Here is our study notes on Titus during the Christmas break 08.
Post comments so that we can learn together.
A Young Missionary/Pastor Titus
Background on Titus
Pastoral Letters
1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are commonly called "the Pastoral Letters." These letters are written by Paul to young pastors whom he loved as sons.
Paul traveled extensively to preach the gospel so that he could lead people to Christ and plant a Church and then leave. In his wake would remain a great deal of work to be done in organizing the church, and so he would send in Timothy and Titus to clean up the messes, appoint leaders, and run off heretics and false teachers.
These letters are good for young pastors who are building God's church and learning to raise leaders in God's church as well as those who are doing cross cultural mission work.
Once my father told me that 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are his main study manuals for being a shepherd of God's flock and asked me to study them. They hold all the secrets of doing God's work.
I want everyone who wants to grow as shepherds of God's flock to study and learn from apostle Paul.
Titus
Titus was a Greek Gentile (Gal. 2:3). He had probably become a Christian under the
influence of Paul and had become one of the apostle's protégés (Titus 1:4).
Titus had been with Paul since the apostle's early ministry. He accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their mission of mercy to the Jerusalem church when Paul was laboring in Antioch of Syria, Titus' home. This happened before Paul's first missionary journey (Gal. 2:1; Acts 11:27-30).
Titus was also Paul's special representative to the Corinthian church during
Paul's third missionary journey. He carried the "severe letter" from Ephesus (2 Cor.12:18; cf. 2 Cor. 2:3-4; 7:8-12) and, returning to Ephesus through Macedonia, met Paul in Macedonia (2 Cor. 7:6-16). He was, in addition, the leader of the group of men Paul sent to the churches in Macedonia and Achaia to pick up the collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem (2 Cor. 8:6, 16, 23).
Goals for studying Titus
Week 1. Chapter 1
- Learn Paul's mission strategy Learn how to appoint leaders in each town Study the qualifications and duties of leaders Learn to do cross cultural incarnational mission in a difficult place like Crete
- How to teach to various people with sound doctrines
- Learn to articulate the gospel of Jesus and do everything by remembering grace of Jesus
Week 1
Titus Chapter 1 Appoint Elders in each town
Key verse 1:5
5The reason I left you in Crete was that
- you might straighten out what was left unfinished and
- appoint elders in every town, as I directed you
Greetings
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— 2a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,4To Titus, my true son in our common faith:Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Every time I read Paul's epistles, he is very clear who he is. He identifies himself as
- a servant of God
- an apostle of Jesus Christ
So I like to define God's family. It is by our common faith in Jesus. Let's pray that we can raise many sons in our common faith.
Paul's intention of sending Titus to Crete
Paul left Titus in Crete to set the church there in order (Titus 1:5). He had two purposes.
- Finish some unfinished businesses. We will talk more as we study the rest of Titus.
- Appoint elders in each town. Elders are modern day pastors. From the beginning Paul wanted to appoint and train leaders. (1:5)
God uses men and women of God to carry out his ministry. As our Lord Jesus raised twelve disciples. raising leaders are Jesus' primary concern while he was with the Twelve. Our ministry must be focused on raising leaders. E. M. Bounds reviewed the life of Hudson Taylor and wrote like this:
We have several young missionaries. I do not know what it means to be young. Under 18 or under 30. Young missionaries are by definition younger than me.
We want to study Titus so that we can do cross cultural mission at the U of I. We have this notion that missionaries are those who leave their country and go to an exotic location. It is true but also we are missionaries because our target audience's culture is very different from us. I know that I have to drive only 10 minutes to get to the U of I, I feel that the U of I is another country to me. It's food, its schedule and how young it is, I had so much to learn and understand.
When I went to Moscow, I introduced myself as a missionary to Champaign. They laughed at me. But we need to broaden our missionary definition. We can do cross cultural work while at the U of I. We are going to another culture and another life style with the gospel of Jesus. So we are all missionaries if you want to reach out to 18-23 years old, non believing students at the U of I. I could not understand Soulja Boy. I looked up their lyrics at the Urbandictionary.com. They were so bad but their dance moves were ok.
