The title of our Titus study is Living the Truth: Belief and Behavior that Adorn the Gospel. That word “adorn” comes from this week’s text in Titus 2:1-10. Verse 10 says, “that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” It’s one of several purpose statements in this section, but it captures the essence of all of them. The word “adorn” in Greek is “kosmeo”—the same word we get “cosmetics” from. It’s the idea of putting in order or arranging in a way that makes it more beautiful or attractive. And that is God’s intent even as He calls Titus to put the church in order—that the doctrine of God might be beautiful and attractive to those who see it lived out.

The female body is considered the most beautiful and by far the most painted, sculpted, and sketched subject in all of human history. And yet, we spend countless hours, great effort and expense adorning our bodies, trying to make them more attractive. We do this on a regular basis, but I want us to think of the image of a bride getting ready for her wedding day. She wants every detail to be perfect. Think of the care it takes to fashion a wedding gown or veil. Many of these are still sewn by hand, adding to their intricacy, value, and beauty. And that’s just the dress—there’s makeup and hair and nails, flowers and rings. All kinds of ways that the bride is adorned. This is what Jesus is doing for us, by His grace. He’s preparing His bride by arranging the Church in an order that makes it so beautiful—to God and to man. And at the same time, we adorn the doctrine of God our Savior—the gospel—the good news that Jesus came to rescue us from our sins and transform us by His grace. It’s the good news that Jesus is coming again to share His glory with His purified people.

But as we wait for the glorious hope, we cling to this gospel—doctrine—the teachings of Jesus and His prophets and apostles, the elders of His Church—on Who He is, and how to follow Him. The gospel is beautiful. In fact, it cannot BE more beautiful; YET it can be displayed as either dull or dazzling. So, we adorn this gospel. How? We adorn the gospel by how we speak and how we live.

Main Idea: Our words and walk must reflect the worth of the Word of God.

I want us to see this passage, not as a list, but as one big idea: God’s word is valuable. And if that big idea is true, then how we speak and how we live matters because it reveals what we value.

I want you to feel the sweet mentoring tone in this section. Paul speaks as a loving father to his son, who is becoming a father. And it’s like we get a little glimpse into the spiritual delivery room, as Titus looks down at these little infant churches, newly in his care, and then quickly looks up at Paul, as if to ask, “What do I do now? How in the world am I supposed to teach them how to be mature, responsible human beings?!” And Paul smiles at him, and puts his arm around him, and says, “Ok, son, this is what you’re gonna say.”

Our words and walk must reflect the worth of the Word of God. We’ll come back and look at our words and our walk. But first, we have to get a grasp of

I. The Worth of the Word of God. Adoring God and His Word.

V1: “But as for you [Titus, in stark contrast to the false teachers from last week], teach what accords with sound doctrine.” This word “teach” is literally “keep speaking.” And what is Titus supposed to keep on the tip of his tongue? Everything that fits with sound doctrine—this is healthy teaching and practices for healthy souls. If it’s consistent with Scripture, keep saying it; if not, don’t. It’s that simple.

V5: “that the word of God many not be reviled.” We value the word of God too much to live in a way that would allow someone to speak spitefully or disrespectfully of God.

V8: we have “sound speech” (logos, literally “healthy words). And we have another “so that”—“so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say (lit., no evil word) about us.”

Finally, in v. 10, we see “so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.”

As Titus speaks to the people in the churches, he’s not just preparing the elders, but in reality, the whole household of God, to live out the gospel appropriately and attractively. As they did this—as WE do this—instead of households being led astray, our faith will be furthered, our knowledge of the truth will grow, and we will live in a way that is fully pleasing to the Lord. We’ll be accomplishing those good works that God created for us to do before He even created us (Eph. 2:10).

