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BY GLENN PEASE
CONTENTS
1. TITUS THE TROUBLE SHOOTER
Based on Titus 1:1f
3. FAITH BUILDERS Based on
Titus 1:1‑16
4. FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE Based
on Titus 1:1‑16
5. THE BEAUTY OF ORDER Based
on Titus 1:5
6. SELF‑CONTROL IS THE KEY
Based on Titus 1:5‑9
7. POSITIVE LEADERSHIP Based on
Titus 1:5‑9
8. EXCELLENCE EXCLUDES EXCESS
Based on Titus 1:5‑9
9. CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE Based
on Titus 1:5‑16
10. TO THE PURE ALL IS PURE Based
on Titus 1:5‑16
11. SOUND DOCTRINE based on Titus 1:15‑16
12. CULTURE CONFORMED CHRISTIANS Titus 1:15‑16
13. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF WOMEN
Based on Titus 2:1‑8
14. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION Based
on Titus 2:1‑10
1. TITUS THE TROUBLE SHOOTER Based on Titus 1:1f
Somebody has to do the dirty work in life, and so all leaders need men
who are trouble shooters. George
Washington needed one when Benedict Arnold betrayed the colonies and escaped to
the British forces. Washington was
angry and was determined to get him back.
He choose Sargent Major John Champe for the secret and sensitive mission
of deserting to the British and kidnaping Arnold. Only Washington and Colonel Lighthouse Harry knew of the
plot. On Oct. 19, 1780 Champe deserted
his company and fled. It was very risky
in that he could have been shot by his own men.
The
British accepted him and put him in the Loyalist Legion made up of other
Americans who chose to be loyal to England in the war. Benedict Arnold was its leader. Everything seemed to be going smooth until
the Loyalist Legion was ordered into battle in Virginia. Champe was from Virginia and he refused to
fight his own people, and so he deserted again. Now he was a hunted man by both sides. He eventually got back to Washington's headquarters and explained
the whole mess. Washington had no
choice but to send him, his wife, and his four children to a hideout in the
wilderness. When the war ended it was
still not safe for him to return, for he was considered a traitor by both
sides, and could easily have been murdered.
He was moved to Kentucky, and it was not until long after his death that
congress in 1847 voted Champe a promotion for, "One of the most courageous
acts of the American Revolution."
As
Champe was a champion who got little credit, so Titus was a Titan, that is a
giant of the faith, in the revolutionary march of Christianity in the first
century. Titus was a trouble shooter in
the war to prevent traitors from dividing the forces of the church, and
weakening their ability to win the world out of darkness into light. Like Champe, he does not get much
recognition because his courageous acts of service are somewhat suppressed in
the New Testament record. In spite of
the fact that he was one of Paul's greatest friends and travelling companions,
and in spite of the fact that he is the most successful trouble shooter in the
New Testament, he is not even once referred to in the book of Acts. Some are convinced that Titus was Luke's
brother, and family modesty kept Luke from recording the acts of his own
brother. This, of course, is merely a
theory.
Had he
not played a major role in solving the problems of the church of Corinth we
would hardly know who he was at all.
The church at Corinth was in great distress. There was strong division and harsh criticism against Paul. The situation called for a trouble shooter
with gifts of wisdom and tact. It was a
delicate mission and Paul chose his friend Titus to tackle the job. He had earlier sent Timothy, but he was
young and lacked experience, so he next chose Titus. He sent him with his first letter to the Corinthians, and he was
able to calm the troubled waters and bring back to Paul a good report. Paul wrote II Cor. and sent Titus back with
it. In that letter we learn most
everything we know about Titus. Paul
refers to him 8 times in that letter.
Here is an example from II Cor. 2:12‑13. "When I came to Troas to preach the Gospel of Christ a door
was opened for me in the Lord; but my mind could not rest because I did not
find my brother Titus there. So I took
leave of them and went on to Macedonia."
No where
do we find the Apostle Paul so troubled and restless that he cannot stand still
and preach the Gospel. He had to hear
from Titus, and until he did he could not concentrate on his ministry. This is the only record we have of Paul
failing to go through an open door.
When he got to Macedonia he received one of the greatest blessings he
ever recorded, for Titus was there, and he had good news that was desperately
needed. We read in II Cor. 4:5‑6,
"For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest but we were
afflicted at every turn‑fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts
the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus."
His
coming was a great comfort because he had succeeded in getting the Corinthians
to repent and change their attitudes, and become friendly with Paul again.
Titus had been a successful trouble shooter, for that was his gift to be a
peacemaker. The Speaker's Bible says of him, "He was much more a man of
affairs than Timothy was. He settled many a quarrel, allayed many a trouble,
averted many a split. He was the conciliator and peacemaker of the early
church." He was able to do what others could not because it was his gift
to be a trouble shooter. If everyone could do it there would be no need for
those who are gifted trouble shooter. Paul
wrote II Cor. in response to this good report, and it is as positive as I Cor.
is negative.
Paul
was so comforted by the coming of Titus that it has become a part of the
language of comfort. James Smetham
wrote to a friend to thank him for the letter he received which came at a time
when he was depressed and in it he wrote, "Glad to get your friendly
letter. It was like the coming of
Titus. I think providence in these days
often sends Titus by mail." George
Ensor, the first English missionary to Japan said he baptized his first convert
and gave him the name Titus. He said,
"For God who comforts the downcast comforted me by the coming of
Titus." It was discouraging work,
and, like Paul, he was down, but then all was changed by the coming of this
friend.
Oh, gift of God, my friend!
Who face has brought the Eternal nigh.
No sermon like thy life doth tend
To turn my gaze toward the sky.
All of
us need the ministry and comfort of Titus.
We need that friend who will come into our darkness with light. We need good news when all we hear is bad
news, and that things seem to be getting worse. What a blessing to have the downward trend reversed, and hear
that God is at work, and the good does triumph over the evil. May God grant us all the comfort of the
coming of Titus, and may we all strive to be a Titus in bringing to others the
good news of life's joyful realities.
Being a
trouble shooter is not one of the gifts listed in the New Testament, but it is
nevertheless a gift, and a needed one, for trouble is inevitable in a fallen
world, and there is no such thing as
working with people without trouble.
Since the church is people oriented, there can be escape from trouble,
and so the trouble shooter is a vital person in the army of the Lord. No where was this true than on the island of
Crete. It was the largest island in the
Mediterranean. It was 250 miles long
and 50 miles wide. It was a big place
to work, but it was as bad as it was big.
It was not the kind of place a seminary student would want to take for
his first church. Most veterans would
even do anything to avoid getting assigned to such a place.
Paul
had a lot of confidence in Titus to leave him there. He was the only one who could handle the job like this. There were Jews from Crete at Pentecost and
they carried the Gospel back home, and that is likely how the church got
started on this great island. The seed
was sown and it was growing, but the weeds were thick. Paul visited the island and was impressed
with the depravity of the people. In
verse 12 he quotes one of their own poets named Epimenides who lived in
600B.C. He said of the Cretans that
they are, "Always liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons." They were obviously something less than the
creme of the crop. That was 600 years
back from Paul's time and you would think there would be some progress, but in
the next verse Paul says this testimony is true. Things have not changed at all, for they are a crude crowd held
in contempt by all people.
Imagine going
to a people with such a rotten reputation.
Nobody but a tough‑minded trouble shooter would have any business
trying to organize a church in such a place.
Titus did it, and the churches there to this day honor the name of Titus
by naming their churches after him. He
was buried in Crete for centuries before the Venetians carried his body
away. The life an labors of Titus make
it clear that the road may be rough, and the circumstances intolerable, and the
odds overwhelmingly against you. But it
is still possible to plant and grow the church of Christ in the worse possible
settings. No place is hopeless if you
have the right personal.
In 1850
as many as 30 thousand children were abandoned in New York City. Their immigrant parents died on the trip to
America, or shortly after arriving.
These children had no family or relatives, and nowhere to go. They lived in the streets and ate out of the
garbage cans. It was a terrible problem
and all people could do is say that it was a shame. But then Charles L. Brace a 26 year old pastor with the gift for
trouble shooting got concerned. He
started what came to be known as the orphan train. He rounded up hundreds of these stray orphans and put them on a
train headed West. He announced in
every town along the way that if anyone wanted a son or daughter they could
have one. The response was
overwhelming. People were grateful for
the chance to have a child in their life.
Pastor Brace kept this train rolling until 1929, and over 100 thousand
children were given away. Two became
governors; one a U. S. Congressman, and one a Supreme Court Justice. Over 50 became doctors and lawyers.
A
hopeless situation was turned into a treasure of blessings for tens of
thousands of families because of one gifted trouble shooter. Thank God for the trouble shooters who have
turned burdens into blessings all through history. Not everyone can be like Titus, but the good news is, all of us
can be trouble shooters in some ways.
The book of Titus not only reveals to us the key trouble shooter of the
New Testament, but it also reveals to us the key tool of the trouble
shooter. The tool that can prevent most
of the troubles that Christians can get into, and that tool is the virtue of
self‑control.
You will not find another part of the Bible
where this virtue is emphasized like it is here in Titus. The two key Greek words for self‑control
are the dominant words in the council Paul gives to Titus. The elders are to be men who are self‑controlled. All the people who are trouble makers in the
first chapter are problems because of their lack of self‑control. In chapter 2 self‑control is repeated
over and over. It is characterize the
older men, the older women, the younger women, and the younger men. In other words, everybody in the church who
is going to be part of the answer rather than part of the problem is going to
have to develop the virtue of self‑control.
It is
a word with many synonyms and can be translated temperate, sober, or discreet. The word refers to the inner strength one
has over ones self to not be at the mercy of what happens externally, but to be
in control. The emotions and desires of
life do not lead this person around by the nose as a slave. He or she is disciplined, and they have
their life under control. The
undisciplined life where a person is manipulated and controlled by his emotions
and desires is the cause for the troubles of the world and of the church.
This
virtue so pushed by Paul was recognized by great minds all through history to
be the key to a civilized society. It was a classical virtue of the Greeks.
Socrates and Aristotle stressed it, and so did the Greek Stoics and the Jewish
Essenes. Everyone with intelligence
knows that if man does not develop control of his appetites for sex and food
and every other desire he will lose his superiority over the animal and descend
to their level. Even non‑Christians
have recognized that self‑control is vital to society to maintain
morality and order.
In Greek
mythology Phaethon was the son of Helios, the sun god. Every morning Helios emerged from the East
in a golden chariot to ride across the skies and light up the world. The chariot itself was drawn by 8 dazzling
white winged horses whose nostrils breathed forth flame. One day some of Phaethon's companions challenged his claim to divine parentage,
and he came to Helios to seek proof.
Helios assured his son he would grant him any wish. Phaethon requested that he be allowed to drive
the sun chariot. Horrified by this
request he begged his son to choose another way, for he knew he could not
control the powerful horses. Phaethon
was stubborn and held his father to his promise, and so with heavy heart he let
his son take the reins the next morning.
Once
under way the horses quickly sensed Phaethon's light and inexperienced hand on
the reins, and they began to run amok across the skies. Sometimes going too low and scorching the
earth, and sometimes too high leaving whole regions frozen. Finally in desperation Zeus was forced to
hurl a thunder bolt at the chariot and Phaethon was destroyed.
The
Greeks were saying by this story that control is essential to order in the
universe and in life. When things get
out of control there is security for anyone.
You don't have to be a Christian to know this, but all Christians are
called to practice control of their lives like no other people. It is not
just for monks, nuns, and specialists in self‑denial. It is for all Christians at all age
levels. It is the very essence of
Christian living, and it is that virtue that makes all of us trouble shooters
in our own lives.
When
something is universally valued then the Christian is all the more obligated to
live for that value that all men will recognize and honor. Aristotle the Greek said, "I count him
braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the
hardest victory is victory over self."
Seneca the Roman said, "To master one's self is the greatest
mastery." Long before them Prov.
16:42 said, "A patient man is better than a warrior, and he who rules his
temper, than he who takes a city."
Heavenly and earthly wisdom agree that the real heroes of history, and
the people most to be admired, are those who have lived lives which were
governed by the virtue of self‑control.
A man
was walking through a super market with a screaming baby in the shopping
cart. A woman near by noted that the
man kept saying, "Keep calm Albert. Keep calm Albert." Finally in admiration for the man's patience
she said to him, "Sir I must commend you for your patience with baby
Albert." To which the man replied,
"Madam, I am Albert." If you
can't control the baby, then next best thing is to control yourself, and that
was what he was working at, and that is what we are all to work at. If you can't control life and circumstances,
you can still be victorious if you can control yourself and your reactions to
the circumstances.
Paul
stressed this in his letter to the Corinthians also. Christians need to approach life like a runner, or any other
athlete, with a commitment to discipline their lives to bring them under
control. In I Cor. 9:25‑27 we
read, "Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not
last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like a man running
aimlessly. I do not fight like a man
beating the air." Paul brings his
body under control so he is not a slave to it.
Self‑control puts you in charge of your body, and it serves you
rather than you serving it.
In 1962
Jim Beatty became the first man to break the four minute mile indoors. He had to go through enormous sacrifice to get
such control of his body. His, and the
experience of others, is described like this:
"Back of the feat of every man who has run the grueling sub‑four‑minute
mile is the story of endless hours of Spartan training and of punishing
discipline. With every agonized nerve
in his body screaming for rest, the runner drives himself on. Like a jockey whipping his steed to close
the gap as he nears the tape, the miler lashes his body to eke out its last
ounce of energy and gain the coveted prize.
He is discipline incarnate: The
triumph of the spirit over the flesh."
This is
what the Christian life is all about.
It is about the triumph of the spirit over the flesh, and the issue of
self‑control. For Titus to be a
successful trouble shooter on Crete he had to get Christians of all ages to
develop this virtue. This is the
challenge for every believer. In his
letter to Timothy Paul describes the opposite of self‑control. In II Tim. 3:1‑4 he writes, "But
mark this: There will be terrible times
in the last days. People will be lovers
of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their
parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without
self‑control, brutal, not lovers of good, treacherous, rash, conceited,
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."
In Gal.
5 Paul describes the opposite of the Fruit of the Spirit, one of which is self‑control. He writes, "The acts of the sinful
nature are obvious: sexual immorality,
impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealously,
fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness,
orgies and the like." The point
is, the essence of the sinful nature is lack of self‑control. The essence of the righteous nature is in
the presence of self‑control.
The
difference between the trouble maker and the trouble shooter in this world is
not that one has evil thoughts and sinful desires and the other does not. They are equal on that score. Christian people have every thought and
every desire that enters the minds of non‑Christians. There is no folly or fantasy that Satan uses
to entice men that does not affect the believer in some way. The difference between the two is that one
has the power to control his mind, body, and desires, while the other is under
the control of them all.
Self‑
control is a fruit of the spirit and so it is from God, but the book of Titus
clearly stresses that it has to be learned.
Paul, over and over again, tells Titus you must teach the people to be
self‑controlled. It does not just
happen because you become a Christian.
Many Christians are poor Christians because they have not learned to be
trained and disciplined just like an athlete.
Paul was so into the importance of teaching this that when he got his
chance to come before the governor Felix and defend the Christian faith we read
what he spoke on in Acts 24:25:
"As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self‑control and the
judgment to come." Felix was
impressed with Paul, and talked with him after, but he wanted to favor the Jews
so he left Paul in prison.
Self‑control
was a part of Paul's fundamental teaching.
The reason is obvious, for there can be no distinctive Christian life
without it. The goals of the Christian
life cannot be achieved without self‑control. Titus could not get to first base in organizing the church on
Crete unless he could develop a group of Christians with self‑control. But with self‑control the church can
thrive in any environment, no matter how corrupt. They do not escape exposure to the corruption, nor do they escape
temptation, but they are not victims, for by the power of self‑control
they can even use their temptation for the life that pleases God.
In
verse 15 Paul says, "To the pure all things are pure but to those who are
corrupted and do not believe nothing is pure." This is a paradox. A story about the great inventor Thomas
Edison illustrates the point. The
entrance to his property was a heavy clumsy gate and one of his friends
wondered why a man of his standing would put up with this heavy thing, and
suggested something more modern and easy to use. Edison looked at him with a twinkle in his eye and said,
"Come with me. Let me show you
something." He took him to the
gate and showed him how it was geared into a pump and he said, "You see,
every man who comes to see me and opens or shuts this gate automatically pumps
a gallon of water into a tank on my roof." The visitor could be friend or foe, but all of them were
expending energy that Edison had under his control for his purpose.
So it is
in the life of a believer who has developed self‑control. He can use all things for good. To the person without self‑control lust
is destructive of marriage, morality, family, and society. But to the pure even lust can be pure, for
by self‑control it is energy channeled into that which is God's will, and
it enriches marriage and all of life.
By the power of self‑control all energy, even that which may be
stimulated by lust, can be channeled into doing good.
The
difference between a river and a flood is not just the amount of water and the
energy. The difference is that the
flood is out of control, but the river is channeled and can be used to produce
power for a purpose. The flood is
destructive because it cannot be controlled.
Get all that same energy under control and it can be used for good. So the Christian in a very non‑Christian
environment can be successfully righteous by the
power of self‑control.
Billy
Graham in his book Hope For The
Troubled Heart tells the story of the lone survivor of a shipwreck who was
marooned on an uninhabited island. He managed
to build a hut in which he put everything he had saved from the wreck. He prayed to God for rescue as he daily
scanned the horizon for a passing ship.
One day he returned to his hut and to his horror he
found it in flames. All he possessed
was going up in smoke. It was the
ultimate tragedy, and he sat in despair.
Shortly after that a ship arrived.
The captain said, "We saw your smoke signal and hurried
here." The ship wrecked man fell
to his knees and thanked God for the fire he had just been cursing as a
tragedy.
The
point of Graham in telling this story is that he recognizes the great need for
people to have hope. When bad things
happen it is important that we have hope that God can work in all things for
good. The world is full of bad things,
and today we do not have to wait for weeks and months to hear about them. We get the bad news the very moment terrible
events are happening. This much bad
news is affecting people around the world and producing a lot of the sense of
hopelessness.
Graham writes, "Perhaps the greatest psychological, spiritual, and
medical need that all people have is the need for hope. Dr. McNair Wilson, the famous cardiologist,
remarked in his autobiography, Doctor's Progress, 'Hope is the medicine I use
more than any other‑hope can cure nearly anything.' I remember years ago that Dr. Harold Wolff,
professor of medicine at Cornell University Medical College and associate
professor of psychiatry, said, 'Hope, like faith and a purpose in life is
medicinal. This is not exactly a
statement of belief, but a conclusion proved by meticulously controlled
scientific experiment.'"
This is
confirmed over and over again by Dr. Robert Veninga, professor in the School of
Public Health at the University of Minnesota.
