The Bible is a book of alignment – you either align or you malign.

Titus 2:3-5

speak out the things that make for solid doctrine…so that no one will malign the Word of God

Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone to malign God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.

The idea behind this phrase – Things which are proper for sound doctrine – has to do with right living, not just right thinking. The Living Bible translates this “Speak up for the right living that goes along with true Christianity.” The New Living Translation has “Promote the kind of living that reflects right teaching.”

We can’t escape it. The Bible is a book that tells us how to live. It is the height of hypocrisy to say that we believe its truth if we ignore how it tells us to live our lives. We don’t always like it, but we always need to hear how God expects us to live.

Paul simply wants Titus to fulfill the command of Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20: Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. Because you either align or malign!

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Quote: Pastor Young