That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

that they may admonish the young women to be attached to their husbands, to be attached to their children,

that they may make the young women sober-minded, to be lovers of their husbands, lovers of their children,

They should school the young women to be affectionate to their husbands and to their children, to be sober-minded, pure in their lives,

Training the younger women to have love for their husbands and children,

so that they may teach prudence to the young women, so that they may love their husbands, love their children,

They should teach what is good, so as to train the younger women to love their husbands and children,

ut prudentiam doceant adulescentulas ut viros suos ament filios diligant

That they may teach young women temperance That they may be more attentive to duty, he shows that it is not enough if their own life be decent, if they do not also train young women, by their instructions, to a decent and chaste life. He therefore adds, that by their example they should train to temperance and gravity those younger women whom the warmth of youth might otherwise lead into imprudence. To love their husbands and their children I do not agree with those who think that this is a recapitulation of the advices which elderly women should give to those who are younger for a careful perusal of the context will enable any one easily to perceive that Paul goes on in explaining the duties of women, which apply equally to those who are older. Besides, the construction would be inappropriate, sophronizosi, sophronas einai [1] Yet while he instructs elderly females what they ought to be, he at the same time holds out to the younger the example which they ought to follow. Thus he indiscriminately teaches both. In short, he wishes women to be restrained, by conjugal love and affection for their children, from giving themselves up to licentious attachments, he wishes them to rule their own house in a sober and orderly manner, forbids them to wander about in public places, bids them be chaste, and at the same time modest, so as to be subject to the dominion of their husbands; for those who excel in other virtues sometimes take occasion from them to act haughtily, so as to be disobedient to their husbands. When he adds, that the word of God may not be evil spoken of, it is supposed that this relates strictly to women who were married to unbelieving husbands, who might judge of the gospel from the wicked conduct of their wives; and this appears to be confirmed by 1-Peter iii. 1. But what if he does not speak of husbands alone? And, indeed, it is probable that he demands such strictness of life as not to bring the gospel into the contempt of the public by their vices. As to the other parts of the verse, the reader will find them explained in the Commentary on the First Epistle to Timothy. [2]

Footnotes

1 - "Ina sophronizosi tas neas "These words point at the chief purpose of the instructions -- namely, that they should teach them to be sophrones acting as monitresses and regulators of their morals. Those instructions (as appears from what follows) were to turn on the domestic duties suitable to young married women, and each in the order of importance. The first is, as it were, their cardinal virtue; for it was well said by Socrates, (Ap. Stob. p. 488,) eusebeia gunaikeia, ho pros ton andra eros (female piety is love to her husband.') In like manner, modesty is, by Pericles, in his Funeral Oration (Thucyd. 2:45) called the virtue of the female sex.'" -- Bloomfield.

2 - See [19]p. 135.

That they may teach the young women to be sober - Margin, "wise" - a word similar to that which in Titus 2:2 is rendered "temperate," and in 1-Timothy 3:2, "sober." The meaning is, that they should instruct them to have their desires and passions well regulated, or under proper control.
To love their husbands - φιλάνδρους philandrous. This word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. In Ephesians 5:25, Paul directs husbands to love their wives, and in Ephesians 5:33, the wife to reverence her husband, and here he says that it should be one of the first duties enjoined Son the wife that she should love her husband. All happiness in the marriage relation is based on mutual love. When that departs, happiness departs. No wealth or splendor in a dwelling - no gorgeousness of equipage or apparel - no magnificence of entertainment or sweetness of music - and no forms of courtesy and politeness, can be a compensation for the want of affection. Mutual love between a husband and wife will diffuse comfort through the obscurest cottage of poverty; the want of it cannot be supplied by all that can be furnished in the palaces of the great.
To love their children - Nature prompts to this, and yet there are those so depraved that they have no maternal affection; Notes, Romans 1:31. Religion reproduces natural affection when sin has weakened or destroyed it, and it is the design of Christianity to recover and invigorate all the lost or weakened sensibilities of our nature.

That they may teach the young women to be sober - That it was natural for the young to imitate the old will be readily allowed; it was therefore necessary that the old should be an example of godly living to the young. St. Jerome, taking it for granted that drunkenness and impurity are closely connected, asks this serious question: Quomodo potest docere anus adolescentulas castitatem, cum, si ebrietatem vetulae mulieris adolescentula fuerit imitata, pudica esse non possit? "How can an elderly woman teach young women chastity, when, if the young woman should imitate the drunkenness of the matron, it would be impossible for her to be chaste?"
To love their husbands - The duties recommended in this and the following verses are so plain as to need no comment; and so absolutely necessary to the character of a wife, that no one deserves the name who does not live in the practice of them.

That they may teach the young women to be sober,.... Or to be chaste, modest, and temperate; or to be wise and prudent in their conduct to their husbands, and in the management of family affairs, who have had a large experience of these things before them.
To love their husbands; to help and assist them all they can; to seek their honour and interest; to endeavour to please them in all things; to secure peace, harmony, and union; to carry it affectionately to them, and sympathize with them in all afflictions and distresses; for this is not so much said in opposition to placing their affections on other men, and to the defilement of the marriage bed, as to moroseness and ill nature.
To love their children; not with a fond, foolish, loose, and ungoverned affection; but so as to seek their real good, and not only their temporal, but spiritual and eternal welfare; to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and to use and keep proper discipline and government over them; for otherwise, amidst all the fondness of natural affection, a parent may be said to hate a child, Proverbs 13:24.

to be sober--Greek, "self-restrained," "discreet"; the same Greek as in Titus 2:2, "temperate." (But see on Titus 2:2; compare Note, 2-Timothy 1:7). ALFORD therefore translates, "That they school (admonish in their duty) the young women to be lovers of their husbands," &c. (the foundation of all domestic happiness). It was judicious that Titus, a young man, should admonish the young women, not directly, but through the older women.

That they instruct the young women - These Timothy was to instruct himself; Titus, by the elder women. To love their husbands, their children - With a tender, temperate, holy, wise affection. O how hard a lesson.