To teach his teenaged son about the dangers of alcohol, a father dropped a worm in a glass of water, and it just kind of wiggled around, the way worms do on your hook when you go fishing.  But then he dropped another worm in whiskey, and it promptly curled up and died.  He asked, “What does that teach you, son?”  The boy replied, “If I drink alcohol, I won’t have worms.”

Speaking of teenaged boys like that, the Apostle Paul had some advice for them that he wanted Titus to pass along to the young men to whom he ministered.  He wrote,

“Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded” (Titus 2:6).

After exhorting aged men to be “sober” (v. 2) and aged women “likewise” (v. 3), as well as young women (v. 4), Paul also tells Titus to instruct young men to be sober minded “likewise” (v. 6).  It is obvious from Paul’s emphasis on sobriety here that God would have all of His people rise above the frivolity of the world around us and be serious about the things of the Lord.

Of course, Titus himself was a young man, so it’s not surprising to read on and see Paul exhort him to lead the way in this important area:

“In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works…” (Titus 2:7).

The word “pattern” is the Greek word tupos, from which we get our word type.  I learned to type on a type-writer that was so old it didn’t have to be plugged in to the wall, and it didn’t have a rechargeable battery like your laptop either.  What it did have were keys attached to long hammers with little letters engraved on the end.  When I would pound the keys—and you had to pound them—the hammers would fly up and strike an ink ribbon stretched over a piece of paper.  Each hammer’s strike would leave an impression on the paper in the exact shape of the letter on the end of the hammer.

So in exhorting Titus to be a tupos, he was telling him to be the little letter at the end of the hammer.  He was asking him to be the kind of young man who would strike you as someone you’d want to pattern your life after.  Paul had lived an exemplary life like that, but he was about to pass from the scene, so he instructed Titus to become a pattern of good works for the next generation.

Our English word “pattern” has much the same idea.  When I was young, I dated a young lady who made her own dresses by laying a paper pattern over the cloth and cutting it to the exact shape of the pattern.  The lives of pastors like Titus should likewise be so exemplary that the members of their flocks should be able to use them as a pattern of good works.

And if you think about it, that’s not bad advice for all believers, not just pastors.  Especially when you consider that Doubting Thomas used the word tupos when he said,

“Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails… I will not believe” (John 20:25).

The holes in the Lord’s hands were an exact match to the nails that pierced them.  That reminds me of how our police departments have forensic doctors who can tell if your knife is the murder weapon by the shape of the wound in the body.  That’s the kind of pattern Paul was telling Titus to be, the kind that would be an exact match to the good works Paul lays out in his epistles.

You know, arrests are often made on the basis of such forensic evidence, arrests that often lead to convictions.  May I ask, if you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?  Does your life exemplify the good works that God has described in detail in His rightly divided Word?

If not, did you notice that Doubting Thomas declared that he would not believe unless he saw the tupos of the nails in the Lord’s hands?  There might be people watching you and thinking the same thing, that they won’t believe unless they see your hands engaged in the kind of good works in which God wants young men to walk, and the rest of us as well.  Why not start today?

After the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and just before He ascended into heaven, He made a promise to His apostles, saying,

“…ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you…” (Acts 1:8).

The power of which the Lord spoke was the power they received when they were filled with the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:4). At Pentecost, the disciples like Peter and Stephen were filled with the Spirit and given the “power” to do “great wonders and miracles” (Acts 2:43; 6:5,8). Earlier the Lord had told them to “tarry” in Jerusalem until they were endued with that “power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

Of course, the reason the Lord gave them the power to do mighty works was to confirm the WORDS they were preaching. After receiving that power, we read,

“And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following” (Mark 16:20).

Now here we have a dispensational difference. God hasn’t promised you that kind of power. You can tarry in Jerusalem all you want, and you will not be endued with power like that from on high. I know that churches often hold what they call “tarrying meetings,” where they get together to wait for the Spirit to come upon them in that miraculous manner. But no one today receives that kind of power from the Spirit, simply because the Father didn’t promise it to us members of the Body of Christ, living in the dispensation of grace.

If you want to confirm the power of God’s Word today, you have to do it by demonstrating God’s power in your personal life. When you display God’s patience in the midst of your difficult circumstances, you exhibit the power of God in a mighty way! And when difficult people tax your patience, you can display the power of God mightily by exhibiting His longsuffering. You can also show the power of God’s holiness when
you are tempted to sin and you resist the temptation steadfastly. If you want to talk about demonstrating the power of God, that’s how it’s done in this dispensation. We still live in the hour of power, but the nature of God’s power is different than it was at Pentecost.

