Young Women and Discretion
by Walter E. Isenhour
“The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness . . . that they may teach the young women to be sober . . . to be discreet, chaste . . . that the word of God be not blasphemed” —Titus 2:3-5.
In the fifth verse of the second chapter of Titus the aged women are to teach young women “to be discreet.” What does it mean to be discreet? It means to be prudent, judicious, cautious; wise in conduct and management, especially as to matters of propriety and self-control.
A young woman who measures up to these qualities in mind, heart, soul, spirit, and life certainly rises above the degrading principles of sin and wickedness. Her life is one of nobility, beauty, usefulness, and sublimity. She sets examples before her husband, children, and neighbors that areworthy of emulation. They know her life is hid with Christ in God. She possesses the Spirit of our Lord, and this enables her to discern between the evil and the good, and to avoid evil, error, and anything and all things that would mislead her. She likewise shields her husband and children from evils and errors, sins and wickedness, that they are environed with. At least she warns and cautions them against such, and shows them the higher, better, holier, and more beautiful and worthwhile things in life.
The discreet woman is possessed with the spirit and ability to adopt “means to an end,” and of course this means that which brings her and the family to a good end. She avoids the means that would injure her life, character, soul, and influence, and that would likewise injure her family and those about her. She must realize that what she takes into her life will have its effect, through the years—and will bring her to a good end, only as the means are good. She knows that the good will work out right, while the bad will work out wrong. She realizes that the good is a means to a good end, but the bad is a means to a bad end. Therefore she takes into her very soul the good and rejects the bad. She is discreet. Those who know her realize that she is a woman of great and commendable discretion.
Her discretion includes prudence. She is careful about her conduct, her influence, her aims, plans, and purposes. She guards her tongue, her temper, and her dress. She is decent in dress, upright in manners, and is careful to lead others right. She uses economy at home, seeing that nothing is wasted, and lives within her income. Extravagance is far from her. She is not stingy by any means, as there is a vast difference in stinginess and economy. Rather, she is blessedly liberal, yet she is cautious to see that money is not foolishly and uselessly expended; that food and clothing are not wasted, and that anything usable is not cast into the rubbish heap and carried away as rubbish.
The discreet woman is likewise judicious. She is governed by sound judgment. She is wise. The devil can’t lead her into the snares, traps, and pitfalls that he leads the sinful, wicked world into. She prays for wisdom, for sound judgment, and God gives it unto her. She helps her husband with his problems, and helps him in his decisions, plans, aims, and purposes. She uses her good judgment in the home, in the church, in the community; and when she passes on anything, it is usually right. The enemy can’t “pull the wool over her eyes” as he does the woman who only lives in sin and serves the world and the flesh. To God be the praise and the glory. What a blessed thing for a wife and mother to be sound in her judgment—and when she passes on anything, for it to be in reason and within the will of God! If sometimes she errs, it is an exception, and is of the head and not the heart. God overrules in all such and brings good out of it (Rom. 8:28).
The discreet woman is cautious as to how she lives, with whom she keeps company, where she goes, what she says, and what she does along life’s journey. She helps her husband and children to be cautious. We might say, too, that the unmarried woman is discreet—and every one should be—who uses much caution as she journeys through the years. She is cautious as to her company, as to her courtship and companionship, as to her character and virtue, her conduct, and influence. She is cautious about everything that pertains to noble and beautiful womanhood. She regards her character far above riches, and the trifling evils, pleasures, amusements, and destructive sins of the world. To her, clean, pure, upright womanhood is a “pearl of great price” (Matt. 13:46). She would not sell her virtue, character, and pure womanhood for all the gold and silver, rubies, diamonds, jewels, and pearls in the world. She is not for sale at any price. That’s womanhood at its best. That is what makes a woman a real lady in the sight of both God and man. Men respect her, admire, love, and appreciate her, out of hearts that are godly, which likewise make them Christian gentlemen.
The discreet woman conducts herself wisely. Life to her is real and earnest. It is noble and sublime. Her deportment is such that men take knowledge of her—that she has “been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). She possesses great self-control. She cannot be led astray, like silly women who are worldly and ungodly. She anchors her life to God, to Christ, the mighty “Rock of Ages.”
To be a discreet woman is a wonderful height to reach in life. It is more to be desired than education, fame, honor, and earthly glory. The woman of great discretion certainly out-rises, outshines, and far outdistances the ungodly movie star, actress, popular worldly flapper, or anyone else that lives for the devil.
Dedicated to all my Facebook lady friends and Sisters,
Elmarie
Some things we can glean from about women usurping authority over men to the discerning godly woman , this will make sense :
Usurping Women , and modern day Divas, have been the originators of many false Charismatic movements !
