How Times Have Changed

Paul wrote an epistle to Titus in which he gave these instructions:

But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. (Titus 2:1-8)

We note, first, that, contrary to the opinion of many Christians today, "doctrine" could be both good and "sound" rather than nebulous, merely contentious, or simply opinion. Okay, good. But then Paul lapses into foolishness.

In what world are older men to be "temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance", older women to be "reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good", young women "to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands" or young men to be "sensible" or "an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach"? My, my, how times have changed. We're far beyond that, aren't we? Old men are to be a bit wild, pushing the envelope (especially with that "little blue pill"), and older women are to live for gossip and pretty much stay away from the younger women who have no need to love their husbands, let alone be subject to them--and by no means tied down to that male-domination notion of "workers at home"--or "pure". Young men? It's their time to sow their wild oats. Let them get it out of their system. Oh, yes, Paul lived in a different time. We're much more enlightened now.

Or, are we? Is it possible that we're wrong, that the "progress" we've seen is not positive, and that God, speaking through Paul, is right? Do you find it disturbing at all that Paul's descriptions of how men and women should be is so diametrically opposed to what our society (and, therefore, often the Christians in it) think men and women should be? Or is this just another example of how we've progressed and the Bible got it wrong? You know, like in the area of marriage as a man and a woman, female leadership in church, or the nature of the Bible as God-breathed?