Sermon: Holy Women - Pt. 1 (Titus 2:3)

Holy Women – Pt. 1 Sunday, September 21st, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA Titus 1:15–2:10

Prayer

O Father of all goodness, fountain of all life, pour forth now Thy Holy Spirit into our hearts, fill us up again with love for heaven and heavenly things, that we may attain to that vision of You in the age to come, through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.

Introduction

Do you know what a beautiful soul looks like? Do you know what spiritual beauty is, and how to acquire it?

• In 1 Peter 3:3-4, the Apostle begins to answer this question by saying, Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.
• Notice that the Apostle describes here two places that beauty can be found. First, there is an external beauty of the body, the hair, the jewelry, the clothing, all things the eye can see.
  • According to the classic definition of beauty, beauty is simply: that which gives pleasure upon being seen.
    • If it delights you when you see it, that is what we call beautiful.
  • We could go further on and discover that there are three qualities that make something pleasurable to our eye, which the best theologians identify as:
    • 1. Unity.
    • 2. Due proportion.
    • 3. Splendor.
  • Where there is Unity of the whole, Due Proportion of the parts, and Splendor in color, when these three come together our eye cannot help but enjoy the sight.
  • That is just how God made us as image bearers, and indeed we image/reflect a God who is the source of every beautiful thing and even beauty itself. All the beautiful things we see down here are imperfect participations of the perfect beauty that God is.
• Now if physical/external beauty is that that which gives pleasure upon being seen, how then might we define this spiritual beauty that the Bible talks about, which is invisible to the naked eye?
  • I think what 1 Peter 3 and other passages suggest is that spiritual beauty is that which gives pleasure to God when God sees.
    • It says in 1 Samuel 16:7, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
    • And in Hebrews 4:13 it says, there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
• So the God who sees all, knows all, and judges the beauty or ugliness of every human heart, has told us in His word how we may become beautiful in His sight (How we may please Him). And that is what this section of Titus 2:3-5 is all about. It is a guide for the women in the church to adorn themselves with a spiritual and imperishable beauty which is then reflected in their words, their actions, their attitude, and yes even in how they dress and do their hair.
  • And so our focus this morning will just be on verse 3, so let us hear these words again and then examine them in depth.

Verse 3

3The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

Outline

Here Paul sets down four areas where the older women are to be exemplary in their conduct. And we should notice that all four areas fall under the special domain of the virtue we call temperance/modesty. This also happens to be the virtue most closely connected to making things beautiful.

• Recall that beauty consists in the unity, due proportion, and splendor of a thing’s form. And what temperance/modesty does to the soul is:
  • 1) Unify the heart’s desires, and gives us integrity (wholeness, soundness in faith)
  • 2) It maintains and keeps the due proportion between what is excessive and what is deficient.
  • 3) It (modesty) seeks what is honorable in every situation and circumstance, and it is that honor/fittingness that gives splendor to a thing’s form.
• So consider now these four areas Paul speaks of through this lens of temperance and modesty.
  • 1. As regards a woman’s clothing and demeanor, Paul says she should be in behavior as becometh holiness. Some translations have “wear