Chapter Two
Titus 2:1. But as for you, speak what is consistent with sound doctrine.
You should do your work even if they are unbelieving and dishonorable people: do not be silent, even if they do not accept the teaching.
Titus 2:2. that the old men be sober,
Since the deficiency of old age is laziness, slowness, and difficulty of movement, he therefore says that they should "be vigilant," that is, be watchful and ready for every duty.
Titus 2:2. Dignified, self-controlled,
By temperate he here means those who are prudent, possessing a sound state of mind. For even among the elderly there are people who are frenzied, raging, and senseless — some from wine, others from faintheartedness.
Titus 2:2. Sound in faith, in love, in patience;
Patience is especially fitting for the elderly, on account of their irritability and short temper.
Titus 2:3. that the aged women likewise dress in a manner befitting holiness,
The passage speaks of elderly women who should appear dignified both in their outward appearance and in their clothing. Some, however, think that the reference here is to deaconesses, from whom the apostle requires that even in their very attire they should appear befitting, that is, in keeping with their sacred ministry.
Titus 2:3. Not be slanderers, not be enslaved to drunkenness,
Since in old age a person grows cold, an inclination toward wine appears, and then, being unable to restrain himself, as one who is weak, he is overcome not by moderate but by excessive use of wine, and from this arises a tendency toward slander.
Titus 2:3. Teachers of good things;
How then does he say in another place: "but I suffer not a woman to teach" (1 Tim. 2:12)? There he speaks of public teaching in the church, which is not permitted to women, but here of teaching at home, and moreover only of younger women. That this is what the apostle says, listen to what follows.
Titus 2:4. that they may teach the young women to love their husbands,
Not only their own daughters, but all who are young in age. Let each older woman "instruct" the younger, and above all in the most important domestic good — "to love their husbands." When this is present, everything else will follow: order in the home and abundance in possessions; but when this is absent, even if everything else were present, it will all slip away.
Titus 2:4. To love their children,
He who loves the root, that is, the father, will all the more love the fruits as well, that is, the "children."
Titus 2:5. to be chaste, pure, caring for the home, kind,
A wife who loves her husband will be both chaste and blameless, that is, pure in both body and mind, free from mingling with outsiders and from lustful desire; and she will also be a good manager of the home, that is, a housewife. Loving her husband, she also takes care "of the house," not being occupied with adornments, nor luxury, nor untimely expenditures. And whom else would she seek to please, having already pleased her beloved? See how Paul, who previously drew people away from worldly cares, now devotes great diligence to domestic affairs, because when these matters are in good order, spiritual matters will be in good order as well.
Titus 2:5. That the word of God may not be blasphemed.
Do you see that he is primarily concerned with preaching, and not with worldly affairs? If a believing wife, living with an unbelieving husband, is not virtuous, then the blame is transferred to the faith.
Titus 2:6. Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded.
He appointed the elders as teachers for the younger, women for women; for the "young men" – Titus himself, a man for men: everywhere he observes propriety. In what, then, should they be instructed and admonished? "To be self-controlled," for in youth the fire of shameful pleasures causes the most harm, which must be extinguished, and one must strive "to be self-controlled."