Book of Titus - Ch. 2, vv. 4-5

Alrighty, well last week, so hopefully we'll be able to finish up some thoughts on verses 4 and 5.

We'll see, but last week we kind of ended with the thought. I was kind of setting the stage for these verses, in verse 5 in particular, by just bringing up the fact that these are verses, these are passages, the pastoral epistles are things that are either neglected outright or just interpreted through some very interesting lenses that basically rob

Paul of the intent that is there. And there's some things in this passage that people in the 21st century just really don't like.

And one of the things that got us here was basically being sold on the idea that certain things, such as being a keeper at home is just one example, which we'll look at in a minute, is considered mundane.

It's considered missing out on life and big things that are happening out in the world.

And so we were sold on that idea. And so lo and behold, when you get to an instruction like we have here in Titus 2, verses 4 and 5, it becomes problematic.

And so we talked in contrast just a little bit last week about how opposite to that,

God actually works through the mundane. And I'd like to just pick it up with that thought. Of course,

I say mundane. It's not actually mundane in God's eyes, but that's how the world looks at it.

And so I kind of want to pick it up there and mention that the book of Ruth.

I'd like for you all to turn there, actually. I guess I should have said that sooner. Go ahead and turn to Ruth chapter 4.

And the book of Ruth is interesting because it sits between two of the most epic books that we have in the

Bible. It sits right in between Judges and 1 Samuel. The book of Judges deals with the extremes of war and of conquest and of the depravity of man.

And we have, of course, the judges themselves, these epic biblical characters. And then 1

Samuel, of course, gives us the rise and fall of Israel's first king and the introduction to Israel's greatest king.

And, of course, you have some unbelievable narratives there.

But right in between these two books, you have Ruth. And in Ruth, there's no battles.

There's no miracles. There's no kings being crowned. There isn't any new land being conquered.

What you have throughout this little book is you have a widow and you have her foreign daughter -in -law trying their best to survive in a very dangerous world in the midst of great pain and sorrow.

That's what the whole book is about. And yet, without Ruth, you know, again, you have judges over here and you have the excitement.

You have 1 Samuel and then followed by 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. You have excitement everywhere.

And yet without Ruth, which is missing all of those ingredients itself, nothing that came after would have happened.

You had to have Ruth in order for 1 Samuel to happen. You had to have Ruth in order to have

David. And so remember when I said that God works generationally, he rarely works through just this one particular person that may have great skill sets or is a great warrior or will be a great king or whatever it may be.

God doesn't always work that way. Most of the time throughout history, certainly church history, but all of history really, he works generationally, not often through the epic life of a particular person.

I mentioned that last week. Well, that's Ruth. Ruth is a great example of this. It's a picture of the generational work of God through two women and an honorable man that cared about the right things, the mundane things, as the world would put it.

That's what the whole book is about. And then you get to the end of it, and God gives us a glimpse into here is what this looks like.

Here is what diligent work looks like. Here is what caring about the mundane things, quote unquote, looks like across generations when you aren't drowning in the narrative of the world.

Look at the very end of it. Look at chapter 4 and just start in verse 13. The very end of the book is one of the best parts, and you'll see why in just a second.

Most of you already know why. It says, So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife.

And when he went in unto her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son. So you have the very ending of a beautiful love story and, of course, a great type of Jesus and his bride,

Jesus being our kinsman redeemer, of course. And you have verse 14. It says, And the woman said unto

Naomi, remember, Naomi is the mother -in -law of Ruth, very important character. She lost her husband and she lost her sons.

She was essentially exiled from her homeland. She's dealing with great sorrow, great grief, kind of an identity crisis to some degree.

She tries to rename herself. God wouldn't let her rename herself. So you have this very interesting story going on for this character of Naomi.

It says, And the woman said unto Naomi, this is Ruth to Naomi, blessed be the Lord, which hath not left you this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel.

And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life and a nourisher of thine old age. For thy daughter -in -law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.

And Naomi took the child and laid it in her bosom and became a nurse unto it. And the women, her neighbors, gave it a name, saying,

There is a son born to Naomi, and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Now, these are the generations of Phares. Phares beget Hezron, and Hezron beget Ram, and Ram beget

Amenadab, and Amenadab beget Nishan, and Nishan beget Salmon, and Salmon beget Boaz.