He has written a book called A Gift of Hope. In it he gives dozens of illustrations of how hope is the key
ingredient for facing the trials and tragedies of a fallen world. I can share only a few examples. He says that when children are diagnosed as
diabetic they are overwhelmed. Disease
is supposed to be for old people and not kids.
They get depressed at the cruel injustice of it all. The treatment is not just diet and insulin,
but hope. They teach the children that
they can back pack, play football, and be fully involved in social
activities. They learn that prominent
personalities like Mary Tyler Moore, and former New York Yankee star Jim
(Catfish) Hunter are diabetics, and they live full and exciting lives.
When
hope crowds out their fears these children adjust rapidly and begin to enjoy
life again. He goes through a whole
series of family problems and tragic situations, and he shows that families
that survive any crisis do so because they give each other the gift of
hope. Jerry Lebenow was locked up for
three and a half years for a crime he did not commit. A woman was brutally killed and he was charged and found guilty,
he was sent to Stillwater prison. Three
years later the Supreme Court reviewed his case and found that he had not
received a fair trial, and that the evidence did not support his guilt. He was released to return to his
family. How could he suffer such an
injustice and not be bitter and hateful?
He had family and friends who kept encouraging him and giving him
hope.
Survivors in concentration camps did so because they never lost
hope. Those who did lose hope
died. Hope is a vital ingredient to
life. Dr. Veninga says there is nothing
in the world of medicine or psychology that can help people survive and be
healed that can match the power of religious hope. And this brings us to our text, for long before all of the
scientific and psychological research the Apostle Paul told the people of God
that hope is the foundation of even faith and the knowledge of the truth. These are the two vital goals the church is
to achieve in the lives of the believers.
It is to build up their faith and their knowledge of the truth, and he
says these both rest on the hope of eternal life.
Hope
is used about 180 times in the Bible, and so it is a major topic of the Word of
God, but I never saw it before that Paul is telling us here that hope is
foundational, and that even faith rests on hope. That means when he said these three remain, faith, hope and
love, but the greatest of these is love, that the second greatest is hope, and
so he has these three basic virtues in reverse order of their importance. Faith rests on hope. Let's focus on this.
I. THE FOUNDATION OF HOPE.
Paul is
famous for saying that we are saved by faith, but in Rom. 8:24 he says,
"For we are saved by hope."
Faith and hope are like two strands wound together to make a rope. We are saved by both together, for they both
link us to Christ who alone can save.
They just look in two different directions. Faith looks back to the past, and at what Jesus did for us on the
cross in dying for our sins, and also at the resurrection where He conquered
death and all the consequences of sin.
Hope, on the other hand, looks ahead to what Jesus has promised to do
for us because of the cross and the resurrection. He has promised to come again and to raise us up, or to change us
in a twinkling of an eye, and take us to the place He has prepared where we
will enjoy eternal life in His presence.
Paul is
saying that this hope we have of eternal life is the foundation even of our
faith. The point being, if we do not
have the hope of eternal life, what good is it that Jesus died and rose again? Paul says in I Cor. 15:19, "If only for
this life we have hope in Christ, we are to pitied more than all
men." The hope of eternal life is
so foundational that without it there is no meaning to our faith and knowledge,
for it is all worthless without this hope.
God
recognized the necessity of this hope and so Paul says that He promised eternal
life before the beginning of time. Here
we see the ultimate goal of God before He started the creation of the universe,
and the whole creation of reality and time as we know it. Here we see the purpose of God which gives
meaning to all of life. God promised
eternal life before He even made a living soul who could enjoy it. Before time God said that this hope will be
the key to meaning through all of time.
It will be the hope of eternal life beyond time.
Who in
the world did God promise this too if it was before time, and the creation of
Adam and Eve? It was a promise for us,
but the one who got the promise first had to be Jesus who would become a man
and make it possible for the rest of mankind to enter into this foundational
promise of hope. The hope of eternal
life was the motive that brought Jesus to earth to die for lost mankind. Do you think Jesus would have come to die if
the end result was that man would just be restored to live 200 or 500, or even
a 1000 years? It is not very
likely. It was the hope of eternal life
that made His sacrifice worthwhile.
Eternal life is a value beyond our grasp. We cannot conceive of its worth.
But it is the best God can give to a creature made in His image, and He
promised this would be the gift He would give to those who receive His
Son. Paul wrote, "The wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord." The end result of sin is
death, and the end result of salvation is eternal life. The focus of God from before time began was
this hope of eternal life. It was the
focus of Jesus coming to earth. Paul
now says it is the foundation for our faith as Christians.
The
one thing God wants for His people to have all through history is the hope of
eternal life. What does it mean to be
saved? It means that one has the hope
of eternal life. What is the practical
effect of Christ's coming into history?
How does His coming, His death, and His resurrection effect us in our
everyday lives? The answer is right
here in the hope of eternal life. That
is the bottom line that God was aiming for before time began, and it is the
goal of His whole plan that His people would have the hope of eternal
life. To be without God and without
hope in this world is to have life with no meaning. To have God as your heavenly Father, and to have Jesus as your
Savior, and to have this hope of eternal life is to have the meaning you need
to cope with and to conquer, and to be victorious in a fallen world.
The
second coming and the rapture of the church is called the blessed hope, for by
these events Jesus will usher us into that fulfillment of this fundamental hope
of eternal life. It is the foundation
of our faith. Let's look next at‑
II. THE FUNCTION OF HOPE.
Since
God made the hope of eternal life a promise before the beginning of time, He
expects this hope to be a foundation on which His people build their
faith. So the function of hope is to
reach out into the future and lay hold on it as a means of changing the
present. The function of hope is to
participate in the future now. It is to
taste of the things to come and let the future have an impact on the
present.
Henry
Ward Beecher describes how so many falsely think of hope as having no function
in the present, but only in the future.
He writes, "A hope is to some like a passport, which one keeps
quietly in his pocket till the time for the journey, and then produces it. Or like life‑preservers, which hang
useless around the vessel until the hour of danger comes, when the captain
calls on every passenger to save himself; and then they are taken down and
blown up, and each man, with his hope under his arm, strikes out for the
land: And so such men would keep their
religious hope hanging until death comes; and then take it down and inflate it,
that it may buoy them up, and float them over the dark river to the heavenly
shore. Or as the inhabitants of Block
Island keep their boats hauled high upon the beach, and only use them now and
then, when they would cross to the mainland; so such men keep their hopes high
and dry upon the shore of life, only to be used when they have to cross the
flood that divides this island of time from the mainland of eternity."
He is
saying that hope is not something we die with, but it is something we are to
live with, which makes life more enjoyable even with all its limitations. Hope is faith looking into the future and
being filled with confident expectation that the final goal of God will be
worth whatever trials we must endure.
And so it sustains us and motivates us to press on in faithfulness to
Christ no matter what the cost. The
function of hope is to keep us facing in the right direction and pressing
on. If we are always facing the sun,
the shadows will always be behind us.
Hope is
the key to progress in all of life. It
is hope for the harvest that keeps the farmer plowing and cultivating. It is the hope of improvement that makes
every creative person striving to invent better ways of doing things. Rob men of hope and you do not just take
away their future, you take away their now.
Their present is directly affected by their hope of the future. So the Christian life in the present is
directly affected by the hope of eternal life. Paul in Rom. 15:13 writes, "May the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit."
God is the God of hope, and the Holy Spirit has as one of His tasks to
fill us with hope so that the present life can be one of joy and peace.
We
usually connect the Holy Spirit with power, but hope is power, and if we are
filled with hope, we can have joy and peace even when bad things happen, and we
have to cope with the crisis of this fallen world. Hope functions in our daily life by doing at least these two things
I have discovered.
1. IT PREVENTS DESPAIR.
This is
major issue, and there is no solution except in hope. Suicide is a major public health problem, and the government
cannot solve it. Tens of thousands of
Americans kill themselves each year, and a growing segment of that figure are
teenagers. They are not a bunch of drug
addicts, or drop outs either. They are
often bright and high achievers loaded with talent. They are often from good homes, and sometimes even from Christian
homes. How can they sink into such
despair as to take their life at such an early age? The answer is that they do not grasp the Christian hope, which is
the foundation for victory over all the power of sin.
They
are like 14 year old Melissa Putney who became pregnant and solved her problem
by kneeling between the tracks with her hands grasped in prayer. The engineer of the Amtrak saw her, but at
100 miles an hour it was too late, and her life was ended. Dr. Veninga in A Gift Of Hope published her
suicide note that went like this:
"You always ask me if there is anything wrong. I said, 'No, I'm O. K.' Mom, I wasn't telling the truth. I was never O. K. I was very depressed. I ran away from all my problems. I am taking the easy way out. I am admitting to myself that I am a weak
person not able to handle the weight of life.
I'm very sorry to put you all through the troubles. I think everything I have to do is
done. I drank some wine and took some
pills. But before I did all that I
prayed to my Father God in heaven. I
asked Him to forgive me but He won't. I
don't blame Him for that. Please pray
that I won't be sent to hell, because then I won't be able to come back and
watch over you and help you. I want to
do that. Mom, please don't have a
nervous breakdown and be crying all the time.
I don't want you to. I want you
to live forever and ever, the way you want to, and I will always love you very
much. Please try and forgive me. I love you always and always, love,
Melissa."
If this
was an isolated case, we would not need to be overly concerned, but it is going
on everyday because youth lack the hope they need to escape despair. The girl had some degree of faith and
knowledge, but it was not enough, and it had no foundation in the hope of
eternal life. Jesus knew life in a
fallen world would lead people to despair, and even His own disciples would
feel it. That is why in the last two of
His beatitudes He made hope of heaven the foundation for surviving the
negatives of life.
Read
again these familiar words, but note how hope is the key. Matt. 5:10‑12 says, "Blessed are
those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are you when people
insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because
of me. Rejoice and be glad, because
great is your reward in heaven."
When people treat you like dirt and life is so unfair, it leads to
despair unless you have a hope that is permanent. When hope is strong Christians can take the worst that life can
throw at them and overcome despair.
It is
quite shocking to read about the comets plowing into Jupiter and causing
explosions that would end life on our planet if they happened here. All God would have to do to bring about the
end of the world is to have a good size comet make earth its target. When I read such things there is a moment
of fear, but then my faith kicks in and overcomes the fear, for my faith is
based on the hope that even the end of life on earth does not change the
promise of God that there will be a new heaven and a new earth in which we will
dwell forever with our Redeemer. Fear
not those who can kill the body said Jesus.
He might have added that we need not fear what can destroy the whole
world, for if your hope is in God, you can be assured of eternal life.
We
need not despair at bad news, but can have the confidence of the poet who
wrote,
What can we not endure
When pains are lessen'd by the hope of cure?
Eternal hope!
When yonder spheres sublime
Peal'd their first notes to sound the march of time.
Thy joyous youth began‑but not to fade,
When all the sister planets have decay'd:
Who wrapt in fire the realms of ether glow,
And heaven's last thunder shakes the world below.
Thou, undismay'd shalt o'er the ruins smile,
And light thy touch at nature's funeral pile.
Hope
says let the comets come, or whatever else of destructive power, for I will not
despair, or live in fear, for my Lord is coming too, and will fulfill God's
promise of eternal life. Such a hope
prevents despair. And secondly,
2. IT PROMOTES EXPECTANCY.
Joseph
Fort Newton said, "It is almost a definition of greatness to say that is
greatly hopes; that it does not surrender to the weakness of despair but lives
expectantly." The best is always
yet to be in the minds of the great.
Beethoven said after producing one of his compositions, "My ninth
symphony is but a empty echo of the heavenly music I heard in my
dream." Rapheal said after
painting the Sistine Madonna that he could not put on canvas the vision which
his soul saw. Isaac Newton after his
great scientific discoveries said, "I seem to have been like a boy playing
the seashore while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before
me."
It is
this hope of eternal and infinite possibilities that motives people to ever
strive to be creative, for they know they can never exhaust the potential of
the infinite. This hope gives them the
faith to believe that they can make progress and keep on improving. Because they can keep growing they are never
content to stay where they are, but are ever seeking more knowledge to
improve. Faith and knowledge rests on
the hope that is ever promoting expectancy.
Hope
is the motivating factor in Christian growth, and really in all growth in every
area of life. All people can grow and
make progress in coping with their problems, but they are often not motivated
to do so. One psychiatrist made this
confession: "Psychiatry has
learned to make an accurate diagnosis and to recommend a useful plan, but
psychiatry cannot furnish the motive which will make the patient want to follow
the plan." Christian hope provides
that motivation.
Nothing is more practical than the hope of eternal life. Find any book quoting the great minds of
history on hope and this is the sort of thing you will find:
"Religion is the mother of dreams. Over the gray world, ruined by deluge and
death, it has sought ever, and found the arching rainbow of hope." A. E.
Haydon
"Eternity is the divine treasure house and hope
is the window, by means of which mortals are permitted to see, as through a
glass darkly, the things which God is preparing." Mountford.
"For present grief there is always a remedy;
however much you suffer, hope is the greatest happiness of man." Schefer.
"Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that,
and manage it against despairing thoughts." Shakespeare.
"Hope is the best part of our riches. What sufficeth it that we have the wealth of
the Indies in our pockets, if we have not the hope of heaven in our
souls?" Bovee.
Finally, let me share one of the greatest statements ever on the
practically of the hope of eternal life.
This is from C. S. Lewis in his book Christian Behavior.
"Hope is one of the theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward
to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or
wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the
present world as it is. If you read
history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world
were just those who thought most of the next.
The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman
Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals
who abolished the slave trade, all left their mark on earth, precisely because
their minds were occupied with heaven.
It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world
that they have become so ineffective in this.
Aim at heaven and you will get earth "thrown in.": Aim at earth and you get neither."
Lewis
had a great impact on the 20th century because he was a man who had a hope in
eternity. His expectation of what was
to come made him work at changing the now.
Hope is practical. That is why
Jesus taught us to pray daily, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven." We are to let the
expectancy of heaven's perfection motivate us to strive for that perfection in
time. Hope is the basis for goal
setting, and for persistence in running the race. Take away hope and you cut out that which gives meaning to all
of life, and all of our efforts to live the Christian life.
Paul
had a life filled with negatives that he had to endure, but he could cope because
of hope which made him live always in expectancy. Here is the way Paul comforted Christians in their trials, and
notice how hope is the key ingredient in being victorious. "But we ourselves who have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption
as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
For in this hope we were saved."
(Rom. 8:23‑24).
"Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who sleep,
or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and we believe that God
will bring with Jesus those who sleep in Him." (I Thess. 4:13‑14).
Peter was no less enthusiastic about the power of hope to keep
Christians afloat in a world trying always to sink them. He writes, "Praise be to the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His
great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can
never perish, spoil or fade‑kept in heaven for you." (I Peter 1:3‑4).
How
can you tell if a Christian is exercising this living hope? They will be expecting good to come out of
all circumstances. They will focusing
on the best and not the worst. They
will seeking for ways to do instead of grumbling about what can't be done. They will be lighting candles instead of
cursing the darkness. They will regard
problems as opportunities. They will
never let failure stop them from setting goals. This is why we are urged to set our affections on things
above. It is not to escape reality, but
to add to the reality of this fallen world the practical values of hope. Ask yourself more often in your daily life‑what
is my hope, and how should it affect my attitudes an actions today? Build your life on the foundation of
hope.
3. FAITH BUILDERS Based on
Titus 1:1‑16
Jerold
Kennedy, the great Methodist preacher, was surprised to learn of the new
business called Proxy Pickets. If you
want to protest and picket a place, but it would not be convenient for you, and
would break into your routine, for a price they will do it for you. They will send pickets to march and protest
and do whatever you are willing to pay for.
It is a crazy world we live in where you can get somebody to do almost
anything for you. If you want to fight
a war, but don't like the mess of it, and you can't get the time off, you can
hire mercenaries who will fight your war for you. If you would like a baby, but you can't have one yourself, or would
prefer not to put on the weight, you can hire a surrogate mother to have your
baby for you.
Right
along with a do it yourself craze is the don't do it yourself trend. 450 years ago King Louis XII of France had a
prime minister who was capable, and so he let him take over more and more of
his responsibilities. His name was
George, and that is where the saying got started, "Let George do
it." If you have got the money,
there is some George today who will do for you whatever you want done but don't
want to do yourself. There seems to be
no limit to how far man is willing to carry this thing, but there is a
limitation set by God in that no man can pay another to have faith for him. Believing in and trusting in Jesus Christ is
so personal that nobody can do it for another.
In the realm of faith it is a matter of doing your own thing, or it just
will not get done.
I cannot
believe for you, nor can you believe for me.
This does not mean we cannot be helped by others to have faith, but they
can't have it for us. Paul begins this
letter to Titus by making it clear that he is a servant of God and an Apostle
of Jesus Christ for the purpose of increasing the faith of God's people. Paul
could not have faith for them, but he could aid them in growing in faith. He could be a faith builder. Some other versions differ. The RSV says, "To further the faith of
God's elect." Today's English
Version has it, "To help the faith of God's chosen." The Living Bible says, "I have been
sent to bring faith to those God has chosen." Williams has, "To stimulate faith in God's chosen
people." Goodspeed has, "To
arouse faith in those whom God has chosen."
Paul
can't have it for us, but he can help us have it for ourselves. This means that if we are to benefit from
Paul's being selected by God to be an Apostle, we must by his influence become
people of increased faith. That is what
God selected Paul for. If you want to
know what an Apostle is for, it is simple.
He is for motivating and stimulating faith in the people of God. This letter, and all of Paul's letters, are
faith builders, for they give us a basis for our beliefs, and what we believe
determines the degree of our faith.
Faith comes in all sizes. You
can have little faith, medium faith, or big faith, and what you believe makes
the difference.
A
number of tests have shown that if a man is hypnotized and told that he is weak
he will only be able to squeeze a gripping device with one third the pressure
he usually does. On the other hand, if
he is told he is strong his grip will go up in strength by 40%. In other words, they have demonstrated
scientifically the biblical truth that as a man thinketh in his heart so is he. The strength of your faith can vary
tremendously depending on what you believe, and on the intensity of that
belief. Paul believed this or he would
not have spent so much of his life writing letters like this one to Timothy,
and urging him to teach the true doctrines of Christianity, and to refute
heresy and rebuke those going after Jewish myths, that they might be sound
in the faith.
He could
not have faith for them, nor could Titus, but both of them, and other godly
leaders, could do and teach and live so as to increase the faith of weak
Christians. Paul was a faith builder,
and Titus was a faith builder, and all the leaders were to be faith
builders. Every Christian was to be
this, for being a faith builder and being a good Christian are, for all
practical purposes, synonymous.