But the filling of the Spirit didn’t just give the disciples the power to work miracles. It gave them another kind of power, the kind the Spirit gave the prophet Micah in ancient Israel:

“But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin” (Micah 3:8).

Do you have any idea how much power it took to stand in front of a bunch of unsaved Jews, who thought they were the favored people of God just because they were born of the seed of Abraham, and tell them how sinful they are? Micah knew!

And so did men like Stephen, who bravely charged the Jews with the death of the prophets (Acts 7:51,52), and the twelve apostles, who charged the people of Israel with the death of Christ, and threatened them with His resurrection. Their message at Pentecost said, as it were, “You killed Him, but He rose from the dead, and now He’s angry with you, so you’d better repent!” (Acts 2:22-36).

But here we have yet another dispensational difference. It’s not up to us to show the nation of Israel her sins, or any other nation for that matter—including the nation in which we live! Though you wouldn’t know it from the way most of Christianity conducts itself, by going around pointing out how sinful our nation is in legalizing things like abortion and gay marriage. All that does is make unsaved people hate Christianity, and turn a deaf ear to the gospel we proclaim.

Our job is rather to remind individuals of their own personal sins. All that does is help people see their need of a Savior! Once they get saved and learn to accept the Bible as God’s Word, then they are willing to accept what God says in His Word about things like abortion and homosexuality.

Remember, God has called us to be fishers of men, not clean up the pond! That means if you want to fix what’s wrong with our nation, don’t become a political activist. Become an evangelist and change the nation by changing the hearts of men, one precious soul at a time.

When Paul wrote that “young women” with “husbands” and “children” are to be “keepers at home” (Titus 2:4,5), the exact meaning of that latter phrase has inspired debates among Christians of epic proportion!  At the core of this discussion we usually find the issue of whether or not a mom should work outside the home.  And one of the examples of Christian women in the Bible who can help answer this question is a woman the Bible describes as “virtuous,” saying,

“…a virtuous woman… perceiveth that her merchandise is good… she layeth her hands to the spindle, and… the distaff…” (Proverbs 31:10,18,19).

The spindle and distaff were used in making cloth, and that word “merchandise” refers to goods that are bought and sold.  That means this lady was a merchant!  That agrees with how this chapter later says of her, “she maketh fine linen, and selleth it” to other merchants (v. 24).

From her example, I would suggest it is not unvirtuous for a Christian wife to work outside the home.  If it be argued that she ran a home business, as opposed to working for an employer, I would invite you to consider that in those days most men were also self-employed.  It was the Industrial Revolution that led men away from family-owned farms and businesses to work outside the home.  So this virtuous woman was employed in the same way most men were in her day.

Over in the New Testament, we see another merchant named Lydia, “a seller of purple” (Acts 16:14).  She had a “household” (v. 15), a family, as well as a business that took her and her family away from her home in Thyatira to Philippi, where she too worked outside her home.

Beloved, we didn’t create the two-income society in which we live.  Women in the ‘60s were sold a bill of goods when they were told that being a wife and mother wasn’t a high enough ideal to aim at in life.  But when they went to work, prices rose accordingly.  When retailers saw people had more money, they charged more for their products, forcing many wives to work just to make ends meet.  So as I say, we didn’t create this two-income society, but we have to live in it.

And this has caused no end of unhappiness for believers and unbelievers alike.  Back in the ‘90s I heard a radio talk show host tell how he took calls from wives in the ‘60s who felt trapped because they wanted to work outside the home but couldn’t, for in those days jobs for women were scarce.  But in the ‘90s he heard from women who also felt trapped, but for the opposite reason.  They longed to be able to stay home with their children, but couldn’t afford to do so.

If it is your understanding that moms shouldn’t work, I have nothing but respect for your conviction.  It is extremely difficult to raise a family on one income as I did, and those choosing to do so face an uphill climb.  Standing firm in the face of what feminism did to us takes courage.

But whatever your conviction, it is my sincere hope that you will avoid being critical of those who are of a different persuasion.  Paul says,

“Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth… Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind” (Romans 14:4,5).

All Christians belong to the Lord.  He is our Master, we are His servants.  So when you judge another believer, you are judging God’s servant!  And when you do, you should know that the Lord is on his side.  How do I know?  Because Paul went on to say,

“…to his own master he standeth or falleth.  Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand” (Romans 14:4).

This means that no matter what your personal conviction is as to the meaning of “keepers at home,” God will uphold you at the Judgment Seat of Christ—that is, if you live by your conviction and don’t judge others.  What do you say we all determine right here and now to be grace believers in deed and not just in word, and be gracious in this sensitive area of life as well.

