AP

Titus 2:1-2  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.

Many of you who receive this do not come into the category of ‘older men’, so this might not be directly relevant to you.  But as one who does, I find Paul’s advice to young Titus here quite challenging!  And it is important for us all to know what the Bible is saying to those belonging to the opposite sex, and to those in a different season of life.  For instance, women need to know that his instruction to them in what follows (verses 3-5) presupposes that men will be putting today’s verses into practice in the total relationship!

And as I think about the damage being done by social media in the way the ungodly and destructive aspects of our present culture are influencing the Church, instead of the other way around as Jesus intended when he spoke about the function of salt and light in Matthew 5:13-16, perhaps we older men for whom social media is too much of a mystery to be bothered with, have a significant responsibility in the ‘salt and light’ industry!

Young people can be greatly influenced when they see us old guys still being faithful and genuinely servant-hearted in our marriages, being faithful in our daily reading and obeying of God’s Word in every aspect of our daily lives, controlling our emotions and lusts, still ‘fighting the good fight of faith’, ‘running the race and finishing well’, and demonstrating the sacrificial version of love (agape) that Jesus both commanded and exemplified, and enduring in all this even under pressure.

I also note that the command to be ‘temperate’ doesn’t only apply to the use of alcohol, but to every aspect of daily living (use of money, time, natural resources, etc).

I have not really made a study of this, but I hear reports of encouraging statistical evidence of young people getting disillusioned by the direction in which our culture has been aggressively taking us for the last 70 years and are thinking in the way the Prophet Jeremiah addressed the culture of his day: “This is what the LORD says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.’” (Jeremiah 6:16)  If this is the case, how important it is that we old guys are standing at the crossroads and pointing younger people in the right direction, not only with our words but with our lifestyle, so that the next generation is not filled with anxiety and discouragement in the face of their future, but will ‘find rest for their souls.’

– Bruce Christian