Remember, Boaz is the man. And Boaz beget Obed, and Obed beget Jesse, and Jesse beget

David. So without Ruth, you don't have David. Without Ruth being the diligent daughter -in -law, first and foremost, being in obedience and submission to her mother -in -law, who had the years of experience and the wisdom.

We've been talking about the older women in the church instructing the younger women, teaching them how to approach life so that they can do so effectively and efficiently.

This is an example of all that, too. She was diligent in that. She was diligent in her obedience. And she would become a woman that would raise the generations of the greatest king of Israel.

But it all began with the quote -unquote mundane things. And we can see here,

God working in generations. It didn't go from Ruth and Boaz straight to David. There were multiple generations leading up to it.

Yet again, without Ruth, you don't have David. So now we turn back to Titus. Back to Titus chapter 2.

And let's return there, and I want to take a closer look at verses 4 and 5 that we briefly touched on last week.

Now, remember first that last week we mentioned the exhortations from Paul that the older women should teach the younger women to love their husbands, love their children.

We kind of touched on that just a little bit last week. That's in verse 4. Now, we mentioned, okay, love your husband, love your kids.

Great. Got it. That's doable. But the thing is, it isn't always an easy task.

It isn't an easy task necessarily to love your kids, to love your husband, because the husband and the children of the young wife are also fallen in Adam just like she is.

And so they're going to have their own issues. She will have her own issues. There are going to be times of strife where just our humanity comes into play, and that can be difficult.

And there will be other times. We're going to look at a parallel passage in a minute that will shed light on this where the husband is the head of the household and may have to make decisions that don't feel great in the short term, but hopefully being a man that's in the

Word and a visionary in that sense sees that on the horizon this is what's best for the family and may not feel so good in the moment.

So, you know, Paul is kind of implicitly saying, can you love him through times like that?

Can you love him through trials and tribulations in the family? Can you love your kids when they're being disobedient and selfish and all these types of things?

Love your kids, love your husband. This becomes a lot more of an exhortation when you think about it that way.

It's not necessarily an easy task because they are fallen just like she is. So it's a sacrificial love.

It's not necessarily an emotional love. It's not necessarily a romantic love. While those can be effects,

I consider those more of effects than causes. The cause of the type of love that Paul is talking about here is a sacrificial love.

Again, not necessarily the love of emotion. It's the love of being deeply committed through everything, even the bad times.

And that's where healthy relationships begin, of course. And this would extend not just between the wife and the husband, but also to her relationship with their children as well.

And there's no obligation for a mother, as far as when it comes to her relationship with her kids, there's no obligation for a mother to ever get offended by her very selfish kids.

It can be a very tempting thing for the mother and the father, but we're talking about young women here.

It can be a very tempting thing because we're kind of shocked by these little cherubs when all of a sudden they start lying and they start getting really selfish and they start doing things that seem like they're being intentionally malicious all of a sudden.

And so, you know, that can be a very offensive thing for adults, whether it be the mother or the father.

But you think about the mother, just think about a context where maybe the... Think about it in the biblical times.

You have perhaps Boaz out in the vineyards being a husbandman and Ruth back home with Obed.

And, you know, Boaz isn't there at the moment. And so Ruth is there and she is pouring everything into little

Obed and giving him everything that she wants him to have, and then he goes around and he's being all selfish and stuff.

Well, that can be a very offensive thing. Genuinely, not anything that's being made up in the head, but a genuinely offensive context because of the selfishness that's happening.

Now, why doesn't the mother need... How do I want to word this?

Why shouldn't she feel obligated to be offended by something that's genuinely offensive?

Why can she overcome that? How is it that a mother can rise above being offended by these little people that are trying to stick it to her, sometimes intentionally?

Well, the reason is because that's what the mother is ultimately for. She's given that capacity because she, the young woman, is to show these kids what love looks like when they don't deserve to receive that love, much like the father showing us love when we don't deserve it.

And so mothers and fathers both are put in this position to steward and to show the young ones what that love looks like, that someday they will recognize as the root of their very salvation.

But they may not understand that in their youngest years. They may not understand the relationship between God and his creation in fallen man and the redemptive history, the great narrative redemptive history.

They may not understand all that when they're four. But what they can understand is seeing a sacrificial love from their parents and a love that they don't deserve.

