The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.
Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.
My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.
Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK) with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
Titus 2:2-3
2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in Love, and in steadfastness. 3 Older Women likewise are to be reverent in behaviour, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,
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Last week’s post explained Paul’s instruction to Titus on speaking — or teaching — what accords with sound doctrine.
The first several verses of Titus 2 concern not only Titus’s responsibility as the leader of the various churches on the island of Crete but also the congregation’s obligations in their personal lives.
Today’s verses concern the godly characteristics that older men and women should exhibit.
Older men should be sober-minded — of a serious disposition — dignified, self-controlled, with a healthy faith, love and steadfastness (verse 2).
Matthew Henry’s commentary says that Paul is speaking here of elderly men in general rather than ordained elders of the Cretan churches (emphases mine):
By aged men some understand elders by office, including deacons, etc. But it is rather to be taken of the aged in point of years. Old disciples of Christ must conduct themselves in every thing agreeably to the Christian doctrine. That the aged men be sober, not thinking that the decays of nature, which they feel in old age, will justify them in any inordinacy or intemperance, whereby they conceit to repair them; they must keep measure in things, both for health and for fitness, for counsel and example to the younger. Grave: levity is unbecoming in any, but especially in the aged; they should be composed and stayed, grave in habit, speech, and behaviour; gaudiness in dress, levity and vanity in the behaviour, how unbeseeming in their years! Temperate, moderate and prudent, one who governs well his passions and affections, so as not to be hurried away by them to any thing that is evil or indecent. Sound in the faith, sincere and stedfast, constantly adhering to the truth of the gospel, not fond of novelties, nor ready to run into corrupt opinions or parties, nor to be taken with Jewish fables or traditions, or the dotages of their rabbin. Those who are full of years should be full of grace and goodness, the inner man renewing more and more as the outer decays. In charity, or love; this is fitly joined with faith, which works by, and must be seen in, love, love to God and men, and soundness therein. It must be sincere love, without dissimulation: love of God for himself, and of men for God’s sake. The duties of the second table must be done in virtue of those of the first; love to men as men, and to the saints as the excellent of the earth, in whom must be special delight; and love at all times, in adversity as well as prosperity. Thus must there be soundness in charity or love. And in patience. Aged persons are apt to be peevish, fretful, and passionate; and therefore need to be on their guard against such infirmities and temptations. Faith, love, and patience, are three main Christian graces, and soundness in these is much of gospel perfection. There is enduring patience and waiting patience, both of which must be looked after; to bear evils becomingly, and contentedly to want the good till we are fit for it and it for us, being followers of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Thus as to the aged men.
John MacArthur has a modern take, yet would have agreed with Henry’s commentary.
Western society has been blessed with increasing longevity for several decades. Life expectancy has increased to the early 80s on average for men and women. Mick Jagger is turned 80 this past summer, by the way, and the Rolling Stones have just come out with a new album. Amazing.
MacArthur delivered his sermon in 1993. Of our increased life expectancy, he says that the number of elderly people is an important segment of the population in the United States. This is also true of other Western countries, by the way:
America is now the oldest society in the history of the world. There has never been a society with this percentage of older people. Material comfort, medical care and a low birth rate have led America to what is called the graying of America and an old population. In our country, for example, the number of people over 65 passed the number of teenagers. There are about 23 million teenagers in America. I know sometimes it seems like there are about 250 million of them, but there are 23 or so million teenagers in America, and there are approaching 35 million people over 65.
They tell us in 25 years one out of every five people will be over 65 and one out of every ten will be over 80. The graying of America. We know it’s here. We see it all around us. I suppose in some ways we laugh at it. Bob Hope said, “You know you’re old when the candles cost more than the cake.” And Agatha Christie wrote on one occasion that she married an archaeologist. And someone asked, “Why would you marry an archaeologist?” to which she replied, “Because the older I get the more he’ll appreciate me.”
And we want to have a humorous approach to that. You know, they say there are only three stages in life: youth, adulthood, and “my, you’re looking well.” And when they start saying that to you, you know where you are.
