Older and Younger Men

Titus 2:2& 6
(A brief overview of our all ages men’s breakfast talk on Mar 22, 2025)
 
[Have boys build a playdough house while we begin]

You might remember PM Jean Chretien (Christian); a rather normal PM compared to those more recently. However, even in his day he had those who disagreed with him who would sometimes call him Jean Cretan (the French word for moron!). This word comes from the context of the ministry of Titus, which was Crete, 1:5, 12. We too live in a crazy world, don’t we?

The craziness of Crete was made worse by false teachers, who likewise add to our present troubles as well—nothing new under the sun (1:10–11).

Titus’ mission, therefore, was 1:5. How could he set things in order? Because the Gospel changes lives, or truth truly trusted transforms (1:1). The Gospel produces good works in our lives (good works don’t save us but they do show we are saved). ‘Good works’ is mentioned 13x in the NT, 6x of them in Titus!

Speaking of good works, boys, let’s see your houses. [Access the houses made]

A man named Wilberforce likened faith and living to a house. The house is our faith, what goes on in the house the result of our faith (otherwise known as orthodoxy and orthopraxy). It is the ideal of a health home, solid and lived in. Titus paints a picture of a healthy church. In ch. 2 he particularly identifies how different genders and ages ought to live, in our case, men. (The Church is both visible and invisible. We visibly look like part of the church if we hang around Christians. We invisibly join the church through Jesus Christ and then visible display that. The Gospel, and not just attending church, is what is needed (and presumed) if these things will be true in your life).

Question- Who is an older man? [ask youth] Who is a younger man? [ask seniors]

Age is someone subjective, isn’t it. All men are old if you are 6 and everyman is young if you are 90. To give an objective threshold, let’s use 30 as the divider, the age when you could become a rabbi in Jesus’ day. An age, whereby, one would expect you’ve had life experience, got a job, been married, had children, etc.

Older men (presbyter, or elder) was a term used of men with experience and age. It highlighted the virtues of wisdom, experience, authority and respect in the ancient world.

Younger men (neos, or new [pais= children, but here I’m lumping everyone under 30 together])= fresh into adulthood and conveyed virtues of freshness, strength, renewal and hope.

Now, there is often a tension between old and young, isn’t there (the old look down on the young and visa versa). However, Scripture paints a more balanced picture Lev 19:32; 1 Ti 4:12; Prov 20:29.
Let’s consider what Paul expected of older and younger men—a mirror for us to see whether we’re being transformed into good works by the truth.

It is harder to be old! Question- What six things are expected of older men? We ought to be aspiring to these things with the help of the Spirit. Speaking of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5) ends with a commonality between the old and young—self-control.

You see, as sinners, we’re all born wild [open chest door and make monkey sounds]. Activity- boys, spread out and be wild for 15 sec; now- stand on one foot touch your nose and hold your back for 15 secs… Which was harder? It is easy to be wild, we are naturally; far more difficult to be self-controlled. For this we need the Lord’s grace. Question- how is self-control the root of the virtues of the older man? How is self-control needed/what does it look like for a young man/old man? Again, self-control is the root of manly godliness.
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If we don’t follow Titus’ wider and specific teaching, we’ll be wild morons further led astray by false teachers. If we would aspire to be true men of God, we must have faith in and follow Jesus, bringing forth these good works.