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— a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
To Titus, my true son in our common faith:
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Titus’s Task on Crete
The 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. An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They 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. Even one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. To 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. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
My Understanding: I thought some of my sentences could be really long, but Paul’s beginning sentence here I think exceeds my longest sentence by far. In just one sentence he covered a lot of ground in thought and in doctrine. There are two main thoughts or topics I see here, which go hand-in-hand. The first one is concerning the doctrine of salvation from sins, and the second is concerning the word of God.
Salvation from Sins
Paul said that he was a servant of God and an apostle (sent out one; missionary) of Jesus Christ for the faith of the elect, i.e. for those God has chosen to receive salvation. He was called to be a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ to share the truths of the gospel so that people could hear the truth, and so they could be saved from their sins by God’s grace, and through faith in Jesus Christ. In Romans 10:14-15, Paul described the importance of one being sent by God, of the sharing of the gospel, and of the necessity of hearing the truth of the gospel, when he posed several important questions:
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Paul was definitely one who brought the good news, and because he did, many were saved from their sins. Yet, it is not just people who have callings to be pastors and/or missionaries who are responsible to carry the good news to a world in need of a Savior. We have all been given the commission to be the Lord’s witnesses, and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the world around us. Not only that, but we have all been called to make disciples (faithful followers of Christ) of all nations, teaching them to obey all that Jesus Christ taught and commanded. This is not only our responsibility, but it is a privilege and a blessing from God to be able to have a part in someone coming to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and then to help facilitate his or her growth and maturity in faith, and in the Lord Jesus.
The Word of God
Paul was also appointed as a servant and an apostle for the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness. The knowledge of the truth comes from the word of God. Yet, this is not speaking about just head knowledge, because attaining only head knowledge does not lead to godliness. A lot of people know the Bible, i.e. they have read it, heard it, and perhaps have even studied it, yet they may not be godly at all. So, the kind of knowledge that Paul is obviously speaking about here is godly wisdom and understanding of the word that is attained as the word is applied to the life of the believer through obedience to God’s word. It is only through obeying the word and making it a part of our everyday lives that we will mature in our faith, and will become godly, i.e. god-like in character and in life-practice.
An example of this is found in Paul’s instructions to Titus concerning the appointing of elders and the qualifications of elders. If we read through this list of qualifications, the character traits listed are those of someone who is godly, which is what we are all supposed to be, so there is not much on this list that does not apply to all of us. The Bible says we are all to be blameless. The only way we are truly blameless is through Jesus Christ’s shed blood on the cross for our sins, and as appropriated to our lives by faith. Yet, this is speaking of a life not given over to sinful practices and indulgences, but is one who strives, by God’s grace and in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit within him, to live an exemplary life that is free from the control of sin. We are all called to do this.
An elder is also not to be quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain, hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. Again, if we read through the New Testament, and if we were to do a search on each one of these characteristic traits, we would quickly learn that these apply to us, too. This is the kind of godliness that God requires of all of us. The elders, as well, must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. Again, if we do a search on each of these characteristic traits we will quickly learn that this Biblically applies to all of us. This is what it means when the knowledge of the truth leads to godliness.
Yet, as stated previously, not everyone who has knowledge is godly. There are those who are mere talkers and deceivers, i.e. those who may be able to talk the talk, but they are not walking the walk. In fact, their goal is to deceive naïve believers in Christ, and thus to lead them away from pure devotion to Jesus Christ by teaching a gospel other than the one and only gospel of Jesus Christ. In Paul’s day it was those who taught that Gentile believers in Jesus Christ must be circumcised and must adhere to certain Jewish laws and practices who were trying to deceive the believers and to put heavy burdens on them not from God.
In our day, I believe the most serious threat to the doctrine of salvation comes from those among us who are teaching a watered-down gospel, which does not require repentance (turning from sin), and does not require obedience to Christ and to his commands. In fact, it goes so far as to tell the “believers” that God is pleased with them no matter what they do. This is a false gospel which gives its listeners a false hope of salvation, and thus is sending people straight to hell, all the while giving them a promise based upon a lie. I do believe some pastors teach the lie out of ignorance, while others do it to say what people want to hear, or so people will come to their churches. Many, though perhaps not all, of these preachers and teachers of the word, who are teaching the lie, don’t really know the Lord Jesus themselves, because they have also bought into the lie. They claim to know God, but by their actions (fruit) they deny him. Paul said they are “detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.”