With many of us looking forward to an old age, we can be happy in that knowledge. On the other hand, most of us grew up in a permissive society and all the temptations that brings. MacArthur speaks here of ingrained habits generally, but what we grew up with and became accustomed to might not be the best way to lead our lives. Over the past 15 years or so, I have read several news reports of sexually communicable diseases rising in the over-60s population.
That aside, MacArthur says:
We’re glad we know what we know as we get older, but we wish we had youth to express it. As someone said, “It’s a shame that youth was wasted on people so young.” There are negative aspects to getting old, that’s true. We become creatures of somewhat formidable and unbreakable habits. And the longer we do them, the harder they are to deal with. Sometimes even our besetting sins become so much a part of the fabric of our lives that even recognition of them becomes difficult. Sometimes we get a little bit obstinate and a little bit stubborn, and sometimes we think we know more than we do know, and sometimes we think age equals wisdom, and it doesn’t. It should bring wisdom, but it may not be the same thing …
He cites a warning from Ecclesiastes:
Ecclesiastes follows the book of Proverbs and the final chapter is chapter 12, and it gives an insight, I think, into sort of the down side of aging. The writer says in verse 1, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth.” Enjoy God while you’re young, know God while you’re young. Let God be the central figure in your life while you’re young “before the evil days come.” Well, the implication there is that the older you get the more evil life becomes, the more unfulfilling, the more dissatisfying, the more disillusioning. He calls them the years when you will say, “I have no delight in them.” Commit your life to God and enjoy God and make God the center of everything while you’re young, before you’ll not be able to experience all the rich delights of His creation. Part of getting old, “before the sun, the light, the moon, the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain” – the cloudy times in life, the more barren and bleak times in life when you’re old.
I hope no one who is older and reading this feels that way. Personally, these have been the best years of my life, regardless of their ups and downs. Perhaps that is because I have been reading the Bible for the past 14 years.
MacArthur continues with a citation from Ecclesiastes, an analogy for ageing:
“The day that the watchmen of the house tremble and mighty men stoop, the grinding ones stand idle because they are few, and those who look through windows grow dim; and the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low, and one will arise at the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song will sing softly.”
What is he talking about? Well, the picture is of a house, but it’s symbolic of a human body. The watchmen of the house, some commentators feel, are the arms and the hands – those are the guards, the protectors, the defenders, and they start to shake as you get old. And the mighty men would be the legs, and they begin to stoop and bend. The grinding ones, the teeth, stand idle because they are few. This is the day before false teeth and bridges and whatever. Teeth don’t work anymore, and those who look through windows grow dim, you don’t see like you once could see. The doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low – could be the slowing down of some kind of internal processes. One arises at the sound of the bird. You don’t need an alarm clock anymore. You wake up if there’s a bird 50 yards away tweeting in a tree because you sleep so lightly. You don’t sleep as well as you did. All the daughters of song will sing softly. If you bring the whole women’s glee club together and all their shrill soprano voices in full glory, you have to go like this, because you can’t hear them; it’s all soft sound to you.
And verse 5 says men who aren’t afraid of anything become “afraid of a high place.” Why? Because they’re worried about their instability; they’re worried they might fall and break some brittle bones. And they’re worried about the “terrors on the road” as they walk along; they might stumble over a stone and fall and be severely injured. “The almond tree blossoms” – that probably is referring to the white blossoms on an almond tree, means the hair grows white. “The grasshopper drags himself along” the walk changes, the pace changes – you used to kind of move along a little bit spritely, and now all of a sudden you’re dragging and shuffling. And eventually the “man goes to his eternal home” and there’s a funeral and some people are mourning.
And in verse 6 he says “the silver cord is broken,” maybe the spinal cord is referred to there; “the golden bowl,” maybe that means the brain. “The pitcher by the well is shattered”; maybe that means the heart. “The wheel at the cistern is crushed” – the veins, the arteries. I’m not sure of all the specific imagery here, but I see it as sort of the demise of a man in his old age and the dust returns to the earth, as it was, and the spirit goes back to God. Kind of a bleak way to look at old age, but it’s reality. All of it – all of us feel it coming.
