Called To Be God’s
Woman:
A
Titus 2 Woman
KEY VERSE: Titus
2:2-5
Lesson 3 – The Practice of
Believers
Scriptures for
Lesson 3 – Titus 2:1
Ephesians
4:1-6; 4:7-20;
Weekly Instruction
before coming to the study:
Please read the Scriptures related to the current
lesson.
Also, please answer the questions below in preparation for class
time.
Don’t forget to
stay in touch with your prayer partners updating them on prayer needs for the
ladies’ group.
Synopsis from lessons 1 &
2
We have completed Chapter I of Titus, a
letter from Paul with specific
purposes. Paul on a previous voyage to
Titus
must complete.
We learned last week, Titus was not a man who shirked from the ‘hard
things’.
If there was a job to be
done, he was your man. He had
proved this on
several other
occasions in Scripture. We learned
Titus has been entrusted to ordain elders over the several different communities
of converts in
cities. This task would not be easy, given
island
were vile characters, people of low character and reputations. Within this
wicked
society, Titus was to find godly men with God’s qualifications to oversee the
various groups of believers.
Also, within the group of believers we found there were false teachers:
wolves
in
sheep’s clothing. They denied God’s
truth and spread fables and myths among
these
new converts. They were divisive
and tearing apart families. The
Bible calls
them
“reprobates”.
Lesson
Goals: We will bring
into focus what the Scriptures have to say about how
WE should behave as
Believers, that is, practicing what we say we believe. We begin tonight’s lesson in Titus 2:1
1. From [B] verse 2:1 – WHO is it that is to speak “sound
doctrine”?
(Titus) The letter is addressed to Titus. The “thou” refers to him.
The colon punctuation after the word, ‘doctrine’, tells us to whom Titus
is to address sound
doctrine.
What is ‘sound doctrine’? It is
healthy or wholesome teaching.
Why is it ‘sound’? It is sound because it is not based upon
men’s fables or
any human’s ideology,
but on the Word of God.
Titus is to promote the spirit of sanctification in congregational
life. We see
in the verses that
follow (verses 2-10) a varied group of people make up the congregations: aged
men, aged women, young women, husbands, children,
young men, servants,
and if there are servants, there are masters.
2. Why is “sound
doctrine” important? (Hint:
See Titus 1:9;
[B] Titus 1:9 - Sound doctrine is the means to be used to
“exhort and convince
the gainsayers.”
What does it mean to
exhort?
It is to urge, advise or to warn
earnestly.
And, to convince? Sound doctrine was to be used to persuade, sway or win
over these gainsayers
to change their minds from their ways to God’s ways. In
-2-
short, sound doctrine
was the means of causing men to repent of their
ways.
Titus
3. Why do you think it was
important for Titus to speak what is consistent
with “sound doctrine”?
Before the congregation Titus
must not only talk the talk “But speak thou…” but Titus must
also, walk the walk that he might then teach others.
Titus had to make a consistent sharp
contrast against the Cretans
and the false
teachers.
He
was God’s man and couldn’t be distinctively God’s if he
compromised or walked
the ways of the world.
APPLICATION :
Take a moment to think about your walk IN the home; in the congregation;
in the body of
believers; in the body of Christ.
Is our walk consistent in all of
these
areas or just some of
these areas?
This sound doctrine Paul speaks of and the challenge from God’s Word is
still the same criteria
for today’s believer.
-We must stand out as God’s own among unbelievers of this world.
Our neighbors, our
relatives, our co-workers, visitors to the church who may not be saved, the
teller at the bank, the cashier at the market.
The doctrine, or teaching we have received, must then manifest
itself in
every phase of our
lives and be “in harmony” with God, His Word and each other.
This is not always an
easy task. Our attitudes and temprements need to be
consistent with God’s
calling as His Bride. We don’t have
the luxury of blowing
hot and cold in our
walk. Our ‘sound doctrine’
must be continuously on-going and sound as it relates with Gospel
truths.
-What we say we
believe, we must live what we say we
believe.
Also, those who are matured in the Lord also need to stand out
in the body
of Christ as distinct from the world. This is where we begin tonight: believers in
the
congregation.
