The bible has a great deal to teach about the role of women in the church. We are just focusing primarily on what Paul had written to Titus. Here is our text:
3Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God – Titus 2:3-5 NIV.
In Part 1, I mentioned that the first thing Paul points out to Titus to look for are “older women.” Why? Because these season sisters have a lot to contribute to the rest of the saints. Their experiences are rich. Most likely when Paul told Titus about older women, he was referring to women who were around the age of sixty. Such women are to be given special esteem and consideration.
But there are some practical ways for older women to serve in the church.
First, they can pour their lives into teaching and encouraging younger women in the things of God. Think about it: Older women can minister to younger women, other older women, divorce women, widowed women, married women, women with or without children, single women, etc. They are such a rich resource of the church. To not use the older women in your church is to not use one of God’s most prize resources. They can also visit the sick and those in prison. They can serve the body in the area of hospitality.
In towns and places that were very much pagan to the core, Christian women would go through the streets and marketplaces searching for abandoned newborn babies who were unwanted and had been left to die. Abortion at this time was often too expensive and the procedures were often times not safe. Birth control pills and devices were not even around, therefore, unwanted babies were left and abandoned at birth. The unsaved would find male babies and raise them as slaves or gladiators, and if they found a female, she would be raised as a prostitute in order to give the person who raised her a lucrative income. However, Christian women who would find these babies first, would often bring them to church and allow others who could not have kids of their own to raise them as their own.
Older women who had already gone through the child rearing stage could offer help and assistance to young mothers just starting out. By helping out in this way, older women would spend quality time with other women and use such a time to talk about the things of God and build strong disciples.
When Paul used the term “likewise” in verse 3, he was pointing back to what he had just said about “older men” (v. 2). Just as there are roles for older men, there are also roles for older women.
Too often the church has a tendency to look outside of its membership to find that right program, that gifted speaker, that awesome idea in order to help its membership expand its faith in God. But how often do we see that God has given to the church rich resources in the older men and women who are in the church? We must not put such people on the shelf ant not use them. They have a lot to contribute and if directed properly by church leaders, they could become an invaluable asset to the church’s family.
So what are some of the specific qualities that should characterize older women in the church?
More to come in Part 3