Even the slaves are to so live that their
masters will find the message about Jesus attractive. A slave can be a faith builder in his master. Every Christian is by the very nature of the
Christian faith in the business of being a faith builder. If our lives do not lift and increase and
strengthen faith, then we are part of the problem instead of part of the
answer. Some of the Christians in Crete
were part of the problem, but the goal of the faith builder is to help all
Christians get out of that category and into the category of being faith
builders themselves. We want to look at
two aspects of faith that will help us see the importance of this task.
I. THE NECESSITY OF FAITH.
If the purpose
of Paul, the purpose of his letters, and the purpose of leaders and God's Word
are all for the producing of faith in God's people, then we are dealing with a
rock bottom necessity. This is
confirmed by Heb. 11:6 which says, "Without faith it is impossible to
please God." It does not say it is
highly unlikely or improbable, but impossible, and so faith is a necessity not
only for salvation, but for sanctification, and for all that is pleasing to
God.
No
wonder the disciples said to the Lord in Luke 17:5, "Increase our
faith." That is what Christian
growth is all about‑the increasing in one's faith. Paul wrote in II Cor. 10:15, "Our hope
is that as your faith continues to grow, our area of activity among you will
greatly expand." Paul is saying
that a growing faith is the key to a growing ministry. You can't get anywhere with a static
faith. A faith that stops growing and
increasing is like a bike that stops moving.
It will soon stop and fall.
There
can be no doubt about it, every time we slip backwards in our Christian walk
there has been a lack of faith, or a ceasing to grow in faith. When we cease to expand we begin to
shrink. The greatest frustration Jesus
had with His disciples was their lack of faith. He became weary over their weakness due to lack of faith. When Peter's faith gave way and he sank into
the sea Jesus said, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou
doubt." When the disciples were
unable to cast the evil spirit out of the little boy he said, "O
unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I endure you?" To the two on the road to Emmaus who did not
believe the report of his resurrection he said, "O dull witted men with
minds so slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!" What a perpetual pain it was to Jesus to be
constantly dealing with men of such little faith.
Jesus
was impressed with people like the Centurion and the Syrophonesian woman, for
they had such great faith. Faith is
where its at. It pleases God, it
delights Jesus, and it opens the door for the Holy Spirit. It is the key to every door of advancement
in the kingdom of God. It is not a
luxury. It is a necessity.
That is why God made Paul an Apostle, that is why
his letters became a part of God's Word to man. It is all a part of God's effort to help believers increase
their faith. Why do we worship God? It is to increase our faith.
Why do we read the Bible? It is
to increase our faith. Why do we pray
for God's help and guidance? It is to
increase our faith. Why do we want
Christian fellowship? It is to increase
our faith. The goal of almost
everything we do as Christians is to increase our faith.
Because
weakness of faith is the number one cause of missing God's best in life, we
must do all we can to strengthen our faith.
The people of Israel could not enter the promised land because of their
unbelief. Their faithlessness caused them to miss their goal in life. So the
people of Nazareth missed the power of Jesus in their lives and He could do no
mighty work their because of their lack of faith. Lack of faith is the basis for all the sin and folly of man. If
Adam and Eve would have believed and trusted God, they would never have fallen.
All of the folly of man since has been for just this same doubt and disbelief
in the Word of God. On the other hand,
the big blessings and the great successes of life all revolve around the
presence of, and the increase of, faith.
Heb. 11 takes us through the great people of the Old Testament and links
them all to faith.
Spurgeon said, "Faith is the mother of virtue...Faith is the water
which nurtures the root of piety. If
you have not faith, all your graces must die.
And in proportion as your faith increases so will all your virtues be
strengthened." The clever sign
outside of church spoke profound truths when it said, "Come to church and
have your faith lifted." That is
why we come to church, for we all need a faith lift, and we need it perpetually
to be pleasing to God and to be growing Christians.
Someone said, "Always be content with what you have, but never with
what you are." We always have the
capacity for greater faith, and this is the challenge of the Christian life, to
be ever adding to and increasing our faith.
Peter said in II Pet. 1:5‑7 that we are to make every effort to
add to our faith a whole series of virtues that lifts our faith higher and
higher. He said to add goodness,
knowledge, self‑control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and
love. This is the same thing Paul is
helping Titus achieve in Crete. Faith
is a necessity for salvation and for sanctification, and for becoming all that
a Christian is meant to be. Paul was
God's instrument for building up the faith of His people, because faith is a
necessity. If something is a necessity,
it is important for us to have a better understanding of its nature, and so we
look next at‑
II. THE NATURE OF FAITH.
We
have already seen that faith is more like a liquid or gas than a solid. It is fluid and elastic. It can increase or decrease, and it can
expand or contract. It is not a solid and stable thing, but very variable. It is
a force in our soul like fluids in our body. You cannot just take it for granted
and assume that once you have faith all is well, and so you can neglect and
ignore it. It needs constant monitoring and attention for balance and growth in
your Christian life.
As you
study this letter to Titus you discover that faith is not some part of your
being, but it is that which pervades your whole being. Paul links faith to the intellect, the
emotions, and the will. The reason you
can't please God without faith is because you cannot think, feel, or choose
anything pleasing to God without faith.
A deep study of faith shatters a lot of myths and misconceptions about
this vital virtue. Faith does not mean
to be gullible and to swallow everything that comes along that sounds good and
religious. Paul is telling Titus to silence
false teachers who are into religion just for the money. There were deceivers in Crete who were
conning people out of their money with religion. Having faith does not mean you should not be skeptical and
critical. The world has always been
full of false prophets, and you have to be a skeptic as a person of faith or
you will be deceived at some point.
Paul
links faith and reason here in Titus.
So many people think you have to check in your brains to be a person of
faith. This is nonsense. Faith and the intellect are partners. In the first verse of this letter Paul links
faith and the knowledge of the truth.
In verse 2 he says this partnership of faith and knowledge is based on
the hope of eternal life which God, who does not lie, promise before the
beginning of time. So now we have 3
vital parts of the Christian life tied together. We need to see that the biblical view of man has always been what
is now becoming a popular concept in the world of medicine and psychology.
Holistic medicine is popular today.
It is an awareness that you cannot treat a part of the body as if it
existed by itself. It is a part of a
whole system, and the whole system is a unity and not just a pile of
parts. This is true even for a
machine. You cannot just deal with a
carburetor or fuel pump or spark plug in isolation. You have to deal with the whole car and the function of all of
its parts together. In the parts
department they deal with each part separately, but on the whole car you have
to deal with all the parts in their togetherness and cooperation with all other
parts.
In
theology we sometimes tend to deal with the issues of life like a parts
department. We look at faith as an
isolated reality and virtue, and try to figure it out, and then go on to look
at hope and love. This has its value,
but the Bible does not deal with them that way. It deals with them holistically.
They are all tied in together and are dependant one upon the other just
as parts of an engine, or parts of a body.
Faith
is first here in Titus, but you cannot separate it from knowledge or hope. You cannot have faith in what God has
promised if you do not know what He has promised, and so the knowledge of the
truth is vital to the existence of faith.
To try and keep these two separated would be like trying to keep a car
going by separating the carburetor and fuel pump, or keeping your body going by
separating your heart and your lungs.
The point is, faith is never separated from anything in the Christian
life. It is a part of the whole, and
part of every other part of the whole.
Faith is a part of all we think, feel, and will. If you don't think right, feel right, or
choose right, the problem is with your faith.
The
nonsense about Paul being the promoter of faith and James being the promoter of
good works is shattered by this letter also.
You will not find anywhere in the New Testament a greater emphasis on
good works than right here by the Apostle of faith. He never for one moment saw these as opponents, but always as two
parts of the Christian life operating in harmony with the whole.
Titus
was left in Crete to do good works in getting the church organized. The elders were to love good and do good
works. The trouble makers in Crete were
those who were not doing good, but who were hurting people, and they were unfit
for doing good works. The whole second
chapter is about getting the Christians of all ages doing what is good, and
even the slaves. Paul says in 2:14 that
the whole point of Christ redeeming us was to have a people eager to do what is
good. The third chapter begins with the
Christian responsibility as a citizen of the secular state to do what is
good. In verse 8 he stresses it again
that Titus is to get the Christians devoted to doing what is good. In verse 14 he says again, "Our people
must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good."
Thinking right and doing good are both vital parts of faith living. Faith does not relieve the Christians of any
intellectual, moral, or social obligations.
Faith is not some spark plug that goes off and operates on its own apart
from the rest of the car. It is a part
that ties into an functions in harmony with the whole. So when we talk about increasing faith, that
involves the total man in increasing knowledge of the truth, increase of hope,
love, joy, and actions to do what is good in all areas of life.
Nobody
can have faith for us, but they can help us have faith and an increase in
faith, and that is what Paul was called for, and what all of us are called
for. We are called to grow in faith and
so live that we will be faith stimulators and promoters in others. The question we need to ask is this: Is it easier for others to have faith
because of me, or am I a hindrance to the faith of others? Increasing in faith is caring to the point
where you can more and more say with confidence, I am a faith builder.
Stanley
did not find faith in Christ until he found Livingston in Africa. He lived with Livingston for four months,
and he saw his love for people, his gentleness and hopefulness, and faith. That example of the Christian faith in flesh
conquered him, and he too came to faith.
It is the story of Naomi's influence on Ruth repeated, and so it is all
through history. You cannot have faith
for another, but you can be the key to their having their own faith.
E.
Stanley Jones tells of the amazing experience of one of the poor Christian
women of India. An epidemic took many
lives and the bodies were laid in piles.
A poor sweeper woman, who was an untouchable, saw one of the bodies
move. She went to a doctor and told
him, and he took the body of a woman off the pile. She needed a blood transfusion, and the sweeper woman volunteered
to give her blood. The woman lived and
though she was a Brahmin, who would have nothing to do with an untouchable, she
found this sweeper woman who saved her life, and in finding her she also found
eternal life, for the sweeper woman was a Christian. The impact of her love and
faith led this Brahmin woman to trust Christ as her Savior. This sweeper
woman's faith, which led her to the good work of giving her blood, led to the faith of another. She was a faith builder.
This is
what Paul was, and this is what he expected Titus to be, and this is what all
Christians are to be‑faith builders.
4. FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE
Based on Titus 1:1‑16
Over the
years I have read the mail of many people.
It is because it is because I buy a lot of old books and people leave
letters and postcards in these old books.
Seldom have I found anything worth reading, but the fact is, much of the
best reading in history is found in
reading other people's mail. The joy of
reading other people's letters is that you do not have to answer them.
In the
book, A Treasury Of The World's Great Letters, you can find letters from
Alexander the Great, Christopher Columbus, Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo,
Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and just a host of famous
people all through history. Only one
Bible author made it into this book and that was the Apostle Paul. He wrote more of the world's most famous
letters than any human being who has ever lived. Nearly half of the New Testament is composed of his letters. When you read the New Testament you are
reading a lot of other people's mail.
Most of it was written to the church however, and was intended to be
read in public. But 4 of Paul's letter
were written to individuals as private mail.
But they were so instructive and valuable for the whole church that God
guided the church to include them in the New Testament.
We want
to begin the study of the letter to Titus.
He was one of Paul's key troubleshooters. He sent Titus into the church at Corinth where it was going
through great turmoil and strong criticism of Paul. It was a delicate mission calling for tact and wisdom. Titus was able to calm the waters and return
to Paul with a good report. Paul
considered Titus a good friend, but he gave him the dirtiest jobs because he
was gifted to handle them. He left
Titus in Crete because it was a hard place to grow a church. The people were a bunch of lying, lazy
gluttonous brutes. I am not making this
up. Paul says so in verse 12 and
13. They had a bad reputation and they
deserved it says Paul. This was not the
place for his most tender son in the faith‑Timothy. This was a job for tough Titus. Paul left him there on the island of Crete
and took off. This letter is one he
sent back to Ttius to instruct him in the management of this difficult local church.
In the
very first paragraph of this letter Paul makes it clear that there are 2 key
ingredients in a body of believers becoming a church that brings honor to
Christ, and those are faith and knowledge.
Paul says that is why he was chosen to be a servant of God and a Apostle
of Jesus Christ. It was to impart faith
and knowledge to God's elect. These 2
paths lead even the toughest of people to a life of godliness. Without faith and knowledge people live in
fear and ignorance, and that is why they are so ungodly. Show me crude and rude ungodliness, and I'll
show you people who live in fear and ignorance. Show me poor or rich Christians who live a life pleasing to God
and I will show you people who walk in the light because of faith and
knowledge. The individual and the
church that pleases God and fulfills His purpose in history is one where these
two pillars are conspicuous.
How do
you get the church in Crete to be a better church? You increase faith and knowledge. Both of these are expandable and capable of growing from lesser
to greater. Faith comes in all
sizes. Just as you can get a small,
medium, or large cone, so you can get a great variety of sizes of faith. In Mark 4:40 Jesus said to His disciples
who feared the storm was going to sink them, and they would drown, "Why
are you so afraid? Do you still have
no faith?" That is the least
amount of faith you can have, which is none.
The mustard seed size looks pretty good compared to this. So what we see is that a Christian can have
anywhere from no faith, to little faith, to great faith. Jesus said to them on another occasion,
"Oh you of little faith." It
was so little that it did little to overcome their doubts.
Then
you have the account of the Centurion who had a severely ill servant, and he
told Jesus he did not have to come to his house, but just say the word and he
would be healed. Jesus was astonished
and said in Matt. 8:10, "I have not found anyone in Israel with such great
faith." Here was a man with a ton
of faith. The Bible gives balance and
tells of the Canaanite woman with the demon possessed daughter. She came to Jesus and was so assured that
He could heal her daughter that she refused to take no for an answer. Jesus said to her in Matt. 15:28,
"Woman, you have great faith," and He healed the daughter.
The
point is, faith can be small and weak, or big and strong in either sex, and in
every degree in between. The goal of
the church is to help Christians move from a mini‑faith to a mega‑faith. If faith is not growing, the church is failing,
for this is a primary purpose of the church.
This was Paul's job and the job of Titus, and it is the job of every
church leader to help Christians grow in faith. the RSV puts it, "To further the faith of God's
elect." Goodspeed has it, "To
arouse faith in God's chosen." The
Amplified has it, "To stimulate and promote the faith of God's
chosen."
The
reason the Bible teaches that faith without works is dead is because all works
grow out of a living faith. Faith is
the foundation for all action. Have you
ever had a salesman tell you that his is a great investment, and that you can't
go wrong. And yet you could not bring
yourself to buy, and the reason is you just did not have an adequate
faith. There was too much doubt and
fear to overcome, and the result was you took no action. Fear paralyzes and prevents action. You can only take action when there is some
degree of faith that motivates you.
Without faith you cannot make a commitment. The goal of all sales pitches is to increase your faith, for
without faith there will no sale. If
you have no faith in the product, or the salesperson, you will not respond, for
the will cannot go where faith has not prepared the way.
Faith
is the pioneer that blazes new trails, and if faith has not done its job the
will cannot stick its neck out into that uncharted territory. Every action we take is based on faith. When faith says jump, and only then, will we
take the leap of faith. Faith gives
the green light and says go for it.
Robert Louis Stevenson said, "Faith forms the axles of the
universe. We do nothing apart from some
faith. We can't even walk unless we
have faith our legs will hold us up.
Faith is the working principle of daily life."
Lack
of faith is the cause for all of the insecurity and uncertainty of life. Adam and Eve fell because they lacked the
faith to believe that God's way was best.
Every sin we commit is because we do not have the faith to believe that
God's way is better. We worry because we
don't have the faith to believe that God will work in all things for our
good. We let anxiety rob us of our
peace because we do not have the faith to believe that God will give us the
strength to handle whatever comes.
Every weakness and defect in the Christian life can be traced to a lack
of faith, and every strength and virtue can be seen as a product of faith.
Faith
and knowledge go together, for you have to have some basis for faith. Faith is trust in somebody or something, and
you have to have knowledge to person or truth in order to trust them. If you ask me if I want to ride on a thig‑a‑magig,
I will not be able to respond until you give me some knowledge of what it
is. Only when I have enough knowledge
to overcome the doubts and fears of ignorance will I have faith to take
action. Now I might just have faith in
you, and trust that you would not lead me into danger, and so in blind faith
follow you to ride on this unknown thing.
But it is my knowledge of you that leads me to that step of faith. There has to be some basis in knowledge for
faith to be born, and the greater the knowledge, the greater the faith.
But
keep in mind that knowledge is not faith.
They are two distinct realties. Faith
needs knowledge to motivate trust and action, but it does not necessarily lead
to that response. What if you inform me
that a thig‑a‑magig is a very high ride where at the peak they let
you float to the earth on a parachute.
You can explain the whole process so I understand its safety
completely. I can be thoroughly
convinced, but still not have the faith to act an take a ride. Knowledge can
just take you so far. I can believe in
the parachute and know beyond a doubt that it is safe, but still not have the
faith to take the ride because my faith is not great enough to overcome my
fears. I have a fear of heights and
this fear makes it impossible for faith to get beyond the level of weak faith. The result is I cannot act on my
belief. My knowledge is sufficient, but
my faith is not.
If you
stay lower to the ground, I have a faith that will take me there, for it is
stronger than my fear on that level.
The point of all this is to make it clear why faith is so vital to all
that we do. If my fear of sharing my
faith is stronger than my faith, I will not be a witness for my Lord. My fear of ridicule or rejection will keep
me from telling others about the love of Christ. I will be a silent Christian in a world that desperately needs to
hear good news. I will know it is a
shame, but I won't be able to change unless my faith grows to a point where it
is stronger than my fears. This is true
in every area of the Christian life. I
will not be the Christian I ought to be in any area of life until my faith is
stronger than the fears that reign in that sphere of life.
The
kind of Christian you are is in direct proportion to your growth in faith. If you remain with weak faith in any area of
your Christian life, you are a weak Christian in that area. You are only as strong as your faith, and
that is why growth in faith is the very essence of what the Christian life is
all about. The strong mature Christian
is one who, like a child, leaps off the table, or some other high place, into
the arms of the father. It has always
amazed me that children can have such trust, for failure on the part of the
parent or grandparent could lead to death or serious injury. Yet, they take the leap of faith and do so
in full confidence which it makes it fun and not fearful.
If we
do take risks for our heavenly Father, it is often with fear and trembling
rather than with a sense of joyful adventure.
Fear hold us back and robs us of much of the joy of being a child of
God.
O for a faith that will not shrink,
Though pressed by every foe;
That will not tremble on the brink
Of any earthly woe!
This
was the kind of faith that Paul and Titus had.
