Be Sensible

Perhaps you are familiar with a woman's role as describe in Titus 2 perhaps not but for some odd reason I thought it had nothing to do with me because I am not married and I don't have any children. I wondered to myself what does God's word say to me about my role as a single woman, or more specifically how I am "to be." (Forgive my grammar.)

In the book of Titus, the Apostle Paul wrote to his true child in the common faith, Titus, about setting in order the work that remained--to appoint elders who were able to exhort in sound doctrine and reprove the rebellious. It is important to have good pastors or elders in every city or geographic region but Paul made a point of it here because in the isle of Crete where Titus was located there were many rebellious men teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain (sound familiar?). This was especially important in Crete because the Cretans were said to be "liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." Titus was to reprove them severely so that they would be sound in the faith. After Paul deals with the rebellious, he exhorts Titus to "speak the things fitting for sound doctrine" in Chapter 2. And here is where we get to the verse about women and how they are "to be".

"Older men are to be ....sensible."

"Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior ..teaching what is good so that (emphasis mine) they (the older women) may encourage the young women to love ... to be sensible, pure, workers at home... Titus 2:3,4,5. Now we know that the older women are to encourage the young to love their husbands and their children but I took that part out of the quote to make a point. (I hope you don't mind that I took that liberty.) Sometimes, I think, we read these verses so fast because we think we know what they say. Yeah, yeah I know I am to love my husband and children (if I had any). Yeah the older women are to teach the younger, yeah, yeah.

Titus 2 goes on to decribe how young men are to be as well: "...the young men [are]to be sensible".

Wow, it seems that "sensible" is a key word in this passage. Everyone in the body is to be "sensible". Why? The word "sensible", what does it mean? If you look it up in your Strong's Concordance you will find that the Strong's number for "sensible" in this passage is 4998. The number 4998 corresponds to the word sophron which means "discreet, sober, temperate, of a sound mind; self-disciplined in one's freedom, self re-strained in all passions and desires."

Now go back to Titus 2:3-4. Why are the older women to be reverent in their behaviour, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine (in other words they are be sober and in their right mind)? So that they may encourage or train the young women. The NASB uses the word "encourage" but when you go to your handy-dandy Strong's Concordance, the corresponding number is 4994. Wow, that number is rather close to "4998". Hmmm, let's see what we learn...

The number 4994 corresponds to the Greek word sophronizo which is from the root word sophron. The word means to "train to think (emphasis mine) and act soberly, discreetly and in moderation". Okay let's put this definition back into the text.

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior .. teaching what is good so that they may encourage the young women (or train the young women to think and act soberly, discreetly and in moderation)to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands (why?) so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

Is the word of God making a difference in your life such that folks can look at your life and see that your life sytle honors the word of God, His commandments, His teaching, His doctrine? Do you act as if you are in your right mind, curbing your passions? I don't know about you, but I can honestly say that I have not been sensible, sober, controlled in my actions and thoughts. Sometimes I act on a whim. I am not sensible. But oh how I want to be sensible so that I may adorn the doctrine of God, so that those who do not open God's book, the Bible, or darken the doorstep of a church may see my good works and not glorify me but my God.

I hate to be hard on women because in doing so I indict myself but truthfully as you look around do you see many self-controlled, sensible women? If you do, praise God, because I think you are in the minority. (We will deal with men in a moment.)

At one point, I so wanted a godly older woman to mentor me but I did not know where to go. Hey, I still want a godly older woman to mentor me. The only thought that came back to me as I pondered this was perhaps God wants me to be that older woman for someone else. What a sobering thought! Me? Yeah right.

One of my passions is not only for me to be a godly, mature woman of God but to see other godly women as well. I want to see other women growing in the faith...you know to be. . .sensible.

Okay, let's go back to Chapter 1. Some of the qualities for the elders that Titus was to appoint was that he must be a man who was above reproach, not addicted to wine (sound familiar) and yes you guessed it, be sensible. Why was this important what was one of the tasks for the godly elder? He not only must be able to exhort in sound doctrine but also to refute those who contradict and reprove the rebellious severely. Why? So that they may be sound in the faith.

Look at men and women in our society today. Do we have folks like the Cretans--"liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons". Why don't we go back to Scripture and follow the pattern given to us by God? The older are to teach, encourage, train, reprove, the younger. What happens if we don't do that?