MacArthur says that, as Christians grow older, they should be happier:
All those who know Christ, all those who have walked with Him for any length of time should look forward to old age because it takes us nearer to heaven, doesn’t it? It puts us in a situation where we have accumulated spiritual experience, which makes us truly rich. It enables us to be the leaders and the mentors and the models and the examples for the young. It allows us to filter out life and keep what we think is really valuable. Should be a good time.
Churches today often pitch themselves at the youth market, which is important, however, Paul tells Titus that older people have a role to play, too.
MacArthur explains:
… in the life of the church it’s really very important to have people who are godly seniors. And that’s what Paul is saying to Titus. Let’s go back to Titus. He’s saying, you know, “As you look at your congregation, Titus, you need to start your instruction with the older people because they’re so crucial.” You know, there are a lot of churches today in our country, and I suppose in other places in the world, that are filled with young people. I really wouldn’t want to be a part of one of those churches. I think, I think that would be a very difficult place to minister because you need some people there who have been where all those young people are going who can help them evaluate what they think at this present time – may be valuable. You need the hoary heads, you need the aged and the wise who have come and gone and been there to instruct the young, to show them the path of righteousness, to show them the path of goodness, to show them the proper priorities and values. You need some people who can stand with the apostle Paul and say, “I’ve fought the good fight; I’ve kept the faith.”
So the aging of Christians is a blessing. I think churches today don’t understand that. I, I have heard a couple of comments from people who have gone over to Russia and the Ukraine and come back and said, “Well, we really can’t work for the church over there; they’re just a bunch of old people.” That’s a terrible, terrible insight into the shallowness of some people’s thinking. It’s the aged people in the congregation that provide its strength, its stability and its wisdom. Older believers, should they be in great numbers in the future in the church, are going to make the church a better place, a richer place. The maturity of godliness will be a benediction to the body of Christ. The aging of America means the aging of the church; the aging of the church could be a great, great blessing …
Older people, then, in a fellowship do become a treasure, a tremendous blessing. They bring spiritual experience, spiritual strength, spiritual endurance, spiritual wisdom to all of us. And if in the years ahead the church has an abundance of such people, what a source of blessing. But, only if they walk in the way of righteousness. And that’s why the instruction of Titus, verses 2 and 3 in chapter 2, is so very, very important. There’s no value in being old if you’re not godly. There’s no value in being old if you’re not a model or an example. And so the apostle Paul lays down some very specific characteristics that are to be manifest in the older people in the congregation.
MacArthur agrees with Henry’s commentary. Paul is speaking of older men in general:
Now “older men” is an interesting word, presbuts. It’s a word that means just that, “older men.” Paul uses it in Philemon, verse 9, when he refers to himself as “Paul, the aged.” Perhaps – and we know he was in his sixties at that time – perhaps a good definition of it will flow out of Luke 1:18. Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, had been told that he would have a son, that his wife would become pregnant, and they would have a son, and, of course, it would be John the Baptist. But Zacharias says, “How shall I know this for certain?” I mean, this seems impossible. Why? “For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.” And he uses the word presbuts there, which would lead us to believe that he is saying an old man is one who is unable to produce a child. So you’re talking about an age where child production is no longer the norm. That’s what the word means. It’s talking about a man at that point in his life. And again, Paul uses it to refer to himself in his sixties.
There are some ancient sources, such as Philo and Hippocrates, that use the term to refer to people over fifty. Somewhere in the fifty and over and sixty and over category this term comes into play. The apostle Paul was an old man by this term, in his sixties, and somewhere beyond fifty I think we could make this term come into play. So we’re talking about that generation of men in the life of the church.