That is why Titus took the chance of staying in Crete. Fear would have compelled most to move on to
safer territory, but Titus took the risk of working with the worst, for he had
the faith to believe that God would bless his labors. Without faith it is impossible to please God says the author of
Hebrews, and it makes sense why, for without faith you will never be motivated
to take a risk for God. Faith is what
makes you act and do the things that make you grow and learn, and to become
more of what God wants you to be. Faith
is the fuel that gets you where you ought to be. Without faith you are stranded and remained locked in at your
present level. Only a growing faith can
produce a growing Christian.
On the
other hand, is the sad state of a Christian who is losing faith. You can lose things and even loved ones and
be growing in faith, but when you begin to lose faith you are suffering the
greatest lost possible. Someone wrote,
"Sad loses have you met, but mine is heavier yet, for a believing heart
has gone from me." Those who are
not advancing in faith are usually regressing, and this is the key sign of a
failing Christian. Their faith is
weaker and the result is that they do less and less for the kingdom of God, and
they become less and less of a witness, and care less and less about God's
Word. The mass of weak Christians is
the result of the church not making growth and faith a priority, as it was for
Paul.
You
only produce a Titus by strong faith.
People only take risks and become missionaries, or enter some other life
of service because of strong faith. Lay
people only become strong leaders in the local church and develop their skills
in Christian leadership if their faith is strong. Growing faith is behind every Christian who becomes a leader and
a doer. Receding faith is behind every
Christian who becomes a dropout and who with draws from service. You are what you believe. That is why G. A. Studdert‑Kennedy
became a great servant of Christ during the great war. It was hell on earth on the battlefield with
many questions without answers, but he served unwaveringly, and the reason he
could do was because of his faith. Here
is his famous poem that has been quoted millions of times in sermons around the
world.
"I know not why the evil,
I know not why the Good, both mysteries
Remained unsolved, and both insoluble.
I know that both are there, the battle set,
And I must fight on this side or that.
I can't stand shiv'ring on the bank, I plunge,
Head first.
I bet my life on Beauty, Truth,
And Love, not abstract but incarnate Truth,
Not Beauty's passing shadow but its Self.
It's very self made flesh, Love realized.
I bet my life on Christ‑Christ crucified.
You want to argue?
Well,
I can't. It
is a choice. I choose the Christ."
He was
a Titus who served in a tough situation because he had the faith to take risks
for his Lord. Men and women of faith
produce fruit no matter how tough the situation. Titus built people up in Crete even, and it is people of faith
who go on producing fruit in places where others see no value. Tennyson in "The Ancient Saga"
wrote of faith.
"She sees the best that glimmers through the
worst;
She feels the Sun is hid but for a night.
She spies the summer through the winter bud.
She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls;
She finds the fountain where they wail'd
mirage!"
So what
if Cretans are creeps. A man of faith
can see them become mature children of God by increasing their faith. Faith is the victory that overcomes the
world and all of the obstacles in the way of sinners becoming saints pleasing
to God. Most Christians know they have
little faith. They spell their faith
with a small f, and they feel very inferior about it. God knew this would be the case, and that is why He chose men
like Paul and Titus to be faith builders in the early church. The church never could have survived without
these kinds of men to cultivate faith.
J. N.
D. Kelly, the great scholar, says of these opening verse of Titus,
"Defines more completely than any other New Testament passage the scope
and function of apostleship." If
the goal is the growth in faith of God's people, then the purpose of the Bible
is the same, and that is to help Christians grow in faith. It provides the knowledge they need to grow
in faith. Bible study is not just a
past time, but it is a striving to increase our faith by gaining the knowledge
we need to exercise faith. You cannot
have faith in what God has promised if you do not know what He has promised. You cannot claim what you do not know.
Paul
says the faith and knowledge he aims for is that which is based on the hope of
eternal life, which God promised before the beginning of time. We see some complexity here, for now hope is
thrown in as the basis for faith and knowledge. We can easily get confused here, and so what we tend to do is
just skip over this introduction like we often do to that of other books, and
not even try to figure it out. To
simplify matters let me use the engine in your car as analogy. It has spark plugs and a fuel pump and wires
of all kinds. It looks quite
complicated. If you take each part out
and lay it by itself it does not do anything.
It is just a part. But together
they become a machine, and they work in harmony to give power to get you to
your destination. That is the way it is
with the parts of the Christian life.
Each by itself is just a part.
It is only as they are put together that they work in harmony to get you
where God wants you to be.
When
we study the Bible we are often like someone browsing in a parts
department. We study faith, and then
knowledge, and then hope, and we tend to forget they all work together as a
total package. It is conceivable that
you could become an expert in the parts department and never drive a car. The goal of Bible study is not just to learn
to identify the parts of the Christian life, but to get them in working order
together so they propel you on to Christian growth. The study of Titus is not so any of us can be ready for a quiz,
or be better prepared for Bible trivia, but that we each become more effective
and fruitful Christians of faith.
Knowledge of the truth leads to godliness says Paul. In Christ are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. Jesus is the truth
and the author of all truths. He had a
love for people, plants, animals, and all of creation. He makes this clear in His use of knowledge
from every aspect of creation in His parables.
Christians are expected to be students, for knowing is the companion of
faith, and of all doing. This is true
in the secular realm of life as well.
Admiral Peary, the Artic explorer reported that men with more knowledge
withstood the rigors of the North better than those who had less
knowledge. Months of nothing but endless
ice impoverished the souls of those who depended upon their environment for
life's interests. Those who had rich
resources within because of their greater knowledge could draw upon that when
cut off from the world outside.
The
Christian who knows more of the Word of God can be content and even delighted
in a waste land of boredom. They have
inner resources that others do not possess.
Take a boring sermon for example.
The Christian with little knowledge is forced to wander and find water
in some oasis in the desert of their own imagination. But the knowledgeable Christian can be thinking of truths that
are being missed or poorly communicated, and they can use even the badly
lighted path to take them into the deeper riches of God's Word. The point is, knowledge will help you redeem
the time that otherwise would be wasted.
Knowledgeable Christians will always be more enthusiastic where those
who don't know will tend to be bored.
The more you know of the Bible, the more you can appreciate how all
knowledge and all truth relate to God's Word.
Ignorance cuts you off from so many of the wonders of the world, for you
cannot see how everything it is fits into a part of God's plan. Science and history, and art, and everything
you can imagine are all a part of the fascinating work of God. Those who do not know of the vast variety in
God's revelation do not see how all of life and knowledge fit into God's plan. The more you know of the Bible, the more
you know that all truth is God's truth.
There may be some exceptions, however, like the epitaph I read,
Here lies poor Johnnie,
Late husband of Ruth.
She asked how her hair looked,
He told her the truth.
The
letter of Titus stresses the importance of not lying like the Cretans, but of
telling the truth. But even Paul might
have made an exception for poor Johnnie.
Something that is true is not necessarily the truth. When Paul writes of knowledge of the truth
he is referring to knowledge of what God has revealed. That is what leads to godliness. The less we know of God's revealed word, the
less we can live a godly life because we would just not know what godliness is
in many situations.
The
Bible deals with more of life than anyone can imagine. I have studied the Bible for over 40 years
and I have not begun to cover all that it reveals. There is no end to growing in the knowledge of the truth. But that is what makes it exciting, for
there is endless new ideas and insights which make Christian growth and
adventure for all of life. The bottom
line is, knowledge and faith and hope work together to give the Christian the
motivation to obey God whatever the cost, for he is assured that even if he dies
by his obedience he has eternal life, and so he cannot lose.
Knowledge is basic, but we need to keep in mind that the Christian life
does not consist in accepting a creed.
It is more a matter of trusting God.
It is of little value to believe all that is true, but not do what God wills. You have to trust God and act to be a
growing Christian. Adding information
to your head is not enough. Hoping,
knowing, and trusting all lead to living the Christian life more
effectively. You can ask which is most
important, but it is like asking which is the most important part of a
hammer. Is it the head or the
handle? One without the other is not a
hammer. It takes both together to be
the tool it is meant to be. So it is
with these Christian virtues. They all
work together to make us what we ought to be.
Knowledge helps us gain from the past; hope helps us gain from the
future, and faith brings them together to motivate us to act in the
present. I believe the sun is 93 million
miles away, but I do not act any special way because of that knowledge. It is true, but it has no impact on my
life. Truth is knowledge that does
effect our life, behavior, and attitudes.
Every time we come to church, read the Bible, our prayer should be,
"Lord help me to see truth that will increase my faith so I, like Paul and
Titus, can be willing to take chances for your kingdom.
5. THE BEAUTY OF ORDER
Based on Titus 1:5
Paul
Aurandt tells of how even the disorders of life can sometimes be a
blessing. Only hours after Pearl
Harbor the Japanese went after the Philippine Islands. American and Philippine troops were taken by
surprise and had to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. These brave troops became famous for their delay of the
Japanese. For 98 days they fought
against the impossible odds before they surrendered. But this delay gave America the time it needed to organize the
defense of Australia and other vital areas.
The
paradox of it all is that it was all made possible by a mistake. General Mac Arthur's quartermaster ordered
18 thousand empty oil drums, but someone fouled up the order and sent them
filled with gasoline. This was a
million gallons of unwanted fuel sent to the Peninsula of Bataan. It was this fuel that made it possible for
them to hold out for 98 days, and thereby change the course of history for
freedom.
God is
not limited to working only with order.
He can bring light out of darkness and harmony out of discord. He can bring order out of chaos. This is, in fact, one of God's specialties,
but there is no escaping the truth that God's preference is for order. You can't count on disorder. There is no disorder in God's being, nor is
there any in His revealed description of the ideal destiny of the universe, or the
eternal home of the redeemed. Perfect
order and beauty with complete symmetry and harmony is what will be
everlasting. Order means beauty, and
order means health, happiness, holiness, and all that is good has a direct
connection with order.
This
becomes the ideal we are to work for in all that we do for the glory of
God. This was Paul's purpose for the
church in Crete, and this was the task of Titus to organize the church and
bring order where there was chaos and discord.
According to this letter all Christians have an obligation to get their
lives in order. This would lead to
order in the church, in the home, and in the state as well. It all begins with Titus who had a unique
gift for organization. Some people just
have it and others do not. Paul says in
verse 5 that he left Titus in Crete for the purpose of straightening out what
was left unfinished. Paul is saying
that he left the work there incomplete.
Even under the Apostle Paul a church did not spring quickly to a state
of perfection. Paul left a lot of loose
ends and he needed the help of a gifted man like Titus to complete the work.
The
Cretans were a messed up people, but the Gospel is that any mess can be
straightened out by the grace of God, and order can be brought out of
chaos. That is why Paul did not give up
on these who were, humanly speaking, hopeless people. He knew it was the sick who needed the physician, and the messed
up who needed the organizer. It is
superficial to think that because people are saved that the battle is over, and
that there is nothing much left to do.
The fact is, the biggest battle may come after conversion. People may gladly accept the Gospel as the
good news, and rejoice in having a Savior, but the hard part is in getting
their lives organized so as to conform to Christ.
Calvin
said, "The building of the church is not a work so easy that it can be
brought all at once to perfection."
Even where Paul spent several years the work was not completed, so how
much more so here in Crete? The goal
however is to get to that point where order dominates the church. Paul had a great deal of optimism about the
power of order to make Christian lives and churches the witness for Christ they
were meant to be. Only once in this
letter does Paul refer to the work of the Holy Spirit. In chapter 3 verse 5 he refers to the
rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
But all through the rest of this letter he dwells on the human
responsibility to bring order into their lives and the church. This leads us to the first point about order
that we want to focus on.
I. THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ORDER.
This
letter of Paul makes it clear that the church is a human organization, and men
are responsible for working out the bugs and bringing it to a place where all
is done decently and in order. The
reason Paul left Titus in Crete was because without a human agent the job of
straitening out what was unfinished would not get done. Maybe some told Paul to just pray about it,
which we know he did. But Paul knew he
had to have someone there through whom God would answer the prayer.
Very
little to nothing gets done in the church without a human agent. God's primary tool is people. The Holy Spirit works through people. Christ the head of the church works through
His body‑the people. The church
is God's bridge over the troubled waters of the world. Offering a way back to God through
Jesus. God designed the church, and
Jesus builds the church, but His crew is made of men and women. He started with the 12 and then chose
Paul. They in turn chose men like
Titus, who in turn appointed elders in all the churches. They in turn taught every believer how to
establish order in the church, and make it an appealing bridge which would
attract the world to cross over to Christ.
The
point is, the primary responsibility for the orderly effectiveness of any
church lies in the leadership and members of that church. It is human responsibility to develop the
order that makes a church pleasing to God and attractive to the world. The bridges don't just happen, and neither
do churches. They are planned,
organized, and built by people who want to make a way over the troubled waters
of life a reality. The church, like all
else that is human, and which is for the benefit of humans, depends upon order
for its success.
Blackie
wrote, "In human doings and human productions, we see everywhere
manifestations of order. Well‑ordered
stones make architecture; well‑ordered social regulations make a
constitution and a police; well‑ordered ideas make good logic; well‑ordered
words make good writing; well‑ordered imaginations and emotions make good
poetry; well‑ordered facts make science.
Disorder, on the other hand, makes nothing at all, but unmakes
everything. Stones and disorder produce
ruins; and ill‑ordered social condition is declined, revolution, or
anarchy; ill‑ordered ideas are absurdity; ill‑ordered words are
neither sense nor grammar; ill‑ordered imaginations and emotions are
madness; ill‑ordered facts are chaos."
Because
it is so, nobody has a greater responsibility than Christians to be people of
order. Being Christ‑like means to
add order to everything of which we are a part. Christians are to admired
because they add order, and in so doing add beauty and harmony to the church
and the state, and every other group they belong to. God gives us illustrations, examples, and guides, but we are
responsible for order in our own lives and in our own church.
When
Paul says in I Cor. 14:40, "Let all things be done decently and in
order," he was writing to a church that was promoting chaos and
disorder. It was a church that was so
permissive of individual liberty that everyone did that which was right in
their own eyes. The gifts of the Spirit
were used indiscriminately and haphazardly so as to make the worship service a
mad house. It was a church where
disorder reigned, and where division was dominant over unity. Paul makes it clear that it is the responsibility
of Christians themselves to make order an idea they aim for, and then labor to
maintain it in the church.
God did
not do it for them, nor did He do it for the church in Crete. It was man's responsibility to add order to his
life and church. Jouber said, "All
are born to observe order, but few are born to establish it." Men like Paul and Titus have established
patterns of order for the church. It is
our responsibility to observe these patterns.
This concept of every person being responsible for order has some very
practical implications for the family as well as the church.
Dr.
Frank Main in his book Perfect Parenting And Other Myths says that one of the
major problems in families today is that children do not feel they add to the
order of the household. In the old days
when a child did not milk a cow the family went without milk. If he did not chop wood the family was cold. It really mattered if he did his chores and
played his role. Today if a child fails
to do his job it can be counteracted by a microwave, or going out for fast
food. If a child does not feel his
contribution really counts, he will not
feel responsible, and this will lead to the loss of one of the key ingredients
that will make him or her a force for order.
Every
child in the home, and every child of God in the church, needs, for their own
sake as well as the kingdom's sake, to recognize their personal responsibility
for order. Failure here is the cause
for the disorder of families, church, and state. If the world is a mess there is no one to blame but men, for men
are responsible for order. We cannot
straighten out the messes of the world, and neither could Paul or Titus, but
they could bring order to their own lives and the church that they served. You and I can do it too, and doing it is
God's will for each of us.
We do
not want to be idolaters of order, and so we need to see that it is not always
the first priority. Paul did not finish
the job and so we can assume it took more time for Titus to get it all
together. The first task in contact
with the world is to rescue them from the river, and not to be busy building a
bridge. If people are drowning in the
river and you stand on shore discussing the pros and cons of where a bridge
could be built, or what it should be made of, or what color it should be
painted, you would be guilty of putting order before people, and this is not
consistent with the priorities of Christ.
Your first priority is to bet people out of the water. Save them
first, and then teach and train them so they can become the bridge that
brings others to Christ.
Order
is the goal, but not necessarily your first priority. You may have to kick off your shoes, rip off your shirt, and
participate in very disorderly rescue operations before you get organized, and
this is obviously what happened in Crete.
But now we have a body of rescued people, and the task now is to get
them organized. Paul makes it clear
there is a reason for order, and this is our second point.
II. THE REASON FOR ORDER.
There
are many, but the primary reason for order is that which makes order
universally valued, and that is that it is aesthetic. That means it is attractive.
Order has beauty, and beauty appeals to people and attracts them like
the flower attracts the bee, and the female attracts the male. Order power is beauty power. The drug store and the dump may have a lot
of the same chemicals around, but you go to the drug store because all is in
order, and it is appealing. It gives
you a sense of security and assurance.
That which is messy and disorderly does not entice you to its presence.
I
cleaned out our medicine drawer a couple of weeks ago and I found all kinds of
stuff outdated. When I threw all that
away the draw looked so clean and orderly.
I wondered why I tolerated the mess for so long. The reason is really quite simple. We get use to less than the best, and so we
stop striving for the attractive ideal.
Harry
Gale, a metallurgist in London, once offered to cure Big Ben of its
stutter. The famous clock bell had a
strange sound. The reason was a crack
that showed up back in 1859 just two months after it went into the Tower of
Parliament. Mr. Gale said he could mend
the crack with a nickel alloy. His
offer was refused, however, because the Minister of Works said the world has
gotten use to the crack sound. We can
get so use to the defective real that we lose interest in pursuing the perfected
ideal. It is the task of leadership to
prevent this and be constantly presenting the ideal which is appealing and
attractive to all men.
The
Christian obligation is not just to develop a life that he or she is content
with, but one that has order and beauty that appeals to all people. All of the virtues that this letter deals
with are virtues that are ideals of every religion and every culture.
Christians who become what this letter urges them to become are Christians that
will be beautiful people anywhere and anytime, and this order power will make
them effective witnesses for Christ, who is the author of all order and beauty.
You
don't even find atheists who complain about the order of the universe and the
beauty of flowers. All people are
positively impressed with order and beauty.
So Paul says in this letter that an orderly Christian life is the key to
impress the world. In 2:5 he says an
orderly relationship of love in marriage and family will be so beautiful that
the world will have n criticism of the Word of God. In 2:8 he says that sound logic and beauty, and just all around
orderliness in teaching will make opponents ashamed to attack the Christian. If what a Christian teaches is open to the
charge of being ugly and inconsistent with even pagan morality, then you can
count on it that the world will rip it apart.
Paul
says that Christian teaching is to be so beautiful and orderly that even the
non‑Christian world would be embarrassed to attack it. That
is the power of order. It shuts the
mouth of even that roaring lion that goes about seeking whom he may
devour. Even Satan cannot attack
universal beauty and get by with it.
