So much to learn
Titus 2:1-5
1 You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. 2 Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
3 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. 4 Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 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.
We Australians devote an awful lot of effort to teaching young people. But not so much older people. Education tends to stop once we get to adulthood. It’s interesting that Paul begins by telling Titus to teach the older men and women. It seems that older people are just as valuable as an investment for God as younger people.
It’s also interesting that he lists more things for the older men to be taught than the younger men. It seems we should be taught more as we get older, not less. Of course paired with that is that we are to become more teachable, more ready to learn as we get older, not less. (Often not the way it goes.)
It sounds like Titus was a younger man (he’s to make himself an example to them). Yet he should not be afraid to teach older men and women, and they should be ready to learn from a younger man. (Again, not always easy.)
I think it’s also interesting that what he teaches is more about wisdom and a life lived well than facts. (Quite different to a lot of schooling.)
So much for us to learn. All of us. All the more as we get older.
Written by David Cornell