II. The Words and Walk of God’s People. Adorning the Gospel.

I love the familial language in this passage—God intentionally designed the Church to work like a well-managed household. Within a household, there are roles and duties. And you don’t get to choose which role you serve in; it’s assigned; these are God-ordained roles. There’s a male father, a female mother, children (young men, young women), and possibly some household help. Each person has a purpose and specific ways in which he or she contributes to that household. And remember, I said our one big idea for today is that God’s word is valuable. So, we want to look specifically at how each of these roles reflects the value they place on God’s word. How we live (our “orthopraxy” or our practices) directly results from what we believe (our “orthodoxy” or doctrine).

A. Older Men, v2 “Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.”

1. They’re serious, respectable, and mature. They act their age. We want to be around men who have proven themselves in how they think, how they speak, and how they act; men who have lived long enough to stand in awe of God and know He’s worthy of respect.
2. Sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older men have learned true, healthy doctrine—their faith clings to truth, and they pass that on to the younger generation, just like Paul did to Titus. They have a healthy love for the people of God. They’ve learned to use their spiritual gifts in the body by having an agape love that is patient and kind, not envious or boastful, self-sacrificing and rejoicing in the truth. And they’re sound in steadfastness—they have a hopeful endurance about them. They’re neither grumpy old men nor simply sentimental. They’ve weathered the storms of life and their spiritual skins have grown thick, still holding to the anchor of Jesus as their hope.

B. Younger Men

While we’re talking about men, let’s jump down to vv. 6-8. “Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.”

This section is short and sweet. As a boy mom, with 3 boys, I completely get why the one thing Paul tells Titus to teach the young ones is self-control in all things. But what I love here is how? “urge” or “encourage” ; ‘parakaleo’ means coming alongside; it’s a word used of the Holy Spirit, our “Comforter,” the one who “calls us close.” It’s this arm around the shoulder, side by side, encouraging mentorship going on. It’s John Gardner, taking my son aside at a funeral and asking him, “Do you see your mom’s sad? How can you help her? Are you being respectful?” It’s my dad, looking around and inviting men he knows to gather around his kitchen table and talk about a book of the Bible. When an older man calls a younger man to come alongside and learn self-control from him, and the younger man listens, and learns, that’s reflecting he values the Word of God.

And Titus does this by modeling it. It’s not just words, it’s that life on life discipleship. Titus is told to mirror Christ in his good works and in his teaching… he’s to show integrity, dignity [seriousness], and sound speech that cannot be condemned.  “Follow me as I follow Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). Who else uses selfie mode on your phone’s camera as a mirror? As we adorn the gospel, reflecting its beauty, what kind of mirror are we using? A compact mirror or a full-length version? What if we used the word of God like that? Would our teaching and tongue and tone reflect a beautiful gospel? Or does it look like a distorted mirror in a funhouse?

C. Older (and Younger) Women

Okay, so I want us to look at this text as one chunk to the older women. This is how Calvin saw this passage, based on the “to be” phrase throughout. It’s a grammar thing, and I think it makes sense because in order to train the younger women, the older women would have had to learn and practice the whole list first. And younger women, that means this whole list is for you too, as you train to become older women in the body of Christ.

v. 3-5, “Older women likewise are:

• to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.
• to be teachers of what is good, and so train the young women
• to be lovers of their husbands
• to be lovers of their children, 
• to be self-controlled,
• to be pure,
• to be working at home,
• to be kind, and
• to be submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 

Let’s look at a few key ideas here and how the way these women live adorns the gospel.

• To be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

Reverent has the idea of “befitting a holy person or thing,” like a priestess in the temple—I have the image of Anna in the temple when she sees baby Jesus for the first time; she’s waited her whole life for her Savior, and she recognizes Him when He comes. Reverent has the idea of someone in the presence of God. She lives in the Word of God, letting it sink down deep, and then she submits herself to it and is changed by it! And she glows with the glory of God, living like she was on that mountain with Moses, her face shines. I want to be that kind of woman. Don’t you? Let’s practice the presence of God. This isn’t just studying God’s Word. You can go to all the Bible studies in the world, but if you’re not willing to submit yourself to what God says to do, your life shows that you don’t actually value God.

