Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be reviled.
The following excerpt from John MacArthur's sermon,*God's High Calling for Women* is very helpful. He elaborates on Titus 2:3-5 and explains some cultural problems and lies we all are exposed to and tempted to believe.
God has a magnificent and wonderful design for women. It is a design which will fulfill their created purpose, maximize their uniqueness, make them a blessing to the world, and bring fulfillment to their own lives and glory to the name of God. That design is briefly stated there in those two verses. The instruction there is God's design for women--women in the church, so that the church can have a powerful witness, and so that God can be glorified and His Word honored.
There are times and places in human history where this particular section of Scripture would be commonly believed, even in the culture, where there would not be a reaction to any of these things that would be the accepted norms for society; but ours is not such a time, nor is it such a place. In our culture, what is being said in these verses to young women is the very opposite to what young women are being taught. Young women today are being taught to:
"Love whoever they want"
"Farm their children out to somebody else"
"Don't worry about what is sensible"
"Do whatever pleases you"
"Don't worry about being pure"
"Fulfill your physical and lustful desires"
"Don't work at home--work outside the home"
"Don't worry about being kind--you do whatever you want"
"Grab your moment in the sun"
"Take care of you, not somebody else"
"By all means--Don't be subject to your own husband!"
When this comes into the church it, therefore, dishonors the Word of God. I mean, even an unbeliever can read those verses. The most unschooled non-believer can read that the Word of God says young women are, "to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, and being subject to their own husbands," And if he can read the Bible and look at the church he can make a very simple conclusion: "You Christians say you believe the Bible--why don't your women live like this?" You see, it brings discredit on the Scripture to say we affirm the Scripture but we live however we like, or worse: we live however the culture (being basically controlled by Satan, the "Prince of the Power of the Air") dictates us to live.
