Sermon Tone Analysis

*Titus 2:3-5*

*Mothers are Made, Not Born*

 

“Older women likewise are to be reverent in behaviour, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”[1]

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rma Bombeck was a delightful humorist.

She wrote primarily out of her own experience as a woman, as a wife and as a mother.

She had the uncanny ability to see the humour in everyday events.

She spoke a great truth in telling the story of God making a mother.

By the time the Lord made mothers, he was into his sixth day of working overtime.

An angel appeared and said “Why are you spending so much time on this one?”

And the Lord answered and said, “Have you seen the spec sheet on her?

She has to be completely washable, but not plastic, have 200 movable parts, all replaceable, run on black coffee and leftovers, have a lap that can hold three children at one time and that disappears when she stands up, have a kiss that can cure anything from a scraped knee to a broken heart, and have six pairs of hands.”

The angel was astounded at the requirements for this one.

“Six pairs of hands!

No Way!”

The Lord replied, “Oh, it’s not the hands that are the problem.

It’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers must have!

One pair of eyes is to see through the closed doors when she asks, ‘What are you kids doing in there?’

Another pair in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what she has to know.

And of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say, ‘I understand and I love you,’ without uttering so much as a word.”

The angel tried to stop the Lord, “This is too much work for one day.

Wait until tomorrow to finish.”

“But I can’t!”, the Lord protested, “I am so close to finishing a creation that is so close to my own heart.

She already heals herself when she is sick AND can feed a family of six on a pound of hamburger and can get a nine year old to stand in the shower!”

The angel moved closer and touched the woman.

“But you have made her so soft, Lord.”

“She is soft,” the Lord agreed, “but I have also made her tough.

You have no idea what she can endure or accomplish.”

“Will she be able to think?” asked the angel.

The Lord replied, “Not only will she be able to think, she will be able to reason and negotiate.”

The angel then noticed something and reached out and touched the woman’s cheek.

“Oops, it looks like you have a leak with this model.

I told you that you were trying to put too much into this one.”

“That’s not a leak,” the Lord objected.

“That’s a tear!”

“What’s the tear for?” the angel asked.

The Lord said, “The tear is her way of expressing her joy, her sorrow, her disappointment, her pain, her loneliness, her grief and her pride.”

The angel was impressed.

“You are a genius Lord.

This woman is amazing.”

As an aside of greatest significance, I must say that the greatest role any woman can play is not to be successful in breaking the glass ceiling, or to succeed in her chosen profession, or to gain adulation from adoring masses, but to have her children rise up and call her blessed.

Mothers that merit our blessing are precisely those that are instructed in righteousness.

Most of us would feel that Bombeck wrote masterfully what we feel concerning mothers.

However, godly mothering does not just happen.

A variety of influences unite to produce godly mothers that bless their children and ultimately bless a nation.

There is undoubtedly a major contribution of a woman’s own mother and grandmother in many instances.

However, the general attitudes and expectations of society are also important.

The congregation can, and should play a great role in encouraging godly mothers according to the Apostle Paul.

Writing the young missionary, Titus, Paul reminds him that the work of the ministry is oriented toward teaching.

We know from other missives that preachers are to teach, equipping others also to be able to teach [see *2 Timothy 2:2*].

Ultimately, the growth of a congregation is directly proportional to the multiplication of the teaching ministry of the pulpit.

Every member is expected to echo the instruction he or she has received.

Certainly, each of us is responsible to teach the lost of the grace of God revealed in Christ Jesus the Lord.

We are each charged to encourage and comfort one another as members of the same Body, “teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in []our hearts to God” [*Colossians 3:16*; cf.

*Ephesians 5:19*].

These are general charges that are incumbent upon each member of the Body of Christ.

However, beyond this, Christian men and women are appointed to the vital ministry of teaching their own children, a ministry that seems often neglected in this day late in the Age of Grace.

The focus of the message this day is yet another unique teaching ministry that is assigned exclusively to women.

Should the women of a given congregation fail to fulfil this assignment, there is scant hope that the congregation will ever reach its full potential.

