Daily Dose 17: Biblical Priority Treasure Trove

Another Priority-Producing Question

Are personal spiritual disciplines, then, the only priorities with which we must be concerned?  To answer that question, we need to ask another right question: Are you a man or a woman?

The answer to this second definitive question blossoms into a clear set of biblical priorities.  While the Scripture unites male and female before God in salvation, it has just as clearly outlined distinctive responsibilities and roles for our daily lives.

Titus 2 presents a rich complement of the Lord’s priorities for both men and women. Interestingly, this role  teaching task is given to Titus as part of his pastoral position, but is given as teaching and information he should communicate in daily, regular conversation, rather than an occasional formal address. Each section provides specific focus for men and women to attend throughout their various life stages from young through old age. Each section is not limited to the marriage roles, what is presented is for all men, all women, anyone who is a servant, working for someone else.

The Titus Two Priority Skeleton

Being a woman, I have naturally invested time and energy considering verses 3-5, and have found them to an excellent, practical, and clear overview to rightly order any woman’s life, regardless of the varied circumstances and scenarios any given woman might individually face. The outlook of  Titus 2 fits perfectly with biblical values by outlining for us clear priorities which can keep us focused and challenged and creatively maturing whether we are young or old, married or unmarried, with or without children.

In a nutshell, Titus 2 expects all Christian women to develop lives that reflect and compliment holiness (verse 3) as we fulfill our career being teachers of good things (verse 4, literally teacher of the right), following His curriculum He has laid out in verses 4-5. This awesome challenge comes along with the awful consequence for when women fail, His Word, His Truth in the world, is mocked and scorned (verse 5).

A Lifelong Challenge

Our challenge is to let the Lord work out these broad biblical priorities in unique ways in each of our lives. Obviously, an older woman has to have attended to these areas throughout her life to be an effective teacher as she ages. Thus, the passage is a culmination for older women, but a goal for younger ladies. Young ladies should be incorporating the essence of the Titus 2 responsibilities into their outlook, training and responses in their family homes. This way of thinking will fit them to be a teacher of the good things even if they are never given the positions of wife or mother. This is the challenge that provides biblical fulfillment and purpose, without incubating wrong wishful desires.

A Domestic Center for World-Impacting Ministry

I cannot apologize for the domestic center of the curriculum. Just because the current home fashion flexes between showplace with no character content and sleeping quarters with no life-impacting vision beyond rest from outside work, does not mean I need to give up the biblical vision of home as the character-building, world-impacting ministry center of history. The home is the Lord’s first institution, and the primary vehicle for transferring biblical teaching from one generation to the next. The Lord knew that home had to be the primary focus of someone, and because it is such a creative, self-employed, executive position, I’ve been glad women could attend to it. And I am not a little grieved that women themselves are so short-sighted and ignorant about its potential that they are quick to relegate it to a menial, janitorial level of focus. Primary focus does not mean sole focus. I’ve never met another “job” that gave such potential for personal growth and allowing for pursuit of so many opportunities to learn and explore on company time.

The Craftsman or Slumlord Choice for each Home

Did you know that every wise woman is methodically building her house? And every foolish woman is just as methodically dismantling hers (plucking it down with her hands)? So the question is not whether you are a house-builder, or a home-maker. The question is which kind of house-builder are you: engaged, creative, owning the project, invested or disengaged, perfunctory, uncommitted, distracted? Are you a craftsman or a slumlord with the greatest stewardship project the Lord has ever given: building biblical homes?