And they can pick up on that much sooner than we may realize that they are doing something in contrast with the word of their mother and father, and yet they're being shown love regardless.

They can see that. They can sense it. And then all of a sudden they start seeing a picture of the love of the father for his children that don't deserve it.

Now, obviously discipline falls into play, but that's just an extension of the love. That's not an exception.

And so mothers are able to overcome this genuine offense because they are to be examples of what undeserving love looks like.

Now, the reason that Paul includes these two things in the list, to love your husband, to love your kids, is because even 2 ,000 years ago, he knew that it's harder to long suffer with people that are right there, right in your home, right in your face, the people that you are most closest to.

It's harder to love those people, in many cases, and to long suffer with them through every phase of life than the people at a distance.

The people at a distance, whether that be virtually on your phone, your TV, whatever, or even people, maybe acquaintances that you don't really know, but you know that are out there, they can seem glamorous.

They can seem thrilling sometimes. And all of a sudden, you know, that difficulty in long suffering with your spouse or your child, even your coworkers, the people that you're really close with, your church family, all of a sudden, when you're in the midst of having to go through the tough stuff with them, the people at a distance can seem glamorous.

They can seem exciting. They can seem thrilling. Like they have something to offer that your immediate family can't.

All of a sudden, Paul understood that principle. He understood that sometimes the grass seems greener on the other side.

And so he throws these exhortations in there. Love your husband. Love your children. He calls us to love those that are right in front of us, in our closest quarters.

And you know what? Turn to Galatians really quick, chapter 6. I want to go ahead and take a look at this, because Paul in another place fleshes this out a little bit, where he talks about the fact that, look, yeah, it's tough to overcome yourself, to overcome your own selfishness sometimes, to overcome that desire for, you know, what could it be like out there?

What is this thing that seems so exciting out there? I wonder what that's like. They could perhaps draw people away from their immediate family, or maybe even their brothers and sisters in the

Lord that they're in close relationships with. He recognizes all that and says, even still, you need to love those that are right in front of you.

Look at verse 1 of chapter 6. I'm going to read a few verses here. Paul says,

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you, which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest thou also be tempted.

So, just to set the tone, he's saying, look, don't be so quick to cast your brothers and sisters off if they mess up.

You mess up, too. You might be in a place where you are more spiritual in the moment, but that doesn't mean that you're a perfect, sinless person.

Restore them in meekness, in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, because if you get too haughty about it, you may be tempted yourself.

Look at verse 2. 2. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he lies to himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing, or boasting is another way you could translate that, in himself alone and not in another.

For every man shall bear his own burden. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.

Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man sows, he shall reap.

For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the

Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And so Paul is saying, don't be so quick to get frustrated and to cast off those that are closest to you just because they're frustrating, just because they're sinning, just because they're messing up, just because they are causing genuine offense.

Again, no one's arguing that there aren't some reasons to be upset right now. However, how do you deal with that?

That's what Paul addresses time and time again. How do you address that? Well, in our study in Philemon, we talked a lot about forgiveness and the issue of bitterness and things like that.

But this is just another angle of doing it. He basically wants us to examine ourselves to understand that, look, you are going to reap what you sow, too.

And so ensure that you are reaping that of the Spirit, not that of the flesh. And when you do that, all of a sudden you can restore your brothers and sisters that are being offensive, even if they're your own children, even if they're your own spouse.

You can restore them in a spirit of meekness. Now, let's take a closer look at verse 5 back in Titus one more time.

We do have maybe one other place we'll turn in a second, but we'll go back to Titus for now. Let's take a closer look at verse 5.

That sums up verse 4 pretty well. Let's just read it one more time.

So it says that they, who's the they? It's the older women. We've been talking about them, the older women with wisdom and experience and life in the church.

What are they to do? They still have work to do, but it's an honorable work. What is it? To teach them, to teach the young women to be sober, to love husbands, to love their children.

And then verse 5, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

And we talked about that little phrase already a little bit. These things aren't arbitrary. Paul isn't just coming up with stuff and throwing them at Titus saying, here's how you structure it.

No, these are very specific instructions so that the word of God itself may not be blasphemed.

So let's look at these. The first word in this verse is discreet. The older women are to teach the younger women to be discreet.

