My writing of this article is, at least in part, to help encourage mature and godly women within Christendom to effectively work so that this passage is no longer blasphemed and so that the Kingdom of Christ grows in ways that please the Father. But I am also writing because I want everyone in Christ’s Church to see how vital these seven commands are to Him. He did not threaten mild divine annoyance, quenching of the Spirit, or even heresy if these commands were not obeyed and joyfully taught.

A TIME FOR A BIT OF BREVITY AND FRANKNESS
As I near my fortieth birthday and watch the collapse of the American empire, I am resolved to speak plainly about what the Bible says. No tricks. No gimmicks. No apologies. Just plain and honest truth from the Word of God frankly delivered.
I am resolved towards this because it is in such short supply these days. If honesty and truth were our nitrogen and oxygen, this entire country would be left suffocating. This is because the Church abandoned her post a long time ago. Pastors traded in their pulpits and posts for skinny jeans, pop psychology, and man buns. Being relevant has become more important than righteousness. The approval of carnal men has become more captivating than the approval of God. And, instead of heralding the unvarnished Word in a world bereft of truth, many have adopted a slimy sort of worm-tonguedness known as “winsomeness” that prefers to keep feelings intact while souls barrel on towards hell.
That kind of charade has run its course and has been found lacking. What the Church and society at large need are not more marble-mouthed, weak-kneed, spineless, jellyfish pastors who are more afraid of offending the congregation than they are of offending God. We need men with chests. Men who will wrestle with the text, pour over it with fear and trembling, and humbly declare it as the Father’s God-breathed revelation for a world lost in heresy and sin.
We need this today because God is good, and the Word He authored is also good. We may not always like what it says; in the same way, a child does not always like the taste of medicine, but what goes down bitter will produce something sweet.
That is certainly true of today’s passage, which not only communicates substantial hard-to-swallow-truth but also chafes and irritates the soul of the modern man worse than a week-long diaper rash without a tube of Bordeaux’s butt paste. What we will see, however, is that these texts are not only true but good for us, so that anyone who ignores what they are teaching does so at their great peril.
With that, let us dive into our text.
THE TEXT
The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— 4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. – Titus 2:3-5 NKJV
A WORD ABOUT “BLASPHEMY”
According to Paul, the Word of God can be blasphemed, which is a word on the level of damnable cursing. In the Old Testament, when a fella or Felicia blasphemed God, they were immediately put to death by the community since blasphemy was not only considered a social poison but also an affront to the awesome holiness of God (See Leviticus 24:16).
When you blaspheme, you are violently cursing the name of God. You are shaking a middle finger at the heavens. You are looking out to your sovereign Lord with demonic disdain and malevolent boldness, saying: “may you be damned.” And in your hubris, you deserve to die. You deserve to die because, in your madness, you believed it possible to ascend the heights with Satan, asserting your stupid and unlearned opinion over and above the Most High. And if the most glorious and beautiful angel ever created will be decisively cast into the lake of fire for his act of pride, how much more will a worm like you? Like the smallest ant cursing the most prominent man, you deserve to be pressed into the ground, stoned by the mobs, buried beneath a crushing weight of earth because you believed you could bring an infinite, Holy, matchlessly pure, and maximal in all splendor and glory, God, (yeah that God) down to your pitiful and senseless level, putting him securely under your wretched feet. Death would be too good for a fool speaking this way to the Almighty.
Similarly, let us contemplate the fate awaiting the one who deliberately or even ignorantly blasphemes the Word of God. The Word is His divine revelation, representing all He loves and everything He has ordained for us to know. Indeed, to assail the Bible is to wage an assault on the very nature of God Himself. How so?
First, the Bible is the sacred repository of God’s divine revelation, carrying within its pages the timeless wisdom, divine truths, and majestic narratives inspired by the Creator Himself. Its words, divinely breathed, resound with the authority and essence of the Almighty.
When one launches an attack on the Bible, they seek to undermine the very foundation of God’s self-disclosure to humanity. They cast doubt upon the authenticity, reliability, and divine inspiration of the Scriptures. In doing so, they are questioning God’s character and integrity, for He is the ultimate author behind the written Word.
Second, Paul uses a common phrase for the “Word of God” that is often used to describe Jesus Christ (See John 1:1). With this in view, blaspheming the word not only communicates cursings towards the Bible but also toward God’s Son, the Word made flesh (John 1:14).
Wouldn’t you think that the same God who fiercely prohibits blasphemy of His holy name also responds with unbridled fury when His sacred Word is slandered so grievously? Wouldn’t a sin like that provoke his Holy ire? Could He ignore such dastardly crimes when He is a just and righteous God? Of course not!
If it were not for Christ’s pleasures and mercy, this passage would hang over nearly every pulpit in America as a death sentence on the man (or woman – God forbid) who does not teach such things. What do I mean? In this passage, there are seven truths that older women are to teach younger women, so they do not blaspheme the Word of God. This means not teaching these truths to younger women, or teaching younger women to live in opposition to them, would amount to nothing less than the charge of blasphemy.
And, perhaps you are wondering, why is God so intense about His designs for womanhood? Why does He call it blasphemy if an older woman does not teach a younger woman, or if a younger woman does not love her husband and submit to his leadership? Why is that in a very exceptional category of sin? And the answer of course is that God loves womanhood. He loves His design so tremendously, that to tamper with it, would be to blaspheme His Word and His vision.
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In the Body of Christ, we have responsibility for one another because we are members of Christ and therefore members of one another (Romans 12:5, 1 Corinthians 12:27).  We are not independent but highly interdependent just like all of the parts of our bodies.  What we do affects the rest of the Body, and what others in the Body do affects us—whether we know it or not. 

