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Younger Women, Younger Men, Slaves...

             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.

Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. (Titus 2:4-10)

 

Over the past two days, we’ve considered what Paul advised Titus to teach older men and women and found that the teaching is the same. While older men and older women may have different roles, there was to be no differentiation in the principles by which they lived. Yesterday, we added younger women to the list. Just as Paul connected the teaching to older man to the teaching to older women with “likewise,” he connects the teaching of young women to the teaching of younger men with “similarly.”

And he finishes by repeating the same instructions for slaves as he did for those who are free. There are other places in Scripture where Paul tells  us that the old labels don’t matter: male/female, Jew/Greek & Gentile, wealthy/poor, and slave/free. Here, he doesn’t talk about it so much as he shows it.

This doesn’t mean that we have obeyed these teachings or that we have chosen to see people who aren’t like us as people who are like us, but that’s the teaching of Scripture. We are to treat others with respect, but even more, we are to behave in a way that deserves respect. And one of the things we tend to respect is someone who fulfills a role well, even if it’s a role they don’t want.

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