Another way that you could render that is sensible. So older women are to teach the younger women to be of a sound mind, to know how to curb their impulses, not to be impulsive in the sense of just letting the issues of the day be the drivetrain of their life.

In other words, let them be in control. Let them be in control of their senses. Let them be in control of their impulses.

It's essentially to have common sense so that you know how to structure your priorities correctly.

That's all wrapped into the Greek term where it's translated discreet there. Basically have control over yourself, be able to curb your impulses, be able to have a sound mind, and be able to structure your priorities correctly.

Well, you think about it. Of course, the younger women and the younger men, which we're going to get to next in verses 6 and 7, how else will they learn how to structure their loves?

How else will they know how to structure their priorities, structure their life in every area?

They learn that from the previous generations. They can come in and they can save them a lot of time. So they're teaching them to be discreet, meaning they're teaching them to be sensible, to know how to prioritize life correctly.

The next word, it says chaste. So next they're to teach them to be chaste or pure.

Now this, the Greek term there, it would entail moral purity. It would entail virtue, being modest in their behavior and their appearance.

And it carries the connotation that they are sexually faithful to their husbands too, which, of course, makes sense.

I mean, the elders in the first chapter are to be faithful to their wives. We learn in Timothy later, which we'll get to, that wives should be faithful to their husbands.

In fact, it actually is talking about widows that lost their husband into the churches now bringing them in for a special kind of ministry.

We'll get to all that when we're in Timothy. But Paul gives qualifications for these older widows to make sure they're right for the job.

And one of them is that they were a one -man woman. And so faithfulness to the spouse, obviously, is all in these instructions from Paul.

And so this word chaste would carry that connotation as well. But more broadly, they are moral.

They are virtuous. Now I want to look at an interesting parallel passage really quick if you want to turn to 1 Peter with me.

This passage, now this is a totally different apostle. This is the apostle Peter now talking.

And the broad context leading into this chapter is all super fascinating. We don't have time to look at all of it this morning.

But what I do want to look at are some verses in chapter 3 that shed a little bit of light on what

Paul is talking about here and the purpose of it. In other words, why teach the younger women to be chaste?

In the sense that they are moral, in the sense that they're virtuous, in the sense that they are faithful.

What does it look like? What does it accomplish when a young woman is like this? And Peter tells us in chapter 3.

Let's start in verse 1. Peter says, Likewise, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands.

Of course, this is an idea that is in verse 5 of the Titus passage we're in.

Be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word. Now listen to this for a second. Again, stuff like this is neglected.

Stuff like this is looked at as just, you know, it's mocked.

Well, I'll put it this way. It is neglected in the best case, and it is mocked and hated and disregarded in the worst case scenario in the modern church in so many different circles and factions of the modern church.

And yet, look what is happening here, and look at the purpose behind all of this. The purpose behind why

God is inspiring Paul and Peter to share these things with young people in the church.

Likewise, you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands. That's the part where people will look at that, and the egalitarians will just flare.

But look at what happens when a wife is obedient to these instructions from the apostles.

He says that if any obey not the word. He's talking about the husband here.

If any obey not the word, they may also, without the word, be won by the conversation of the wives.

Now, the word conversation there, it's an old KJV. It's behavior.

The word could possibly be translated there, behavior.

And so you could read this, that if any, and I'm just going to put husband. If any husband obey not the word.

So we're talking about a disobedient husband, disobedient to the Lord. He is not submitting himself to Christ, which is what

Paul lays out in Ephesians. It's the bedrock of a solid marriage when the husband is submissive himself.

It's interesting, people like to look at the submission of the wife to the husband and say, oh, that doesn't work. What they usually miss is that it's actually the husband teaching her how to be submissive the whole time, because it starts with him.

It starts with him being submissive to whom? To Christ himself. So in Ephesians, Paul sets the bedrock.

But here Peter is showing us what it looks like when the man screws up and when the man disobeys and when the man is falling short.

And so Peter's saying that if any man, if any husband obey not the word, they're disobedient, that they also may without the word, in other words, they don't even know what the

Scripture says because they're not in it, but without that, may they be won by the behavior of the wives.

There's great power in obedience to these things that Paul is talking about in Titus chapter 2, what

Peter is talking about here. Now, that's just the beginning. Look at verse 2 and look for some parallels in this

Titus passage that we're in. While they behold your chaste conversation, there's the word chaste again, the exact same

Greek term. While they behold your chaste, your moral, your virtuous behavior, coupled with fear.

