On Being a Mature Christian Woman #1

How does a Christian woman aim for spiritual maturity? What is it that she looks at in her life?

What is it that she looks like? And say, okay, here I see what I am to do. Well, Paul gives us four things in this verse, and I'm very excited really to be able to share these things with you. If men have the burden of responsibility as spiritual leaders in the church, women too are called to a high standard when it comes to reflecting the glory of Jesus Christ. And today on The Truth Pulpit, Pastor Don Green looks into what it means to be a mature Christian woman.

Hello, I'm Bill Wright. We're continuing our series, Titus, God's Glorious Plan of Grace. Previously, Don showed us what Paul's letter to Titus had to say about how men are to carry themselves biblically. On this program, Don explores answers to the question, how does a Christian woman aim for spiritual maturity?

As usual, scripture provides the answer, so turn to Titus chapter 2 as we join Pastor Don Green now in The Truth Pulpit. It's very, very important for all of us to understand that scripture places a high status on the woman of Christ. Particularly if you read the Gospel of Luke with any care at all, you will see that women were among the most faithful followers of Christ throughout his earthly ministry. There was women that were close to him at the cross, it was women who went to the tomb, it was women who wept at his feet and wiped his feet with their hair and anointed him with perfume in order to honor him. Scripture places women in a high status and places them on equal ground with men in the body of Christ, and it shows that women are capable of deep, high, and profound devotion that is often a testimony to the men around them. We are mindful of the high calling of God upon Christian women and also the fact that God has blessed women and given them a profound place of significance in his kingdom. So redemption bestows this high status on women, and we need to honor that. The question is how does the woman of God respond to that blessing?

What is the particular application and outworking of her redemption in light of the work of Christ in her heart? And we're going to see that in Titus chapter 2. Look at verse 3 with me.

Older women, likewise. And see he's tying it to what he just said about men. In verse 2 we saw that men are to be dignified in life and mature in faith. And so with this word likewise, he's linking it like a chain, saying that what I am going to say to women is of like spirit with what I just said to the men. And so it's just that the application is a little bit different, but the underlying principles of godliness are the same.

That's shown by the word likewise there. He says older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good. Ladies, Paul is calling you. Better stated, perhaps, because this word comes from God himself through the apostle. God is calling you in your Christian life to show dignity. It's a dignity with an application just a little bit different, but the underlying principles are the same. Now let's say something here directly. When Paul says older women, he's talking about this in a comparative sense.

He doesn't use a chronological number in this place. Instead he's speaking in terms of a station in life. Those speaking particularly in this verse to ladies who have raised their families, ladies who have had some life experience. And he's speaking to them and showing them what it is that their aspirations and what their application of Christian living should be. Now, today, for you younger ladies, perhaps not yet with a family, perhaps looking forward to that, perhaps on the very beginning of your Christian life, let's say this and understand very carefully that what Paul says here today applies to you as well, that these are not only the things that should mark you, that should be characterized, even a young Christian woman, but young ladies, listen to me carefully. What you see in this verse here are the things that you should be setting your goal and saying, this is what I want my life to be like.

Perhaps you're in a position where you're going to be growing into that in the years to come because you're still on the beginning stages of life, but this is the goal, this is the point on the horizon that you particularly look at and say, oh, that's what I want to become like. And if you have a mom that exemplifies that for you, you do the same thing that I told the husbands to do. You thank your mom and you honor your mom for doing that, and yet you realize, you realize in this text, you have set before you what you are to become as a Christian woman as well. And so the application and the need for this is evident for all of us, but Paul here is speaking particularly to those women a little bit further along in life. And here's the question.

Here's the question. How does a Christian woman aim for spiritual maturity? What is it that she looks at in her life? What is it that she looks like and say, okay, here I see what I am to do. Well, Paul gives us four things in this verse, and I thought about trying to get all of verses three through five into one message, but I realized that that would just rush it, and sometimes when you rush things, you leave too much out.

And so we wanted to slow it down here for verse three. And I'm very excited, really, to be able to share these things with you. What is it that a Christian woman aims for in her spiritual maturity? What does she look at in her life? Four things. The first one here, and this is so fundamental, it is your self-assessment.

Your self-assessment. A Christian woman lives by how she sees her position in Christ. It is the defining mark of how she views all of life.

It is the prism through which she understands everything else. Look at what it says here in verse three. Older women, likewise, are to be. As I emphasized last time, this is a call to character. This is not first and foremost a call to things that you do. Everything you do is affected by it, but understand that this is a call to character. When you see this verse, when you hear it expounded, you should see that God is addressing your character directly and saying, This is what you are to be like, you ladies that have raised your families, that are almost finished raising your families, you ladies in your 40s, 50s, and beyond. This is what God is calling you to do. He is setting apart, sanctifying your heart, and saying, Listen, pay attention, this is what at the very core of everything you are to be like.