What mob has ever chanted, "Down with honesty, truth, beauty, and
love?" Nobody can object to what
is universally attractive. That is the
reason the individual Christian, and
the church as a whole, is obligated to be committed to the life of order. In a very literal way the Christian is
called to be an artist, and his or her life is to be a work of art. The church is to be so ordered also as to
be a work of art and a thing of beauty that is attractive to all intelligent
minds.
"Order in the court," the judge demands, because where chaos
reigns nothing good can result, and justice will not be served by
disorder. All that is good, true, and
beautiful depends upon order. Order in
the church is the key to convincing the world that something beautiful has
happened, and that it can happen to them as well. In chapter 3 Paul says that before Christ came into their lives
they were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of
passions. They lived in malice, envy,
and hate. Their lives were a chaotic
mess, but now in Christ they were to be so living that beauty and excellence
characterized them, and their lives are profitable to everyone. That is a big order, and the only way to
fill it is by the power of an orderly life.
That is why Paul rejects all that is disorderly.
In 3:9‑10
he says that foolish controversies have no place in the church, for they are
unprofitable and useless. They add no
beauty or benefit, and so they are enemies of order. The divisive person is also a detriment to order. They are not compatible with the goal of
unity and the beauty of harmony. If
such a person cannot be persuaded to conform to the goal of orderliness, they
must be rejected, for the ideal of order in the body is more important than the
satisfying of the idiosyncrasies of the individual. Here is the basis for excommunication of any member of the church
who threatens the ideal of order.
This
does not mean there is no place for disagreement, but it must be dealt with
decently and in order, and not so as to be divisive. Many godly people have been tools of Satan because they did not
follow the order laid down by Jesus in dealing with conflict and resentment.
Live spelled backward is evil. The content of the two words is identical, but
the meaning is radically different because of the order of the same 4 letter.
Right and wrong are often determined by order. 123 is right, but 132 is wrong,
and all that is different is the order. A number is never wrong in itself. All
numbers are right and valid. The only
way a number can be wrong is by being out of order. You can play all the right notes of a song and still make a mess
of it if they are not played in the right order. Misspelled words often have all the right letters, but they are
just out of the right order. Excellence, beauty and harmony in all areas of
life depend upon order. The key to the good life is having all things in the
proper order.
Zig
Zigler tells of how he invested in a computer back in 1979. It was supposed to
do everything he needed to get done for his business. But the programmer he
hired made a mess of it and it would not do anything right. The man could foul
us a two car parade. But when he hired a man who knew what he was doing the
computer did all he expected it to do. Things have to be in order to work right
and be the blessing they were meant to be. Get anything out of order and it
will not be beautiful. Sex is a marvelous gift of God to bless human love, but
get it out of order and use it to hurt and harm others, and use it contrary to
the purpose of God, and this blessing becomes a burden and a pain. So it is
with all of the good things of life.
In 2:11‑12
Paul says, "The grace of God teaches us to say no to ungodliness and
worldly passions and to life self‑controlled, upright and godly lives in
this present age." Is the world programming you to conform to its
standards, or are you being programmed by the Word of God? Geese are programmed by God and that is why
they fly in the order they do. There is
not only aesthetic beauty in their flight, but intellectual beauty as you learn
the value of that order. They geese fly
in a V shape, and they regularly change leadership so a different goose is at
the head of the V. Scientists have done
tests in a wind tunnel and discovered that this allows them to fly 72% further
than if they had no such pattern, but flew like a flock of sparrows where it is
every bird for himself. By instinct
they cooperate in this order which is beautiful and beneficial to all.
Paul's
goal is to get the church devoted to doing what is good, for this makes the
Christian life beautiful and profitable for all. The church does not reach its ideal until everybody is
benefited. The problem is that we are
not like geese. We are not programmed
to operate so beautifully by instinct.
We need to make choices to be taught, trained and disciplined until we
function in order and harmony. We need
to be convinced that order is vital to our lives.
Order
can make the difference between life and death. Back in 1880 to 1882, when the French were building the Panama
Canal, they also constructed several large hospitals. Patients were assigned to wards, not based on their disease, but
their nationality, so all spoke the same language in that ward. That was thought to be a good plan for
order. But the problem was that those
with yellow fever and those with malaria were put together and three quarters
of them died. If they had been kept
separate the death rate could have been sharply reduced. Man has learned by his mistakes, and the
whole idea of progress is simply man's discovery of better and wiser
order. Order is life, and all that
makes life more beautiful.
Many
worthy businessmen, causes, and organizations have died because of neglect of
the importance of order. Sometimes
Christians think this is not necessary for us, for we are in the Lord's
work. This is a cop out and a rejection
of our first point‑that man is responsible for the order of the church
and state, and any other human organization.
A contemporary writer on church organization writes,
"Unfortunately, many discerning observers of Christian organizations are
concluding that they are particularly afflicted with critical deficiencies in
this very area. It may be that every
reader will know of one‑a friend or acquaintance‑who has gone to
work for a Christian organization only to be surprised, amazed, or permanently
disillusioned by the treatment of people in the organization. As one who has served on several of their
boards puts it, 'The paths of Christian organizations are strewn with the
corpses of their friends.'"
There
are endless applications to this truth about order. This is not a once for all commitment, but one we need to make
constantly. We need to strive daily to so
live that our lives will witness to the world to the beauty of order, and be a
benefit to all of those in the body of Christ.
All of us are responsible to add to this world more of the beauty of
order.
6. SELF‑CONTROL IS THE
KEY Based on Titus 1:5‑9
Gigi is
Billy Graham's daughter, and she writes about one of those days she wishes she
could wiped off the calendar. It all
started with an experience some of you have had. It was flood damage to their house. The carpet men were there replacing the water ruined carpet. She was trying to do some cleaning up of the
mess and overdid it. By suppertime she
was totally exhausted. She got the kids
into the car and headed for McDonald's.
She stopped at the bank while her husband ran in. She was doubled parked. She glanced in her rearview mirror and saw a
large older model car pull up behind her.
It was driven by an older woman with flaming red hair. She started to blast her horn, and now we
read Gigi tell what happened.
"I don't know what possessed me, but
after my whirlwind day, this was the last straw! I decided not to move.
She gave another long, loud blast which just reinforced my stubborn
refusal to budge, and I motioned for her to pass me. As angry as she was, she managed to maneuver the big car around
and pulled up beside me. Then she
lowered her window and began to yell. I
blew her a kiss. That did it! She screamed, then stuck out her
tongue.
By this
time she was out of her car, threatening me and calling me names, attracting
the attention of people passing by.
Suddenly I wanted to crawl into a hole.
The red‑headed grandmother returned to her car, and Stephan
appeared, wandering what the commotion was all about. We continued on to McDonald's, but I was too distraught to
eat."
She
could not sleep well for several nights, for she felt she had been so
unChristlike, and she wished she could apologized to the woman. She had let her tiredness and anxiety drown
out the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit, and let her stubborn human nature take
control. The point is, it happens to
the best of Christians at times. We
loose a sense of awareness that we are Christians, and that we are to be
different from the world by demonstrating a power of self‑control that is
superior to what is natural to man. The
Christian is under constant attack and without self‑control is always at
risk of blowing it, and demonstrating to the world that they are far from a
finished product.
The
point that Paul stresses is that a Christian leader is to be one who has a
great deal of self‑control so that he does not let his actions or
emotions go to extremes. He does not
dominate, lose his temper, or go off on a binge of drinking to escape the
pressures of life. He is one who has
other ways than the world has of dealing with the stress of life. He is not controlled by the circumstances,
but is self‑controlled. Food,
sex, and money are all important elements in his life, but he is not controlled
by them, for if he is he will lose his credibility as a leader. Again, we need to see that people who are
excessive, domineering, and obsessed may be very successful people, but Paul
says they do not qualify to be leaders in the church.
A well
known pastor was counseling the son of one of America's great industrialists
and he concluded that his drinking problem was due to the domineering actions
of his father. He confronted the
father and almost got kicked out of his office because the father went into
such a rage. But later the man called
and said he reflected on what had been said and it was true. He ran an empire all day and it was hard to
shift gears when he came home to his family.
He began to cry and admitted that unless God helped him he could not
change. God did help him, and in time
he learned to be different with his son.
Here was a man greatly qualified to lead a major industry, but Paul says
he was not qualified to lead even the little church of Crete. The church has higher standards than
government or industry.
In
these secular realms there is a demand for leaders who will do almost anything
to succeed. Violence in behavior and
the pursuit of dishonest gain are not vices in the dog eat dog world of
competition. Human nature has not
changed. These things were popular in
Paul's day as well, but a Christian is to be different. A Christian leader is not to be violent Paul
says. He writes the same thing to
Timothy, and adds a word to clarify what he means. I Tim. 3:3 says the church leader is to be, "not violent but
gentle." No man or woman is fit to
be a leader who treats people in an ungentle manner. The Christian who is abusive to their mate and children, or to
anyone is not a good reflection of the spirit of Christ.
A
Christian leader is one who is always sensitive to other people's feelings and
does not trample on them. You can see
that this would take considerable self‑control when working with people
who are lazy, lying gluttons like they were in Crete. The impulse to treat them like the evil brutes they are would be
always tugging at your emotions. It
would take great self‑control to resist.
The immature Christian will surrender to this impulse and lost their
temper. They may even try to compel
people to be better by force. This will
not work, for people must be led and taught and persuaded. Only the self‑controlled mature
Christian has the patience to put up with this slow process without exploding
in frustration.
The
mature Christian feels the same frustration and negative emotions as anyone
else. The difference is that they do
not let their behavior be controlled by their emotions. They are self‑controlled. They choose how they will respond rather
than being dragged along by their feelings to do what they don't want to
do. Self‑control is their major
virtue, for it is one of the fruits of the Spirit. It enables them to choose the will of God rather than the desires
of their human nature. Without self‑control
the Christian will not be a whole lot different from the non‑Christian. They will be at the mercy of
circumstances. A Christian leader is
one who can demonstrate they are not slaves of circumstance. They can choose to act or react to life in a
way consistent with their knowledge of God's will.
They
are not people who are controlled by whims and desires. Such people tend to be impulsive, and so
they overeat, overspend, and just lean toward excessiveness in all they
do. They do not react gently, but
violently to those who block the way of self‑indulgence. They may be great people in many ways, but
Paul says do not choose them as church leaders. Self‑control is the key to defeating Satan. It was the key Jesus used to remain perfect
in a fallen world. Imagine having a
billion dollars but not buying a hamburger when you are famished and as hungry
as you have ever been. Even this
illustration does not match what Jesus did.
He was starving, and yet with the power to turn stones into bread He did
not do so. That was self‑control,
and by it He defeated the temptation of Satan.
The
whole point of the temptation of Jesus was to make Him loose self‑control
and do something out of God's will.
That is the point of all temptation.
It is to get you to surrender your control to another force. Once you loose self‑control you are
under the control of some other force, and it is usually an evil force. Self‑control is essential to be a good
Christian, and especially to be a leader of Christians. What is not under control is out of control,
and this leads to extremes. Any
Christian who tends to be an extremist is not a good leader, for leaders need
to examples of balance.
It is
pretty much a universal belief among all people's of the world that the person
who has learned self‑mastering is the wisest of leaders. Cato the pagan could say, "He
approaches nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent even though he knows
he is right." Jesus had this kind
of control before his accusers. This is
hard to do, but it is what Jesus expects leaders in the church to do. Why is this so important? It is because the world in which the church
is to serve is one of two major extremes.
There is the pagan life‑style of eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow
we die. The excessive lust for
pleasure at any cost.
On the
other hand, there is the ascetic life‑style of the Gnostics and other
cults that snared many Christians by their self‑denial philosophy. They refused to enjoy the pleasures of life
that God gave to man. Both extremes
make a Christian unfit for leadership, for they both reject the balance life
that the Bible reveals to be God's will for man. The self‑controlled leader is to set the example of being
an abstainer from lawless pleasures and moderate and legitimate pleasures.
The
reason Paul made so much of this is because even the pagan world recognized
that a life of balance, moderation, and self‑control was the highest
level that man could achieve. They
called it temperance. Plutarch said,
"Temperance is the greatest of the virtues. Euripides said, "Temperance is the noblest gift of the
gods." Christians were to reach
this highest level in the eyes of the pagan world as examples of what surrender
to Christ could enable even the common man to achieve. Pagans would be impressed by a Christian who
could be provoked and be insulted, and not respond with violence. The code of honor among men in many
cultures, and for many years in our own, was to use violence to preserve your
self respect and reputation.
The
decades of dueling were due to this code in our culture. Many of the heroes of the screen still
follow this code and pulverize anyone who dares to offend them. They are usually scum bags and notoriously
evil, and so we cheer them on in their violence right along with the
world. The paradox is that even though
we love these heroes of violence they do not qualify to be our leaders in the
realm of spiritual growth. If a man is
quick to strike out and hurt another person, they are disqualified as a church
leader. There is a great deal of
difference between being a hero and being a Christian leader.
This
paradox is even more radical as we look at the final negative in Paul's list of
what a Christian leader is not to be.
"He must not be pursuing dishonest gain." It is clear in the Bible that economic
status has no bearing on Christian leadership.
You can be very poor, or very rich, and be a truly godly leader. But the way you get your little or your
great wealth makes a big difference.
The thing that amazes me is how little commentators say about this
particular negative. In our culture it
is a very touchy subject because there is so much deception in this business of
acquiring money.
Christians are involved in all kinds of businesses that make excessive
profit from their products. Where do
you draw the line between greed and an honest profit? If I can sell you for 5 dollars what cost me a quarter to make,
is that greed or merely taking advantage of the system? It is extremely hard to define what a
Christian would have to do to be labeled with this disqualification. The result is that it is just ignored, and
today you could probably be a slum lord and still be an elder in the
church. The culture rather than the
Scripture sets the standard.
It is
very hard to avoid being guilty here.
If you have money invested in bonds or mutual funds, or if you have
insurance, or just about any investment you can think of, you could very well
be getting interest and making money off some company that provides and evil
product or service, and which rips people off with cold and calculated
greed. No doubt all of us have made
money from investing in someone else's evil. There are many investment strategies today to help Christians be
socially and spiritually responsible, but lets face it, to be an American in
the kind of economy we have it is near impossible to avoid some level of
greed.
But
there is a counter‑movement today that says Christians are not to conform
to this materialistic economy that says that the one who dies with the most
toys wins. Pastor David Sorensen and
his Barbara wrote the book Tis A Gift To Be Simple. The sub title is Embracing The Freedom Of Living With Less. This is just one of many examples of couples
who decided the cost of ever moving up and getting more and more was too
great. Their marriage and their family
suffered for the sake of requiring more stuff.
They were always busy and had no time for love, fun, and enjoying the
gifts of God. They were trapped in a
life‑style that did not mirror their true values. They had everything but the time to enjoy
what they valued most. So they decided
to do the unthinkable and deliberately move down and live on less.
They
decided to cease their over consumption which our culture promotes, and aim for
simplicity. As I read the book I could
see the biblical basis for their choice, but I also recognized how hard it
would be to persuade many to follow.
Tony Compalo in his book Carpe Diem, which means seize the day, goes on
and on about the American Christian is trapped in an absurd situation. He writes,
"Just think about last Christmas season. Your biggest problem was probably not figuring out where you
would get enough money to buy presents for family members and friends. Instead, it was trying to figure out what to
buy for people who had everything. The
answer to that problem should have been self‑evident. What you should buy for those who have
everything, is nothing. But you didn't
have the guts to pull it off, did you?
No! Instead you went up and down
the aisles of department stores having anxiety attacks. Panic‑stricken, you searched yea, even
prayed, that somebody somewhere had invented some new things that nobody needs
so you could buy them for people who have everything. This is not an absurd description of a reasonable world. It is a rational description of an absurd
world."
Capitalism has proved it is the best kind of
economy. It has defeated fascism and
communism in this century, and the whole world wants to get in on it now. The problem is, in order to keep it going
you need people who will buy more and more things they don't need, and in
larger and larger quantities. Our way
of life demands that we be consumers of masses of things we do not need. In order to do this we need to make a lot of
money, and that means we need to spend more of our life working and less of it
with our family and in building relationships.
The major portion of our lives has to be given to the goal of purchasing
things we do not need. The result is
that we are slaves and do not realize it.
We are bound by loyalty to our culture to sacrifice our lives for the
sake of the value system. You see the
paradox of it all and the absurdity of it all.
We fall in love with our slavery to the system, for it is exciting to be
able to have masses of things we do not need.
The more we get, the more successful we are, and our self‑esteem
is raised.
The
Sorensen's down sizing of their life style said this was one of the major
problems they had to cope with‑the loss of self‑esteem as they
ceased to buy what they did not need.
The bottom line is this: The
vast majority of Christians are a part of our materialistic consumer oriented
culture. None of us would dare to say I
do not have a lot of things I don't need.
As good Americans we need to have a lot of things we don't need. But a Christian leader is to be one who is
self‑controlled, and who is moderate in the degree to which he or she is
motivated by the consumer spirit.
We
already conform to the world too much in this area, but a Christian leader is
to be one who may be rich, but who displays moderation in lifestyle. Many extremely wealthy Christians have done
this successfully. They have made
millions, but live a life style not that different from the average middle
class Christian. On the other hand are
the many middle class Christians who live like they have millions, and they
devote their life to consumerism and the acquiring of things for status. The more I study Paul's qualifications for
a Christian leader, the more I realize how hard it is to be a truly committed
Christian in our culture. The scary
thing is that we haven't even gotten to the positive things yet, and already it
seems impossible to find Christians who can measure up.
I have
concluded that hardly anyone is worthy to be a leader in the church, or to be a
pastor. Just as we are saved by grace,
so we are allowed to serve God by grace.
We are not worthy, but everyone so chosen is to be a person who is
committed to excellence of character, and one who is clearly striving to be an
example of Christlikeness. As strange
as it sounds, the more you know about how the world functions, the more you
realize that being like Christ has strong financial implications.
I can
rationalize my conformity, for I just look at my peers and say that I am only
doing what they all do. I live up to
the level of my income. I buy things I don't need because I can, and I am sure
you do the same. We need to be reminded
of the warning of Jesus in Luke 12:15, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of
greed: A man's life does not consist in
the abundance of his possessions."
Jesus knew that Christians would have a battle with greed and the
persistent hunger to possess things.
Paul's point is, only those who are winning this battle are qualified to
be Christian leaders. Moderation in all
things and self‑control in all things is the quality to look for in a
Christian leader. This should be the
goal of all of our lives.
7.
POSITIVE LEADERSHIP Based on
Titus 1:5‑9
Late
one night in Philadelphia and elderly couple came into a little third class
motel. The husband said to the night
clerk, "Please don't tell us you don't have a room. My wife and I have been all over the city
looking for a place to stay. We didn't
know about the big conventions that have filled the motels. We are dead tired and its after midnight. Please don't tell us you have no place for
us to sleep." The clerk looked at
them for a long moment and then said, "The only room available is my
own. I work at night and sleep in the
daytime. It's not as nice as the other
rooms but its clean. I'll be happy to
let you use it for the night." The
wife said, "God bless you young man."