So, just as Paul told Titus that the Judaizers of his day must be silenced, I believe the Lord Jesus is saying the same thing today about those teachers of the word who distort the word of God to make it more palatable to their listeners. These false teachers of the word are telling people a lie that is worse than any lie I know, because it gives people a false hope of eternity, and it gives them a free license to continue in their sin, and that is no hope at all! And, many of these preachers are doing it for dishonest gain, too, whether the gain is financial, numerical (number of people in their churches) or for the gain of personal acceptance (to be liked), success, and/or high status in the community. They, too, are ruining whole households, because they are not teaching that we must turn from our sin.
Titus was to rebuke them sharply, so that they would be sound in the faith and so they would turn away from Jewish myths. I am not an elder or a pastor or anyone in a position of authority to where I can rebuke a pastor sharply, but I can share what the word of God teaches, as he is teaching it to me, and hope and pray that pastors will read this, and that God will convict their hearts, and that they will turn from teaching a false gospel, and that they will begin to teach the truth of the word that leads to godliness and to eternal life.
Hope of Eternal Life
The faith to believe in Jesus Christ, and the knowledge of the truth both rest on the hope of eternal life. This kind of hope is not wishful thinking, i.e. hoping that our good deeds will outweigh our bad, and that one day we might go to heaven. This kind of hope is a confident assurance in what has been promised before the beginning of time, and by God who does not lie like man does. We can count on his promises, and that he will do what he says. Sometimes, though, we may get inpatient with God and think that he has forgotten about us, but his timing is perfect. He has an appointed time for everything in life, including the timing for him to send his one and only Son to die on the cross for our sins, and then the timing to reveal his plan of salvation through the teaching of the word.
Jesus Christ, God’s Son and God the Son, left heaven, came to earth, took on human flesh, suffered as we suffer, was tempted as we are tempted, yet without sin. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was mocked, criticized unfairly, falsely accused, spit upon, beaten and killed, although he had done no wrong. When he died on the cross, he took the sins of the entire world on him, so that when he died and was buried, our sins died and were buried with him. When he was resurrected back to life, he conquered death, hell, Satan and sin, so that we could go free from the ultimate penalty of sin (eternity in hell), and so we could be free from the control of sin over our lives.
We receive salvation from sin and the hope of eternal life when we trust Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior, by faith. This faith involves turning from our sin (repentance), and turning to walk in obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ and to his commands. This kind of faith will bear fruit, i.e. the way we conduct our lives in how we obey the Lord Jesus, and how we minister his grace and love to others will be the outgrowth of our faith, which will prove our faith to be genuine. Along with this kind of genuine faith in Jesus Christ comes the promise of eternal life with God, on which we can rest and place our hope, because this promise comes to us from our God, who does not lie, and on whom we can rely.
Your Word / An Original Work / December 27, 2011
Based off Psalm 119
Praise You with an upright heart as
I learn of Your righteousness.
I seek You with all my heart;
Do not let me stray from Your law.
I have hidd’n Your word in my heart
That I might not sin against You.
Open my eyes that I may see
Wonderful things in Your word.
I am a stranger on earth.
I have chosen the way of truth;
My heart is set on Your word.
I will walk about in freedom,
For I have sought out Your truth.
Teach me knowledge and good judgment,
For I believe in Your law.
Your hands made me, and they formed me;
Give me understanding, Lord.
I put my hope in Your word.
Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light unto my path.
You are my shield and my refuge;
In Your word I put my hope.
My heart trembles at Your word, Lord.
May my lips o’erflow with praise.
May my tongue sing of Your truth, Lord.
Your salvation, Lord, long I.
Your word, Lord, is my delight.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
Audio, song lyrics and sheet music (free):
https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs2/home/songs/your-word
Song on Video:
http://youtu.be/PoekdVclmGM
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