed that I never put anything in the offering box.  That’s because I’m getting over a gambling addiction and I’m paying off all my old gambling debts.”  I told him I didn’t make a habit of watching to see who visits our offering box, but even if I noticed that he didn’t, I wouldn’t assume he was unspiritual.  I’d give him the benefit of the doubt and believe the best about him.

Now that gets harder as we get older and more cynical.  The longer you live, the more you see the bad side of people, so you tend to believe the worst about them.  One of my assistant pastors is a former Chicago police lieutenant, and he says it is harder for some policemen to think the best of people, for they spend their lives seeing people at their absolute worst.  Because of that, they end up getting cynical about people at a much younger age than the rest of us.  But if aged men want to be sound in charity, they have to be willing to believe the best of others.

If we could all live that way, maybe the rarity of charity would become a thing of the past!

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

Recently I came across a web site called, “Lies That Moms Tell Their Kids To Get Them To Behave.”  One mom told her kids she had a new phone app that could tell her when they were misbehaving behind her back!

Well, while children should heed Paul’s advice to “obey your parents in the Lord” simply because, as Paul went on to say, “this is right” (Eph. 6:1), the apostle Paul says that “aged men” should behave themselves for a different reason.  He told Titus,

“…speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be… grave… sound in faith” (Titus 2:1,2).

Aged Christian men should behave themselves because it is becoming to the sound doctrine they profess to believe.  That word means to make something look good.  Officers in the military can be charged with “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman” if they misbehave and make the military look bad, but aged Christian men should want to make the sound doctrine they believe and teach look good!

And that includes being “grave,” a word that means serious—deadly serious!  As men grow old, they tend to mellow, and not take things as seriously as they did when they were young.  While that might be okay in some areas of life, Paul is talking about being serious in spiritual matters, and the gravity of spiritual things doesn’t diminish with age.  So if you are an older Christian man, you might want to take stock of your life to determine if you are as serious about serving the Lord as you were when you wore a younger man’s clothes.

Paul says that aged men should also be “sound in faith.”  The word “sound” means healthy, wholesome and strong.  When Isaiah wanted to describe how sinful the people of Israel were in his day, he compared them to a diseased man’s body (Isaiah 1:5), saying of his nation, “there is no soundness in it” (v. 6).  So being “sound in faith” means having strong and healthy faith.

Maybe you noticed that Paul didn’t say that aged men should be sound in the faith.  That is, he didn’t say they should be sound in the body of truth given to Paul for the dispensation of grace.  That’s true, but that’s something Paul expressed earlier in this epistle (Tit. 1:13).  Here the word “faith” means faithfulness, as it does when Paul wrote of God’s faithfulness to the people of Israel despite their unbelief (Rom. 3:3).  So in saying that aged men should be “sound in faith,” Paul is saying they should be strong in their faithfulness to the Lord.

And now that I’m getting to be an aged man myself, I think I can understand why the apostle says this to aged men.  It is the same reason he tells us all, “be not weary in well doing” (Gal. 6:9).  That’s challenging for believers at any age, but it is a particular challenge when a man starts getting on in years.  I still love studying the Word and teaching it, but I have to tell you, I’m getting tired!  So I can see why Paul would tell aged men that they should be “sound in faith,” and not let weariness or anything else affect the soundness of their faithfulness to the Lord.

So if you’re a Christian man who is willing to admit that the word “aged” might describe you, I hope that the words “grave” and “sound in faith” can also be used to describe you.  If you’re as serious about serving the Lord as you were when you were young, it will surely show in your faithfulness to Him.  And Paul says that these are “things that become sound doctrine.”

Of course, one of the ways to help ensure that you’ll be sound in faith when you get old is to start while you are young!

“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them” (Ecclesiastes 12:1).

You’ll be eternally glad you did!

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.