Older men and older women are both told to be “sober-minded” or “not given to much wine.” These ideas are parallel. The reality is, the greater the age, the greater the aches and pains. Wine would have been what they had to ease their pain—physically and even life’s heartaches. [Psalm 104:15 tells us the LORD gave “wine to gladden the heart of man.”] Even a good gift can be abused though. The culture around them (and let’s be honest, around us too) gives into one more glass and one more glass, and as their bodies loosen up, so do their tongues. And they begin to speak maliciously—gossiping, putting others down. This word “slanderers” is “diabolous” (accuser, the same word used of the devil himself). As Christ followers, our words and conduct reveal who we are serving and what wisdom we are following—we are to be servants of God not wine—and our speech is to reflect heavenly wisdom, not devilish.

• To be teachers of good and this teaching has a focus—SO THAT they can train the younger women.

This is not calling every older woman to lead women’s Bible study! (Some of you are relieved by that.) In fact, there wasn’t a formal lecture or classroom setting available to them. This isn’t necessarily deep theological training. This is the practical life stuff, and a lot of this is domestic. How in the world do I get that stain out? How do you get your bread to rise so beautifully? How do I figure out what my priorities need to be? It’s personal, one-on-one discipleship. If you don’t have a spiritual mom or grandma in this church, look around this room, your small group, your shepherding group, and think, “Who do I want to be like when I grow up?” Invite her over for coffee. Older ladies, you do the same, “She reminds me of me when I was her age. What would I tell my younger self?” Invite her over for tea. Dig in the garden, bake bread, play with the kids. Just do it together. And talk about Jesus while you do it.

This training word literally means, “to make of sound mind” or “restore to one’s senses.” This is helping someone hold to their duties, admonishing, earnestly exhorting, curbing our affections. This is discipleship! We need one another to help us think rightly! Don’t get me wrong, we need the weekly teaching and preaching of our elders, but God designed us to need discipleship too. This is a special role reserved for the older women of the faith. [Several commentaries actually said that one reason this kind of instruction was to be given thru the older women instead of thru the elders was actually to protect both parties from forming attachments that could lead to sinful relationships and harm the gospel. Every church needs mature women in the faith to do this.] As we age, we never retire from usefulness in the church. If anything, it’s the exact opposite. As we mature in the faith, our role is not just useful but essential, critical to the life of the body. This is what you’ve trained for—to train the younger women!

• V.5-6, We’re called to be lovers: husband-lovers, children-lovers, home-lovers

Notice, it doesn’t say the women have to be married; it’s that same mentality we saw with the elders—their values about marriage reflect biblical teaching: one man, one woman,  faithful till death. If you’re married, notice the order here…our husbands come first, before our kids, before our homes. This love is the “phileo” love, the familial, friendship love. You surprised? It’s not just attraction or even the self-sacrificing kind (that falls more under the submission, we’ll get to in a minute). It’s showing affection with a tender touch, welcoming him as a friend, working hard to be interested in him & his interests, and that includes making it possible for men to develop male friendships—send them out for coffee or pizza, and pray for them while they’re out. We need older women to help us love these very different-from-us creatures. God designed it to be possible.

Next, it’s the same affectionate love for children—biological, adopted, or spiritual children, like Paul loved Titus as his “true child in the faith.” Loving our kids well can be hard, messy maddening, heartbreaking, and sometimes completely overwhelming. When we hit that wall, we don’t need another book or YouTube. We need older women in our church to be right up in our business, praying with us, holding us, reminding us that they’ve been there, and that God’s grace is too glorious for us to give up on our families. He will get us through!