When we look at verse 2, we see the characteristics of a godly, older man. However, Paul’s intention is to get Titus to exhort elderly men to adopt those qualities:
Now, Paul is saying to Titus, “You must confront the older men in your congregation and you must call them to this level of spiritual living, or else” – the implication is – “they must be so confronted.” And again I point out to you, that on the one hand we give respect to the older generation, on the other hand, we hold them accountable for their behavior and accountable for maturity and godliness. The patriarchs are to be respected, but they are to be holy also. And when they are, when the older men in a church are holy, godly men, they will become the mentors and models for a level of godliness that will pervade the congregation – including the women and the younger men. Every older man should set as his goal to come to the latter years of his life and be able to say with Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). Every older man should be able to say, “I want you to be a follower of me as I am of Christ.” Every older man should be able to say to the younger man, “Let me show you how to live life.”
MacArthur discusses the qualities that Paul enumerates:
Paul suggests, first of all, three characteristics: “temperate,” “dignified,” and “sensible.” Let’s take the first one, “temperate.” The word here literally means “not drunken.” But metaphorically it means “moderate, not indulgent, not extravagant.” The older man is a man who, who isn’t in to excess, who is generally a moderate person. He has learned the high cost of self-indulgent living. He has learned the high cost of filling out all his pleasures, satisfying all his whims, pursuing all his dreams. And he’s now filtered through all of that, and he’s left a lot of stuff along the path discarded. When he was young it was a matter of accumulation. And as he accumulated he began to find out what really had value. As a young man he poured energy into a lot of things; as an older man he can look back and see where that energy was wasted in so many cases. As a young man he dreamed a thousand dreams and wanted to accomplish a thousand things and looks back only to a handful of things that had eternal value. As an older man he has had a myriad of experiences, one after another, day after day, month after month, year after year, and life has been moderated by those experiences.
He has found that what he thought he wanted that would give him satisfaction never did. And all the possessions and all the accumulation and all the reputation and all the achievement and all the accolades have been somehow set aside on the path of life and discarded because they had no real value. He has come to a right value system. He has come to be, as a related verb puts it, “sober-minded,” used in 1 Corinthians 15:34. Or as another related word, used in 1 Peter, “sober in spirit.” In other words, he’s got his priorities down now. He knows what experiences were valuable, and in many cases they were the ones he feared the most and now knows they rendered him the best fruit. They made him the man he is. In many cases what he didn’t want was what was most valuable, and what he pursued with all his might was least valuable. He knows that now. He’s filtered life out …
… They now know what people have real value, what relationships have real value, what efforts have real value. That is absolutely crucial for them to dispense to a younger generation …
Secondly, they are to be “dignified,” semnos, “serious, worthy of respect, venerable.” It doesn’t mean that they’re boring, gloomy people. It just means they’re not frivolous. They’re not flippant. They’re serious in life. I mean, they’ve lived long enough to see that life is a serious thing. They’re over the feeling of immortality and invincibility that plagues young people. And they’ve seen too much and felt too much to be trivial. They’ve buried their parents in many cases, most cases. They’ve buried their sisters and brothers. They’ve stood in hospital waiting rooms while those they love died. They’ve been waiting for the surgeon to come out and explain what happened in the cancer surgery to a life partner. They’ve watched a child rebel. They’ve watched a child born who turned away from everything they believed in. They watched a child die of leukemia. They watched a child die of cancer. They’ve seen it all. They’ve felt it all. They have borne the burdens of their own life and family and the burdens of a myriad of other people with whom they have shared life. They’ve come to the disillusioning reality and fact that the world is not going to get any better, and they couldn’t make it any better, and neither can anybody else. They’ve lived through all the anticipated utopian thoughts. They have lived through the hopeful euphorias that said, “We’re going to fix everything.” And they’re down on the other side of it, and they know with an honesty that life is the way it is because man is the way he is, and he is not going to change by himself.
Things aren’t as funny as maybe they were when he was young because life is too serious. I don’t know about you but I, I don’t relate that necessarily with getting old, but I look at some of these programs that are supposedly the funniest programs on television and I find myself utterly unable to laugh at any of it. And I still think I’m, I have a pretty good sense of humor … mature Christian men have reached a level of dignity where they are venerable. They see life the way it really is. And if they laugh they laugh at what is laughable, not what is tragic. And if they smile they smile because there’s something to smile about, really smile about – a sunset, a beautiful day, a beautiful scene, a precious child, love. They don’t laugh at what is tragic.