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
-Romans 15:1-4, ESV
We have all heard people say “it’s wasn’t my day to watch him”, usually following some negative outcome for that individual.  This is just a modern expression of “I’m not my brother’s keeper”, used as a way to deny responsibility for someone else.  While this is true in some sense, in the Body of Christ, we ARE our Christian brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.  This is particularly relevant when we differ in matters of conscience, so this post will examine our responsibility in keeping other saints from stumbling to discern when exercising our Christian liberty becomes sinful.
Shared Responsibility
To say we are not someone else’s keeper goes all the way back to Genesis: “Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”” (Genesis 4:9).  This comes after Cain murdered Abel, which parallels the original sin of the Fall.  God spoke to both Adam and Cain beforehand, both men succumbed to temptation, and both tried to evade responsibility when God questioned them.  Cain was essentially blaming Abel for his own murder.  Abel was righteous and accepted by God, which angered Cain who was rejected by God (1 John 3:12-13).  Cain may have thought his smooth words would absolve him of responsibility, but God cannot be fooled.  As we saw when examining abortion, Cain would not have been justified in killing Abel unless Abel was actively trying to kill him.  Cain was responsible for his own motives, emotions, thoughts, words, and actions—as are we all.  As individualistic Americans, we understand individual responsibility, but as we saw when discussing the nature of responsibility, there is also shared responsibility.  Recall that individual responsibility always exists, establishes guilt, and can be retained or delegated but not shared.  If multiple people are responsible for something individually, each is responsible for the particular aspects he or she had authority over.  On the other hand, shared responsibility is not about guilt but fixing problems.  In shared responsibility, we recognize that our words and deeds impact other people and therefore acknowledge our contribution to their thoughts, emotions, motives, words, and deeds even while we do not accept individual responsibility for them.  Therefore, we are prone to two errors in misunderstanding the nature of responsibility.  The error of critical theory is to treat shared responsibility as individual responsibility and punish accordingly, which is unjust and therefore abhorrent to God (Deuteronomy 24:16).  But we must also avoid neglecting shared responsibility by assuming that someone else’s individual responsibility absolves us of any responsibility of our own.  Scripture is clear that we Christians are responsible for one another.
Members of One Another
In the Body of Christ, we have responsibility for one another because we are members of Christ and therefore members of one another (Romans 12:5, 1 Corinthians 12:27).  We are not independent but highly interdependent just like all of the parts of our bodies.  What we do affects the rest of the Body, and what others in the Body do affects us—whether we know it or not.  You need only to stub you toe to be reminded this fact.  This interconnectedness leads to interdependency that is seldom acknowledged in many churches of the individualistic West.  Scripture does not describe the Church as a group of collocated strangers, social club, or political party but as a body, family, and building.  Though we are many and diverse, we are one, reflecting our Triune God: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13).  God has determined the place for every individual and gifted him or her accordingly.  That means that everyone in every church needs everyone else in that church—not in spite of our differences but because of them.  So we cannot say that because we do not have a particular role or possess certain gifts we are not part of the Body (1 Corinthians 12:12-20).  Nor can we say that anyone else does not belong to the Body because he or she does not have a particular role or gifts (1 Corinthians 12:21):
On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
-1 Corinthians 12:22-26, ESV
Notice how the members of the Body care for one another for the good of the entire Body.  When one part suffers, the other parts feel it and compensate so that the suffering part can heal and the whole body can continue functioning.  For the rest of the body to ignore the suffering part and continue on normally is to aggravate the injury, which ultimately increases the pain to the entire body.  So since we are responsible to use our gifts to build up the Body, we are responsible for other members of the Body.  This includes calling one another to repentance and restoring them when they do: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Galatians 6:1 cf. Matthew 18:17-19).  Since this is a command—and God gives us the authority to obey Him—we have the authority to call one another to repentance and do what is necessary to restore each other much as a leader has authority over subordinates.  And since authority cannot exist apart from responsibility, we have shared responsibility for each other.  Therefore, we are each responsible for ourselves and yet also responsible for each other: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
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Where did things go wrong between the genders? Not with God’s original design. God’s original design for men and women was good — not just good but very good. We dare not ignore the dignity of both men and women or eliminate the differences between them, because those differences are good. We have to look at where the problem began, and that isn’t with God but with our ancient enemy the devil. He introduced sin into the world, and as we’re going to see, sin affected the relationship between men and women.