The
next morning they invited the clerk to breakfast and they said, you are too
fine a hotel man to be in a place like this.
How would you like to be the manager of a large luxurious hotel?" The clerk was suspicious about them, but he
did stammer out, "It sounds wonderful." They said they would contact him, and believe it or not, the man
became the best known hotel man in the world.
That couple were the Astors, and they went and built the famous Waldorf‑Astoria
Hotel in New York City. It had 1900
rooms, and this young man who shared his room for one night of hospitality was
made the manager. He had not
entertained angels unaware, but he had entertained a millionaire. And he was rewarded beyond his wildest
dreams.
Paul
does not say that Christian leaders will all be rewarded with great jobs if
they show hospitality, but he does make this a requirement just to be a
positive Christian leader. We think of
hospitality more along the lines of having people over for a meal, or of
scheduling parties as a place for people to meet and fellowship. This is a valid concept, but the experience
of the young clerk is more in keeping with the original idea of
hospitality. The word comes from
hospital, and if you trace the word hospital, you discover that it was first of
all a place to shelter and entertain strangers. The first hospitals were more life motels and hotels. People travelling needed a place to stay in
the old days as well as now, and where they stayed was in the hospital.
This is
directly related to the Greek word we are exploring for hospitality. It is the word philoxenos, which means the
love of strangers. To be hospitable
means to be open to care for the needs of people you do not know. Paul is not saying a Christian leader is one
who must run his own motel, but he is saying that they must be those who are
willing to take people in and give food and shelter. The idea is that a leader should set an example of
Christlikeness in being willing, as Jesus was, to share all he had to meet the
needs of others. Hospitality is part of
the spirit of ministry. You have to
give of yourself to be hospitable. It
takes time, effort, and money to care about people. The Good Samaritan found a stranger in need and gave of his time
and money to put him up in a motel.
The
original meaning is love of strangers, and so it is not the same thing as
having fellowship with other Christians at your home. It has to do with your compassion for the people you don't even
know. Peter uses this same word in I
Pet. 4:9 where he writes, "Offer hospitality to one another without
grumbling." Apparently some
Christians were doing the right thing, but with the wrong spirit. They help their fellow Christians in their
travel, but they did not like it, and it was a burden.
The
fact is, the only way to be a good Christian is to bear one another's
burdens. You just can't get by and be a
good Christian if you don't pay some sort of price in helping others along the
road. Sometimes we forget this and
expect to sail along and not have to bear other's burdens, but that is
escapism, and it is not fitting for
someone who is a Christian leader.
If every Christian is to be hospitable, then the leader is one who is to
be setting the pace and be showing hospitality in a conspicuous way.
Hospitality to Christians can be a burden. The cost of food is such that feeding people very often can be a
major expense. But this is usually
enjoyable and you benefit from it on the spot.
But Jesus said in Luke 14 that we are not to invite people you know to
your party. Invite people you know will
never invite you back. They are the
poor and handicapped, and they could not be good hosts if they wanted to. This is real hospitality, and you are then
managing a hospital‑a place where the needs and health of strangers is
cared for. This is a real sacrifice,
and there will not necessarily be any reward on the spot. But Jesus concluded in Luke 14:14,
"Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of
the righteous."
One of
the records that God keeps in heaven is the record of all the acts of
hospitality that we perform. If you
show love for a stranger and be hospitable, you may be as surprised as the
young clerk who got the reward of his life for being hospitable to
strangers. Jesus said that even a cup
of cold water given in His name will not go unrewarded. God loves the hospitable person in a special
way because it is a special form of love that makes itself available to all in
need. This is a very God like
quality. Jesus came unto His own and
His own received Him not, but there were some who did. They opened their home to Him and gave Him a
place of comfort and retreat. In
Bethany, for example, was the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. They were special people in the life of our
Lord because of their hospitality.
Jesus
took the issue of hospitality so seriously that He made it a basis for judgment
when He comes again. Those who are
welcomed into His kingdom are those who exercised hospitality. Matt. 25:34‑36 says, "Then the
king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed of my Father;
take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the
world. For I was hungry and you gave me
something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a
stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick
and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." You could reduce this paragraph to one
sentence and say, "I was in need of hospitality and you gave it to
me."
The
first Christian hospital was founded in obedience to this passage. In the year 370 A. D. in the town of Edessa,
Syria there was a severe famine. The
hermit Ephraim came out of his seclusion to scold the citizens who had
abundance for letting the poor die of starvation. They said, "But there is nobody we can trust to use our
wealth for good." He said,
"What about me?" They agreed
that he was an honest man and large sums of money were given. He ordered 300 beds to be set up in the
public porches, and the first Christian hospital was born to feed and care for
the poor. Strangers and local
inhabitants were equality welcome.
Five
years later Basil, bishop of Caesarea, open up another hospital not far from
this first one. From then on to this
day Christians have been in the hospital business. Many famous preachers in history were builders of hospitals. John Chrysostom, the golden mouth preacher,
in the early 400's build several hospitals.
There were the motel type just for strangers to have a place to stay as
they traveled. The church started the
motel business out of the spirit of hospitality. But the needs were varied and so they built hospitals for the ill
as well, and then they built them for cripples, and then for orphans. The first was founded by St. Jerome in
Bethlehem. They had hospitals for the
old as well, and also for the very poor and destitute. The monasteries were built also as places
where strangers could find shelter and food.
St.
Augustine started a hospital in his own home, and often he sat down to eat with
the guests. Bishops were expected to
manage hospitals, for all Christian leaders were expected to be
hospitable. The point is, the teachings
of Jesus and Paul radically affected the history of the church in the area of
hospitality. In modern times many of
these institutions started by the church have become secular businesses. The Gideons still have their Bibles in the
motels and hotels, but it is basically a secular business. When you travel and have a nice place to stay and rest, remember that
you have it because Jesus demanded that strangers be treated with love.
Philoxenos means love of strangers, and that is the Greek word for
hospitality that Paul says a Christian leader is to possess. If you don't care about strangers, but only
care about people you know, you do not qualify to be a Christian leader, for
you lack a basic Christlike quality of spirit.
The
next positive qualification Paul gives is that he must be one who loves what is
good. This seems so obvious that you
would think that it would go without saying.
Whoever heard of the question being asked, "Do you love what is
good, or is the bad your preference?"
You have to keep in mind we are dealing with a very corrupt culture in
Crete. It was the custom to love lying,
laziness, and gluttony. The bad was so
popular that a Christian leader had to love what was good, which meant the
truth, being honest, and being a good worker.
It meant he had to be living a life of balance. A Christian leader is to be one that gets
his pleasure in life by means of the virtues rather than the vices. It is a life where what is true, lovely, and
of good report is basic to ones pleasures.
To be a
lover of the good is somewhat vague, and no doubt this is one purpose, for what
is good is quite subjective. What is
good music, art, food, or anything where the tastes and opinions of men
vary? Paul does not get specific, for
the idea is simply that a Christian leader is to be one who loves what is
universally accepted as good. A lover
of good is always a positive influence in the church and the community, for he
loves what is good for all. You can
depend on them to support what is good for the body and what will make life
better for all. A lover of what is good
is a lover of all people, for they care about everyone getting what is good for
them.
Everyone does this at some time.
A little girl who was usually quite disruptive in Sunday School was very
good one Sunday. The teacher said to
her, "You have been such a good girl today." And she responded, "I couldn't help it,
I got a stiff neck." To be a
qualified Christian leader Paul says you have to be good and a lover of the
good, and not by accident, but on purpose.
The
third positive quality is that he must be self‑controlled. The best form of government is the self‑government
of one whose ultimate loyalty is to God.
Our pledge of allegiance says, "One nation under God." That is to be our personal pledge‑one
life under God. When I can so control
my life and all my drives so that I can choose to obey the will of God, as best
as I understand it, then I am self‑controlled, and living under the best
form of government in the world. I
cannot control what happens in Washington, or at the state capital, or in my neighbors life, but I can control
what happens in my life. I have the
deciding vote in all of my choices. In
fact, I am a dictator and a totalitarian ruler over the dominion of self. If my allegiance is to Christ, and the Bible
is my constitution, I can live under the perfect form of government.
Most
Cretans were not self‑controlled, but were under the control of the
culture. They conform to the culture
and went along with the lack of moderation.
This led to a great deal of dishonesty, deception, and sensual
indulgence. They were not in control of
their lives, but were the captives of the culture being swept along with
whatever the craze of the moment was.
You cannot be a leader if you are not in control of your life. If you are just being swept along by the
current of the culture, how can you lead others to be not conformed to the
world? A Christian leader has to show
that he or she is not under the control of the culture, but that they operate
under self‑control.
A
leader of others needs to be first of all a leader of self. A. J. Gordon said, "The greatest
battlefield in which a man ever fought is within himself." A leader is to be one who has fought that
battle and won so that he is in control of the territory called self. He can rightly surrender this territory to
Christ because he is its ruler. The
reason so many Christians cannot surrender many aspects of their life to Christ
is because they are not in control. I
cannot surrender to His Lordship what I do not control anymore than I can
surrender my neighbor's bank account over which I have no control.
The
United States is the most powerful nation in the world, but it cannot surrender
to the U. N. property in Canada over which it has no control. You hae to have self‑control to yield
yourself to Christ. If the culture
controls 50 per cent of your life, that 50 per cent will be a battle
ground. Why do Christian leaders fall
into sin and destroy their ministry, and damage the cause of Christ? It is because they have certain areas of
their life where they do not have self‑control. They are not fully in charge, but are under the control of
outside forces. They cannot surrender
these areas of life to Christ because they do not control them.
This
lack of self‑control is the number one cause for Christian leaders
falling into sin. They end up as poor
leaders even though they may succeed marvelously for a while, and it is because
they fail to gain full self‑control.
It is universally acknowledged that there is no greater victory in life
than the victory over self. Shakespeare
in Love's Labor Lost says, "Brave conquerors, for so you are that war
against your own affections and the huge army of the world's
desires." Paul says that only
those victorious in this battle should be leaders of others, for how can you
lead others if you cannot eve lead yourself to be obedient to the Lordship of
Christ?
The 4th
quality he adds is that of being upright.
This is a virtue referred to over 80 times in the New Testament. It is a virtue of all the good people of the
New Testament, and it refers to the character of God and Jesus also. The key words in the KJV in English are
just, right, and righteous. This term covers
the whole of life, and the upright person is one who can be counted on to do
what is right. It includes all of life,
and it becomes a term to cover the whole category of people that please
God. God sends rain on the just and the
unjust. The just are the upright. The same Greek word is used to refer, not
just to a virtue, but to the whole body of God's people.
Paul
says the just shall live by faith. They
are those who are upright and pleasing to God.
Jesus refers to the resurrection of the just, and He means all those who
are saved. This word came to stand for
all God's people. They are the just and
the upright. Every Christian is to be
this, but the leaders especially, for they are to be examples of how good God's
people can be.
The
next qualification is somewhat scary to us, for Paul says a leader is to be
holy. It is not the usual word for holy
that is used over 200 times in the New Testament. The word here is hosios which is used only 8 times. This word means kind and gracious. It is the focus on just one aspect of God's
holiness. God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. God is
so kind and gracious that it is beyond our comprehension. A leader is to reflect this kind of love for
people. He or she is to be an example
of just how kind and gracious a Christ like person can be.
Many
Christians are damaged goods in this area of life. They have been so conditioned by their past that they find it
very difficult to be kind and gracious to certain people. They have deep seated prejudices that hinder
them. If they lack the self‑control
to prevent it, they will let their unkindness be exposed, and they will do
damage to the cause of Christ. A
leader is to be one who could go the home of a Pharisee and eat with him even
though he despised his attitudes and actions.
He could be kind and gracious to the worst of people, be they high and
noble, or the most lowly and despicable.
This is
a sort of holiness that just the opposite of what we usually think of as
holy. Holy is usually to be separated
unto God. It is to be detached and free
from the sin and folly of the world.
But here is another side of holiness.
It is the ability to be in the presence of sin and sinful people and be
kind and gracious rather than offensive.
A Christian leader needs this ability if he or she is going to represent
the Lord Jesus, who was and is the greatest friend of sinners.
Commander Mitsuo Fuchida lead the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that
killed thousands of Americans. He was
in Hiroshima the day before the atomic bomb was dropped, but he left and
escaped getting some of his own
medicine. He wondered why he was
spared. After the war ended he was very
bitter against the Americans. He sought
of evidence that they were like beasts who tortured Japanese prisoners. He asked a friend who had been a prisoner of
war about his experience. The friend
eagerly related how a nurse, the daughter of American missionaries, had nursed
him back to health with love and kindness.
This
nurse knew her parents had been shot by the Japanese in the Philippines. They were shot as they knelt in prayer. Fuchida was shaken by this testimony, and
others like it. He got a Bible and
began to read it. Listen to his
testimony: "When I came to Luke 23 and read Christ's prayer just before He
died on the cross, then I understood. I
met Jesus that day. He came into my
heart and changed my life from military officer to a warrior for Christ." He traveled over the world preaching the
Gospel, and all this happened because a Christian showed great kindness to one
who was an enemy. That is positive
Christian leadership that changes the world.
The
final positive quality we are looking at is that a leader is to be
disciplined. Temperate is the word in
the KJV. It is used in all its forms
only 5 times in the New Testament. It
means to be self‑restrained. It
is the word Paul used in I Cor. 9 to describe the sportsman who goes into
strict training to discipline his body so that he can be a winner in the
games. It is part of the whole issue of
self‑control, but it narrows down to being one who exercises to build up
his ability to refrain from that which hinders his running the good race for
Christ.
A
leader is not content just to be a Christian.
He wants to be a good Christian, and the best Christian he can be. They put forth effort in order to grow. They are ever reaching up to find better
ways to apply God's Word in their lives.
They are the people who are not satisfied with surface
Christianity. They long for depth, and
they do something about it. The
implication is clear. There is no easy
road to being a Christian leader. It is
usually very hard work. You can be a
natural in sports, but if you are not disciplined you will not win, for someone
with less talent will be working hard to beat you, and they will if you rely
only on your talent. Discipline is what
keeps breaking records in every event of the Olympics. Discipline is what makes the best in every
field of endeavor.
When
Lillian Nordica, the great soprano, gave an amazing performance in
Indianapolis, Albert Beveridge, who became a U. S. Senator, praised her for her
incomparable throat, she became angry and said, "Not my incomparable
throat but hard work, weeks of it‑years of it! Discipline and sacrifice, these made my performance tonight
possible!" Top notch people in any
field resent the idea that they just have the gift, and so it is no big deal
that they are so good. They give their
lives to be that good. It takes
enormous discipline. So to be the best
positive Christian leader you can be takes discipline and sacrifice. It is hard work, and without those willing
to make the sacrifice to be such, the church cannot survive, let alone
thrive. May God motivate us to pay the
price to make our Lord proud of us by being committed to His standards of
positive leadership.
As I
read Barbara Shields book Winners‑Women And The Nobel Prize, I was so impressed
by the life and leadership of Agnes Gunxha, better known as Mother Teresa. As I read of her life and ministry I kept
seeing her fulfilling the requirements that Paul lays down for one to be an
elder, or leader, in the church. We see
such words as blameless, not overbearing, not quick tempered, not given to much
wine, not violent, and not pursuing dishonest gain.
That is
a lot of nots that are not to be, but Paul does not stop with the negative, but
goes on to add these positives: Be hospitable,
love what is good, be self‑controlled, be upright, be holy, be
disciplined, hold firm to the truth, and encourage others. The ideal Christian life is one of balance
with much that is popular in the world to be excluded, and much that is unpopular
to be included. Negatives and positives
in balance is what the Christian life is all about. I was impressed at how a nun could achieve this balance. She had been in a convent for 20 years, but
at age 38 she launched a new ministry to the poorest of the poor in Calcutta,
India. The filth and ugliness, and the
daily death of babies and others starving was beyond description.
For
months she worked alone. She would
gather children between a hut and teach them the alphabet by writing with a
stick on the ground. She had no money,
for she had taken a vow of poverty.
Some people became aware of what she was doing and gave her a little
money and some bars of soap. These
children had never seen a bar of soap.
She taught them how to clean themselves, and she told them of the love
of God. She had to beg for medicine to
give to these people. Other women
joined her. They would rise at 4:30 A.
M. to worship and have a balanced breakfast.
Mother Teresa was strong on having a good diet for health and strength
to do the demanding work they were doing.
Their
labor was all in vain she taught if it was not done in joy. Cheerfulness and love did more for people
than food and medicine she taught, and so all her helpers had to join in the
evening fun time where they would laugh and shout, and play games and
sing. It was hard work, and it was
often depressing, and so they needed this for balance. They lived in poverty like the people to
whom they ministered. They would rescue
abandoned and dying babies left in trash bins.
Mother Teresa had a vast collection of photos of her children that had
been adopted from her home to families around the world. She built the Town of Peace with the help of
the Indian government. This is a town
where lepers are treated, and where they learn a trade, and live a normal life.
We
can't begin to describe all of her work among the world's poorest, and most
rejected population. She touched so
many lives and received an avalanche of awards from all over the world. Vast amounts of money were involved, and all
of it went to building more ministry to the poor. She lived in a small room with no symbols of affluence. She could pack to move in about 10
minutes. Young men began to join her
Missionaries of Charity, as they were called, and whole new ministries were
started for men and boys in the slums.
So many around the world began to contribute to her cause that she
expanded and opened homes in most of the large cities in the world from New
York to Tokyo.
What
she learned is that the greatest hunger in the world is not for bread but for
love. It is poverty of the spirit that
is the heaviest burden to bear, and even rich people suffer this kind of
poverty. In December of 1979 she flew
from Calcutta to Oslo, Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. It was the tradition to have a great banquet
in the honor of the recipient of this great prize. She begged the committee to forget the banquet and give her the
money. This added 7 thousand dollars to
the 190 thousand dollar prize. She
used it all to build homes for the poor and the lepers. That year she opened 14 centers outside of
India. She has over 100 centers in
operation with 7 thousand people a day being fed in Calcutta alone.
The
stories of her love and care for those rejected by the world are endless. I share this description of her life and
ministry because it exhibits what Paul is getting at as he lists the
requirements for being a Christian leader.
Excellence is the bottom line, and that means a life that displays the
spirit of Christ in attitude and action.
Here is a person who has over a lifetime demonstrated self‑control. She could have changed radically from her
commitment to the poor. She could have
let the money she won lead her to greed.