Your self-assessment. A Christian woman lives by how she sees her position in Christ. Look at it with me there in verse three. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent. That's a word that we don't necessarily throw around too much in our English language and in our everyday speech. The interesting thing about this word is that this is the only time in the New Testament that this word reverent is used.

It's an interesting word. It's related to the word for being a priest, serving in a temple. What God is saying, ladies, is that you should see yourself as one who is set apart for service to God. He's saying that you should view your life as one that Christ has chosen, Christ has redeemed for himself, and therefore you exist exclusively to serve the purposes of God while you live this life on earth. To be reverent, to understand that you are set apart for a particular purpose. One writer says that this word means that a woman takes seriously the fact that she belongs to God and not to herself. It means that your deepest, most profound affections and loyalties belong.

Listen to me, this is going to challenge you. Belong not to your family, not to your husband, not to your children. Your most profound loyalty, most profound affection belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ who bought you with his own precious blood.

And everything else that is around you, everything else, all of those important relationships are simply the outworking. How you serve your family is an outworking of a prior vertical affection and loyalty to Christ. You see yourself as one set apart for service to God. That is what it means to be a Christian woman. Now, to help us see that, turn back to the book of 1 Corinthians. I just want you to see in a passage that's addressed to men as well, but this will kind of help you see what Paul has in mind. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18, ladies. We're reading verse 18 for the context to set verses 19 and 20. Paul says in verse 18, Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.

Now watch what he says here in verse 19. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. Christian ladies, Christian women, Christian sisters, you are a Christian because Jesus Christ bought you with a price.

He laid down his life gladly for you. He bought you so that he could separate you out from this sinful world, bought you so that he could separate you out for his unique service. You've been bought with a price, and therefore your defining ambition in life should be to glorify the one who saved you with his own blood. You're reverent. You understand that you've been set apart for the purposes of serving this wonderful Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who died for your sins by name. That's why you exist. That's your purpose in life, is to realize that you've been set apart to serve, to glorify, to magnify, to love with your highest affections the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is no competition in that deepest, most central part of your heart. There is no competition with anything on earth for the love that you have for the one who died for your soul.

That is your self-assessment. And so, ladies, let this lofty, noble realization settle into your mind, settle into your heart, filter into every way that you think. As I said earlier, your role is not defined primarily by your relationship to your husband or to your children. God gives them to you for a time, and you serve them and you love them. But, as too many of you know from personal experience, these earthly relationships are ultimately temporary.

Ultimately, your children grow up and move out. Ultimately, you'll say goodbye to your spouse, either as you depart this life or as your spouse departs this life. And what we have to understand is that the eternal reality, the eternal affection, that which endures and never changes, is the love and the devotion that Christ had for us in which we return to him in kind. Ladies, that's why you exist, is to give Christ that primary, unique, undivided affection of your heart.

It's to be set apart for Christ, and that impacts your entire life. Now, look at verse 3 with me again. That's the idea of reverent, being set apart, viewing yourself as one set apart for Christ. And look at verse 3 with me again.

Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior. Now, I don't especially like that word, behavior, the way that that's translated. This is another word that's used only here in the entire New Testament.

Christ uses two unique words back to back to express the uniqueness of what it means to be a Christian woman. And this term behavior, what I want you to understand is that this term behavior is saying more than be a good girl. It's saying more than conduct yourself in an inappropriate fashion. It includes that, but that's on the margins of what this word means.

What this word is saying is, in your behavior, it's referring to, get this, ladies. What this word is saying, this reverence that we just talked about, this sense of being set apart for Christ, what this word is saying is that that reality of reverence is to be an expression of everything in life, your inner character of being devoted to Christ, filters its way out in absolutely everything that you do. What that means is, when Paul says to be reverent in your behavior, you should step back and realize, whether you consciously have thought this way or not, there is nothing in your life that is unaffected by the reality of being set apart for Christ. Everything, you're set apart for Christ. He chose you, he saved you, he sanctified you, and now, having been set apart like that, everything that comes out of your life, all of your thoughts, all of your words, all of your behavior are tied back to that reality of the character of being one set apart for Christ.

Reverent in your behavior, let's put it this way, ladies, you exist to represent Christ in your thought life, in your words, and in your actions, without exception. That is the starting point of life for you. That is where it all flows, it all bubbles out of that one pure and holy fountain. What springs out of your life all springs from the reality that Christ laid his life down for you, and now you serve him in return.

That's your starting point. And let me say this, ladies. Every one of you, just like every one of us men, all of you ladies, to one extent or another, who are here today as a Christian woman, we understand that you have been saved out of a sinful past. For some of you, maybe it was more just a matter of an internal change, and that you never really got involved in a lot of the external sins of this world. For some of you, you look back at your life before Christ, and your life was profoundly sinful, recognized as such by those around you. Let me say something to you that is very important and very transforming. Those of you that gave yourselves over to worldly sin more than perhaps some of the others.