We are going to go on a little exploratory journey through God’s Word to
see what God says to us about
His expectation of us as
believers. We
need to first understand our place as believers before we zero in on the Titus 2 woman.
4. READ: [B] Ephesians 4:1-6 Paul, in speaking to the church, speaks
of the unity of the
church through godly living. (context of
passage).
Going verse by verse, how would you summarize what Paul is saying
in the following verses?
Verse 1 – WHAT is Paul
saying? (ladies answer)
“Walk worthy” of the “vocation” that he was called to.
-3-
ASK: WHAT is this vocation we are
called to?
(ladies answer)
We are called to follow Christ; to be His Bride.
Ryrie says, our
vocation is “our Heavenly calling”.
Verse 2
– How does Paul’s ‘walk’ manifest itself?
(ladies answer)
Paul’s walk manifests or shows itself in
lowliness=humility,
in
meekness=gentleness.
When does this humility and gentleness surface? Become evident?
It is when the believer
is longsuffering…I didn’t say, ‘suffering long’
but
longsuffering. Longsuffering is a
patient endurance
when we are offended.
Forbearing speaks not just of being tolerant but also being
tolerant
with a caring
nature. We might say this
forbearance shows itself in being merciful,
or lenient and
compassionate. These are difficult
virtues to display when we are
dealing with those who
either are unsaved or perhaps, saved but not yet yielded to
the Holy Spirit’s
leading to bear the Spirit’s fruit.
APPLICATION - Likewise, our
walk or lifestyle should show itself with humility; meekness or gentleness;
long-suffering; forbearing in love.
These are some of the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22, 23.
In verse 25, It is written,
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also
walk in the Spirit.”
RECAP: We are
admonished to walk worthy of our calling to follow Christ;
we are His Bride and
being His Bride and having the power of the Holy Spirit
in us, we are not left
helpless to accomplish that which we are asked to do.
Phil 4:12,
13[B] reinforces this truth: “I know both how
to be abased, and I know
how to abound: every
where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and
to be hungry, both
abound and to suffer need. I can do
all things through Christ
which strengtheneth
me.”
Verse 3 – According to this verse
WHY?
should we do as Paul says
in verses 1 and 2? (ladies answer)
We respond to Paul’s teaching that the
Spirit of Christ not be disrupted.
The result is peace
would continue without any schisms.
What does that tell you about our response to the Spirit? The
Spirit
should rule in me, and
not my flesh.
APPLICATION
QUESTION:
What if we are having a bad day?
What if we feel we are just too busy?
What if we don’t feel
well? What if your boss was in a
bad mood? What if you hate
your job or you are
treated badly? The ‘what ifs’ of
this life are endless. There are
no exceptions for us if
we have the Spirit dwelling in us.
As the Word says, “He must increase but I must
decrease.”- John 3:30.
-4-
In verses
4-6 we have an explanation of our not being
free to ‘do our
own thing’. We are not free to stand up and defend
ourselves in the flesh.
Why? Like Paul, in verse 1, we are “prisoners” of Jesus Christ.
We are “ONE” in Jesus Christ, not individuals who are dancing to
their own tune; we
don’t belong to ourselves but to each other and to One God!
And, at the same time,
God is doing a work in each of us according to His purpose.
Each work of His will
be different in each one of us, but all with one purpose
because of the Oneness
that is described in these verses.
Because His work in us is individual and different from each other,
we need to allow God to
have free reign in our lives…and we need to be careful to
not be someone else’s
Holy Spirit nor expect everyone in the body to do things as
God has directed you to
do them. God gives us each
different things to learn and
what He has for me will
be different from that which He has for you. We don’t
conform someone else to
who we are, but to Who He is.
Question 4
- Verse 4–6 [B] -
List the description of being
“ONE”:
Verse 4 – One Body, that is, one
body of Christ;
this one body of Christ
has one Spirit, the Holy Spirit and we all have
one hope,
that is Eternity with
Jesus
Christ.
Verse 5 – One
Lord, one faith, one baptism
– We share all these things
in
common.
Verse 6 - We have the
same Father! He is
Chief! He is
total Authority!
He is Sovereign! He’s in every situation
and within us.