Cretans are described as like this:"Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons". (1:12) They were barbarians to a sophisticated Greek like Titus. Is this statement only to describe Cretans? Does it apply to the U of I students? I do believe, without knowing Jesus, we lie, live like evil brutes and want to live like lazy gluttons.
Cretans from brutes to elders and overseers with the gospel of Jesus.
Characters of Elders/Overseers
Look at verses 6-10.Let's look at what we are aiming at.
- blameless
- the husband of but one wife
- a man whose children believe
- are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient
- entrusted with the word of God
- hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught
- Can encourage others by sound doctrine and
- refute those who oppose it
- Blameless Paul describes in this way. Blameless means -not overbearing, not quick tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.
- the husband of but one wife. The elders cannot have multiple wives. He must be faithful to his one and only wife. One's fidelity is very important. Billy Graham said that there are two enemies as a pastor: women and money.
- A man whose children believe. He must teach his children to believe in Jesus. He is able to teach his children to put their trust in God. If he cannot teach his children, how can he teach other's children?
- are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient He cannot be too young and be wild and disobedient to God or to God's word. The charge can come from the members or from outsiders. The elders must present Jesus and his character to others.
- Entrusted with the word of God The elders are entrusted with the word of God. The word of God testifies about Jesus. He is in fact entrusted with Jesus. He must preach the gospel and feed the congregation. This is the elder's primary duty.
- hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught As we read 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, Paul shares several trustworthy sayings. These are the most important teachings that elders must know and teach others. Let's look at them one by one briefly.
Jesus is the savior and we are all sinners. (1 Timothy 1:15-16) Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.Jesus is the savior and he came to save sinners. The elder is a chief sinner before God. I am a chief sinner here. Jesus is my savior. Jesus came to save me from my sins.
To set one's heart to be an overseer is a noble task. (1 Timothy 3:1-3) Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.What is the noblest task we can have in this life? It is to know Jesus who is our good shepherd. As the shepherd oversees a flock, the overseer oversees God's flock. Jesus' shepherding life was the most noble task. So we are called, by God's grace to do the most noble task of caring for God's flock.It is only by God's grace we were called. We are ignoble but the gospel of Jesus is noble and God's calling is noble.Nobleness comes from God. Where can we find women of noble characters? We find them in the gospel of Jesus. They are noble in Christ. There is no nobleness apart from Christ (Col 1:28).
We put our hope in God (1 Timothy 4:9-10) This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.Where do you put your hope? Where do you spend most of your thoughts and energy? Where is your treasure where is your heart? I want everyone to examine their hearts and see where your heart is.Where is your heart and hope? It is not on Jesus, then please repent. If it is on Jesus, then live for the glory of God.
We die and rise with faithful Jesus (2 Timothy 2:10-13)Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.Here is a trustworthy saying:If we died with him,we will also live with him;if we endure,we will also reign with him.If we disown him,he will also disown us;if we are faithless,he will remain faithful,for he cannot disown himself.We put our hope because Jesus is with us. He is Immanuel. He is faithful. He will keep his promise. He is not like me.As he died for our sins and rose from the dead, if we die with him, we will rise with him.
Remember God's mercy (Titus 3:3-8) 3At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.I will talk about this later but all we have done and said, we must come back to the grace of Jesus. We must remember where we came from. We were sinners saved only by the grace of Jesus. There is nothing that we can be proud of. It is purely God's grace through our Lord Jesus that we are leaders and servants of God. It is God who does his work through us in Jesus. That's all.We have no basis for being proud. We are unworthy servants doing our duty before our Lord Jesus.We must learn to thank God and learn to give credit to God for his saving through his Son our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Encourage others by sound doctrine We will discuss this in chapter 2. Stay tuned.
- Refute those who oppose it In verses 10-16, Paul talks about the circumcision group who deviated the gospel of Jesus. The circumcision group taught that non Jewish Christians must be circumcised to be saved. Paul teaches Titus how to refute the false teaching like this.
