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Whenever a passage of the Bible begins with the word “but”, it signals the need to compare and contrast the current text with the context before that. The “but” is to highlight one passage against another – giving the antithesis of an issue – so that the truth hits home. Although the word “but” is not used in the NIV, it is there in various forms in Bible versions like the American Standard Version. So, Titus 2 begins with the idea of “but” or “so now”. But from which point? From the point of Titus 1:10-16.
In those earlier verses, people like “mere talkers and deceivers…are ruining whole households” by wrong teaching. Particularly, groups that preach the need for circumcision for Christians – that is, that people must be circumcised in order to be saved, causing divisions and splits even among family members. Paul, in his letter to Titus talks as a father would to his son, painting a picture of what’s undesirable and what’s needed. There are many things about Crete, where Titus is building up the church, that are undesirable: Cretans are perpetual liars, listen to fables and myths, and “reject the truth” (1:12-14).
In contrast, Titus is exhorted to “teach what is in accord with sound doctrine” (2:1) in practical ways, by age groups and gender. So, instead of people who are drunkards, unruly and lazy gluttons, old men should be taught to be temperate and young men, sober-minded – the idea being, self-control versus wantonness and debauchery. Instead of divided households stemming from wrong doctrines, women are to be the glue that holds the family together. Old women are to be taught so that they, in turn, can “train” younger women to be busy bodies only where they should be – at home.
In all things, the Cretan Christians were to be examples by doing what is good and speaking what is right. Then even their enemies have nothing to criticise them with. That is a tall order, this flawlessness of being. But that is the measure of godliness, which incidentally, is not just a concept but a practical standard of living for which we have instructional checklists such as the book of Titus. As Christians we strive towards this practical standard of living.