And the third thing he says about these older men is they should be characterized by what is “sensible.” They should be “sensible.” This means they have discretion and discernment. That comes by age. They’ve experienced it all. They’ve gone through all the experiences, and they have developed a strength of mind and a depth of experience and a grip on truth and a devotion to what is right, and they have learned how to control their instincts and their passions. And that word “sensible” means they’ve got the loose ends of their life tied down – they’re under control, they have discernment, discretion. They – to borrow the same basic concept, the same root word from Paul’s statement in Romans chapter 12, verse 3 – they think “so as to have sound judgment.” They think soundly.
These qualities, being temperate, dignified and sensible, replace the qualities of youth. Do you know what they are? Recklessness, impetuosity, thoughtlessness, and instability.
MacArthur explains what Paul means by being ‘sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness’:
Then there are three more positive virtues that are all summed up in the final statement: “sound in faith, in love, in perseverance.” “Sound” means “healthy, without weakness, without disease, without debilitation.” They have strong, well, whole attitudes in these areas. First “in faith”; this is wonderful. They are to be healthy in faith. They have spiritual faith that is healthy, whole, well, sound, solid. What does that mean? That means their faith in God is unwavering. They’ve seen enough. They’ve been through enough. The 50, 60, 70, 80 years have shown them God, and God is to be trusted, right? They don’t doubt. They don’t question God. They never lose their trust in God’s good intention. They never lose their confidence in God’s plan. They never lose their hope for God’s sovereignty to fulfill itself. They never accuse God of disappointing them. They never doubt the truth of Scripture. They never question the power of the Holy Spirit. They never ever question whether the gospel can save. They know; they’ve seen it.
Those who have lived through all the years and God has shown Himself and shown Himself and shown Himself and shown Himself through all of the vicissitudes and struggles and all the difficulties of life. He has been there, and he has proven himself, and he’s an old man now, and he says, “I believe God.” And his faith holds up the church. He’s strong. His faith is courageous because a life of believing has taught him to trust God. God has proven Himself faithful over the long years. In all the hospitals, at all the funerals, in all the losses and disappointments of life, God has been faithful. Through all of the sins and the temptations and the trials and the repentances and the renewals, through all of the exposure to the truth and the application of the Word, it has been as God said it would be, and He can be believed. And that kind of mature faith holds up the church. It gives us a faith to emulate.
Secondly he says he is to be healthy “in love.” He has a healthy spiritual love. Certainly he has this love toward God and toward others as well. He is a man who loves. He’s not a bitter man. That’s the saddest thing there is in the world is to see an old man who is bitter. Here is a man who loves. Here is a man who loves by bearing “one another’s burdens, and thus fulfilling the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Here is a man who loves sacrificially. Here is a man who loves serving. Here is a man who has learned through the years what ought to be loved and what not to love. His love is set on things that should be loved. He’s learned to love when love is not returned. He’s learned to love when love is rejected. He’s learned to love when love isn’t even deserved. He’s learned to love, and in his love to forgive, and in his love to serve. He’s learned to love patiently, kindly. His love is not jealous. His love does not brag. His love is not arrogant. It doesn’t act unbecomingly. It doesn’t seek its own. It isn’t provoked. It doesn’t take into account a wrong suffered. It never rejoices in somebody else’s sin; it rejoices with the truth. His is a love that bears all things, believes all things and hopes all things, endures all things, and his love never fails.
One of the tragedies of old age is when people become unloving and bitter and selfish. This older man that the church desperately needs is healthy in his love. He doesn’t love out of emotion; he loves out of principle. He loves because it’s right. He loves with his will, not his feelings. Part of growing old is you don’t do everything by your feelings.
