What Does the Church Sound Like?

In Titus 2, the Apostle Paul gives Titus a striking charge — speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. The Greek word for 'sound' is hygiainō, from which we get the word 'hygiene.' Sound doctrine is healthy doctrine. It produces a healthy body. And a healthy body of Christ has a particular sound — not the clamour of wine, not the hiss of the slanderer, but the quiet, steady voice of those who are filled with the Spirit.

Two warnings appear side by side in verse 3 for older women — and by extension, for all who lead and teach: not slanderers, not given to much wine. These are not unrelated. They share the same root: a soul that has lost its quieteness.

The Slanderer — Diabolos

Most people assume slander simply means speaking ill of someone. But the biblical word cuts much deeper.

Slanderer (G1228 — diabolos): a traducer; one who falsely accuses; one who, by opposing the cause of God, acts the part of the devil and sides with him.

The word diabolos is the same word translated 'devil' elsewhere in Scripture. To slander — to falsely accuse, to set yourself against someone with your tongue — is to take on the very character of the Accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10).

This is sobering. Slander is not merely a social failing. It is a spiritual alignment. It places you, however briefly, on the side of the one who accuses God's people day and night before the throne.

In dreams, images of unkempt or disorderly settings (home), drunk with or drinking wine or strong drink can signal this spirit at work. Pay attention when the atmosphere of a dream carries accusation, disorder, severeness or harshness.

Titus 2:3  ...the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things.

What does wine have to do with slander? Everything — when we understand what strong drink does to the inner man.

Strong drink (H7941 — shekar): an intoxicant; intensely alcoholic liquor.

Brawler (hāmāh) (H1993): to make a loud sound; to be in great commotion or tumult; to rage, war, moan, clamour; to be disquieted, troubled, in an uproar.

Proverbs 20:1 tells us wine is a mocker and strong drink is a brawler — hāmāh. The word does not primarily describe external violence. It describes an internal state: a soul in tumult. Disquieted. Restless. Loud on the inside. An unquiet mind.

A person governed by this spirit wanders. They cannot be still. They fill rooms with noise and fill conversations with accusation, because their own soul has no anchor.

Proverbs 20:1  Wine is a mocker, Strong drink is a brawler, And whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

Isaiah 28:7  But they also have erred through wine, And through intoxicating drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink... They err in vision, they stumble in judgment.

Notice: when leaders are intoxicated — literally or spiritually — they err in vision and stumble in judgment. This is a warning for all who carry a teaching or prophetic mantle. The spirit of strong drink clouds discernment. It produces error not just in behaviour, but in the very way one sees.

Proverbs gives us a striking image of what this looks like in practice:

Proverbs 7:11–12  She was loud and rebellious, Her feet would not stay at home. At times she was outside, at times in the open square, Lurking at every corner.

Proverbs 9:13  A foolish woman is clamorous; She is simple, and knows nothing.

Clamorous. Loud. Unable to be at rest. This is hāmāh in embodied form — a soul that has never learned to be still, wandering from house to house, from person to person, from accusation to accusation. Strong drink and leads to slander (Titus 2:3)

The answer to this spirit is not merely self-discipline. It is displacement. We are called to be filled — not with wine, which leads to dissipation, but with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).

The fruit of the Spirit is the direct opposite of the fruit of strong drink:

Strong drink produces: tumult, error in vision, stumbling in judgment, loose tongues, wandering feet.

The Holy Spirit produces: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Luke 1:15  For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.

John the Baptist was set apart from the womb — not merely from wine, but for something greater. To be filled with the Spirit is to have no room left for that which stirs up the soul toward accusation and unrest.

There is something in God's sight that is very precious. Not giftedness. Not eloquence. Not platform. It is this:

1 Peter 3:4  ...the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

A quiet spirit is not a passive spirit. David — a warrior, a king, a man of great passion — wrote these words:

Psalm 131:1–2  LORD, my heart is not haughty, Nor my eyes lofty... Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with his mother; Like a weaned child is my soul within me.

A weaned child. Not an infant grasping and crying for milk. A child who has learned that the mother's presence is enough — even without demand, even without noise. This is the goal of the mature soul: to have calmed and quieted oneself, not because circumstances are perfect, but because hope is placed in the Lord.

Psalm 42:5  Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him...

Pray this aloud, from a sincere heart:

Father, I come before You in the Name of Jesus Christ, the Lord of my soul and the Head of Your Church.

I renounce every spirit of slander — every word spoken falsely, every accusation made in haste, every alignment with the Accuser of the brethren. I repent of bitterness, double-tongued speech, and the restless spirit of inquiétude that moves me to speak before I have listened to You.

I renounce the spirit of strong drink — the clamour, the tumult, the erring in vision, the stumbling in judgment. I declare that I will not be intoxicated by the spirit of this age, by ambition, by the need to be heard, or by the voices of accusation around me.

Lord, remove from me and from my household all bitterness, all greed for money, all double-mindedness. Let the fruit of Your Spirit grow in its place — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.

Holy Spirit, fill me. Let there be no room in my soul for what You have not placed there. Teach me to be like a weaned child — quiet, trusting, at rest in Your presence. Give me the hidden beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in Your sight is very precious.

In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Sound doctrine is not only what you say. It is the spirit in which you say it. Titus 2 does not call for older women to be silent — it calls them to be teachers of good things. The goal is not absence of speech, but the transformation of it. A tongue governed by the Holy Spirit is one of the most powerful instruments in the Kingdom.

Let your house be in order. Let your cup be full of the right thing. And let your soul be quiet enough to hear the voice of the One whose words never return void.

1 Timothy 3:8  Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money.

Psalm 46:3  Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling — Selah.

Selah. Pause. Be still. And know.