Skip to main content

Older Men

            Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. (Titus 2:2)

Oh, here we go. A single, modern (not post-modern) woman thinking I have a right to comment on the behavior of “older men.” It doesn’t make it any better because the comments are about one of the current subhuman classes. We must be ever so careful if we talk about people of certain skin-tones, or who claim to have a gender that is “new and improved,” but gutting guys, that’s a current gladiator sport. And older men? Well, they’re derelicts from a primitive age and they don’t tend to like the way things are headed, so yeah…I can attack older men with impunity. Right?

There are two issues with the paragraph you just read. First, I don’t intend to attack anyone. Second, the passage above wasn’t written by me. They aren’t my words. So, trusting to God for wisdom, let’s walk on some eggshells, or maybe on rice-paper. First, let’s define the “older” part. In the Roman Empire, when Paul wrote to Titus, “older” in reference to men referred to those who were at least 60 years old. For those who need to swallow that pill: Bon Appétit. Women were older at 50.

These men were to be taught to be temperate, or calm and controlled. They were also to be worthy of respect and self-controlled. If those aren’t all the same thing, they’re closely related, and all of them have to do with learning what not to do in their treatment of others. The image that comes to mind is a video of a photographer moving toward a charging grizzly, hands (and camera) up. We’ve seen cats arch their backs and fluff out their tails. I’ve seen turkey vultures turn to stare me down with their wings outstretched. It’s all the same idea. “See how big and bad I am? You don’t want to mess with me. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.” Older men are to stop doing that.

As an alternative, older men were to be sound in faith, love, and endurance. None of those requires that older men turn into welcome mats that the rest of us can walk on, so there are times when sound in faith, in love, and in endurance may look something like what men are supposed to stop doing. But the focus changes. “Look how big and bad I am” is all about me. “Faith, love, and endurance” tend to be more about God and the people around them.

Two ideas come to mind. The first is that if older men are to be taught this, there’s no need to wait until they’re older to start teaching them. The second is that there’s nothing in Scripture that suggests we shouldn’t teach women the same things. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more