In other words, they see the fear of the Lord in the lives of these young women, in the lives of their young wives.

They see fear of the Lord, but they also see morality. They see virtue. They see this virtuous living in their behavior.

Verse 3 says, Who's adorning, let it not be. Now, this is interesting. Pay close attention to Peter's argument here.

Who's adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel.

I'll get back to that in just a second. But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God a great price.

For after this manner, in the old time, the holy women also, who trusted in God, they adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands.

Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are.

This is our heritage. Our heritage are the sons and daughters of Abraham and Sarah. That is your heritage, whose daughters you are, as long as you do well and are not afraid with any amazement.

Likewise, ye husbands, so he switches it a little bit, but keep listening. Likewise, husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife.

So again, the husband has now been converted, essentially, by the godly, moral, chaste behavior of his wife.

And because of that, he now sees it, and it is to be honored, a very special, unique kind of honoring.

Giving honor unto thy wife is unto the weaker vessel. You're protecting her. You are giving her the honor that she deserved all along, as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.

So, we're talking about eternal implications to these seemingly very straightforward, plain instructions from Paul and from Peter.

It starts with just basic foundational daily living, striving for peace in the home and in the church.

It ends with eternity. It ends with being heirs together of the grace of life.

Now, I'll say it really quick when we get to Timothy. Yeah, when we get to Timothy, we'll have our own passage that breaks some of this down.

But when he says, Let not your adorning be outward with the plaiting of hair and the wearing of gold and putting on the apparel, that's not

Peter condemning the dress of women per se. We know this because in the

Old Testament, and even in places in the New Testament as well, there are passages that talk about the outward adorning of godly women, and, of course, being representative of the adorning of Christ's bride, the church.

Okay, so what does he mean? Well, what he means, and he uses specific examples that were pervasive in his cultural context.

We could insert our own here in this same verse. He's talking about don't adorn yourself externally thinking that that's where it's at.

That's not where it's at. He said, Let the hidden man of the heart that is not corruptible.

Look, your outward appearance is corruptible. It doesn't matter what you do to it, how you dress it, what procedures you may do.

Eventually, it will wither and go back to the dust from which it came. So don't let your concern be on the external solely.

This isn't a condemnation of the external wholesale, but it is a condemnation of putting your worry and your concern on the external solely.

And he says, In contrast with that, adorn the hidden man that's not corruptible. It's never going away.

It will be there forever. Even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God, a great price.

So in God's eyes, this stuff is massive. The magnitude of these things could not be overstated.

So, an aspect of these younger women becoming holy is that they are taught to be virtuous and godly on the inside.

Now, here's the thing. When you're godly and virtuous on the inside, you will be beautiful on the outside too.

That's the way that God designed it. It goes from the inside out, not the outside in. And of course, this was the great sin of the

Pharisees. Go figure. Isn't it interesting how, culturally speaking, you can have fads and trends and things that are going by, and you can see the great care and concern.

We could use the Hollywood example, a little bit cliche, but you can see it. The utter concern they have with keeping up with the trends and also looking like they're 25 all the time.

So they're starting from the outside while the inside is rotten, generally speaking.

Well, the Pharisees had the same problem in a religious context. Isn't that funny? So it doesn't matter what context you put it in.

You start from the inside, and then the beauty comes outward from there. If you do it in reverse, it gets really ugly really fast because it breaks

God's order. So they're taught to be virtuous on the inside. Teach them to be adorning their heart is what

Peter's message is there, and what Paul is talking about too when he tells them to teach them to be chaste.

And in that Peter passage, the result is that in doing these things, they could have the power to even bring a rough husband to saving faith.

Just think about that for a second. It's unbelievable. Things that seem impossible from the viewpoint of man.

All things are possible with God, right? And there's yet one other example of it. Does anyone have any thoughts they want to share before we move forward?

We've got about 10 minutes left. I can keep going if y 'all don't have anything. Okay. Now, we get to the big one here.

And of course, at this point with 10 minutes left, we probably will have to pick it up here next week too, but we'll go right into verses 6 and 7 with it.

