2 As for you, Titus, promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching. 2 Teach the older men to exercise self-control, to be worthy of respect, and to live wisely. They must have sound faith and be filled with love and patience.
The other day I witnessed a teenager-to-dad conversation. Being the father of grown young women, I was thrown back to when my girls were going through their teenage years. The teenager was telling us about a trip they recently went on. The dad, and all of us, were listening. When the teenager failed to give some detail about the trip, the dad chimed in. With teenager retort, the young person snapped back at the dad in an almost rude but passive way. The dad held his cool and let the young person finish the story with all the details. A teachable moment to come later, I am sure, but in the moment the dad showed some love and patience and exercised self-control. It was awesome to watch, even if it did bring me back to when I was making those decisions on the fly.
Titus had a huge job on the island of Crete. A newly converted body of believers in Christ needed to have a shepherd and also some discipleship. When you get saved and on fire for Christ, everyone cheers, as they should. Just like everyone else in the church, we all have to go home and start living a new life under the authority of Christ. We have the Bible today, and it is filled with wisdom on how to live a godly life. For the people of Crete, they had Paul and his teachings and his newly elected pastor named Titus.
Chapter two starts off with some instruction for older men. To start off with, Titus must promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching. Titus had to make sure his teaching was wholesome and filled with truth, the truth Paul was teaching him, and also be able to reflect that teaching by living everyday life in Crete. You are teaching something everywhere you go because the way you live your life is being watched, i.e., you are teaching someone something. That is the mirror principle, everything you do is reflecting to someone.
He goes on to say that older men must exercise self-control, be worthy of respect, and live wisely. That is a mouthful of principles for sure. We see this played out in everyday life with parents, especially men, men that are dads for sure, and also young men walking through life. I always used to tell my girls to watch how their boyfriend acts when things don’t go his way because they will have to deal with that long term. It was a great gauge on this principle. Did they exercise self-control? Was their behavior worthy of respect? Were their actions wise or not?
Paul ends verse two by telling Titus that older men should have sound faith and be filled with love and patience. I like to look at things on the flip side. If you see a man who has shaky faith, is filled with hate, and is impatient, I bet you don’t want to be around such a person, especially not a man who is your boyfriend or husband.
The other day I witnessed this principle in full, watching how this dad handled the situation. After the story ended, the Holy Spirit made sure I remembered this exchange. You see, the teenager does not know how to handle being respectful in most situations, hence the raising of children is not done overnight, but rather it is a twenty-plus-year training course. The Lord sees His people acting this way all the time, like teenagers who are learning the ropes. Thank you, Jesus, for the tree of life that points us to the Father and His love instead of condemnation. Today, we, men especially, have to write these principles on our hearts and be the standard for the ones around us. We are teaching all the time. I pray that your actions are reflecting wholesome teaching in everyday life and not the other way around.
Prayer: Father, today help us to promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome, godly teaching. I pray the men exercise self-control and are worthy of respect, living wisely. I pray that we have sound faith and are filled with love and patience. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Let It Go 
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