(1:10-16) 10For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. 11They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. 12Even one of their own prophets has said, "Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons." 13This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith 14and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. 15To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
Timothy has to do two things. First, he must teach the simple gospel of Jesus. Jesus saves, nothing else. Second, he must refute false teachings.
There are many who claim to know God but their actions speak otherwise. For example, one girl promised that she would do something by Friday but Friday came, nothing has been done. Is this Biblical? I do not think so. Many make vows before God and then drop them when things get tough. Do they know the gospel of Jesus? Only God knows if they have the gospel or not but their actions sometimes speak volumes.
Look at verses 15-16.15To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
We must know the pure gospel of Jesus so that we can refute the false gospel. For example, how do you know how to distinguish what is a counterfeit money from the real one? Just looking at the fake money we will never know how to find a fake one. We need to compare the fake one to the real one.
In order to refute the false gospel, we need to know the true gospel. The gospel of Jesus has to do with Jesus and his words in the Bible. The false gospel promotes only religious activities -doing something for the sake of doing and try to look good before others so that we can exalt me, not Jesus.
We must know the pure gospel of Jesus first then we can refute the false teadhings. How do we know the true gospel. It is to know the trustworthy sayings and compare all teachings to the sound teachings of God. Please look at the trustworthy sayings again and learn to compare and evaluate everything before the word of God. (Acts 17:11)
Summary
Titus was a young missionary/pastor to Crete. He had to work with what he had. His mission was to appoint elders and raise shepherds and pastors from the Cretan lazy gluttons.
As we pray for the U of I mission, we want to hear God's voice and command to appoint elders and leaders who know the gospel of Jesus and are transformed by the gospel message.
Without knowing Jesus and being transformed by his word, we can only live like Cretans. But thanks be to God, even though we were like evil brutes, God called us and made us his own precious children by the blood of Jesus.
As Jesus transformed us and has hope for us to be blameless elders, we have God's hope to raise U of I drunkards and sleepers to the elders and overseers.
Let's look at the key verse again.
Key verse 1:5
5The reason I left you in Crete was that
- you might straighten out what was left unfinished and
- appoint elders in every town, as I directed you
Week 2, Titus Chapters 2 and 3
Teach everyone in accordance with Sound Doctrine.
Disclaimer: We are just scratching the surface only. Those who want to be young leaders, let our leaders (NW, MC, SAL) know so that we can study in depths and point to several good resources for your study and your personal growth
Like his first epistle to Timothy, this letter is written to a young missionary assigned a difficult task.
Evidently the churches on the island of Crete were in need of maturation, and this letter is designed to assist Titus in that work
Therefore, Paul wrote to encourage Titus:
1.To see that qualified elders were appointed in every city (1:5-9)
2. To preach the "sound doctrine" (2:1)
3. To exhort the brothers to be "doing what is good" by remembering God's mercy (2:14; 3:1, 8,14)
Is this book relevant?
1. God sent us to the U of I (Chambana) and to do cross cultural ministry.
2. We are all young like Titus.
3. We participate in the USA campus mission by raising leaders in obedience to Jesus' command (Matt 28, Rom 1:5, Col 1:28-29)
Chapter 2.
Main point of this chapter: Teach what is in accord with sound doctrine
1You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. 15These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.
We do not teach our wisdom but the wisdom of God which is the sound doctrine. We teach the sound doctrine based on the word of God. If we do not teach the sound doctrine, how can we follow Jesus? How can we refute false teachings without knowing sound doctrine. For example, I was an analytical chemist. In order to analyze the sample and to find its identity, I relied on the standard sample. Likewise, without knowing the sound doctrine, we can be false teachers at best.
What to teach to Various people.( 2-10)
Titus was entrusted with the word of God and he was assigned to teach to:
1. The older men
2. The older women
3. The young women
4. The young men
5. The slaves.
with the sound doctrine.
We will read together and discuss briefly.