The big one that has been systematically demonized, this is kind of what I was talking about last week, it has been for so long,

I'm not even sure where it would start. If I were to just take a guess in the United States, and maybe the West in general,

I would say the seeds of this were probably being planted sometime after the

Industrial Revolution, because that's when a lot changed. That's when the dynamic of the household economy started really changing.

And that is not saying that you should be a foe of technological advances or of the

Industrial Revolution itself, but there's give and take everywhere.

And I would say the seeds for just this demonization of this idea of being a keeper at home probably started being planted sometime around there, and then it's just been slowly growing and growing into the forest that it is now in the 21st century from that time.

And so again, Titus chapter 2, verse 5, he tells the older women to teach the younger women to be keepers at home.

And this goes back to my main point earlier, as well as looking at the ending of Ruth that we started with.

The devil has convinced the secular culture, and from there it has convinced the church at large, that keeping the home is mundane, quote unquote.

That it's this lesser than vocation. You know, how many times have moms heard the cliche, so what do you do at home?

You know what I'm talking about? We all know it. We've all heard it. And it is never not frustrating because it shows a genuine lack of understanding as well as what the enculturation of that person was, which was to demonize this idea.

Now in reality, unlike the view that the world has over the home and homemakers and mothers keeping the home, in reality the home is where we find the origin of kings, which is what we looked at in Ruth.

It's where those mundane things create the domino effect that leads to the biggest things that God has ever performed and will ever perform.

It all starts in the home. You will not find anything from the parting of the

Red Sea down to the birth of King David without starting in the home first. Moses' life began with the protection and the nurture of his mother for months before she put him in the bulrushes and set him on in his little ark.

It all begins in the home. Again, you'd be hard pressed to find any example, and I don't think you would, that God's massive works in time and space didn't start there.

And so when a young woman, when young women, begin to understand their heritage that was passed on to them from their mother

Eve, the life giver, it's what her name means, when they understand their heritage as life givers, the enemy, the devil, the world, even our flesh to some degree, becomes petrified.

The devil, certainly. And it's because the reason the devil hates it, the reason the devil wants to mess with the home as much as he does and has and has been very successful at it, is because there were thousands of years of life -giving mothers bringing life into the world, tending to their homes, rearing up godly children that brought the seed of the woman into the world, the very one that crushed the head of that serpent.

And that's what it took, and without it, it wouldn't have happened. And I can say that, even fully affirming the decree of God and that he knows the end from the beginning, because I also understand that he works through means, and this is how he structured it.

The Lord Jesus himself, while he was on earth, talked from the human viewpoint often. So it's perfectly fine for us to do that too.

Without mothers being God -fearing women and keepers of the home, things would not have happened that needed to happen from the birth of David to the birth of Jesus, and all throughout church history.

And so when young women start to understand what their heritage is, the devil gets really scared. The devil becomes petrified.

This is how God has always worked. And so when you see Paul reaffirm this by telling the older women to teach the younger to be keepers at home, it's one

Greek word, just means to work and home, and it's compounded, and that's where we get the phrase keepers at home.

He is doing so with victorious living for them, for the young women in mind. He's not subjugating women here.

Paul and Peter, neither one or any of the apostles are in no way subjugating women. What they're doing is they are setting them up for their greatest success, their greatest fulfillment and role that God has ever blessed them with.

Now I mentioned previously that there is a glory in the woman keeping the home that falls on blind eyes all the time in our current culture.

When the woman is in the home keeping it the way that Paul is talking about, there are patterns and there is purpose there that are pictures of the

Creator and His creation. They mean far more than our own ideas of what success looks like, especially today, but really throughout all of time.

The human idea of what success looks like rarely falls in concert with the biblical definition of success and what that should look like.

And so to use up our last couple of minutes here, I'd like to demonstrate this with a few quotes from a very special book.

So most of you in this room, I believe, would be familiar with Francis Schaeffer.

Recognize that name? One of Dad's great heroes, and through Dad one of my greatest heroes, great hero of literally hundreds of thousands of theologians and apologists and Christians for decades at this point.

He's in heaven now. But he was a preeminent Christian philosopher in the 20th century who wrote magnificent works on showing the contrast between humanistic philosophy over against biblical worldview and all of these types of things.

And he was respected among so many, across so many different fields, because he was just that good.

But his wife, Edith, she was also amazing. She was an accomplished writer in her own right.

