“The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers…” (Titus 2:3).

Former first lady Barbara Bush was one of our nation’s most beloved aged women.  In her memoirs, she tells how she and her husband George were once at a state dinner in Japan while he was our president.  She was seated next to the emperor, but just couldn’t seem to engage him in conversation.  He replied to every inquiry with a “yes” or a “no.”  Finally, she complimented him on the splendor of his official residence.  He responded: “Thank you.”  Undaunted, she pressed on.  “Is it new?”  “Yes.”  “Well, was the old palace so old that it was falling down?”  “No.  You bombed it.”  At that point, she turned to talk to the person sitting on her other side!

Mrs. Bush tried to courteously engage the emperor in conversation for she knew she represented her husband and her country.  But Christian aged women represent the Lord, so Paul says they should be “in behaviour as becometh holiness.”  The word “holiness” has different meanings, but when Paul says that aged women should be “likewise” in behavior as becometh holiness, he must mean they should be holy in the ways in which he had just encouraged aged men to be holy (vs.1,2).  After all, what’s good for the aged gander is good for the aged goose!

But aged women should know that it is especially important for them to be holy, for women are the guardians of decency in society.  Did you ever wonder why, in speaking of the sins of the ancient Gentile world, Paul wrote that “even their women” were engaged in those abominable sins (Rom. 1:26)?  It is because women, by their very nature, are more refined.  We see this illustrated in the account of the creation of men and women.  God made man from the dust of the earth, but He drew woman from the man.  Thus women are by nature further removed from the dirt of which we men were created!  Because of this, women can often rein us men in by simply being who they are.  This is especially important for aged women, who must set an example for younger women.

But after telling aged women to be holy like the men, Paul singles out an area where it is harder for women to be holy when he says they shouldn’t be “false accusers.”  If you’re wondering why women would have more trouble with that than men, it’s not because they talk more, as I might suggest if I were a sexist!  It is because when women want to hurt someone, they tend to use their words and not their fists like us men.  That’s why when Paul talked about the qualifications of a spiritual leader, he wrote,

“A bishop then must be… not given to wine… no striker… not a brawler” (I Tim. 3:2,3).

But when he gave the qualifications for the wife of a spiritual leader, he wrote,

“Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers” (I Tim. 3:11).

The Greek word for “slanderers” there is the same as the word translated “false accusers” in our text, the word diabolos.  Aged women need to be reminded that it is simply diabolical to slander someone by accusing them falsely.

And the reason Paul adds, “not given to much wine,” is—well, do you know what tends to make a woman slander someone?  The same thing that tends to make a man strike someone—much wine!  Did you notice that before telling leaders to be “no strikers,” Paul tells them to be “not given to wine?”  And right after telling aged women not to be false accusers, he tells them the same thing?  There’s just something about alcohol that overcomes a man’s natural inhibition to deck some jerk, and there’s just something about it that overcomes a woman’s natural inhibition to slander someone as well.

But slandering and striking others is not very holy behavior.  So by God’s grace, let’s all determine to be in behavior as becometh holiness, to the glory and praise of God.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

In Paul’s epistle to Titus, he gives some instructions for “aged men” that contain good advice for believers of all ages, saying,

“That the aged men be… sound in faith, in charity…” (Titus 2:2).

The word “sound” means strong, healthy and wholesome (cf. Isa. 1:5,6), and all of God’s people should aspire to be sound in the virtues Paul mentions here.  But that can be difficult when things in life arise that test our faith and challenge our charity.  That’s why it interests me that another definition of the word “sound” is to strike something to see if it is whole, based on the sound it makes when you strike it.

When I worked in my dad’s tool and die shop as a young man, I worked with surface grinding machines that had a grinding wheel of two feet in diameter that spun at several thousand revolutions per minute.  If the wheel was cracked and unsound it could fly apart at that speed and take out your eye, or even your life.  The problem is, you can’t tell if a grinding wheel is unsound just by looking at it.  So my dad taught me to check the wheel before mounting it on the machine by putting my fingers in the hole in the middle of the wheel, balancing it in my hand, while using my other hand to strike it with a brass hammer.  If it made a clunk sound, that meant it was cracked and dangerous.  If it made a ping sound, then it was healthy and whole.

And I believe that you can tell if you are sound in faith in the same way, when life strikes your faith.  The word “faith” here means faithfulness, as it does when Paul talked about “the faith of God” (Rom. 3:3).  If you want to know the strength of your faithfulness to the Lord, all you have to do is wait for something in life to strike you while faithfully serving Him to see if you will continue to serve Him, or fold like a house of cards. When life strikes some Christians they respond with something that sounds more like a clunk than a ping.  Some even make sounds such as you might hear at the Wailing Wall!  But when life strikes others, their faith rings true.  Does yours?

Similarly, if you want to know if you are sound “in charity,” just wait to see how you react when someone strikes out at you when you offer them charity.  Years ago when I was a painting contractor, a lady hired me to paint her parents’ home—while they were away on vacation!  She wanted to surprise them by doing something nice for them.  But I remember she was very apprehensive about how her charity might be received!  She knew that the old saying, “No good deed goes unpunished,” is often true.  But that’s how you can know if you are sound in charity—when someone lashes out at you for giving it, and you continue steadfast and sound in charity.

Now the reason Paul told “aged men” to be sound in faith and charity is that these are “the things which become sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1).  It’s not very becoming for a believer to profess sound doctrine and not be sound in these virtues.  Others are watching to see if the doctrine that we say is sound doctrine actually works in our lives, and we dare not let them down.

On July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash. When one of his closest friends was interviewed afterward, he pointed out that John Jr. never said or did anything that caused embarrassment to his family name, unlike many of his relatives.  What makes this even more re-markable is the fact that he lived his life under constant scrutiny.  Every time he stepped out of the house he was met by a flurry of photographers, who followed him wherever he went.  Had he said or done anything to embarrass his family name, it would have been all over the evening news.

Could your life hold up under scrutiny like that?  Do you always live in ways that are becoming to the sound doctrine found in Paul’s epistles that we hold dear?  Can it be said of you that you never do anything to embarrass the name of the Lord?  If not, don’t wait until you are aged to start faithfully honoring His name.  Start now.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.