1. The older men (2)
2Teach the older men to be
· temperate,
· worthy of respect,
· self-controlled, and
· sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
Everyone needs to grow and learn. There are sins of the old men. Specifically, as we grow we have a tendency to be rigid and loose our balanced view. In this way, we are not temperate but rigid or extreme.
We need to thank Apostle Paul what we must be taught as we grow older and how to teach to the older men. We cannot get respect just because we are old but we must be worthy of respect.
The older men and young have one thing in common. They both need self-control. (I will talk about this when we talk bout the young men later.)
Why do we teach the older men so that they can be sound in faith, in love and in endurance? Life is like running a race. We fight the good fight of our faith. We pray that our love for Jesus will not grow cold and we pray that by God's grace, we can finish the race and meet our Lord Jesus. This requires much endurance. Missionary Abe Song of Moscow, Russia told me that his mission life is not getting any easier as he grows old but getting more difficult so he asked me to pray for him. But he sees what is stored up for him so he can endure everything with his hope of eternal life in Jesus.
2-3. Older women and younger women (3-5)
3Likewise, teach the older women to be
· reverent in the way they live,
· not to be slanderers or
· addicted to much wine,
· but to teach what is good.
· 4Then they can train the younger women to
§ love their husbands and children,
§ 5to be self-controlled and
§ pure,
§ to be busy at home,
§ to be kind, and
§ to be subject to their husbands,
§ so that no one will malign the word of God.
Please note the connection between the older women and younger women. Paul also lists the proclivities of the older women to be gossipers and drunkards but Paul encouraged them to be reverent and to teach what is good so that they can train the younger women.
A good example of how this works is seen in Ruth and Naomi. In the book of Ruth, Naomi mentored Ruth who was young and not of the same race. Ruth's foundational faith was in the God of Israel. Ruth decided to stay with Naomi and learn the God of Israel. Ruth said, "Your people will be my people and your God my God." (Ruth 1:16) Ruth valued one widow who had hope in the almighty God and followed her by faith even though she could not see anything good coming out of following Naomi’s God. She was not pragmatic. We also saw their beautiful relationship. I did not see any cultural or age gap. They met in God and their relationship was based on God.
Another example is our Lord Jesus' mother Mary who went to Elizabeth and received God's counseling when her wedding plan was derailed and found herself with a child by the Holy Spirit. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for 6 months and decided to be the mother of Jesus. Elizabeth encouraged Mary like this. "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished." (Luke 1L45)
The young men cannot teach young women. There exists a possible conflict of interest. Let's pray to have mature women who can teach the younger women like Naomi and Elizabeth. Likewise the young women cannot teach young women. We need someone who has gone before us. Let's pray for the mature women mentors who can train younger women. In order to have a healthy girl ministry we need many mature women mentors. Let's pray for them. This is God's wisdom.
In our family example, my wife learned the gospel from her Bible teacher who happened to be one or two grades older than her. Then she learned from missionary Anna Yang. Then Mother Barry when she was in Chicago. In Cincinnati, she learned from missinary Hannah Zun. At U of C, her mentor was missionary Grace Yoon. In addition, she learned from my mother as well when we lived together for 3 years. In this way, she can grow and be independent. When missionary Anna Yang came here, she said that there is something she could learn from my wife.
The young women's growth can be best modeled when we follow Titus 2's sound doctrine. One girl student got a lot better when the reverent Mary Cowen counseled her with much patience and with love.
The younger women can learn the best from the older women, not from the younger men or the older men.
Let's pray for the older women to be mentors for the younger women in our ministry so that the younger women can model their behaviors from the reverent older women. Some said that we do not know how to do girl ministry. Unless we have the reverent older women teachers we cannot teach younger women. As we grow older, some might say that we are disconnected with the younger women. That's not true. Our mature older women can serve as role models for the growing young women.
The younger women must
§ love their husbands and children,
§ 5to be self-controlled and
§ pure,
§ to be busy at home,
§ to be kind, and
§ to be subject to their husbands,
§ so that no one will malign the word of God.