And then there’s a third familiar thing. He is to be sound “in perseverance,” “endurance.” He’s been through enough trials. He’s suffered enough. He knows. He is to be a very model of patience. He has been through it all. He has the courage that is the result of that. He never loses heart in spite of disappointment, unfulfilled aspirations, physical weakness, growing loneliness. The godly man becomes tempered like steel. His body is weaker, his spirit is stronger, he can endure to the very end. These make the gospel glory shine.
Paul then says that older women are to be reverent in behaviour; they should not be slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good (verse 3).
Paul had quite a lot to say about widows in 1 Timothy:
1 Timothy 5:3-8 – two types of widow, financial support
Paul tells Timothy that there are two types of widow: the one who fears God and the one who is dead in sin. Churches are obliged to support the former where necessary, although the widow’s family should bear that obligation whenever possible.
Key verses:
7 Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. 8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:7-8)
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1 Timothy 5:9-16 – two types of widow, church office, temptation
Paul tells Timothy that only widows aged 60 and over should be eligible for church office, e.g. helping other women. Younger widows should be encouraged to remarry and have children instead, so as to avoid temptation and bring disrepute on the church.
He summarises that for Titus in verse 3. MacArthur says:
Sinning women who haven’t been faithful and weren’t faithful to their husbands and didn’t bring up children properly and didn’t show hospitality to strangers and weren’t known for their good works and all of that – why, you don’t put those on the list. No. The Scripture exalts those women who are godly women. And they should be brought into the church to be models to the younger women.
MacArthur looks at the Greek words used in the original manuscript:
Paul suggests several qualities that should mark these women. “The older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior.” That’s one word in the Greek, and it’s used only here in the Bible. And the word means “priest-like.” They’re to be like priests. What does that mean? In other words, they’re holy. They’re the kind of women who should have access to God. They’re the kind of women who could enter God’s holy presence – sacred character, godly lives.
Such a woman is described for us in Luke chapter 2 in that wonderful little vignette of Anna. Anna who was advanced in years. She was a widow to the age of 84. “She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.” An 84- year-old godly woman who was priest-like in her behavior, reverent in her behavior.
That kind of behavior is called for by Paul in writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:9, these are women who “adorn themselves with the proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly ornaments.” They’re humble; they’re meek. They’re properly dressed to call attention to the Lord and not themselves. They haven’t piled a fortune in their hair to call attention to themselves. These are women who choose good works as befits “women making a claim to godliness” (1 Timothy 2:10). They are women who “quietly receive instruction” with submission and do not exercise authority in the church or teach men. They are women who through the bearing of children have removed the stigma of their sin and have continued in faith and love and purity with self-restraint. That’s the kind of behavior God wants – modesty and discretion, virtue, submission to a husband, godliness, raising children in a godly way, helping strangers. The outward action of holiness is dependent on an inward condition of holiness. And so Paul says to Titus, “You must tell the older women to be holy, to be like priests who enter the very presence of God.”
And then he adds, secondly, “not malicious gossips.” Boy, what immediate contrast that is. You know what the word is for “malicious gossips”? It’s the Greek word diabolos, thirty-four times in the New Testament it appears as a name for Satan. Nothing is more Satan-like than slander. And whereas men tend to sin and violently react physically – men prove to be rough or violent in their action – women have a tendency to be rough or violent in their words. Satan is a malicious slanderer, slandering night and day. Don’t be Satan-like. Older women may have in the island of Crete, as elsewhere, found themselves with a lot of time on their hands, and because they had less time, less to occupy their time, they were given over to talk. And that talk became gossip, criticism, fault finding, slander. Paul says that’s the devil’s work. Older women should not vent their depravity through their speech. They should be anything but a “malicious gossip.”
And then, thirdly, he says, “Not enslaved, or nor enslaved to much wine.” This term refers to a drunkard. It’s a strong term. Apparently in Crete as elsewhere, older people turn to stimulants to refresh their weary bodies, tired minds, and he says, “Your women are not to do that. Your women don’t need to become slaves to that.” It must have
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