Practicing Observation in Bible Study: A Look at Titus 2:3-5
Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.—Titus 2:3-5
In my last post, we talked about the first steps of personal Bible study by zooming out and orienting our study in the entire scope of Scripture, and then began zooming in to some of the details. We looked at some ways to observe the text closely.
This week, I thought I’d cover the interpretation of meaning as well as zooming back out to our lives to see how we can apply it.
But then I changed my mind. I already have done a lot of talking about Bible study. Let’s take some time to actually start doing it!
And so, before I jump into interpretation (which I will get to next!), I thought I would take this week to actually work through a passage that is foundational to this blog. I’m going to take my last post and run through it with the tips I just shared. The passage is quoted above.
Let’s get started!
Preliminary Notes
Choose my translation(s): I’ll be reading from the ESV as my study base, with the NIV and NLT as supplements. The ESV will provide an accurate translation and the other two may draw out some other nuances.
If you’d like to learn more about the different Bible translations, I found this helpful article on The Gospel Coalition.
Prayer: This is often something we skip, thinking that Bible study is purely an academic topic. However, I have found that if I want God’s Word to really impact my life so that I grow more like Christ, then prayer links my study to my soul.
For me personally, this topic of the roles of women in the church has always been an interesting topic for me as I have often wrestled with where and how I fit in. On top of that, sometimes what God’s word says seems to contradict our society’s emphasis on women’s equality with men. I need God’s wisdom to understand it without swaying to one side or the other.
Heavenly Father, I believe you have created male and female each with their own dignity. Would you help me to read Your Word and understand what it is saying and protect me from letting it be warped by my cultural experiences? I realize that I am now an “older woman!” I ask the Holy Spirit that resides in me to illuminate this passage in Titus 2 so that I may better understand my unique contribution to the church in this season of history, particularly as I learn to find my place in our new local church family. I pray this in the name of Christ, Amen.
Orient Part to Whole: Zoom Out
The first part in my process is getting a sense of context of this passage.
Note the testament
Though it may seem obvious, it is important to note that this passage is in the New Testament, which means that Christ has come. The life, death, and resurrection of Christ will form the basis for Paul’s reasoning.
Get a little background
While I do not need to know the entire background at this point, it does help to orient myself in terms of the original audience: an individual named Titus.
From the ESV book introductions, I learned that Titus was dealing with seemingly opposing groups in his congregation: those who were lawless and those who were legalists. This letter is Paul’s instruction on establishing godly oversight and guiding them in proper Christian behavior, made possible by the gospel (Titus 2:11-13).
In addition, I learned from the Bible Project that Titus was pastoring a church in Crete, an island off the Grecian coast with many strategic harbors, making it a great place to have a Christian presence. However, the Cretans were notorious in the Greek world for being liars, and this was affecting their testimony.
I spent about 15 minutes getting a little background of the book and its structure, which helps me to understand why the passage I am studying is important and how it fits in. In light of the entire book, these verses are part of Paul’s strategy for creating a church that stands in stark contrast to the cultural community—starting in the home and then moving out into society.
Read the entire book
After I got a quick overview, I read the ESV version while listening to it (narrated by Kristyn Getty!) of the entire book of Titus with the ESV app. Doing this helps me get the big picture of the book and how my particular focus passage fits into the scope of the argument.
As I did this, I I noticed that Paul addresses both men and women, older and younger—which pretty much covers all of them. All of them have a role in building up godly homes and families, passing on the faith from generation to generation, which has an impact on their society at large.
Note: I got up to this point in about an hour. Feel free to break these down into smaller bites and spread it out if you have less time.
Read repeatedly
The next day, I re-read the book a second time, to refresh my memory, and this time I chose to read it from the NLT. Thanks to the clues from the background study I had done previously, I began to notice the words “truth” and “trustworthy” throughout the book. This would make sense if the Cretans were considered liars, and therefore untrustworthy.
After I reoriented myself, I went back to the ESV to begin to do my study on the passage. Using the list I included in my last post, I began taking notes on the passage.
As this is a short passage, I re-read it several times, first looking for the basic facts. Each time I read it (there are six areas, so I read it six times!), I looked for:
Who: older women and younger women
What: the character of an older woman—reverent, not slanderers, not enslaved to wine.
What: the actions of an older woman—to teach what is good to the younger women.
What they are to teach: training on how to 1) love husbands and children, 2) be self-controlled (not wine-controlled?), 3) be pure, 4) work at home, 5) be kind, and 6) be submissive to their own husbands.
Where: it is not stated where this teaching would take place, but it is clear that life at home and family is the focus. The word “train” suggests that this is done on-site, not in a lecture hall.