It is fair to say that if this vital teaching ministry is neglected, that the future of that congregation is very much in doubt.

If a ministry of the congregation is truly this important, then we should give careful attention to what is written, ensuring that we fulfil the mind of the Lord.

Therefore, join me in exploring Paul’s instructions to Titus, missionary to Crete.

*Modelling the Faith* — “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behaviour, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good.”

Few ladies wish to be thought of as “old women.”

However, “older women” is a relative term, indicating women experienced in walking with the Lord.

Though the term “older women” does apply to age, the experience drawn from a godly life is in view when the Apostle addresses “older women.”

The older women are those ladies who have lived holy lives, faced challenges and overcome them, raised godly children and who therefore enjoy the respect of others.

Their insight into practical matters of the Faith is valued because they have long walked with the Master.

These older women in the church do have influence, but it is not, as some people imagine, power to make things happen or power to control the church and move it as they wish.

The influence of godly women serves to restrain evil and to promote the welfare of the congregation.

On one occasion, Lynda and I were in discussions with an ethnic church concerning pastoral ministries.

One of the questions asked was how I would handle the women of that community since they were known as “strong-willed.”

I have found that “strong-wills” are not confined to one ethnic group or another, but it is a common problem among Christians.

Though it may appear tangential to the message, I do want to caution that strong-willed people—stubborn individuals—sound the death knell of a congregation when they are permitted to exert a recalcitrant attitude among the people of God.

I have observed in multiple congregations headstrong women who thought they knew what needed to be done and pushed hard to get their way.

Never once have I seen them bless God’s work.

Rather, I have watched them grow progressively bitter and ever more intractable in their opposition to the advance of the Gospel because the influence of new people diluted their own tenuous hold on power.

I must offset that sorrowful observation with the confession that I have been blessed in each congregation with godly women who sought the mind of the Lord and exerted righteous influence as they laboured to advance the cause of Christ.

It is such women that merit our admiration and to whom we should look to provide a model for Christian women to emulate.

Paul instructs Titus to instruct older women of the need to be reverent in their behaviour, and he plainly describes what reverent behaviour looks like.

He uses the term “likewise,” which of necessity refers back to what was written concerning older men.

Paul urged older men to be “sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love and in steadfastness.”

In short, the Apostle expects those who are of mature age in the congregation to act their age, providing examples of the believer, revealing maturity in their attitudes and in their actions.

Older men and older women are to assume responsibility to model godliness for younger believers.

Paul writes that older women are to avoid being slanderers and to watch that they not be addicted to that which would otherwise control their ability to think or reason.

I would suggest that Paul, guided by the Spirit, points to two areas of life in which women have a particular vulnerability.

Perhaps it is necessary to state that acknowledging these general vulnerabilities is not ignoring the vulnerabilities that men display, but it is to state that women do have dispositions which can become detrimental to the advance of the Faith if not checked.

The first of these areas in which Paul cautions women is the area of slander or gossip.

The word translated “slanderers” is the Greek term */diábolos/*, which sounds suspiciously like diabolic.

The term conveys the thought of being devilish, for it shares the root of the Greek term that is used for the devil.

To slander is to be devilish.

Slander is a weapon meant to destroy the character of another person.

Though anyone can become a slanderer, Paul seems to convey the thought that women may be particularly prone to this devilish stratagem, no doubt in part because slander is such a powerful weapon for those who feel vulnerable.

Women are called the weaker sex, not because they are without defence, but because they are physically weaker.

Consequently, rather than directly confronting those with whom they disagree, women tend to resort to the most powerful weapons in their arsenal, which generally revolve around their marvellous ability to communicate.

Generally speaking women have superior communicative skills, and early in life young girls learn to use the power of the tongue to injure those with whom they take umbrage and to manipulate gullible young boys who are susceptible to such wiles.

This is the basis for encouraging older Christian women to model speech that is pure and that builds others rather than tearing them down.

Just as older women in general are called to model godliness in speech, deacons wives are to be dignified and to avoid slander, modelling godliness for other women, being sober-minded and faithful in the conduct of their lives [see *1 Timothy 3:11*].