If you want to get a big fight going in a small amount of time, just ask a few Christians what they think Paul meant when he wrote that “young women” with “husbands” and “children” should be “keepers at home” (Titus 2:4,5).  But the only sure way to interpret the Bible is by comparing Scripture with Scripture (I Cor. 2:13), not by comparing opinions with opinions!  With that in mind, let’s compare how the word “keeper” is used in other parts of the Bible.

For instance, you’ve probably heard Christians quote this beloved verse:

“I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psalm 84:10).

Doorkeepers in Israel’s temple had some pretty specific duties, some of which involved the finances of God’s house:

“…they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered… and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the Lord, to repair and amend the house” (II Chronicles 34:9,10).

As you can see, the doorkeepers in God’s house were evidently involved in the finances that were used to maintain the grandest home in the world, the temple of Solomon.  So to say you were a doorkeeper in those days probably didn’t sound like a job that came with a lot of responsibility.  But those who knew the Word of God well knew that such was not the case.

Similarly, when a Christian woman says that she’s one of the “keepers at home” that the Bible talks about, that too sounds like a job that doesn’t come with a lot of responsibility, at least in the ears of unbelievers.  But those who know the Word of God well know that that’s not the case either.  For example, in many Christian homes the wife is in charge of the finances.

This is something I like to point out in the premarital counseling class that I have with couples before I officiate at their wedding.  Some women are just naturally better at keeping the books!  God’s Word clearly teaches that “the husband is the head of the wife” (Eph. 5:23), but a wise husband recognizes his wife’s abilities and is willing to delegate some of his authority to her.

Sure, a husband could insist, “I’m the head of the home, so it’s my job to manage our finances.”  And since finances are such an extremely important aspect of the home, I can surely understand how a man might feel that way, and I have nothing but respect for his conviction.

But if that is your personal persuasion as a husband, I would invite you to consider that the finances are an extremely important aspect of businesses and corporations as well.  Yet we know that business owners and CEOs alike all employ comptrollers, CPAs and others with accounting skills to keep the books.  A leader who insists on personally managing every aspect of his organization is sure to affect his health adversely, and the same is true for the head of a home.

And needlessly so!  God calls women who are in charge of the finances “virtuous,” saying:

“…she considereth a field, and buyeth it…” (Proverbs 31:10,16).

As you can see, the virtuous woman described in this well-known passage of Scripture had a husband who allowed her to make financial decisions that were more than just incidental.  Her liberty to make such a major purchase shows that it was true that “the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her” (v. 11) in the important area of the family’s finances, as well as in other areas where she can “do him good and not evil all the days of her life” (v. 12).

The Christian home is often criticized by the world as a place where the wife and mother is little more than a dishrag and a doormat.  But this is not how the Word of God describes “keepers at home!”  The Christian wife and mother is an integral part of the management of the grandest home in the world in our own day: the Christian home.

In Paul’s letter to Titus, he gave the young man some instructions to pass on to “aged women” (Titus 2:1-3).  Whenever I read these verses while preaching, I always explain to my congregation that I’ll teach Paul’s instructions, “even though we don’t have any aged women in our church.”  This policy has always made me very popular with the aged women in our church!

One of the things Paul tells aged women to do is to “teach…young women” with “husbands” and “children” to be “keepers at home” (vs. 4,5).  Since there is a lot of controversy about the exact meaning of that phrase, in an earlier edition of Two Minutes I shared some examples of how that word keeper is used in Scripture, to try to determine what “keepers at home” might mean.

For instance, the Bible talks about the doorkeepers of the temple (Ps. 84: 10).  We discussed some of the Bible duties of doorkeepers, and another is found in II Kings 23:4:

“And the king commanded… the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal…”

Doorkeepers in the temple were commanded by the king to expel idolatry from God’s home.  From this example I think it is safe to extrapolate and say that Christian moms should guard the temple of their homes against idolatry as well.  Now you might think that there is little danger of idolatry rearing it’s ugly head in a Christian home, but remember that the Apostle Paul says that “covetousness…is idolatry” (Col. 3:5).  If you’re a Christian mom, and you’ve never witnessed any covetousness in your home among your children, you are a fortunate mom indeed!  Most moms have to work hard to keep their children from the pitfalls of always wanting things.

But the “the vessels that were made for Baal” in the temple didn’t just promote idolatry, they also promoted false doctrine.  So I would further submit that it is the job of the door keepers of the Christian home to keep the influences of false doctrine out of the home.  Moms need to be careful about the kinds of religious programming they allow to enter their homes via the radio, television and internet, etc.  Kids might not seem to be paying attention to the words of the programs you listen to, but do you remember what the Bible says about how children learn?

“Whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall He make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little” (Isaiah 28:9,10).

Did you ever wonder why those verses repeat themselves so much?  It is because children learn by constant repetition.  And if a mom is constantly listening to errant Bible teachers, her children are learning error—line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.  Christian mom, you are your children’s first line of defense against unsound doctrine.

Finally, there is yet another kind of keeper mentioned in Scripture, the “keeper of the wardrobe” (II Kings 22:14).  Moms are in charge of providing suitable clothing for their children (Prov. 31:21)—and then there’s the endless job of washing and ironing the wardrobe!

But there is more to being the keeper of the wardrobe than this.  Christian moms must see that daughters learn to dress like young ladies, and boys learn to dress like young men.  This might not seem very important on the surface, but stop for a minute and consider how the world around us is pushing our society toward what they call a “gender neutral” status.  In the face of this onslaught of evil, could anything be more important than for moms to be “keepers of the wardrobe.”

As you can see, being “keepers at home” involves far more than just housekeeping.  A mom who is keeping a Christian home is standing firm on the front line of the battle for the minds and hearts and souls of her children.  And is there anything more important than that?

A woman answered her door one day to find two policemen on her porch.  One of them asked if she was married, and if they could see a picture of her husband.  After she showed them one, the other officer said, “I’m very sorry, Ma’am, but it looks like your husband has been hit by a truck.”  She replied, “I know, but he’s a good provider, and he helps me with the housekeeping.”

Well, as I’m sure you ladies would agree, that woman’s husband sounds like a keeper.  But speaking of keeping house, the Apostle Paul wrote that “young women” with “husbands” and “children” should be “keepers at home” (Titus 2:3,4).  And as you may know, this phrase is the subject of much controversy among Christian wives and moms, most of whom desire to understand it clearly so that they can obey it.  So in this Two Minutes, we’re going to begin a study of Paul’s words here, a study so exhaustive that we’ll have to finish it in later editions.

To begin with, the phrase “keepers at home” is sometimes said to mean that a woman can never have any kind of life outside of the home.  But that’s not how the word “keeper” is used in our language.  For example, zookeepers leave the zoo every night, and barkeepers have a life outside the tavern as well.  Even goalkeepers in hockey and soccer are allowed to leave the goal, even though they are the keepers of the goal.

And that’s how the word keeper is used in Scripture as well.  The “keeper of the prison” in Philippi (Acts 16:27) went home to his wife and children every night (v. 34).  So the phrase “keepers at home” cannot mean that a mom with young children cannot have a life outside the home.  So what does it mean?

Well, what do you say we let God tell us what this phrase means by seeing how He uses the word “keeper” in Scripture?  First, the primary job of the keeper of the prison in Philippi was to keep the prisoners from escaping.  And when a mom has young children, it’s her job to keep them from escaping!  The reason I put chains on my doors at home wasn’t just to keep bad guys out, it was to keep my children in.  Once my young daughter learned how to negotiate the doorknob, she was halfway down our driveway before my wife caught up to her!

But there are other kinds of keepers in the Bible. “Abel was a keeper of sheep” (Gen. 4:2), and it is the job of shepherds to feed and care for the flock.  It is similarly the job of women who are keepers at home to feed and care for their children.  In most homes, Mom is the one who is primarily responsible for making sure the kids are fed, and “Dr. Mom” is the first line of defense against all the bugs that children tend to contract before their immune systems are fully developed.

The Bible also talks about doorkeepers (Ps. 84:10), and keeping the door of a home involves more than just chaining the doors at night.  The psalmist prayed,

“Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips” (Ps. 141:3).

Moms have to “keep” watch on what young children say.  Who can forget the image of Ralphie eating a bar of soap in A Christmas Story, a film that is popular around the holidays.  If you’re a young mom who isn’t sure how to keep your kids from using crude language, my mom did it by never swearing in front of us kids.  I vividly remember a first grade class trip to the park wherein I saw my first four-letter words written on the walls of the viaduct we walked through that day.  I probably remember it so well because I read those words aloud as we passed through, causing my classmates to gasp.  They knew what those words were, for they heard them at home—but I had not.  You see, my mom was a keeper, as are all moms who keep their children from learning profanity, lying, and all other forms of “corrupt communication” (Eph. 4:29).

And that’s just some of what Paul had in mind when he said young moms should be “keepers at home.”  Be watching for more studies on this important and sensitive subject down the road.