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As woman had attained through Christianity a position of equality beside man, it was necessary to remind her that her new position involved serious responsibilities.

I. THE DUTIES OF AGED WOMEN.

1. In demeanor as becometh holiness.

(1) There is an appeal to their own judgment as to what is decorous and beautiful in the Christian character. They had an experimental knowledge of the gospel, and they understood the nature and extent of its obligations as affecting their sex.

(2) There was to be a harmony between their position and their character as godly women "women professing godliness" (1 Timothy 2:10). Their holy calling should manifest itself in their deportment, dress, speech, silence, and, above all, "in a meek and quiet spirit."

2. Not slanderers.

(1) Old age has no active employment, but it has an active memory and g busy tongue. Thus there is a temptation for the old, unless the grace of God has given the tongue of kindness, to become censorious, malignant, and bitter, avenging themselves the more with their tongues for their very incapacity to avenge themselves in other ways.

(2) There is nothing more beautiful or saintly in this world than a true mother in Israel, the presiding genius of her family circle, speaking the words of charity, softness, and kindness to all within her reach.

(3) It would be an utter travesty of the gospel for aged Christian women to be slanderers, because they would thus

(a) separate friends (Proverbs 16:28);

(b) inflict deadly wounds in character (Proverbs 18:18);

(c) bring dishonor on the gospel;

(d) and cause discords in the Church.

3. Not enslaved to much wine.

(1) The warning was needed opt account of the national habits of the Cretans.

(2) It was a moderate demand that they should give up the slavish addictedness to wine so common in Crete. She who follows the habit is a slave, and would soon lose the sense of her degradation. The early converts would, perhaps, plead the privileges of their age and country, and use wine as a solace in old age; but Titus is to teach them that hoary hairs give no liberty to such a habit.

(3) We see how the gospel purifies the habits and usages of social life.

4. Teachers of good things.

(1) The apostle thus prescribes the right use of the tongue to those who were to be "no slanderers."

(2) Their teaching was not to be in public addresses, which were forbidden (1 Timothy 2:12), but in private life.

(3) The substance of their teaching was not to be "old wives' fables," not superstitious ceremonies, or things of evil report, but things sound, pure, and honest.

II. THE DUTIES OF YOUNG WOMEN. They are regarded as under the instruction and guidance of the aged women. In Ephesus, Timothy was exhorted to teach the younger women, but it is probable that the state of the Cretan community required that the instructions of Titus should be supplemented by the more practical and continuous guidance of the elderly women. The young women were to be schooled to their duties in a wise manner.

1. They were to be lovers of their husbands.

(1) The wife would find in this love the source of her strength, the husband the solace for his cares, and the children the guarantee for their happiness and welfare.

(2) A loving wife is

(a) a blessing to her husband (Proverbs 12:4);

(b) brings him honor (Proverbs 31:23);

(c) secures his confidence (Proverbs 31:11);

(d) earns his praises (Proverbs 31:28).

2. Lovers of their children.

(1) The love of a mother may be instinctive, but religious fanaticism and brutal separation can make her more unfeeling than the brutes. Rousseau would not keep his children in his house, but sent them to a public hospital; a sign, said Burke, that "bears love their young and lick them into shape, but bears are not philosophers." In India infants are often destroyed by a mother's hands, under the influence of religious delusion.

(2) The first duty of a Christian woman is to make her home happy, which is impossible except on a basis of love to husband and children.

(3) Religion revives natural affection as it revives all the weakened faculties of our nature, and gives it new power for good. The religious training of the young is impossible without the experience of a mother's love.

3. Discreet. Young women, in a new position of Christian privilege, might be tempted to rashness, enthusiasm, and impulsive conduct. They were to be wise and careful in their conduct both at home and abroad.

4. Chaste. In act, speech, thought, and dress, finding their true happiness in their husband's society. There are many high motives for a pure womanhood (1 Corinthians 6:19; 1 Thessalonians 4:7).

5. Workers at home.

(1) The wife's business is in her household, not in the great world of society. Religion gains no honor when home duties are neglected.

(2) Her husband's interests are preserved by her industry at home.

(3) Gadding abroad and busying one's self in other people's affairs tends to the spreading of evil.

6. Good. Such women are to be kindly and thoughtful in their family relationships, especially to servants, and not niggardly or exacting. "Their thriftiness must not degenerate into avarice."

7. Obedient to their own husbands.

(1) This is their great duty, and thus they become types of the Church's submission to Christ.

(2) Obedience would recommend the gospel to unbelieving husbands, for attention to this precept would prevent "the Word of God from being blasphemed." Grace does not deliver us from the obligations of nature (1 Corinthians 7:4-16). - T.C.

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KJV: The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

WEB: and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good;