Miriam usurped her place by claiming to be equal with Moses!
Notice that Miriam usurped her place by claiming to be equal with Moses! Yes Aaron was also involved, but he was following the lead of Miriam who was made a leper. Aaron was not made a leper, proving she was the instigator! (Aaron was easily swayed by the people when the people made the golden calf, “the people made me do it”)
Numbers 12:1 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman); 2 and they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?” And the Lord heard it. 3 (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.) 4 And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and to Miriam, “You three come out to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them came out. 5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward, 6 He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream.
7 “Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant, against Moses?”
9 So the anger of the Lord burned against them and He departed. 10 But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous. 11 Then Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, I beg you, do not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned. 12 “Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother’s womb!” 13 And Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “O God, heal her, I pray!” 14 But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp, and afterward she may be received again.” 15 So Miriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.
Hippolytus wrote of the Montanists, “They have been deceived by two females, Priscilla and Maximilla by name, whom they hold to be prophetesses, asserting that into them the Paraclete spirit entered…. They magnify these females above the Apostles and every gift of Grace, so that some of them go so far as to say that in them there is something more than Christ….
Another group that practiced a form of tongues was the Shakers, an American sect with Quaker roots that flourished in the mid-1700s. Mother Ann Lee, founder of the sect, regarded herself as the female equivalent of Jesus Christ.
Ellen White founded the Seventh-day Adventist church and members must vow to believe that she was a prophet! From the 27 Fundamental beliefs, #17 “The gift of Prophecy: One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy. This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen G. White.
Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany (Boston: First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1941), 115.) Although the errors of Christian Science regarding God, Christ, and the Scriptures are well documented in numerous books, Mrs. Eddy was convinced she was used by God to reveal his truth for her day. (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 80)
Mrs. Cardale and her sister Emily ~ 1831 ~ She was a member of Edward Irving’s congregation in England and on April 30, 1831 she began to speak in other tongues and prophesy. Irving was impressed and did not exercise any restraint towards this member’s activity. Soon Mrs. Cardale’s sister Emily also began to speak in tongues and prophesy, and others followed them.
Agnes Ozman beginning of modern Pentecostalism ~ 1901 ~ The modern Pentecostal movement began on January 1, 1901, in Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas, operated by Charles Parham, a minister with a background in the Holiness movement. The students began to seek the baptism of the Spirit with tongues, and Agnes Ozman was the first student to experience speaking in tongues. She claimed she spoke in several languages immediately. She is the first woman in North America to speak in tongues!
Woodworth-Etter, Maria ~ (1844-1924) ~ She was one of the more mystical of all the neo-Montanist women. She was a traveling evangelist, one of the first women to take this role in America and was initially part of the holiness-healing movement. In the 1880′s she was known to go into trances and stand stock-still for hours and sometimes days. During these trance times people would come into her meetings and be miraculously healed or converted. In 1890 she reports people receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit as evidenced with the speaking in other tongues and people seeing heavenly visions. “The Holy Ghost was present in great power, with gifts, signs, and visions, following the laying-on-of-hands. There were visible signs of light and glory on the pulpit, and through the congregation seen by the natural eye by some” (Signs & Wonders, Harrison House, pg. 150-151)
Foursquare Gospel Church [Aimee Semple McPherson] ~ 1920′s – 1930′s ~ Nationally known healing evangelist in the 1920′s – 1930′s. Founded and headed the Foursquare Gospel Church, led a controversial life and died of a drug overdose in 1944.
Kathryn Kuhlman ~ Kathryn Kuhlman was ordained a Baptist minister, but did not associate her ministry with any denomination She was heavily influenced by the Azusa street revival, and by the Roman Catholic church. She was well known for the manifestations that occurred at her meetings, including “laughter”. She is said to be responsible for the introduction of the manifestation of “Slain in the Spirit”. There were some differences to the current movement, though, in that she insisted that her meetings be orderly. Manifestations interrupting the service were not permitted. She was highly regarded in many Christian circles, and strongly influenced Benny Hinn and John Arnott.
Pensacola/Brownsville blessing ~ 1995-2000 ~ The testimonies of the two young girls at Pensacola mark a major shift in that revival.
Read more here : Usurping Women have been the originators of many false Charismatic movements !
Titus 2:3-5 KJV The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; (4) That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, (5) To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
1 Corinthians 14:33-35 KJV (33) For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. (34) Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. (35) And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
1 Timothy 2:9-12 KJV In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; (10) But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. (11) Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. (12) But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