She was a philosopher in her own right. She wrote a number of amazing books. I have several of them in my own library.

She wrote an amazing work on affliction from the Christian viewpoint. She wrote an amazing work on the

Jewish history of Christianity. So she was an historian. She wrote amazing works on homemaking and what that looks like.

And she wrote at least two books on basically the Christian philosophy of art.

And so she was an amazingly accomplished woman and inspirational.

And I got Ash a book a couple years ago called Hidden Art. That was the original title.

I think after she passed away, they changed the title to The Hidden Art of Homemaking. I kind of preferred the original.

Hidden Art. And what it is is it's her sharing her experience as a young mother, as a young wife, just bringing beauty and life into their home as an image bearer of God.

And so I want to read to you guys some quotes to demonstrate what I've been talking about and why it's true.

Why it's true that Paul and Peter here are setting young women up for success. Why it's true that they are picturing their very creator in being obedient to these things.

Why it's so important for the older women to teach the younger women to be like this. So think about, as I read these, just think about Edith in the context of being a young homemaker.

She's writing in her older age about her experience and trying to encourage younger women to do the same.

She says, People so often look with longing into a daydream future while ignoring the importance of the present.

We are all in danger of thinking, Someday I'll be fulfilled. Someday I'll have the courage to start another life which will develop my talents, without ever considering the very practical use of the talent today in a way which will enrich other people's lives, develop the talent, and express the fact of being a creative creature.

Now she's talking about in the context of being a homemaker, being a keeper at home.

The whole thesis of the book is hidden art in the home, being an artist in the home as you rear up young children as you are a young wife.

Let me read another. If you have been afraid that your love of beautiful flowers and the flickering flame of the candle is somehow less spiritual than living in starkness and ugliness, remember that He who created you to be creative gave you the things with which to make beauty and the sensitivity to appreciate and respond to His creation.

Now that's in the context of the home is what she's talking about. Here's another one.

There are various art forms we may or may not have talent for, may or may not have time for, we may or may not be able to express ourselves in, but we ought to consider this fact that whether we choose to be an environment or not, we are an environment.

We produce an environment that other people have to live in. We should be conscious of the fact that this environment, which we produce by our being, excuse me, by our very being, can affect the people who live with us or work with us.

And of course, the primary application there being your children and your husband.

And let me read one more and I'll end here. Interior decoration is not just one's artistic efforts, but it is that which your home, even if it is just a room, is.

If you are decorating with clothes draped on every chair, with scratched and broken furniture, it's still your interior decoration.

Your home expresses you to other people and they cannot see or feel your daydreams of what you expect to make in that misty future when all the circumstances are what you think they must be before you will find it worthwhile to start.

You have started, whether you recognize that fact or not. We foolish mortals sometimes live through years not realizing how life is short, how short life is, and that today is your life.

So that's just a few excerpts from a very long, very beautiful book cover to cover.

I haven't read as much as Ashton has yet, but it is a masterpiece in just showing the power of God's creation order, the power of what

God's intention and instruction to young women and we're about to see for young men as well, what it looks like when it's lived out.

Remember, what is the foundation of this entire chapter? You teach that which becomes sound doctrine.

You teach that which should be lived out by the people in your church. When it's lived out, this is the kind of stuff that it looks like.

In every corner, whether you're talking about being a keeper at home, whether you're talking about being a husbandman, it doesn't matter.

Everything has purpose. There's nothing arbitrary, as we discussed last week. You'll have any final thoughts before we dismiss in prayer?

Sure. I'm going to say hindsight is 20 -20. I'm sitting here thinking back over the years when

I was a young wife and mom and remembering how my mom handled being a mother and wife and housekeeper and knowing, having been able to see the changes over generations of what has happened.

We talked about things changing in the Industrial Revolution. When women were, during the war had to go to work because the husbands were all gone.

That was a big part of it. Women had to find, they had to reach down and find a strength and power that they weren't expected to have to have.

Then they found with that came some power that they didn't realize that they could have.

A lot of women lost their husbands. They had to fill that role. Well, then as things, then you got the

Women's Liberation Movement and what were they being liberated from?

Things like that always go too far. Then women felt like they had to be liberated from the mundane of being a homemaker.

Those who did stay home and be the homemaker, then the television is brought into the home and now you've got the world in the home.

