The Point #154 - Get Thee Behind Me, Satan!

When researching the Greek words used in the verses about the aged woman teaching the younger women, in Titus chapter 2, I came upon something very surprising! Let me share it with you this week.

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Well, it's finally starting to look like spring around here. I hope you're getting sunny, warmer weather wherever you live, and not too hot, but perfect spring weather. I love this time of year. A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to speak for a few minutes at our ladies' conference on two of the characteristics of the older woman in Titus II, the older woman to teach the younger women. And I laughed because I had to be thought of as the older woman. But when I researched how old did women live on average, Jewish women in the time of Jesus in Israel, I was surprised to find out that the average lifespan was 35 to 40. So yes, I am definitely an older woman, being that I just turned 50. Back then, girls were married and maybe had a child by the age of 16 and were grandmothers in their early 30s. So it was a different time. So I'm definitely the aged woman of Titus II. But I was given the first two characteristics listed there, and that is in behavior of holiness and not false accusers. So we can't be perfect, but God does say to be holy because I am holy. So in short, that is Christ-likeness, to act like Christ, to be appropriate in every situation, to name the name of Christ, to be called a Christian, is to live it out, to look and act like Christ 24-7 as much as we can in our homes, in public, everywhere. What really struck me though was when I looked up the Greek word for false accusers, that word, false accusers, in Titus 2, talking about what the aged women should not be, is the same Greek word that appears in the Bible 38 times. Only three times is it translated as the phrase false accusers. One time it's translated as slanderer. Of course, something negative we don't want to be. And everyone knows what a false accuser and a slanderer is: someone that talks bad and uh and and displays a person in their speech as something that they're not, and we don't want to be that person, that's horrible. We we don't want to talk to that person at church, and that's kind of already uh common sense. We don't want to be that person, we don't want to be around that person. Here's what really surprised me the Greek word is diablos, and 34 out of the 38 times that word is used in the Bible, it is actually translated the devil. Therefore, when we see the term false accusers in Titus II, most places in the Bible, that Greek word is translated the devil. So the Titus II aged woman is first of all supposed to be in a behavior of holiness or Christ-likeness, and secondly, is to not act like the devil. So that's the opposite there. And you think, well, this is a godly Christian woman. Why is that the first thing said as a warning for how she should not act like the devil? Of course, we don't want to act like the devil. So my mind immediately went to another very good Christian in the Bible. At a time when Jesus looked at that person in front of others and said to him, Get thee behind me, Satan. You want what you want, not what God wants. You want, you don't want the things of God, you want the things of this world. Wow, that's quite an accusation. He said that to Peter. This is in Matthew 21, just after he had called Peter um blessed of God, because he said, Yes, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And he said, Blessed art thou, for you, the Holy Spirit, the Father, reveal um, he showed this to you, not anyone else. You know who I am. And he praised Peter in front of the other disciples. Then he said, On this rock will I build my church, and he used Peter as an example of leadership going forward. Then, for the very first time, he told his disciples something he had not told them before. He told them what was going to happen to him. Jesus said, We're going to Jerusalem. I'm going to be taken by the chief priests and scribes, and they are going to kill me, and I will rise again the third day. He was very specific on the details of what was going to happen. At this point, Peter looked at him, and if you can imagine this, he took him, in other words, he put his hands right on Jesus. He rebuked him. Can you imagine looking in the face of Jesus and rebuking him? And Peter said, Not so, Lord, be this far from you. We don't want that to happen to you. Well, when I've always read that, I've always thought, oh, well, Peter was being protective. He didn't want Jesus to die. That's that feels like a common thing a friend would say to a friend. But Jesus immediately looked at him after just giving him authority, really, over the other disciples as a leader, a Christian authority. Now we're talking about the Titus II woman being called the same thing. Don't act like the devil. And he said, You he said to Peter, you're reminding me of how the devil acts. You know, Jesus was there when the devil was kicked out of heaven. Jesus was there when the devil was tempting Eve in the garden. Jesus was there when the devil was talking about Job with God. He had seen many times how the devil acted, and he looked at Peter and said, You're acting like Diablos, the devil, Satan. Here's my takeaway. False accusing is not just talking bad about one person to another. The main thing that the devil does is he falsely accuses God. And I want to ask myself, and I want to ask you, when we don't want God's will in our life, like Peter did not want Jesus to go to the cross and die. When we say, I don't want that, when God puts something hard in our life, we are actually saying, God, you aren't good. God, you don't know best. God, you're not right. That is falsely accusing God. And how the aged woman can act like the devil or false accuser is to actually show in her life that she does not agree with God's will. And she wants something different in her life than what God put in her life. That is how we can show the younger woman a way of living that is actually living like the devil. It's much worse than just talking bad about somebody. It's actually with our lifestyle, falsely accusing God of not being a good or a wise or a loving or a right God. Ladies, that's a strong warning in Titus 2. I want to, even though it's hard, accept God's will in my life because many people are watching. Many younger women are watching how I react to things. You know, those disciples were all watching when Jesus said, far be it from you, we don't want that to happen to you. Let me ask you, was anybody there when Jesus rose from the dead? He had told them several times that he was going to do that. Were the disciples there at his crucifixion? We only see John was there. So could it be that Peter telling Jesus, no, we don't want that for you? Could he have had more influence over the other disciples than Jesus actually had about his own crucifixion and resurrection? Are we casting shade on the will of God because of how we react with influential younger women in our church, in our home, at work? Let's be super careful with the influence we have. That we truly do one God's will, and we are not falsely accusing him by how we react when he puts difficult things into our life. That's just a little encouragement I have for all of us to think about this week. Ladies, I love you. I pray for you, and I hope you have a great week. Let's love God through loving others.