The younger women must love their husband and children. It seems very self evident but why does Titus encourage this point. It is not easy to love one's husband in Christ because he is not the Christ. The husband, how nice he was initially, he falls short of the expectation of the wife. The honeymoon can be short lived. It is not easy to love our children when they do not behave well. But true love is to embrace their weaknesses and love them in truth as our Lord Jesus loved us.
The younger women also has one common thing with the young men. They lack self control. They can not go after multiple lovers abandoning their husband or children.
One of the most difficult things for young women is to be subject to their husbands. It is not an option but a command. This is not a popular notion in our culture. But this is Biblical. Every wife must submit to her husband as the husband submits himself to Christ, who is the head of the church. The husband is the head of the family. As the husband grows in the character of Jesus, submitting to a godly husband will be much easier for a wife.
The end result is that no one can malign the word of God. By looking at the reverent older women who mentors the younger women and the younger women growing in Jesus’ character, the world will see the beautiful relationship between them and will praise God.
4. Young men including Titus (6-8)
6Similarly, encourage the young men to
· be self-controlled.
For the young men, one thing must be taught. We think that we need to teach many things to the young men. Paul is very clear. Teach them one thing: Self control.
Definition: Self Control: control or restraint of oneself or one's actions, feelings (Dictionary. com)
.
The number one enemy of the young men is his self control. They are controlled by their lust and their desires. How can they have self control?
Please note the word: self. The younger men is not controlled by the older men but controlled by the sound doctrine and the gospel of Jesus. Self control means that something comes from inside of them. They love God by themselves and do everything independently. This is our prayer topic for our young men.
What controls you? What drives you? Let's pray that we can be controlled by the word of God and by the sound doctrine which is the gospel of Jesus.
This means that young men know how to articulate the gospel in all aspects of their lives, knowing their sins and propensities and knowing how to act righteously before everything while they study, they court women, they pick their majors and even when they drink coffee.
Paul then gives some advice to young Titus. Titus is young so he might be self conscious. Please note the word, everything. When we sleep or eat, or study. In everything we do it to honor our Lord Jesus' name.
7In everything
- set them an example by doing what is good.
- integrity,
- seriousness
- 8and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed
The young pastor does his job by setting good examples and by growing his own character in Jesus. For example, Paul became the father to Timothy and Titus in the common faith. His teaching was not mere talk but he set examples so that these young men could imitate him.
Paul set the example in self control so he encouraged young Timothy and Titus to set good examples. Not only that he taught everyone to imitate him. His teachings were not exclusive to Timothy or Titus. He became father to everyone whom he taught. 1 Cor 4:14-17 describes Paul's fatherly ministry like this.
14I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. 15Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.
Our students will follow not what we say but what we do. Unless we, older men, set examples, our young students will not follow us. As we imitate our Lord Jesus who denied himself, took up his cross daily, we do the same. Our pastoring is to learn of Jesus, specifically his death and resurrection. (Luke 9:23) In everything we learn Jesus who became our mentor and our older brother so that we can learn our Father's character.
As Paul followed Jesus. Titus followed Paul. Young men followed Titus. As a result, young men were following the examples of Jesus and imitating Jesus and growing in Jesus' character. This begins by saying , "NO' to your desires and "Yes" to God's sound doctrine.
5. Slaves (9-10)
Some might argue that slavery was outlawed. I might argue that everyone who is going to school and working are slaves. We have several grad student slaves.
9Teach slaves to be
· subject to their masters in everything,
· to try to please them,
· not to talk back to them,
· 10and not to steal from them, but
· to show that they can be fully trusted,
o so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
But we do everything so that by our actions we can make our Savior more attractive. We have this propensity to make ourselves comfortable and look good.
Most of all, we are slaves of our Lord Jesus. We serve him because he freed us from our sins.
How to practice self control (11-14)
11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Why can't we say 'NO'? The basic reason is that we only to please others. I say "NO" to every girl but "Yes" to only my wife before and after my marriage. This saying "No' helped me greatly. Saying 'No' frees us to love God more. We only say, 'Yes" to God.
We all need self control regardless of our gender and age. The hallmark of the self control is to say, "NO" to our desires and yes to God's desires.