Last summer, we were camping about half an hour east of North Bay when our car broke down. It really broke down. It was almost un-drivable.
We faced three issues:

First, the immediate issue: how to get the vehicle home.
Second, diagnosing the problem, because you have to know what you are trying to fix.
Third, actually getting it fixed.

We solved the first issue. It involved God answering prayer and some questionable driving decisions that turned out fine. But diagnosing the problem was a bit harder. We’re not mechanics, so we guessed wrong what the issue might be. But we’re not the only one. Our mechanic guessed wrong and ordered the wrong part, which we still ended up paying for, but in the end we got what we wanted. All three issues were solved. We got the vehicle home. We finally diagnosed the problem accurately. And we got it fixed at a price we could afford.
I’m here to tell you that the same three issues apply to our discussion of gender.

First, we face immediate issues. These are the real issues that we face every day: questions of singleness and marriage, gender roles and differences, tensions between the genders, and other pressing issues.
But then we face the challenge of diagnosing the problems. What’s underneath the immediate issues? This is important, because if we make the wrong diagnosis, we won’t solve the problem.
And then we actually have to take the step of getting the issue solved.

Today, I want to focus on the second stage. I want to focus on diagnosing the problem that causes many of the issues between the genders. What’s behind all the tensions between men and women — societal issues like harassment, stereotypes, and double standards? Closer to home, what makes it so hard sometimes for men and women to get along?
We’ve got to come to an accurate diagnosis of the problem if we’re going to come up with the solution.
The Wrong Diagnosis
Here’s why I think this is so important. I think we often tend to misdiagnose the problem. We think and act as if the problem is the difference between the genders, which is why we often find ourselves trying to either erase the differences between men and women, or to devalue one gender or the other. There are few more issues that get more heated than this one. As one person points out, “Few topics have generated such heat or confusion as the 21st-century debates over sex, gender and male-female relations.”
Because we get the diagnosis wrong, we also get the cure wrong.
For instance, you’ve heard the term toxic masculinity. There is such a thing as toxic masculinity. But it would be easy to think that the problem is masculinity itself. Masculinity is good! God came up with the idea. I love what one author writes: “Men become dangerous not because their masculinity is toxic but because their humanity is … In short, the answer is not to weaken men, but to help them grow stronger.” The problem isn’t masculinity in itself; the problem is sin. If we misdiagnose the problem, we’ll misdiagnose the solution.
In other words, the problem isn’t what we think it is. Last week we saw that God’s original design for men and women is good — not just good but very good. We’ve seen looked at Genesis 1 and 2 and have seen that men and women have dignity and differences that are designed for our good and our joy:

Men and women have dignity — Both genders are made in the image of God. They’re equal in personhood and importance, and and it takes both genders to represent God in this world.
Men and women have differences — Eve was created both alike and different from Adam. They correspond to each other. Men and women have both similarities and profound differences, and yet those differences are meant to be a source of joy.

Many of our problems today is because we let go of one of those truths: dignity or differences. We have to hold both together. Both men and women have dignity, but men and women also have differences. If we let go of the dignity of each gender, or ignore the differences between the genders, we will go wrong.
The problem is not God’s design of men and women. That is a very good thing. If we think that erasing the differences is the solution to restoring dignity to both genders, then we’ve misdiagnosed the problem and we’ll come up with the wrong solution.
We need to hold on to the dignity of both men and women and the differences between us. The problem doesn’t lie in our differences; the problem is elsewhere.
The Real Problem
Genesis 3 tells us what the real issue is.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (Genesis 3:1-7)
I want to make two observations.
The Problem Began with the Craftiness of Our Enemy, Not with God’s Design
You find a talking serpent. Revelation identifies the snake as “that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan” (Revelation 12:9). And what did that serpent do? He tempted the first couple to question God’s word and seize something that didn’t belong to them yet. He provoked them to distrust God and to decide for themselves what’s right and wrong. Rather than submitting to God, they try to take God’s place. As Spurgeon put it, they struck a match and set the world on fire with sin.
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