Welcome to this Daily PBJ devotional. Read 1 Kings 4 and 5, Hosea 8, and Titus 2. This devotional is about Titus 2. But, as for you, speak the things that are consistent with sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, and sound in faith, love, and perseverance. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers or addicted to much wine, but teachers of good. In this way they can train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, managers of their household, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be discredited. In the same way, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. In everything, show yourself to be an example by doing good works. In your teaching, show integrity, dignity, and wholesome speech that is above reproach, so that anyone who opposes us will be ashamed. having nothing bad to say about us. Slaves are to submit to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not stealing from them, but showing all good faith, so that in every respect they will adorn the teaching about God our Savior. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to everyone. It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age, as we await the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He gave Himself for us, to redeem us from all lawlessness, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. Speak these things as you encourage and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you. This is God's Word. Titus 2 beautifully describes why the church needs to be intergenerational. It begins in verse 1 by telling us that there is an appropriate way to live if you believe in the truth of the Christian faith. Verses 2 through 10 describes what that appropriate way of life looks like. Titus was to teach, one, older men how sound doctrine should lead them to live carefully and in ways that are healthy in faith, love, and endurance. We saw that in verse 2. Titus was also to teach, too, older women to live reverent, good lives. But the purpose for living such lives was, in part, to teach younger women. And that brings us to the third command. What were these older women to teach the younger women? Verse 5 says, urge the younger women to live lives devoted in purity to their families. Meanwhile, next, younger men needed to be taught how to control their actions, according to verse 6, with Timothy himself being an example for them to follow in every way, according to verses 7 and 8. Next, slaves should seek to serve their masters as best they can in all honesty, according to verses 9 and 10. Now the reason for all of this is God's grace, according to verse 11. It has appeared to all people, according to the NIV's translation. And this phrase, in context, refers to all types of people, whether old, as verses 2 and 3 say, young, as verses 4 through 6 say, men, as verses 2 and 6 talk about, or women, verses 3 and 4, or free people or slaves, according to verses 9 and 10. Although we never lose our sinful desires in this life, God's grace teaches us to say no to them according to verse 12a. And this is what being self-controlled means, and the word self-controlled is used in verse 2, verse 5, and verse 6. It means to learn to say no to sin, no matter how strong our desire to say yes to sin is. Older people have had more experience with sin in their own lives and in seeing its effects in the lives of others. So older people can tell younger people how much sinful passions lie to us in what they promise, and how to avoid giving in to those passions. The result of this teaching is that believers will learn how to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, as verse 12 in the NIV says, while we wait for the return of Christ, as verse 13 says. One of Christ's main purposes for coming the first time was to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own eager to do what is good. That's verse 14b from the NIV. without older men to lead the way for younger men, without older women to mentor and instruct younger women, a local church's adults will make the same sinful choices over and over again, generation after generation. But one of God's gracious gifts to us is the gift of older, wiser believers who can encourage, instruct, guide, and lead by example and by words the younger adults in the church. then as each generation grows in its understanding of the gospel and grows in personal holiness, the church gets stronger and Christ accomplishes the goals he came here to accomplish, which are described in verse 14. So, if you're an older person, are you having an effect on the life of someone younger than you? If you're a younger person, do you have relationships with older believers who can help you grow in your faith? This is what Christ wants for His church. So consider how you can serve or benefit from the service of others to grow more like Him in your faith and in your walk with God. And if you found this devotional helpful, go to my website dailypbj.com and enter your email address there to get a free subscription to these devotionals in your email. This is completely free. You can always unsubscribe. So give it a try. Go to dailypbj.com slash subscribe. And if you're willing to support me financially so I can keep going with content like this, please go to dailypbj.com slash support. Please share this with someone else who can also learn about the intergenerational will of God for the church. And I'll see you next time. May God bless you. Hope you have a great day today.