Who is the best example for saying ‘No’. It is our Lord Jesus who said, "NO" to his desires and prayed and lived for God's desire. He denied himself and took up his cross daily and followed God's will for him. (Luke 9:23).
example is apostle Paul. He said to NO to his name's sake and learned to do everything through Jesus and for his name's sake. (Rom 1:5). He confessed that his grace was not in vain. He became who he was by the grace of God even though he worked harder than all of them. No one worked harder than Paul. But he gave his credit to the grace of God saying, "Not I but the grace of God that was with me. " (1 Cor 15;10) Later he said, "I labor and toil to present everyone perfect in Christ because God's grace works so powerfully works in me. " (Col 1:28-29)
Why do we have to say "NO"? Because the main aim of our life is to wait for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose from the dead giving us the new hope of eternal life, we can say, "NO." We have a wedding date set for us. Not sure when this will come but the Bible talks about our wedding in the kingdom of God. We long to be with him and long to live with him. As we plan for our wedding, we live as a bride of our Lord Jesus and say no to all other gods and idols in our hearts.
Can we ignore the law and authority? (1-2). The answer is NO
Chapter 3. 1Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.
We are low breakers including myself. l love to break the speeding law all the time when I drive. I am not exempt from the law. We need to remind this to everyone.
In addition, we are living in the gossip culture. It is easy to slander and enjoy gossip rather than
speak authentically and with a real issue.
We subject ourselves to authority because we subject ourselves to Jesus who subjected himself to his Father. In this way, we grow in the character of our Lord Jesus.
Articulate the gospel daily (3-6)
How can we live in this world? It is to remember where we came from:
3At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
We could have lived as liars, evil brutes and lazy gluttons and receive God's judgment.
4But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,
We are born again not by what we have done but what God has done through his son, Our Lord Jesus. We are incorrigible sinners. We are not any better than Cretans. We become perfect only in Christ. Christ stood condemned in our place so that he can present us perfect to God. This eliminates all our pride. We remember God's grace and learn to live for God and led by the Spirit of God. It is God who does the work through us when we put our trust on the solid rock of Jesus. All other ground is sinking sand.
So what do we do after we were saved?
7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
We become children of God. The Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are heirs of God and coheirs with our brother Jesus. So we imitate our brother Jesus and love him and do good.
Things to Avoid and things to do (9-14)
There are some foolish things we can engage in. The foolish people engage in controversies or gossips.
9But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. 10Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. 11You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
12As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. 13Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need.
What is doing good? It is to live productive lives and our LORD Jesus' teaching is more attractive. We live to exalt our Lord Jesus' name. We live our lives to love him who has shown his kindness to us. We live to pray and teach the sound doctrine for everyone -the older men, the younger men, the older women and the younger women to love Jesus.
14Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.
Please note the word devote. We devote ourselves to the study and work. We love Jesus with our devotion. We love our wives with devotion. We love our children with devotion. We do everything with devotion, all our hearts and minds and strength. We do everything with passion.
Grace to be with you (15)
15Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith.
Grace be with you all.
We start with God's grace and end in God's grace. We do not start with the younger Cretan to older Cretans but we start with the Cretans (i.e. sinners) to God's servants who know the grace of Jesus.
Indeed we say we are what we are by the grace of God
Summary
Let's read our Titus Key verse. 1:5
5The reason I left you in Crete was that
· you might straighten out what was left unfinished and
Let us reflect on why we are here? Let's reflect what is sound doctrine that we must to teach to various people so that we can grow as servants of God's word.
After reading this book, do you have hope to be raised as elders? Please let us know why you want to be elders. If not, please let us know know why not. Let's pray for each other to grow in Jesus' character.
May God richly bless this Christmas break time when you meditate on the word of God.
References:
- 1 and 2 Timothy
- Titus
- Dr. Constables Notes on Titus(http://www.soniclight.com/constable/notes/pdf/titus.pdf)
- Howard and Geraldine Taylor, Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret
- Mark Driscoll, On the New Testament
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