Building Strong Families

10

OLDER WOMEN MENTORING

YOUNGER WOMEN: TITUS 2

IN THE CHURCH TODAY

Susan Hunt

R

You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.... teach the older

women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted

to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger

women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and

pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands,

so that no one will malign the word of God.

—TITUS2:1, 3-5, NIV

This mandate is electrifying! Titus was pastoring a church on the
island of Crete. The prevailing culture was pluralistic and decadent.
Of all the things Paul could have told Titus to tell the women to do to
combat that decadence, he bore down on the importance of older
women encouraging and equipping younger women to live godly
lives.
This was not a new concept. Throughout the Old Testament we
are told that one generation is to tell the next generation the praise-
worthy deeds of the Lord. In Titus 2, that characteristic of covenant
life is simply made gender-specific. This fundamental quality of the
culture of covenant life transcends time, geography, life-season, and
life-circumstance.