She could have been overcome by the chance to live the life of the rich
and famous. But she was so disciplined
and self‑controlled that she did what many other Christian leaders could
not do. She remained the same person
with wealth in her hands as she was when she had nothing. That is excellence of spirit.
Paul
says this is what Christian leaders are to be.
They are not to be people who get captured by the culture, or by
circumstances. They are to be people
who are stable and consistent in their commitments regardless of changes in
life. Christ‑centered people are
not violent, overbearing, and self‑centered, which disqualifies one for
Christian leadership.
There
are many books today with studies that reveal that the Bible holds women
equally accountable for living up to these standards of excellence. So as we look at the specifics we need to
keep in mind that these apply to both sexes and not just to men, just because
they were the vast majority of leaders in the early church. We are starting where we left off in a
previous message. The next requirement
to be a church leader is to be one who is‑
NOT OVERBEARING.
The
Greek word here is used only twice in the New Testament. It is powerful negative word that describes
a person who is so arrogant and self‑willed that they denounce any voice
that it disagrees with them, and that includes the voice of God. This person who is so presumptuous as to
think his view is always the only right one is not qualified to be a leader in
the church. Why? Because he will be an offensive person who
has no consideration for other people's perspective. Being closed like this will make him unsympathetic and
judgmental, and this is a poor example of Christ likeness.
Keep in
mind, you can be a Christian and still be all the bad things Paul says a leader
is not to be. In other words,
Christians can be people who are not pleasant to be around. They are saved by their trust in Christ, but
they are far from sanctified, and far from being qualified to be leaders. If all Christians were mature and qualified,
and living up to the standards and excellence that Paul lists here, there would
be no need to distinguish between Christians who are qualified and those who
are not. Anyone could serve as a
leader, and listing these qualifications would be unnecessary if one was
qualified simply by being a Christian.
But it is not so. There are
Christians who are self‑willed and arrogant enough to consider everyone
who disagrees with them as inferior.
They are not good leadership material.
Let me
share some of the ways the two cases of this word are translated. Peter uses it once in II Pet. 2:10: "Presumptuous are they and self‑willed." Goodspeed has it, "Rash, headstrong
men." The 20th Century New
Testament has it. "Audacious and self‑willed." Here in Titus other translations stress
words like stubborn, arrogant, presumptuous, and overbearing. The reason such a person is not qualified to
be a leader in the church is that they are not teachable, and so they are not
open to the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.
They already know all that is worth knowing in their mind, and such
arrogance makes them unfit tools to help others to grow. If you are not open to grow, you are not a
good example for others.
The
philosopher Hume said something Paul and Peter would certainly say amen
to. He wrote, "When men are most
sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving passion to views
without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest
absurdities." The vast majority of
heresy and religious nonsense that deceives masses of people comes from
arrogant people who exalt their pet ideas to the level of God's
revelation. As Paul goes on to say, the
leader has to be able to encourage others by sound doctrine. The arrogant person will be more concerned
with promoting his own ideas. A
Christian leader is one whose primary concern is the truth God has clearly
revealed, and not his own self‑centered perspective.
The
next negative quality the Christian leader should lack is to be not‑
QUICK‑TEMPERED.
If you
are arrogant and are convinced your subjective feelings and perspectives should
be shared by all, you will likely have a short fuse when people disagree with
you, and call your perspective foolishness.
Arrogance leads to the hot temper, for the self‑willed person
feels that any attack on them is equivalent to an attack on God. To disagree with them is the essence of
evil, and such evil needs to be smashed, and so the arrogant person is one who
is convinced that anger and violence are justified when dealing with people who
have the audacity to defy them.
Anger
is a legitimate emotion for the Christian to have, but it must be like the
anger of God and of Jesus to be a virtue.
They were and are slow to anger, and always have it under control. The vice that Paul rejects here is to be
quick tempered, or hot tempered, or short tempered. It is referring to those who are quarrelsome people, and who are
always looking for a fight. Charles
Ashcroft tells of the mountain guide who said to him as they climbed a jagged
volcanic mountain in South America.
"This would have been our tallest mountain if it had not blown its
top." If you have ever seen
pictures of Mt. St. Helen after it blew its top, you know how radically a
mountain can be reduced by such an explosion.
That
is Paul's point when it comes to Christian leadership. They can be reduced so quickly to a low
level if they have quick temper. They
are high risk to be in positions of leadership, for their lack of self‑control
can do great damage. Listen to this
testimony of a wife who wrote to a counselor about her husband's temper. "I have a husband who is 99% good and
1% rotten. He is a lovable mate and a
considerate father, but his one outstanding fault periodically ruins all his
good qualities. That point is his
violent temper. He is like a cow that
gives a good, big pail of milk and with one, vicious kick, spills it all over
the place. The peculiar thing is
this: These spells come only once in a while and last for only a few
minutes. But, when they happen and
while they last, he is like a raving maniac.
He snorts and cusses and cavorts until he is red in the face. Just as quickly as the storm begins it
subsides. Then he is apologetic; admits
he didn't mean the abusive things he said, and is really contrite and
penitent. But before the stage is reached,
sometimes almost irreparable damage is done."
That 1%
of hot tempered violence in a 99% good man disqualifies him from being an
elder, for the elder must be one who conveys a consistent testimony both in the
church and in the world. Of course,
this is a standard of near perfection, and who can measure up? Most of us have lost our temper and blown
our top at some point in life. But the
point is that many of us have also come to the place where we feel it coming
on, and we have matured enough to know it spells trouble, and so we find ways
to control the energy that threatens to explode. It is those who has reached this level of maturity who qualify to
be elders. There is always the risk
that any leader may still lose it under great pressure. Nobody can offer a guarantee, but when it is
known to happen in a person's life on any sort of a regular basis, that person
is not to be chosen as a leader.
A bad
temper is a bad testimony. Some people
never gain control of their temper.
Euthymius tells of the monk who joined the monastery because he hoped
that atmosphere would help him control his bad temper. But he found the other monks irritating and
so he left. He went into a desert place
to live alone, for that would remove him from all irritation he thought. But one day as he was using his only bowl to
get water from the spring he bumped the bowl on himself and spilled it. He dipped it in again and as he walked away
his foot slipped and he spilled the bowl again. In a furious passion he dashed the bowl against a stone and
smashed it to pieces. When he cooled
down he looked at his broken bowl and said, "What a fool I am! How can I escape the temptation which is in
my very nature?" It was not other
people, but his own hot tempered nature that was his problem, and the only
solution was not escape, but self‑control.
A
mature Christian is one who has learned this.
You often cannot control other people and irritable circumstances. You
can only control how you react to them.
Those who have learned to control their temper are qualified to be
leaders. Alligators are harmless they
say if you can just keep their mouth shut.
This is true for people in leadership positions as well. It does not always happen, however, and you
have the record of Moses, who was one of the greatest of leaders of God's
people, losing his temper. God takes
temper control so seriously that he punished Moses for his loss of control by
forbidding him to inner the Promised Land.
This
is not a mere minor defect in God's eyes.
I have to confess that so many of the sins Paul makes a big deal about I
have been conditioned to think of as minor.
I have had deacons in my churches that I knew were hot tempered. One got so angry he tried to put his fist
through a cabinet and broke his wrist.
I like the guy and never dreamed this would disqualify him from
leadership, for he was a good friend.
So what if he blew up once in a while?
It seemed to hurt him more than anyone else, and I just overlooked it as
a minor matter. I have a hunch most of
us feel this way about people we know with a quick temper. But Paul says we are to take it seriously. There is a place for anger and righteous
indignation. But this is different from
losing one's temper. That is a rational
thought out response to evil, and not an explosion provoked by some spark of
evil. Evil wins when it gets you to
lose your temper and add to the world more evil. The poet speaks truth when he says‑
When I have lost my temper
I have lost my reason too.
I am never proud of anything
Which angrily I do.
When I have talked in anger
And my cheeks are flaming red
I have always uttered something
That I wished I hadn't said.
In anger I have never done
A kindly deed, or wise,
But many things for which I know
I should apologize.
In looking back across my life
And all I've lost or made,
I can't recall a single time
When fury ever paid.
Author
unknown.
None are
more Christ like than those who learn that a quick temper is the devil's tool,
and that true strength of character is found in self‑control. David MacLennon in his book Making The Most
Of Your Best tells this story:
"When the distinguished Negro Roland Hayes was a boy, he heard an
old Negro preacher contrast two kinds of power confronting each other, Christ
and Pilate. Pilate irked by the silence
of Jesus, cried: "Why don't you
answer me? Don't you know I have
power?" The old preacher went on
to say, "No matter how angry the crowd got, he never said a mumberlin
word, not a word."
Years
later Mr. Hayes stood before an audience in Berlin's Beethoven Hall. The audience was ugly, hostile, resentful of
a Negro daring to sing in the center of Aryan culture. Hisses, growing louder and more ominous,
greeted him. For 10 minutes Hayes stood
there in silence, resentment and anger swelling up in him like an irresistible
tide. Then he remembered the sermon of
long ago, and One who answered his enemies not a word‑"He never said
a mumberlin word, not a word." He
shouted back no angry resorts. Standing
there silently, he prayed, knowing that ultimate power was on his side. "The quiet dignity of his courage
subdued the savage spirits of his audience, and in hushed pianissimo he began
to sing a song of Schubert. He won;
without so much as a mumberlin word."
Temper
control is a requirement for a Christian leader because it has always been a
requirement for a mature person of God.
The next requirement Paul lists is, "Not given to much
wine." Other translations have it,
"Not a lover of wine."
"Not addicted to strong drink." Not a drunkard."
"Not excessive in the use of wine." Here again we see a clear distinction between being successful
and being qualified for leadership in the church. Many successful people drink to excess. If you could see the list of the patients who have been treated
at the Betty Ford Clinic, you would see many of the most famous people in our
culture. Many gifts people who are
leaders in their profession are not qualified to be leaders in the church, and
it is because they are often given to much wine. They may be superior in many ways to those who do not drink, but
this habit is not consistent with the image that Christ desires His church to
convey to the world.
There
are cultures where it is a common practice for Christians to drink modest
amounts of alcohol. But no where is it
acceptable for a Christian to be called a drinker, or one who loves to consume
alcohol to excess. The whole idea of
self‑control demands that a Christian leader not be under the control of
any substance. Paul does not mention drugs, for that was not a major
issue in his day, but this would certainly apply in our culture today. A Christian leader is not to be under the
control of any drug. We are not talking
about medicine, for there is a lot of alcohol in many medicines. We are talking about a life style where
alcohol and drugs play a role in people's lives. Christian leaders are not to be a part of that scene.
Paul's
stress is not on being given to much wine.
This leaves the door open to the moderate use of wine. But elsewhere he says that if it is
offensive the ideal is to be total abstinence.
In Rom. 14:21 he writes, "It is better not to eat meat or drink
wine or do anything else that will cause your brother to stumble." Dr. Carl Lundquist, former President of
Bethel College and Seminary, did a through study of wine in the Bible, and he
concluded that Paul did okay some moderate use of wine in the churches pastored
by Timothy and Titus. He also concluded
that the wine was not mere grape juice but was fermented wine. The evidence is over whelming that Jesus and
the early Christians did drink fermented wine.
He concludes that the New Testament clearly teaches moderation, but he
taught total abstinence. Why? Because for 28 years as President of Bethel
he saw a growing number of youth coming from our best churches who developed
drinking problems.
Moderation can lead to excess, but abstinence never does. Too many people can take that first step and
then not know how to stop. He felt that
Christians should be preventing those who cannot stop from ever starting. Almost 10 million college students drink in
America, and 50% of them develop serious drinking problems, and unfortunately
many of them are Christians. I have
known many Christian leaders who are moderate drinkers, and Paul's words here
do not prohibit them from being leaders.
But I have to agree with Dr. Lundquist.
Abstinence is the best, for it prevents the tragedy of those who just
cannot handle alcohol and tend to go to excess. Since the goal of Paul is excellence in all areas of life, Dr.
Lundquist concludes that the risks are to high with moderation. Abstinence is the better way. Moderation is a must, however, for the
bottom line of Paul's teaching is that excellence excludes excess.
9. CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE
Based on Titus 1:5‑16
For
some unknown reason a sculptor hacked an 18 foot high piece of marble into an
awkward shape, and then left it unfinished to lay in a Cathedral courtyard in
Florence, Italy. For about a hundred
years it laid there until Sept. of 1501.
The damaged block had been offered to other sculptors, but none of them
felt capable of doing anything with it.
Then Michelangelo was asked if he could make a statue out of it. He felt he could, and so a contract was
drawn up for him to complete the work in 2 years.
He
built wooden walls around the block so he could not be seen or
interrupted. Others hired assistants,
but he did not. From first to last it
was his mallet and chisels that did the work.
He would not leave his shed for days on end. He often slept there so that he could get busy on it without
delay. The 2 year deadline came and he
was still not finished. It was not
until 1504 that he completed the project.
Everyone agreed when they seen it that he had created a masterpiece. Out
of that rejected piece of marble he created his famous statue of David‑the
slayer of giants. Contemporaries
declared that nothing equaled to it had been produced since the ancient days of
Greece and Rome. The 18 thousand pound
statue was moved to a conspicuous place where all could enjoy it. For 3 and a half centuries it stood outside
as the pride of Florence, but the in 1873 it was moved inside to protect it
from the weather. Copies of the statue
can be found all over the world, including a downtown park in my hometown of
Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Michelangelo is famous because he was devoted to excellence. He was so
devoted because he knew that excellence was on of the ways men are drawn to
God. He said, "If it be true that any beauteous thing raises the pure and
just desire of man from earth to God, the eternal fount of all, such I believe
my love." And such was the love of Paul as well, and that is why he chose
Titus to stay in Crete to straighten out what was unfinished. Like the marble
block of Michelangelo, these Christians were far from finished. They were
Christians; they were saved for eternity, but they were messed up in many ways
and they needed a spiritual sculptor to shape them up.
What we
see in this letter of Titus is that Paul was committed to excellence. The goal of God is not just to get His Son a
bride, but to get Him a bride who is without spot or wrinkle, or any such
thing. In other words, the goal of God
is always perfection. We can never
achieve this in time, but we can and ought to be devoted to excellence as we
move toward the perfection that only God can achieve. That is the essence of what Paul is telling Titus to aim for in
completing the unfinished work in Crete.
Appoint leaders who are devoted to excellence. They are to show excellence in character, in their family life,
in their social life, in their economic life, and in their spiritual life.
This
was Paul's goal in every church, and that is why he writes to the Corinthians who
were having so many problems because of their focus on some of the lesser
gifts. He writes in I Cor. 12:31,
"But eagerly desire the greater gifts.
And now I will show you the most excellent way." Then he goes on in his great exposition of
love in I Cor. 13. Paul is saying that
all the defects of the church are due to low aim. If we aim for excellence and focus on the best, the highest, and
the noblest, we will not be part of the problem, but part of the answer. The bottom line is this: The servant of Christ is called to
excellence. In Col. 3:23 Paul writes,
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord,
not for men." This is not a call
to manageable mediocrity, but a call to excel in excellence.
Titus
is told to chose leaders in the church who are heeding this call to
excellence. Not all Christians listen
to this call. Just as there are all
different levels of faith, knowledge, and hope, so there are all different
levels of commitment to excellence.
The first graders work of art on your refrigerator may not be an
excellent work of art, but if it is the best a child can do at that stage, it
deserves praise, for excellence it not so much a destination as it is a
direction. The excellent Christian
leader is one who is committed to growth.
They are never content with where they are, but ever
striving for the better way to serve and be pleasing to Christ.
The
great violinist Isaac Stern was asked by a reporter, "What truly
distinguishes a great musician?"
Sterns replied, "A great musician is one who is always seeking to
improve, never content with his performances, always moving on to discover more
about the instrument and music he loves." The great Christian is likewise always seeking to improve and
discover more about the Word of God and the Lord he loves. He hears and heeds the call to
excellence.
This
call to excellence, however, is not the same as the call to success which is so
popular in our sexual culture, and in the health and wealth Gospel movement in
the church. Jon Johnston, professor at
Pepperdine University and Fuller Theological Seminary, wrote a whole book
called Christian Excellence Alternative To Success. Success is a matter of cultural matters, but Christian excellence
is a matter of biblical values. The two are not the same. If you have a million dollars, it does not
make any difference to the world if you have a different wife every few years,
and a few girlfriends on the side. It
makes no difference if you are an alcoholic, and so hot tempered that you fire
your employees for minor mistakes.
Your personal life can be a disgrace from a biblical point of view, and
yet you can be consider a great success.
Success is very this worldly and based on the accumulation of things and
notoriety.
On the
other hand, the Christian who aims for excellence, like the elders in Crete
were to do, may not be wealthy at all.
Their excellence is not based on things or achievements and popularity,
but on the kind of person they are, and the good qualities of their
behavior. They are Christ like people
pleasing to God and man. They are just
good people. Our culture has made many
Christians twist this into a success theology that says if you love Jesus you can
be a champion in athletics, win beauty contests, be leaders in business and
politics, and just be among the elite in every realm of life. Christian excellence has been tied to
secular success so that Christians think a success Christian should be winning
Olympic medals and big contracts and popularity contests of all kinds.
Tony
Compolo says this is all a perversion of Christian excellence. Jesus never called His disciples to success,
social prestige, and large bank accounts.
These things are not necessarily inconsistent with Christian excellence,
but they have nothing to do with it.
The least known Christian is just as called to excellence as the most
famous. We need to make the distinction
clear, for when the two concepts are blended as one the standard of the church
and the biblical standard of excellence is set aside.
Christian excellence opposes mediocrity as an enemy, and so it will lead
the Christian to strive for excellence in the secular realm as well, and thus
be an aid to his or her success. But it
must not be equated with success, for this leads Christians to be motivated by
secular rather than a biblical standard.
Leadership in the church is to be based on Christian excellence and not
secular success. It is ones character
that counts and not ones achievements.
What this means practically is that we are to be as committed to being
what God wills for us as the successful person is committed to being
successful.
When
we have a task to do in the body of Christ, we are to do it with the same
determination as one who will win a gold medal if they strive for
excellence. The complaint is heard far
and wide that excellence is out and mediocrity is in, for nobody wants to be
bothered to give so much energy to the things we do as Christians. The result is that our young people grow up
thinking church things are secondary, and mediocre is good enough for
church. The world also sees and
concludes that if Christians don't take God any more serious than they do, why
should I bother?
The
witness of mediocrity is that God is not worthy of excellence. But this is contrary to all that the Bible
tells us. Psa. 8:1 says, "O Lord,
our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth." Psa. 36:7 says, "How excellent is thy
loving kindness." Psa. 148:13
says, "Let them praise the name of the Lord: For His name is excellent." The name of God represents His whole being, and everything about
God is excellent. Only excellence can
reflect in any measure the glory of God.
