by Pastor Afolabi Oladele
And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. Luke 1:26-38
The framing of our present society imposes such individual tendencies that except we individually choose to resist them each person becomes an island to him or her self. Parents and children, the singles and the married alike, activities are tending more and more to isolate us from one another. Amongst the several ominous impacts of isolationism the greater victims tend to be with our women folk upon whom society places moral restrictions that men are not bound by. So, many of our women of different ages are caged without helpful avenues of expression of their pains! This need not be so, particularly within the body of believers.
Our text of today presents two women, one was old and advanced in age but much further along in understanding God and how He chooses to work with His own (Luke 1:7, 24-25) and the other a teenager who was going through the shock of a lifetime! Imagine Mary having to struggle with the weight of what God was putting on her. In an example of roles assignment and how the older women should be towards younger women, the angel of the Lord practically led Mary to Elizabeth for counsel and assurance.
From Nazareth to Galilee, another city of Judah, Mary went to ascertain what the angel said. Was she unbelieving? No. Otherwise she would not have gone to see Elizabeth who under the inspiration of the only perfect Great Conductor, declared in verse 45 “…she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.” Such is where our God has positioned the older women, the bastions of guidance and encouragement in His house (Titus 2:2-5).
We end this admonition with an extract from Amanda Walker’s 2018 piece on 6 Habits Younger Women Need Older Women To Teach Them…
“I cannot end this article without the warning found in Titus 2:5. Older women in the faith are to model and teach the younger women the above curriculum in order that “the word of God may not be reviled” (Titus 2:5b). The Greek word blasphemeo, translated “reviled” in the ESV is transliterated “blasphemy” in English. Blasphemeo is a word that is used to mean “to speak against God so that you cast through or make null and void God’s word and His truths.”[v] God is jealous of His name and His glory (Exod 34:13-14). This is why it is so imperative that Christian women obey the commands to be self-controlled, pure, kind, submissive to their husbands, etc.
Disobedience to these commands can confuse non-Christians into if Christianity does not change a person’s heart and behavior, but instead causes them to remain the same or become a worse individual. A woman must also resist the temptation to obey the commands she deems worthy of obedience and then disobey the ones she considers culturally irrelevant. God’s Word is timeless, and it must be respected and obeyed in its full context.
God is serious about discipleship. Older women in the faith who do not display the listed characteristics are in violation of God’s commands. Younger women are looking to older women to model to them what a godly woman looks like in a godless world. I certainly do not want to be guilty of blaspheming God’s name. And I know you don’t either. Instead, my prayer is that you and I would be obedient to obey the Titus 2 model of discipleship.
Ladies, God desires to use each one of us, regardless of our weaknesses, in order to draw women to Himself. Are you willing to take on the challenge of mentoring the next generation for Christ?”
Leave a Reply