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GEW-R-12
In Titus 2, the first word of v.5 calls each of us to pay attention to our own, personal, spiritual mental health, for God’s sake.
There are only two mental health providers in the Universe:
• the first One says that He came to give Life that is Abundant; and
• the other one came only to kill, steal, and destroy.
At salvation we go from the destroyer’s control to Christ Jesus’ life that is endless and abundant. However, we still live in fallen human bodies, in a cursed and sinful world.
Often unsaved unbelievers have no idea who is controlling their minds as they head to destruction; they do not realize that sin always pays everyone back with boredom, guilt, shame, loneliness, confusion, emptiness, loss of purpose, and finally death in the form of conscious, endless, punishment in Hell.
Equally tragic is the reality that many saved believers do not focus on the One who wants to control their minds, and thus they do not obey what God’s Word tells them to do to avoid the consequences of sin that are in effect even as a believer. Sin always pays us believers back with boredom, guilt, shame, loneliness, confusion, emptiness, loss of purpose, and most terribly—the loss of rewards.
Because of those truths, Paul was led by the Spirit of God to write the words of Titus to every believer that would ever live. God’s Word the Bible declares that:
God Desires we Maintain
Our Spiritual Mental Health
God is vitally concerned about your mind. He wants you and me to stay in tip-top spiritual health. Our spiritual and mental health are vitally linked. Our minds are the subject of many verses of the Bible.
Our minds are the gateway into the spiritual world and most of those verses challenge us to consider what choices we are making for the health of our minds. Often we fail to realize how deeply we impact our mental health by our personal choices.
Please open to that first word I am referring to in Titus 2:5. Of all the words designating the spiritual qualities God desires in us, this may be the most timely of all.
Paul explains to every believer in Titus 2 that we desperately need:
God-Controlled Minds
The Greek word God inspires Paul to write is sophron translated in the New Testament as “discreet, sensible, or self-controlled”. The meaning of this word is vital to our spiritual lives.
The Greeks derived it from two words, which mean literally sos (“healthy or sound”) and phren (“mind”). God wants all of His children to have healthy minds. Mental health is vital to our spiritual lives. All of our communication with God is spiritual (through our mind and spirit) and not physical.
So the communications pathway, the spiritual supply line and everything that has to do with God flows through our regenerated minds. This word discreet, or self-controlled, or sensible (however your Bible renders sophron), means: to keep one’s mind safe and sound.
In Titus 2:5 this word describes a woman with a mind surrendered to God’s control.
Her mind is surrendered to God’s gracious sanctifying power; and she learns to govern every instinct and passion until each has its proper place and no more.
This safe and healthy mind is the only universal character quality of the 24 qualities we find listed in Titus 2:2-12.
In the space of just six verses here in Titus 2, Paul declares this quality God desires is stated as part of the life of godly older women (2:4), godly younger women (2:5), godly older men (2:2), godly younger men (2:5), Biblical elders (1:8), and—to every Spirit-filled and Spirit-led believer (Titus 2:12; c.f. Romans 12:3).
So as we look at this word from God, it is first of all in context to be the personal life-choice for younger women; and secondly, it is to be the curriculum on the mind of godly older women as they spend time nurturing younger women; and thirdly it is for every man in the church whether in a leadership role or not, and finally to every redeemed man, woman, and child—because it is universally applied to every believer in Christ’s church.
As we delve into this verse, God’s Word makes one thing perfectly clear: God wants your mind under His control.
More than anything else God wants to saturate, influence, fill, direct, dominate and control your mind.
If God has your mind – He has your body,
If God has your mind – He has your emotions,
If God has your mind – He has your appetites,
If God has your mind – He has your time,
If God has your mind – He has your money . . .
Do you see the point? The one who gets your mind gets it all. Your mind is the prize!
God Desires
Healthy Minds