Women didn't have their mothers to look to for guidance, so they got their cues from general hospital, all my children, and they're horrible cues, they're horrible doctrine.

This was what women were reacting to and you can see the progression of how women were then, it just changed the whole mindset of being the homemaker.

It's really sad, but that's the way it is. You were talking about how, and it doesn't have to be that way.

It's not like we can't take back what God intended. You were talking about how the man is to be, to exemplify

Christ to the woman. Well, the woman, the wife being in obedience to her husband is also an example of Christ, Christ's obedience and submission to the father, in spite of what the father's will was, and that's very difficult to do.

Of course, there's always dysfunction in the home, and I think that's part of the problem, is that women would see the dysfunction in the husband and they can't submit to that, especially if it adversely affects the children.

So it works both ways. It has to work both ways.

But yeah, I can see how all that happened. Sure.

Well, there's so much there that I would love to dive into. I'll say just a couple of quick things.

Number one, to your point, you're exactly right. I mean, one of the reasons why the tides did start turning around that point in history was wartime.

What's interesting about it is you can look at ancient Israel as well. There was always wartime, and there were always times when the men left and the women were left behind to essentially.

Now, it's interesting because most cultures had various societal structures in play.

There were obviously older men there that could still oversee certain things and help with the young boys that weren't old enough to go to war and things like that.

But generally speaking, you had times where, yes, so much was thrust upon the women because the men had to leave to protect their homeland.

And so, yeah, there's a great example of that there. And that was my point earlier, is that there were seeds planted there.

That doesn't necessarily mean that it was just, well, it's all over with now. It's just there were some seeds planted that were eventually, well, watered and fertilized.

I mean, you get to first wave feminism, and what's interesting about it is you had a lot of fascinating things that seemed, well, that were legitimate issues.

I'll just put it that way. They were legitimate issues. But like you said, sometimes the pendulum swings a little bit too far.

And so that gave rise to, and in some of the particular women, I'm reading a number of books right now just on the history of that time period, and the women that were involved in propagating what would become first wave feminism were some fascinating characters.

And what's interesting is they actually had a lot of opposition from the large majority of women who were saying these ideas are kind of crazy, but they eventually just kind of kept going and making progress and things like that.

So the pendulum swung too far. Alex de Tocqueville, he's the guy that wrote

Democracy in America. Everyone knows it. I'm pretty sure it's a textbook or whatever for a lot of schools.

It's just a very historically significant book, especially looking at early America through the lens of a foreigner.

And one of the things, and I'll absolutely butcher the quote, but one of the things that caught his eye, and he talked about it more than once, was the reverence and honor of the women in early

America. Now, this is pre -Industrial Revolution. At the time, the home economy was still very, it still looked a lot more biblical, the way that it pops up throughout the

Old and New Testament than it does now. And even the husbands, they weren't off yet. Their work was at the home, working their own land.

And so the family was still very integrated. And he even makes the point, he says, while they are confined to the domestic,

I have not found in all of my years or something like this, such honor and reverence toward the women of America.

And that's interesting. I'll have to pull up the exact quote. Maybe I'll read it next week. But that's pretty close, because I saw it not all that long ago.

And I think that is a really good example of what does it look like when sound doctrine is lived out.

It's not going to match with the feminist ideals or the, yeah, feminist ideals or egalitarian ideals, or even on the other side, the authoritarian ideals on the other side of the spectrum.

It's not going to match with any of that. It's going to look very different because God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.

And yet when they are lived out, you see happiness, you see peace, generally speaking. And yes, we're still sinners.

So there's going to be some messy times, but we can get through it because we have all the instruction ingredients we need in God's word to get through it, which is one of the reasons why

Paul is giving all of it to us right here. I think that's all I wanted. Those are the main things I wanted to say.

Those are great thoughts, though, Mimi. Plots that you could get into there that were fascinating.

I guess I'll go ahead and close us in prayer because we're at the top of the hour and we will dismiss. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this wonderful day for bringing us together once again and giving us all the opportunity to abide in your word together.

And we thank you for the clear instruction that you give us for peaceful living so that we can rise up and live out the successful, fulfilled lives that you intend for your sons and your daughters.

Lord, we ask you to continue to bless our services after this. Bless our fellowship afterward and then bring us all back safely together this time next week as well.