Women, Love Your Husbands
Wednesday, June 25
Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers. Instead, they should teach others what is good. These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God. (Titus 2:3-5)
Cultural pressure and expectations have deprived many women of the blessings and joys of homemaking and motherhood. The Feminist Movement made promises it could not fulfill. The fallout has been enormous and disastrous, and we are still caught in the chaos.
From verses 4-5, we see a feminist agenda and the resulting confusion and rejection of God ordained roles is not restricted to the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The first century suffered from this malady as well, and so Paul confronted it head-on. He laid down God’s assignment for the older woman as it related to the younger: “Teach… what is good.” What good teaching did Paul have in mind? He answers that question in verses 4-5.
And the first thing Paul mentions is for younger women to love their husbands. Older women were to train, counsel, and advise the younger women, to love their husbands. Interestingly, this is the only time in the Bible where a woman is instructed to love her husband, the man in her life. Husbands, of course, receive multiple and detailed instructions in this regard (see Ephesians 5:25-33; Colossians 3:19).
Paul was concerned that a woman’s first commitment under the lordship of Jesus Christ was to her husband and her marriage. The way a couple loves each other will model for the children the way they should love their future spouses. The fact is, we do not so much “fall in love” as we “learn to love.” What a great thing it is for daughters to learn how to love their future husbands by watching their mother love their dad!
Doing the Word
Live by the Book.
Prayer
Dear Father, help me to live and promote a life that reflects wholesome and sound teaching according to Your Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.