Older Women

                 You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

 Likewise, 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 urge 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. (Titus 2:1-5) 

How would you summarize what Paul wrote to Titus about what older men are to do? Wouldn’t the word “be reverent in the way they live” do so? Given the fact that Paul said, “Likewise,” he seems to be establishing the same rules for women as he does for men. The commands about not being slanderers or addicted to much wine fits within “temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.” This is not the teaching of the paterfamilias, in which the oldest male in a household was granted absolute authority. Instead, this taught equal behavior and responsibilities for men and women.

But once we pass the repeat in summary, we find an interesting change. Men, it would appear, should be examples. Women, on the other hand, should teach. This is in keeping with the idea that women were seen as heads of households responsible for what happened at home, while men were responsible for interaction between the household and society.

Paul tells Titus that women should teach, but he describes how they should teach. They should urge younger women not to harp, not coerce, and not bludgeon. Specifically, they should urge younger women to love their husbands and children and to do the things that he has already charged Titus to teach older men and women: to be self-controlled and respectable.