Chuck Swindoll wrote the book Living Above The Level of Mediocrity, and
as he comes to the end he writes, "As I have emphasized throughout this
book, a commitment to excellence is neither popular nor easy, but it is essential." That is the message of Paul to Titus, and
the message of this letter to all God's people.
Now
let's get specific as to just what excellence means for leaders in the
church. The leaders are called
elders. The Greek word for elders is
presbuteros from which the Presbyterians take their name. The word originally meant, "old man or
bearded one." When we say to youth
that they should respect their elders, we just mean people who are older. The elders in Bible times were the older
people. It is assumed that people who
live longer get more mature and are better qualified than to be leaders. This is not always the case, but it is a
valid rule of thumb that an older Christian is wiser. These elders Paul refers to are not all that old by our standards. They still have children at home. They are not senior citizens, but just older
than most in the church.
The
beard was a sign of maturity in the Eastern culture and it commanded
respect. Steward Briscoe tells of
going to Bangladesh where he was warmly received. The young missionary he stayed with said to him, "I don't
get anything like your reception among the people even though I have been
working among them for years. I can't
wait until I can grow a beard."
Briscoe had a beard and this gave him instant respect. This is the point of elders being the key
leaders in the church. They should be
people who command respect because they are seen as mature people. Age is not the key, but maturity. Young men who are mature can qualify as
leaders.
This
concept has guided God's people from the beginning. In the Old Testament the elders were the leaders of each
city. They made the laws and enforced
them, and they settled disputes at the city gate. Later on the synagogue developed the governor of the synagogue,
and he was an elder or presbuteros.
Paul was just following the tradition of God's people when he said to
appoint elders. Tradition is not always
good, but when it is based on very good logic it is unwise to change it. The older a Christian gets the more he or
she should exhibit Christian excellence in their character and conduct. That is why they should be the leaders. It is not age but excellence that qualifies
them.
An old
Christian who is slipshod and indifferent to excellence is no more qualified to
lead than a junior high youth, and maybe even less so. The bottom line is excellence, for this is
the sign of Christian maturity. The
first way this excellence is to be manifested in his role as a husband. A mature Christian is one who will have only
one wife. An immature Christian is one
who lacks this commitment and keeps looking for the ideal woman even after he
is married. The grass always looks
greener on the other side of the fence to the immature man. He thinks he would be more successful and
more loved if he had another woman for his wife. It might even be true, but it is immature, for when you marry you
are making a commitment for life, and not just until something better comes
along.
To be
blameless means to make the right choices so that no one can say you are a jerk
in your relationship to the opposite sex. Excellence in relationships means
commitment. A leader has to be
committed to his mate or he will not have the respect needed to lead others.
Excellence in a leader means he is a one woman man. The implication is clear.
God's best for male and female is a life time commitment to each
other. Man is ever toying with this,
but he can't improve it by any other arrangement.
We
need to pause here, however, and recognize that our culture has produced what
was rare, or even nonexistent in the Bible, and that is masses of singles. Does this passage say a man who has no wife
cannot be an elder. Or what if he is
married and has no children? Does that
disqualify him? Not at all. Paul is dealing with the typical situation
and not the exceptional. If you become
a legalist here, Paul himself was not qualified, for he had no wife or children. This text does not rule out singles and
childless men. They just did not exist
like they do today. The focus of Paul
is on the excellence of the lives of Christian leaders. Jesus lived the most excellent of all lives
as a single and as one who was childless.
Paul would not want his words to be interpreted so as to exclude the
Lord of the church from being a leader in the church.
Paul
says that the leader, or elder, must also have children who are believers and
not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. In other words, a leader is to be an excellent example of a
father, and show by his own family discipline how children should be
raised. This implies that the children
are under his discipline. If a child is
old enough to be out on his own he is no longer responsible for their
behavior. But as long as he is
responsible the leader is to have disciplined children who set the example for
others.
The
point of Paul is that the Christian is to be committed to excellence. The only way the church can have an
effective witness to the world is by producing better people. If the world can produce people as good or
better than the church, why should they pay any attention to the Gospel that
the church preaches? How is it good news
if it does not make its possessors better people? Leaders of the church need to be examples of just what kind of
excellence can be achieved by lives based on faith, knowledge of the truth, and
hope.
Then
Paul in verse 7 writes of the overseer or bishop, and people get confused about
this office, but it is just another word for the elders. Both Catholic and Protestant scholars have
concluded that these words are interchangeable, and so Paul is not switching
channels on us and going to another office.
He is still talking about the same leaders and giving more
qualifications for those who are to appointed to this leadership role.
Blameless is a term Paul uses again, and this sounds like Paul is saying
that Christian leaders are to be perfect.
But as Calvin points out, if this is what Paul meant, Titus would have
to find his leaders from another planet, for no such creatures exist on this
one. The point of Paul is that the
leader has to be one who is not marked by disgrace, and under any accusation of
immoral behavior. A Christian who is
charged with some crime is not to be a leader of the church. The image of the church is to be one of
excellence. If a life is tarnished by a
bad reputation but makes the world skeptical of the church, that person should
not be a leader in the church. Leaders
are to exemplify excellence. The church
may be filled with people who are poor examples of godliness, for the church
exists to minister to such people, but the leaders are to be examples of the
best that godliness can produce.
It
would be very easy to develop a spirit of pride as a church leader. One could feel that by being chosen to this
position they are superior to the rest of the body. One could learn to look down their nose at the second class
Christians of the flock. This would
leave the leader unqualified, for they would no longer be blameless and
excellent examples of Christlikeness.
One of the ways a leader shows his superiority is by the love and
encouragement he gives to those who are inferior in their Christian
growth.
Howard
Hendricks is one of the greatest Christian leaders, teachers and authors in
America. As a boy he was a major
trouble maker. His 5th grade teacher
had to tie him to his desk and gag him because he was so wild and unruly. His 6th grade teacher did not treat him that
way. She loved him and told him she
believed in him and his good qualities.
He became a good student for her.
The 5th grade teacher would see him in his classroom sitting and clothed
in his right mind and wonder how it could be.
Love had changed his life. As a
leader he teaches other leaders that they can change lives too by loving those
who are far from what they ought to be.
The
reason Paul has a high standard for leaders is because he knows that only those
who reach a level of excellence will be able to adequately love and care for
those far from this goal. Leaders are
not in their position to be praised and glorified, but to be servants of the
rest of the body, and helping all to climb to a level of excellence. All job descriptions tend to be ideal and
rightly so. Maybe nobody can fully live
up to them, but they establish that the goal is always excellence. The real may not match the ideal, but it
should always be pointing in that direction.
Even
among the Cretans, a people known for their low life level, the standards of
Christian leadership are high. What a
Christian leader is at home is a key factor in his qualification to be a
leader. What he is as a husband and a
father is basic. A Christian leader is
not one who can look good on Sunday, but is one who all week long in his home
exhibits excellence. A loved wife and
disciplined children are the evidence of Christian excellence.
10. TO THE PURE ALL IS PURE Based on Titus 1:5‑16
A
sophisticated social leader was expecting a large group of friends at her home
one evening. Knowing her husbands habit
of using guests towels indiscriminately when he came home from the office, she
put a note on the ones she put out for the occasion. It read, "If you use one of these towels, I'll slay you in
cold blood." Even the most
insensitive husband would get the message loud and clear. The problem was that she got busy and
forgot to remove the note before the guests arrived. At the end of the evening she found, to her shock, that the note
was still there, and not one towel had been touched. Here was a message that called for interpretation. A discerning guest should have known that in
this context the note was a warning to the husband and not to the guests. They should have felt free to use the towel
without fear.
Life is
full of messages that have to be interpreted wisely or they make no sense, or
they lead to consequences not intended.
It is like when Mrs. Grand instructed her old servant, "Now Maggie,
for the first half hour you stand at the drawing room door and call all the
guests names as they arrive."
"Thank you very much ma'am," she replied, "It's what I've
been wanting to do to some of your friends for the last 10 years." Maggie was getting a message that was quite
different from the one Mrs. Grand was sending.
Sometimes messages are deliberately made difficult to interpret. Like the man who said to another, "I
have two and a half dozen children."
The man was amazed, but the father explained it so that it was not that
amazing. "I have 2, and then a
half dozen more, which is 6 plus 2 making 8.
I have 8 children, or as I said, 2 and a half dozen." Without explanation the words carry a
different message.
At
other times people read into a message more than the speaker intends to
say. The disciples did this with
Jesus. In John 21 Jesus said, "If
I want John to remain alive until I return that is my business and not
yours. You just follow me and don't
worry about John." The rumor
spread among the disciples that John would not die, but Jesus did not say that
at all. John had to write and put a
halt to this misinterpretation, and tell people that Jesus did not say that he
would not die, but only that if it was His will that was His business and not
theirs. Even the Apostles could
interpret the words of Jesus in a way that did not convey His true
message. This means that correct
interpretation is absolutely vital to the understanding of truth. The Bible does not mean whatever you or I
feel it means. It means only what the
author intended to convey when he was inspired to write it.
It is
true that people get many different impressions as they read the same words,
and there can be a variety of perspectives, but the bottom line is that only
the message the author intended to convey is valid. The reason this is important is because without this principle
the Bible can be used to support all kinds of nonsense that contradicts what it
clearly means to convey.
We
have come to Titus 1:15 which is an ideal example of how important it is to
know what Paul intended, and not just let any interpretation be
acceptable. Paul makes a startling
claim when he says, "To the pure all things are pure." This verse can be used to justify every form
of evil and folly known to man. It has
been used to justify polygamy, stealing, and even murder. Is that what Paul is saying? There is nothing impure to the pure, and so
all evil becomes pure?
Sirhan,
the assassin of Robert Kennedy, read Madam Blavatsky, the founder of
theosophy. She taught that every man
has the right to interpret truth in his own way regardless of what others
think. The New Age religion teaches
this to children. If something seems
right for them, than it is right for them, even if it is contrary to the value
system of their parents or society. If
it's right for you, than it is right.
Sirhan concluded that he was doing the will of God when he murdered
someone he felt should be eliminated, for it seemed right to him.
Do you
think for a moment that this was the message Paul was trying to convey, and
that he was teaching that everything was right and pure to certain people? Was he saying that they can do anything the
Bible forbids if they just have the right spirit? You can see how this appeals to the fanatic. I am pure, and so I can violate all the
commandments of God, for now everything is pure and right for me. If ever there was a text calling for proper
interpretation, this is it. This verse
does not mean whatever anyone wants it to mean. It means only what Paul intended it to mean, and we know he did
not intend it to eliminate all that he has just written. It is easy to see what Paul does not mean,
but it takes some thought to discover just what he does mean.
We need
to interpret this in a way that is confirmed by other passages where Paul uses
this same word for pure. Paul said that
all God made is pure in the sense that it is valid for food and not to be
rejected because of some legalistic or superstitious tradition. Men contaminate a lot of food by adding to
it what is not healthy, but God never created a bad food. In Rom. 14:20 Paul says that all food is
clean. So to the pure all food that God
makes is pure. It is good and not
forbidden. There is no forbidden food
to the pure.
Mark
has Jesus teach this very truth to eliminate all the legalistic restrictions of
Judaism. Jesus taught that nothing
going into a man can make him unclean, but only what comes out of him. In Mark 7:19 he adds this comment: "In saying this, Jesus declared all
foods clean." Both Jesus and Paul
make an issue out of this, and they make it clear that if you really believe in
Jesus and His rejection of all the food legalism of Judaism you will not have
hangups with any food. To the pure all
foods will be pure. Only to the
unbeliever will there be fears, doubts, and corruption connected with
food. The bottom line is that there is
no natural food that is forbidden by God, and so the pure Christian can enjoy
anything God has made with thanksgiving.
This is
not a major issue with most of us, but it was a major issue in the Reformation
period, and John Calvin made these strong statements: "They do wrong, who impose religious scruples on conscience
in this matter... Accordingly, this
must be true till the end of the world, that there is no kind of food which is
unlawful in the sight of God. Thus, if
any law binds the conscience to any necessity of abstaining from certain kinds
of food, it wickedly takes away from believers that liberty which God has given
them."
If you
carry this through in all areas of life, you get Paul's point. Whatever God has made is good and pure. Did God make marriage and sex? Then it is pure, and as Hebrew says,
"The marriage bed is undefiled." Did God make desire, appetite, and the love of competition? If so, then the world of work and recreation
are pure as well. It can be good to
work to make money and possess things.
It can be good or pure to play and enjoy exercise and sports. If these are seen as God given blessings,
then they are pure, and they will not defile the man who loves God all the more
for his chance to participate in these aspects of life. He does so with thanksgiving because to the
pure all things are pure, and they are from God.
The
pure live life based on this sound doctrine:
If God made it, it is good. If
God approves it, it is good. If God
recommends it, it is good. If God
commands it, it is good. This means
that even in this fallen world so corrupted by sin the vast majority of reality
is still pure. There is goodness
everywhere. Even in the hearts of
fallen men there is an abundance of truth, wisdom and value. The world is loaded with good things, and
the pure in heart see it and enjoy it, and they praise God for it. The Christian does not say that this tastes
so good it must be sinful. They say
that it tastes so good that it must be from God.
But
there is a constant battle in the minds of those who see only evil and
pessimism. They try to rob Christians
of the good life in time. Paul writes
to Timothy about this very thing in I Tim. 4:1‑5, "The Spirit
clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow
deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have
been seared with a hot iron. They
forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God
created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the
truth. For everything God created is
good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving."
If you
can give thanks for it, it is good and pure, and we are to give thanks in all
things, and so it follows that to the pure all things are pure. In the mind of the faithful Christian there
is already a taste of things to come.
There is a heaven on earth with daily joy and pleasure. The abundant life is now and not just in the
sweet by and by. Not all things are
actually pure, but all is potentially pure to the pure in heart. They see the putrid and say it can become
pure. Jesus saw the prostitute as a
potential saint, and because He did He saw some of them come to sainthood. The same was true of the tax collectors and
all other sinners. Jesus saw their
potential to be pure and righteous. He
saw in Saul the potential to become Paul the Apostle, and He made him such by
grace. To Jesus all things and all
people were potentially pure and so worthy of being loved.
The
impure see the potential in all things and all people for evil, and so they are
pessimists, and they do not have the mind of Christ. A Christ like mind sees the potential for the good, the true, and
the lovely in all. When Florence
Nightingale was called to the Crimea to help the English Army that was being
decimated by the Russians, and even more so by malaria and cholera, it looked
hopeless. Dirt, disease, and disorder
were dominant everywhere. The make
shift hospital was infested with vermin and rats. No wonder the death rate was 60%.
She saw
this mess as a potential place of hope and health. She began to get teams to scrub, launder, and make the
environment pure. Then she began to
cook good food for the wounded. In 10
days she reduced the death rate from 60% down to 1%. To the pure all things are pure.
Even a death trap of corruption can become a life giving sanctuary to
those with eyes to see it. Jesus used
this same word that Paul uses here in His beatitude, "Blessed are the pure
in heart for they shall see God."
They will see Him, not just in heaven, but in time, for they will God at
work in the most awful places and lives bringing forth beauty, order, and
purity. The pure see the world and
fallen man with the eyes of Christ. They see the saint and the sinner, and the diamond in the
mud.
In
contrast, Paul says, "To those who are corrupted and who do not believe,
nothing is pure." Paul here
describes the pathetic reality of a Christian who is so heavenly minded they are
no earthly good. He actually ends this
chapter by saying that they are unfit for doing anything good. They are part of the church, but all they
add to it are corruption and confusion, for they are totally negative, and if
they are allowed to spread their pessimism they will destroy the church
completely. That is why Paul says they
must be silenced. Christians need to be
protected from other Christians who have a bad influence on them, and who hurt
their faith. Their own faith is
corrupted, and they are carriers of pessimism.
Paul
says that to them nothing is pure. They
are like the woman who thought her neighbor's wash was always still dirty
because her own windows were unwashed and full of spots. The history of the church is full of this
kind of nonsense where nothing is pure.
We know there has always been a lot of impure sex in the world, but for
centuries Christian leaders taught that even married sex was impure. They became so pessimistic about the lust of
men that they decided that the whole business of sex was of the devil. This is what led to monks and the monastery,
and the total escaping from the realm of sex even in the marriage bond.
Christians need to beware of over reacting to the sinful nature of man. It is true that all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, and that all of our righteousness is as filthy
rags. We need to be honest about sin
and recognize it has infected everyone and everything. Nevertheless, the creation of God is good,
and all that He made is good.
Sinfulness cannot destroy the beauty of God's original plan and
purpose. Sex is God's plan, and no
matter how vile man makes it, it is still good and beautiful when used as God
intended. To the pure, that is to those
who love God and all He has made, it is pure, and it is a wonderful gift. It is only to those who reject God as its
author who see it as impure.
The
point of Paul is this: Once you reject
sound doctrine based on God's revelation you are going to corrupt everything
with man‑made doctrine. Nothing
will be purer, for the fact is, when God is left out of anything it is
impure. The Jews who were legalists
even made the good works of Jesus to be evil.
They said the Sabbath law is more important than people and their
health. Every time Jesus healed someone
on the Sabbath they criticized Him.
They made His miracles of compassion impure. They said they were the works of the devil. This is how blind people can get who operate
on unsound doctrine. They can take the
best gifts of God and make them acts of evil.
Jesus was crucified because people have the ability to make every thing
impure.
The
people of God in the Old Testament made the Sabbath impure, the sacrifice impure,
the temple impure, and even praise and prayer impure. Every thing that God made for good they were able to corrupt, and
God said that he detested their worship because they made impure all that He
had made pure. Just as there is nothing
the pure cannot make pure, so there is nothing the impure cannot make
impure. You cannot talk of higher
values than prayer and worship, but they can be made impure by the impure.
Paul
says in verse 16 that these people claim to know God, but by their actions they
deny Him. Paul is confirming the
proverb that actions speak louder than words.
Doctrine that does not lead to deeds is worthless. Belief that does not change behavior is of
no value. Faith without works is
dead. In the culture of Crete where lying
was habitual there were professing Christians who were even lying about their
faith in God. This was a problem in
the early church, and John in I John 2:4 wrote, "The man who says I know
Him, but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in
him."
The
New Testament is quite clear. The
professing Christian who does not follow up his profession with a life of
obedience to God's commands is good for nothing. That is how Paul ends this first chapter. This is strong and shocking language. Saddler writes, "No words worst than
these could be applied to the lives of the heathen, and yet this is all said of
unworthy Christians. The Christian has
the capacity to make this evil world a better place, and even a wonderful
place. But they also have the capacity
to make it even worse than what it already is.
The plan of God is that Christians add light to the world so that even
in this darkness there can be a taste of heaven on earth.