Let’s skip ahead to that “home-lovers” as JB Phillips paraphrased this “working at home” bit. This doesn’t mean you can’t have a career or work outside the home, but it carries the idea of being a good household manager. We’re busy at home; not busy-bodies around town. We need to learn to love the homes God has given us, to manage them well, to maintain them, and to make them a priority for the glory of God. And if we can’t work outside the home and be this, we need to reevaluate our priorities. One of the best exercises I ever did was to write down my top 10 priorities and then put that list in the order that I was realistically living it out. My priorities were completely out of whack and I had to quit a job I loved because my husband, my family, my home, had to be more important than I was making it.

• To be self-controlled, pure, … and kind

When we fix our minds on the word of God and value it as our supreme authority, we beg God to grow this fruit of self-control and kindness in our hearts, and in our homes. We remember that Jesus was kind and tenderhearted to us, forgiving us, and we can be kind and forgive too. We need to be pure in what we put in front of our eyes. When you’re watching TV or scrolling Instagram, and you find yourself comparing your husband in a critical way, or you find yourself cheering for a relationship that isn’t biblical. Don’t get your marriage advice from the world. Turn off the TV, stop scrolling, and call a grandma. Fix your mind on things that are good and pure and true, and commit again to being faithful to God’s word and your marriage vows and not let your heart wander.

• To be submissive to their own husbands

In a believing household, placing ourselves under the authority of our husbands should be joyful, because it also means placing ourselves under his provision and care and affection. If your husband isn’t saved, 1 Peter 3 tells us “this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands” and your submission may be what wins your husband over to Christ. It’s hard, but it’s holy work.

In my experience, when I submit to my husband, it actually makes him a stronger leader. When I try to lead, I’m stripping him of the respect I vowed on our wedding day; I’m acting like Eve instead of Mary. This isn’t being a doormat; it’s honoring the God-ordained roles He created you to serve in. If this is weighing on you, I’ll say it again, “Call a grandma!” You don’t get to be one of those cute old couples sitting in Cracker Barrell without a lot of years of sacrifice and love before that point. When I let the word of God change my heart towards my husband through prayer and active obedience, it’s always worth it.

So, what’s your place in God’s household? Older or Younger—probably a little of both for most of us. Are you humbly submitting to it? And reflecting that you value the gospel by your speech and behavior?

D. Our final group is Bondservants, v. 9-10

“Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.”

In Ancient Greek comedies, the term slave and thief would have been interchangeable. It was so common it became a societal joke. And yet, the gospel is for everyone, regardless of status or occupation. These bondservants heard the good news and received Jesus. He changed them from the inside out! They were free from sin, but they were still slaves on earth. Now they needed to reflect that change to their masters. They had to be taught to do this in very countercultural ways! Serve humbly, no matter what because Jesus humbled himself, submitting to the will of the Father in EVERYTHING for us. Be pleasant to be around. Being under God’s authority doesn’t give you the right to act like you’re superior to your master; don’t argue; don’t talk back; don’t mock. That doesn’t reflect the beauty of the gospel that you treasure. Show you can be trusted in everything. You don’t need to steal anything; the King of the Universe is your Father now! Stop this petty theft—a few extra pieces of food here, a couple of coins there, a few extra minutes on the time clock this day, etc. Your reward is in heaven. But serve Jesus now by serving your earthly master well.

CONCLUSION: I want to go back to the bridal picture we started with and think about the ring. John Stott writes, “The verb kosmeo [adorn] was used of arranging jewels in order to display their beauty. And the gospel is a jewel, while a consistent Christian life is like the setting in which the gospel-jewel is displayed; I can ‘add lustre’ to it (REB).” (185) God chose to set the jewel of His gospel in the setting of His Church so that we might radiate His glory. Have you seen the splendor of the gospel and accepted the treasure of Jesus as your Savior? If not, come, repent of your sin and believe in Jesus—trust this beautiful doctrine of God our Savior that is free for all. And then, sisters, take care of the setting of the gospel—take care of how you live in the church, in your home, in your community, and may your words and walk reflect the immeasurable worth of God’s Word among your sisters today.

Sing “I Love to Tell the Story” OR “May the Mind of Christ, My Savior”; and Pray