SCRIPTURE:
“Teach the older men to exercise self-control, to be worthy of respect, and to live wisely. They must have sound faith and be filled with love and patience.”
Titus 2:2
OBSERVATION:
Here, Paul is charging young Titus to instruct older men; within the contexts of what a biblically sound teacher should operate in. That is, to teach and instruct as imploring or entreating a father or uncle.
And what kinds of things to instruct these seniors in age?
“Teach the older men to exercise self-control...”. This is being temperate and not easily provoked.
“...to be worthy of respect, “. This is what it means to be dignified, knowing that respect is given first, and then earned by their ability to exercise self-control.
“...and to live wisely. “ This is sensibility, not acting on impetuous impulses, but acting in wisdom and being a thinker first.
“They must have sound faith...” Without a grasp of the elementary principles of faith, our older men live with questionable eternity at best, a hopeless future at worst.
“...and be filled with love and patience.” This is the love and perseverance that all saints are expected to manifest in their lives, and especially in their waning years.
APPLICATION:
Paul’s instruction to Titus is as applicable today as it was a thousand plus years ago.
Often, older men become curmudgeons of the church; using chronological age as some kind of license to gripe and nitpick the things around them. This is how gossip and worthless discussions are born.
These benchmarks are good to hold against my own life; as one who has turned the corner chronologically, but called to lead and take responsibility for the church.
As Paul simply opened this chapter of his letter; “promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching.” I can teach all that I know, but I will only reproduce who I am.
I need, as an “older person”, to take these qualities seriously and exercise them in the environment of His church. Every single day.
PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, help me to receive the instruction as Paul instructs Titus.
Help me to have an open heart that is correctable when I drift into a curmudgeon’s arena, and to live in a way that others are drawn to You and not repelled by my actions. Amen.