When: this is also not stated—but perhaps in ordinary life. In some ways, it reminds me of Deuteronomy 6:4-9, which is a life-on-life kind of training, all throughout the ordinary duties of life.
Why: The older women are to teach the younger women how to live so that the word of God may not be reviled. This sounds like the end goal.
How: They are to attain this end goal through teaching that trains. This suggests that there is some specific truths to pass on and help given to show them how to practice it.
By asking godly older women to do this, they are helping the next generation of women live in a different way that will not bring God’s Word into question by the society. As they are still establishing God’s church in this new era of faith, this was important to demonstrate how the Gospel makes them distinct.
If you only have a short time, this section alone can yield some interesting insights. I had a little more time so I went on.
Mining a Little Deeper
After getting the basics down, I began to do a little more work digging, looking at each word and seeing if I can notice more things.
Looking at context
The word “likewise” in verse 3 already gives me something to think about. Like who?
Going immediately backwards helps me to see that Paul first describes the qualifications of an elder (1:5-9) and how they contrast with the lawless deceivers in 1:10-16. Paul then directs Titus to be different than they are. He is not an elder in the church, but he is an “older man” who is to teach sound doctrine. “Likewise” links older women to the older men mentioned previously—they too are to live in contrast to the lawless.
Seeing this in context helps me to see that this is not a mere list of “Characteristics of a Godly Woman.” There is a greater purpose for this passage; it is not just an inspirational idea or aspirational qualities to work towards.
It reminds me that both men and women have a role in their society. It also shows me that the older generation, both men and women, have a responsibility to raise up the next generation in line with their gender.
Speaking of context, it is important that verses 11-14 follows these instructions to the men and women, old and young alike. The Christian faith is not merely a list of do’s and don’ts but is preceded by a great gift of grace. Because Titus is saved by this great Savior, he is in a position of authority to teach and declare these things to this fledgling church.
Looking at grammar
Since I started homeschooling my kids, I have had to re-learn grammar, which has a bad rap for being a useless study. However, I have found that knowing a bit of grammar actually makes Bible study come alive!
In this passage, the verbs are in the present tense, which means it is for right now, not in the past or the future.
Not only that, these verbs are both verbs of being as well as action verbs (verbs of doing). They describe character qualities as well as things to do in our everyday lives.
In regards to nouns, I noticed that this is addressed to women, in plural, not just one woman. This is something the women collectively were to strive to do together!
Looking at connections
Paul tends to write in long sentences, so all the little connectors and transition words and phrases help link what he is saying together.
The word “so” connects the good teaching of the older women as the means of training the younger women. The word “that” connects the actions and character the younger women are to aspire to with the greater spiritual purpose, that there would be no reason for the word of God to be criticized by onlookers. This sets up a cause and effect relationship—our behavior has an impact on the testimony and truthfulness of God’s Word.
Another connection that I am wondering about is the issue regarding being enslaved to much wine mentioned in verse 2. In other places in Scripture, it is implied that we can be filled with wine (which is what it means to be drunk) or filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18).
What fills us also controls us—and the virtue of being “self-controlled” is one that is mentioned. It is hard to teach the younger women to be self-controlled if one is enslaved, or controlled, by something else.
Ask questions
As I started picking apart ideas and words in the passage, I began to wonder about several things.
What is considered “older”? Is there a certain age?
What does it mean to be “reverent”? What does that look like?
What do the words “pure” and “submissive” mean? How can these keep God’s word from being reviled?
What is considered “good” to teach (implying that we may also inadvertently teach what is “bad”)? What does it mean to teach?
I used the list one day to help jumpstart my observations, then went back another day to see if I can find more. Not every question yielded answers, but going through it again one word or phrase at a time also highlighted things I did not see at first.
Sum It Up
As I read this passage, I had a sense of Paul’s earnestness—the growth of the church depended on the faithfulness of their members, specifically in passing on that faith from one generation to the next.
I also got the idea that Paul was not just exhorting them to be do-gooders but to remember that they were to do this for the greater glory of God, empowered by the gospel they held dear. For a people who were known to be untrustworthy liars, it will be their consistency between their doctrine and their actions that will show that God’s Word is true.
One thing I noticed as I was going through this observation phase is the tendency I had to jump to our day and age. In this stage of observation, work hard to read in light of the original recipients, not our day and age. We’ll get there—but not yet!
While this is by no means a full and complete study of this passage (it’s already long enough!), I hope that by going through this process with me, you also saw some things for yourself.
And that’s the beginning of the joy of Bible study.
