Titus 2:4 True Love

"And Love, true love" Oh who am I kidding? Who can explain that? How many have asked the question, "How do you know when you are really in love?" Obviously there aren't a lot of good answers to that question when 50% of marriages end in divorce. Or maybe we just don't know how to maintain that true love. Well, I don't have a good answer for how to find true love or even how to know when or if you did find true love, but Paul gives the ladies a little "how to" on maintaining true love. "Then they (the older women) can train the younger women to love their husband and children"(NIV).

Remember that the word "train" emphasizes how they should come alongside and give them real tangible or useable stuff. Not philosophies or generalities, but watching and observing these young gals before just handing out advice. Advice on what? Well, first of all, on loving thier husband and children. Yes, that is your business; the Bible says it is your business. Of course you don't just walk up and be rude about it. No it all goes back to that reverent living and coming alongside. That is worth listening to.


Now, about that loving thing. They are supposed to train them how to love their husband, but this isn't like a romantic love. The Greek here is "philandros." Now what does that look like? Kinda like "Philanthropist" or "Philadelphia." That root word "philo" does mean "love", but it is more like a friendship type love or at least an action type love. It isn't the gushy, feely, kinda love or the deep unconditional kinda love. A philanthropist is someone who helps others and Philadelphia is known has the place of brotherly love. So when Paul says that the older women should teach the younger women to love their husbands; he is talking about a how to be loving and kind and supportive. You know, the visible stuff. The how to show your husband that you love him. Not the romantic stuff; not even the sexual stuff. It's the day-to-day stuff of good, supportive friends. It's all about doing loving things. That same idea passes on to the kids as well. Those sweet little "teknons." Young women need to know how to "philoteknos."

I don't know if we can teach true love or even Godly love, but we can obviously teach and learn phileo love, and that is the key to maintaining true love.