What Does Titus 2:4 Mean in the King James?
That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse treats love for a husband and children as something formed through teaching, not merely as an emotion that appears on its own.
THE MEANING
This verse holds sound-mindedness and affection together: your inner steadiness takes shape in love for the people closest to you. It presents that love as something that can be taught and learned.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that love is either spontaneous or absent and cannot be formed.
THE ROOT
φιλάνδρους
philandrous philoteknous
GROWS FROM
φιλο- (from φιλέω, phileō)
Affection; to love or hold dear.
“love their husbands; love their children” in this verse is philandrous philoteknous. The two phrases are compounds: one directs affection toward a husband, the other toward children, and both begin with the same φιλο- element from φιλέω (phileō, to love with affection). English repeats “love,” while Greek shows one shared root of affection branching into two concrete bonds.
ALSO GROWS
philadelphos: Brother-loving; showing sibling affection.
φιλάδελφος
This same affection element extends family-like love into relationships beyond the household.
philostorgos: Tenderly affectionate; devoted.
φιλόστοργος
This word-family also carries the warmth of close, caring bonds, not only an abstract idea of love.
σωφρονίζωσιν
sōphronizōsin
GROWS FROM
σώφρων
sōphrōn
Sound-minded; having a sound or well-governed mind.
The verb rendered “teach ... to be sober” describes training someone toward sound-mindedness. Its word-family links clear judgment with the formation of a life, placing taught affection alongside inner steadiness.
ALSO GROWS
sōphrosynē: Sound-mindedness; self-control.
σωφροσύνη
It shows the quality toward which the teaching in this verse points.
sōphroneō: To think soundly; to be of sound mind.
σωφρονέω
This branch makes the mental dimension explicit: the teaching forms a way of seeing and judging.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents love as something formed and expressed through the close bonds of family life.
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;THE THREAD
But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.“Brotherly love” translates φιλαδελφία (philadelphia, brotherly affection), which shares the phil- affection element in Titus’s husband-loving and child-loving compounds. Titus names affection within the household; this verse extends the same word-family into the community and says that love itself is taught.
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