Ladies, what we're talking about here, being reverent in all your behavior, your self-assessment, you need to think about it like this. If you are a Christian woman now, saved by the grace of God in your life, listen to me, this is glorious. Your sinful past no longer defines who you are.

Christ saved you out of that. And though perhaps at one time you were a servant of sin, Christ has saved you out of that by his glorious grace, picked you up out of that, brought you into his kingdom, and says to you ladies, you ladies with a sinful past, you ladies with a profoundly sinful past, Christ says to you, I took you out of that, and what defines you now is the fact that you belong to me. I have forgiven your past, Christ says. I will no longer bring it up. I will no longer hold it against you.

You come and you follow me. That is the glory of being a Christian woman. The point of salvation in Christ is that Christ has forgiven you of your sinful past because he paid the price for your sin at Calvary. Part of what he was doing when he hung on that cross, part of what was bleeding was his intention to wash away all of that sin in your life and to sanctify you and set you apart for his own glorious purposes. And ladies, what should that do to your heart?

How should you respond to that? Those of you that have been deep into sin and find yourself now in Christ, understand this, that what that should do is that that should make you love him profoundly. Yes, men took advantage of you. Yes, for some of you, you handed yourself over gladly for a time and it was all wrong and it was all sinful and it was not what God intended for the moral quality of your life. But understand that in Christ, Christ has set that aside and said it's different now. 2 Corinthians 5.17, If any man is in Christ, he's a new creature. Behold, the old things have passed away.

Behold, new things have come. Part of the new things in Christ for you is that Christ has set you apart for himself. And you now stand forgiven, declared righteous before God based on the merits of someone else, based on the merits of Christ. Christ has saved you so completely that that past no longer defines who you are. That's wonderful.

That's glorious. And men, it's the same for us, isn't it? But Paul in particular here is addressing the women. And so ladies, here's what your attitude should be if you're one of those women with a deep sinful past. Here's what your attitude should be about that. Here's what it means to be reverent in your behavior. Your attitude should be, my past was sinful, but Christ has saved me.

That defines me now. The saving work of Christ in my life is what defines me now. And in gratitude for his undeserved mercy to me, I will give myself over to him because I belong to him and I'm glad to belong to him. And you leave the past in the past and you look forward to the future with a sense that you belong to Christ and that sinful past has no longer the chains on you any longer. Ladies, it's a glorious thing to be a Christian woman.

And because of that, you love him. Now if you're here and you're a lady just speaking directly to you, if you're not a Christian today, you know that somehow you haven't figured it out. Somehow you're not yet in Christ. Let me assure you that your sinful past is no barrier to you coming to Christ. He calls sinners to repentance. He came to save sinners. Look in John chapter 4.

We won't turn there. Jesus had in front of him in a Middle Eastern well a woman who had had five husbands. And she was living with a man who was not her husband. And Christ spoke with her and explained that he was the Messiah and brought her to himself saving faith and forgave her entire past. Ladies, he's the same Christ today that he was at that well.

He's the same saving Son of God that he was back then. He will receive you. You can come to him in all of your sin and find in him a gracious Savior who's already paid the price and who calls you now to repent and put your faith in him. And ladies, he's saying to you, I'll forgive it all. It's why I came. And in response to that, for all of us brothers and sisters, we come to him. Ladies, you trust his finished work on the cross for your salvation. And it starts to open up in your mind.

It starts to unveil. Wow! Wow! I really love Christ! All of my guilt he took on himself. He's forgiven it all. I belong to him. I'm going to heaven.

Yeah, there's all that junk in my past, but you know what? It doesn't even matter anymore because Christ has saved me. I'm set apart for him in everything that I think, say, and do. Ladies, that's what it means to be a Christian woman. That's where you start. That's your self-assessment of this heart that you have belongs to one alone.

That's your self-assessment. A proper self-assessment leads a mature woman to understand what a relationship with Christ entails and the response of reverence it should produce. Pastor Don Green will cover three more points for the godly woman to consider and embrace on our next program. Join us then on The Truth Pulpit. Right now, though, Don's back here in studio with some closing words.

Hi, friend. Let me give you just a closing word of encouragement as we wrap up today's broadcast. I know that many of you have found us for the first time on Christian radio, and that's wonderful. But I also realize that sometimes your schedules don't let you work around the broadcast schedule.

We have made it possible for you to be able to still get The Truth Pulpit on a regular basis. We have a broadcast of each radio broadcast that you can find, and you can have it automatically delivered to your favorite listening device. If you go to our website, you can find a link to the podcast. Sign up for it, and be sure to catch every episode. Here's Bill to help you find it. Just visit thetruthpulpit.com, where you can also learn more about this ministry Once again, that's thetruthpulpit.com. I'm Bill Wright, inviting you back next time when Don Green presents more from The Truth Pulpit.