Galatians 3:26 says, “For ye are the children of God by faith in Jesus
Christ.”
This is our common
bond, our faith in Jesus Christ.
Question 5 - READ: [B]
Ephesians 4:7-16
This portion of Chapter 4 speaks of our practice as
believers in relationship
to our spiritual
gifts. These are the gifts
given to us when we were saved. God
gave us these gifts for a specific purpose.
List the purposes. Substantiate
your answer with a verse reference.
a. Does every saved person
have a spiritual gift? Verse 7, yes.
b. Who decides the extent of our spiritual gift, according to this
verse? Christ.
-5-
c. According to verse
12, what
are the three purposes for our
having spiritual
gifts?
For the perfecting of the saints;
for the work of the ministry
and for the edifying
of the body of Christ.
RECAPPING: Verse 12, then is saying that Christ imbued us with spiritual
gifts…it is not a gift
of our own choosing but something He has given to us at
salvation to accomplish
His purposes. The purposes are not
for ourselves…but
for the rest of the
body: for the saints to come to maturity; for the working of the ministry of
Christ and for building up the body of Christ. No where in this answer
is there any room for
“I”. No room for:
if I want, when I want, will I or
won’t I. No…remember
we are not our own…we are prisoners of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
d. According to
verse 13, this
gift is given to us for a lifetime.
What will be
the goals of accomplishment
in this lifetime?
-A unity of faith within the body of
Christ.
-A unity in
the knowledge of Christ with a goal of completeness or
maturity in the life of
our fellow Christian.
Ryrie has this to say about spiritual gifts: They are “abilities that God gives
believers in order that they may serve Him. Every Christian has at least one gift.”
This is a lifetime of service and a lifetime of
accountability and responsibility
to our Lord. There is no retirement as stewards in
His service. Our rewards will be
forthcoming in Heaven.
e. According to verses 14-16, being good
stewards of the spiritual gifts given
to us will produce good fruit
for us. What good fruit does
it produce? (ladies
answer)
Being a good steward of the spiritual
gifts given to us will
produce a completeness
or a maturity in us which will manifest itself by our
standing firm on our
belief and knowledge of our Father and of our faith.
Also, it will produce
the proper and right attitude: Christ’s attitude of love.
Each
one of us, doing our part in exactly the same way as unto Christ,
will produce a body of
believers who are sound, healthy, whole…tightly
knitted
in the body of Christ and
emulating His love…Christ’s love and not human love.
Ephesians 17-19
tells us more of what our practice as
believers should be:
Our new life in Christ must be a sharp contrast to the life we walked
before Christ was our
Savior. We see a picture of this
old nature or the world
in verses 17-19 [B].
These work the works of vanity or emptiness of mind, verse 17;
They have not Christ’s vision on things because they are not His, thus
deeming them blind to spiritual
things and things concerning God Himself, verse 18.
Having no light, no Christ in their
lives, they become calloused, as
verse 19 says, they are “past
feeling”.
-6-
VERSES 20-21
–
Tell us that in Christ, we have no part with these ‘Gentiles’. We are in
Christ and have been
taught His Truth.
6. READ: Ephesians
counter the ‘old
nature’ in us.
Listing the verses
you are referring to, what instruction is given to
counter our ‘old nature’? (ladies answer)
Verse 23 - Renew
the SPIRIT of your mind
Colossians
is
renewed in knowledge after the image of
him that created
him:”
We have
been plucked out of Satan’s
world into the
responsibility to learn
of Christ and seek to become as followers of
Christ.
Verse 24 – This new man in Christ is like unto God: created in
righteousness and true
holiness.
The verses
that follow 25-31 detail the ways we are to NOT
respond as new
creatures in Christ. They are
pretty self-explanatory. And
then, in verse 32, we have some positive instruction: Be kind; tenderhearted,
forgiving.
What should be our motivation,
from verse
32, to forgive one another?
God the Father, for Christ’s sake,
that is, what He did on the Cross for you
and for me: He forgave us our sin against a Holy
God.
Question 7 - What overall
principal can you apply for yourself?
(ladies share)
Our next lesson will bring us
back to Titus
2 – Practicing, So We Can
Walk.
Give out lesson 4 Questions.