Younger Women (v.4-5)
1. Loving their husbands – Younger women should love their husbands. Giving all faithfulness to their relationship. They have to submit to their husbands in everything.
2. Loving their children – This is a basic instinct of a mother to her children. But there are some mothers who do not love their children. Instead of teaching them Godliness and “goodliness” they are teaching them evilness. The Bible is very clear that mothers should love their children. And loving involves discipline.
3. To be discreet – Marked by prudence or modesty and wise self-restraint. Unobtrusively (not undesirably noticeable, appear with modesty), perceptive and sympathetic. Many of our women in our time are not like these anymore. Many women of our time are “undesirably noticeable”. The Bible is very clear that women have to show modesty inside the church even in the way they look. Not to become daring and so noticeable that men will be looking at them with lust.
4. To be chaste - morally pure, and in which it includes the appearance –young women must not be engage in any immoral acts. Giving all love and faithfulness to their husbands.
5. To be homemakers - They need to love and create better homes, and not party goers. It does not mean that young women cannot totally go to parties. But here we see a set of priorities. Young women, prioritize building their homes. They work to make their homes a better place to live. Cleaning the house, assisting and feeding the children, supporting the children and etc.
The idea of radical feminism was a long age issue. It was already a part of ancient Babylonian and Assyrian mythology. And this endangers the Christian homes even in our days.
6. Good – They have desirable attitudes with pleasing personality. Should deserve esteem respect. Do we have desirable attitudes with pleasing personality? Are we respectable in front of people, even of the same age? Or we exemplify a snobbish type of young women?
7. Obedient to their own husbands – Young women are suppose to be obedient to their husbands and not husbands obedient to their wives. What I mean is that, some women tend to undermine their husbands so much. They are the one who command their husbands to work in the house instead them as homemakers.
Young Men (v.6-8)
1. Sober minded – Again, sober minded means dignified both in works and of mind. Young men are to promote dignified acts. A big percentage of young men prefer to talk all kinds of lustfulness. It will not do you any good and it is not an act of sober-minded. Neither having two girlfriends at the same time nor having a premarital sex will add to your dignity. Not even smoking and drinking liquor will add to your manhood because most if not all homosexuals drink hard liquors and are change smokers. But godliness and righteousness will.
2. Pattern of good works – Sometimes, young men profess to be Christians but never act as one. Sometimes we become a pattern but not of good works. I remember some of my cousins who had their own contest of how many girlfriends they can have. And one of cousin became a champion who in our estimate had at least 20 girlfriends for a period of four years. He became a pattern of works, but not of good works.
3. Showing Integrity in doctrine or in what we teach – Some translation used the phrase “in doctrine”. This means that we have to show integrity in what we teach. That is why it is important that we live what we teach because it is Biblical that integrity is needed in teaching. I still remember one doctor who advices his patients not to smoke too much that while saying that, he continuously pop his cigarette. That doctor died with lung cancer by the way.
4. Reverence – Can also be defined as seriousness. It is seriousness to his faith and what he believes. And that people respect him in his faith. Some people do not respect our faith because sometimes, we even do not give due respect to what we believe. I still remember Gandhi giving a statement, “I believe in Christianity, but do not believe in Christians.” It is because we do not give much reverence to our faith, to what we believe.
5. Incorruptibility – When we say incorruptibility, it means that we cannot be corrupted. This can be done if we learn to say no to temptations, to offers that we know can destroy our dignity. Saying “NO” to drugs, saying “NO” to alcohols, saying “NO” to vices, saying “NO” smoking, and saying “NO” to other bad things, should not be just saying “NO” but acting and working to the “NO” answer. If can do that then we are on the right tract of incorruptibility. To simplify everything I said, it means that taking a stand against what you believe is not right.
6. Sound speech that cannot be condemned that one as opponent may be ashamed. –Sound speech means we are able to teach people about Christ with conviction. That is why we have trainings about leading Bible studies. Sometimes, we do not have a sound speech because we do not let ourselves to be trained. Training is important.
7. Have nothing evil to say of you – This is where many of us fell. Hidden sins are one of the main causes of this. Sometimes we cannot move on in our Christian lives and on things that is righteous because we have not confessed our sins and surrendered to God. That is why until now evil has lots of things to say against us. Always remember though, that all sins can be forgiven except to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31). What are we going to do then? 1John 1:9 answers us.
The Bond Servants (9-10)
1. Obedient to their own masters – Sometimes masters are obedient to their servants. There are many groups of laborers now who demand lots of things from their masters. I’m not saying that appealing for an increase or any benefit is bad, but sometimes because of this demand, we used to force our masters to give it to us and become disobedient. Disobedience will not resolve your problems with your masters but it will only create troubles to your disadvantage. Many companies now close not because of disability, but to get rid of bunch of disobedient people.
How about knowing that the Lord is our Master? Will that make us compelled to be obedient to him? But sometimes, we are so disobedient.
2. Well pleasing in all things – As much as possible we are to please our masters in all things. It is how we should win their favor. Pleasing and obeying them as if we are obeying the Lord.
If we prefer to please our earthly masters, how much more to please our big Master who our Lord Jesus Christ? Serving the King of kings and the Lord of lords is a great honor and a great privilege.
3. Not answering back – There are servants who talk back against their masters. Sometimes, we so much like this even to our Lord. We do this by insisting our will instead of His. We are so hard headed until the time God disciplines us.
4. Not pilfering – not stealing. Some employees steal company’s assets. In small ways, we can commit this sin. Even with bond papers of our company.
How about to our Lord? We commit stealing by not giving what is due to God. We have to return our tithes to the Lord and give our offerings. If it is Biblical not to steal with our earthly masters, it is also Biblical not to steal with our heavenly master.
5. Showing all good fidelity (that may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things). Not only that we are to obey our Lord but also to give our faithfulness to Him. We are to be His even in the midst of trails or in abundance. Take note the purpose of our faithfulness is to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things, that it will not only be true in words but also in actions.
The Lord hate infidels, he hates betrayal to him as what we have discussed last week. But the Lord loves those who are faithful. Our obedience should be accompanied by faithfulness. Are we faithful to God? Are we obedient to Him?
Conclusion:
We have seen here the qualities that each member should have inside the church. What do we do next? Should we continue pursuing these kinds of qualities as church?
Another Sermon Manuscript of:
Ptr. Vince Olaer
The Lighthouse Christian Ministry
Cadeliña Offices, Rizal St.
Ormoc City, Leyte
Philippines, 6541
Recommended Sites:
http://wsmuniversity.blogspot.com
www.freewebs.com/wsmuniversity/
