Articles
Teach One Another
It was not a suggestion... When Paul wrote in Titus 2:1-8 that the older women were to “teach what is good, and so train the young women”, and the older men were to “urge the younger men to be self-controlled”, he was thinking of the preservation of the Lord’s people. He expected this to be done.
Under the Old Testament, Levitical law had been given specifically to set the Jews apart from the nations
around them. Read Leviticus 20:22-26, which says, in part, “You shall therefore keep all my statutes and
all my rules and do them...And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out
before you... You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples,
that you should be mine.” Though they did not always do it, the Jews at least had a culture of teaching the
younger the commandments of the Lord. Read Deuteronomy 6, but especially 6-7 “And these words that I
command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk
of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when
you rise.” Not all the churches in Paul’s audience had such a culture of the older teaching the younger to
follow that which was Godly, so he instructed Titus to see that it was done.
Which group are we most like today? The Jews, who culturally had scripture on their doorposts and
garments and took time to teach the younger generations about God’s word? Or are we more like the
Gentile churches, many of whom were first generation followers of God and were in desperate need of
older and wiser saints to provide them guidance? I submit to you that we can be like both. We would like
to believe we have scripture ever before our children, but even “growing up in the church”, it’s possible
that we leave too much instruction to that same church and do too little individually. We, as older
members, fail to take the younger under our wings and spend time with them, imparting to them wisdom,
scripture, work ethic, and a bond between Christians. I suggest many young people grow up in the
presence of the saints, but do not make their faith their own, shedding it like a dead skin when they begin
to make choices in their own lives.
Do not be ignorant, brethren. In the world lurk atheism, deconstructionism, skepticism, luke-warmness,
and other frames of mind, waiting to suck the spiritual lives out of our young people if they are not
reinforced. So teach and admonish (Col 3:16). Instruct one another (Rom 15:14). It does not have to be
your relative. It does not have to be a Bible class. Let the teaching happen over a meal prepared in the
kitchen, over a car repair or a lawn mowed, over a game of cards, a shopping trip for a shut-in, or just
over a cold beverage on a hot day. Let it be done over the phone, by text, by e-mail, by an encouraging
word, but let the time be spent. If we believe our churches today are too well-established and fortified to
need this “crutch”, we are in worse shape than those in Paul’s day and we’ve lost already. Let the older
teach the younger. It is not a suggestion...
